Even seasoned retailers with decades of experience realize that the future of the sales industry is in e-commerce. This postulate is difficult to challenge, especially after the phenomenal success of companies such as Amazon.com Incorporated, AliExpress, eBay, Wildberries, Lamoda and others. Of course, convenience stores will remain in the coming years, but they will not generate past profits.
Burning with impatience
I understand that you also want to at least to a small extent repeat the success of the owner of Amazon Jeff Bezos, who has become the richest man in the history of the planet. I imagine how you are in a hurry to open your online store and get rich. But in practice, fierce competition, lack of experience and lack of information about your existence among potential customers lead to a dead end.
According to experts, the most difficult is the first sale. Real, not a friend at your request. How to convey to the world, or at least your hometown, about your business? How to convince a random “passer-by” on the Internet to purchase a product or service from you? How not to make mistakes? Let's try to go through the unknown corridor in 5 steps and enter the bright, spacious, air-conditioned trading room.
Make a first step
I always tell my children: “If you want to achieve something, take the first step. And the world will step towards you. ” It really works. Want to open your own online store? Discover, reason, study, do market analysis. Even if the project doesn’t shoot, you will have valuable experience that will be useful for other things.
But! You can’t start a business from a position: “I don’t really want to, but can I try? What if it works. ” The decision should be sincere, suffered, with a twinkle in the eyes. It will turn out only if you really want it. People around you will love your enthusiasm and some will probably want to help, somehow participate, or purchase a product / service from you. The main thing is to be consistent and persistent. I won’t mention the existence of an action plan that has been described in paragraphs — this is a priori necessary. Random actions rarely produce results.
A little chicken pecking
It should not be without experience to start some major project, large-scale sales of expensive things. So it’s not long to get to ruin. Try to start with something small. For example, online trading in do-it-yourself things.
In order not to violate the law, you can formalize as a craftsman. You pay a penny tax, but you will be protected by law. For six months or a year, you are unlikely to get rich, but you will gain the very experience that is more expensive than money. And already with new experience, having understood how the Internet works, how to carry out self-promotion, how to manage electronic wallets, and so on, you can try to open a full-fledged online store. Now let's look at specific actions that will help you achieve your first sale.
Step 1: electronic subscription
Beginners rarely pay attention to this seemingly insignificant step. Like, what subscribers? I have all the information on my site who needs it - they’ll buy it. However, global business (not speculative) is based on customer loyalty. If a person has purchased a product and liked the service, he may come a second or third time. Where do you think Apple has such an army of fans from? After all, their phones in recent years have been lagging behind the progress of design and innovation? Because they are attracted by a certain “magic”, which cannot even be explained. This is evidence of the excellent work of the "apple" marketers.
Therefore, be sure to introduce the possibility of subscribing to news via e-mail on the site. There will not be many subscribers (people are extremely lazy), but those who subscribe will make up the backbone of regular customers. Create some form of registration on your account. There are many free and easy tools that help you keep and manage your contact list. Even your first subscribers will be friends, relatives and just acquaintances.
Step 2: social networks
Also, social networks should not be neglected - there is an active audience in all respects. Many small entrepreneurs use social networks as the main platform for sales. You will also explore this possibility. This will save on the creation and maintenance of your own site. But I doubt that in this way it is possible to organize a more or less large business. However, to get acquainted with the principles of e-commerce will come down at first.
However, it is still wiser to have your own online store, and in social networks to advertise your services or products. Social networks are a useful e-commerce tool for a number of reasons. You can use it to share content, tell your friends about your online store, and communicate with partners. But the most important thing is to find and communicate with the target audience, potential buyers. Once you set up your social channels, you can start an advertising campaign. To get started, limit yourself to a small budget and, along the way, study the opportunities provided by the site. It will take some time, but it's worth it.
Which networks to pay attention to depends on the target audience. Abroad, such sites are Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube. Vkontakte, Odnoklassniki, and My World are quite popular with us. You can experiment with mobile apps like Tick-Tok.
Step 3: take full advantage
In the world there are Internet companies that provide the opportunity to organize electronic commerce on the basis of their site. It is very convenient. Sites such as Ebay, Etsy, Amazon, AliExpress, Craigslist and a number of others make it easy to join as a seller and start trading. The more channels available to your products, the higher the likelihood of increased sales. These services are widely known in the world.
If at first you decided to sell your own products, there are several sites specially created for artisans in Runet. This is very convenient: it is enough to register, arrange a "window" and you have your own mini-store. It remains only to advertise your page in social networks, to conduct tests of how people react to your products. Maybe they want something else.
Step 4: fill the site with content
Search engines are so arranged that they love those who have unique content on the site. It can be useful for visitors to articles, photos and videos. It is important that the posted material is not found in others. Want to sell wood crafts? Do not copy pictures from the Internet, but photograph your own product and publish it. Write or order a couple of small articles for copywriters from your site.
If you use third-party sites like Remesla.ru or Ebay, you do not need to post text material. The visual component and the competent, detailed description of the offered goods are important here. But it will be great if you specify in the description the address of your blog, in which you will post more detailed interesting content.
Step 5: learn contextual advertising
Although the possibilities of social networks are wide, the greatest result is obtained by working with specialized advertising services of search engines. It is difficult, but I strongly recommend to study the system. Fortunately, there is plenty of material on the Internet. You can even take appropriate paid courses.
In the Google search engine, Google Adwords is such a tool.The domestic market is dominated by Yandex Direct. For example, ads on Google Shopping are relatively easy to set up and allow your products to appear directly in search results, which greatly speeds up the shopping process for consumers. For advertising, you must first create a seller account through Google.
You can also use more traditional search ads through AdWords. However, from the point of view of using advertising to achieve the first sale, I recommend that you first start with advertising Google Shopping and ads on social networks. Similarly, advertising on Yandex works. But this is an extensive topic that requires careful study for more than one week, and maybe months. But if you start to understand the nuances, you will rise above the thousands of lazy businessmen who are limited to ready-made solutions offered by social networks and blogs.