The eCommerce industry is predicted to be worth more than $27 trillion by 2027. If you’d like to be your own boss, running an online business could be a lucrative opportunity.
But what should you know about starting an online business in 2023? There are so many options that it can be overwhelming to know how to launch a new online company and grow it into an established business.
The good news is that you’re in the right place. In this in-depth guide, we’re going to look at the steps you can take to turn your dream of owning an online business into reality.
Let’s dive in and learn more.
Choose an Online Business Niche
You need to decide which types of online business would be best suited to your interests and skillsets. For example, if you have a passion for computers, you could specialize in selling software or hardware. Alternatively, if you enjoy keeping fit, you could offer online training sessions to clients or provide meal plans that help people stick to a healthy diet.
The key is to pick a niche that you find interesting. This will help you stay focused and you can enjoy getting up for work each day. If you’re not sure what type of business to start, you can find inspiration by checking out these Online Business Ideas.
Decide What Types of Products Your Business Will Sell
Depending on which niche you choose, you may be able to offer various types of products. There could be the option to offer more than one kind of product, which could help you attract customers who like to receive their goods in different formats.
Physical Products
If you are selling physical products, you will be sending your products to your customers. You can have a simple website that accepts orders, and then you can pack and ship the merchandise. As your company grows, you may need to hire staff as this can be a time-consuming process.
Digital Products
Digital products include PDFs, online courses, and ebooks. They are cost-effective as you only have to create them once, but you can sell them for years to come.
If you are selling digital products, you may also find you have much more free time. This is because when customers place an order, they can download their items, or you can use software that automatically sends it to their email address.
Live Online Services
If you’re qualified to provide a professional service or give advice, you could offer live online services. This could include providing coaching to customers during online sessions. Depending on your skills and qualifications, you could charge significant sums of money in exchange for your knowledge.
You can also decide which times of the day you want to work. There may be clients based all around the world in various timezones who would like to hire your services, allowing you to pick and choose your own working hours.
Understand Your Customers
One of the most crucial aspects of starting an online business is understanding your customers. While you may think your products are fantastic, if your target audience doesn’t agree, you’re unlikely to make many sales.
Rather than trying to sell to everyone on the internet, you can create customer personas to help you identify your ideal customer. For example, you can consider aspects such as where your customers live, what age they are, what interests they have, and what they do for a living.
This will help you define the type of person you are trying to sell to, which will make it easier to market to that demographic.
Perform Market Research
Before you launch your online business, you need to learn about the market you are entering. This means finding out how many potential customers there are, researching the types of products that are available, and looking for gaps in the market. There is a vast amount of information online for just about any industry, giving you access to vital data that you can use to your advantage.
This could be invaluable when you are making critical decisions such as deciding on a price point for your products or services. You can study what’s already out there, see how much people are willing to pay, and then determine what would be the right price that could help you make the most sales.
In addition, market research can help you learn from your competitors. If a rival is doing well, you can look at what products they sell, and how the company advertises to their target audience. While you shouldn’t copy what a competitor is doing, you can add your own ideas to a rival’s methods.
Find Reliable Suppliers
Having reliable suppliers can be the difference between success and failure. If you are selling digital products, this may not be an issue. However, if you provide physical goods to customers, you need to ensure you are dealing with a top-class supplier.
There are many companies offering to supply other businesses with products, but they are not always dependable. Should you place an order and it doesn’t arrive, this could mean you can’t serve your customers. In an era when clients expect first-class service every time, this could severely damage your reputation.
Unfulfilled deliveries can also result in customers leaving negative reviews which could influence other potential clients and lead to them avoiding your company. To reduce the chances of this occurring, you can place small orders with several suppliers. This will allow you to evaluate the quality of their products, delivery timescales, and customer service standards.
You can then partner with the supplier who best meets your needs. However, it’s also a good idea to have backup suppliers just in case you need them in the future.
Create Your Online Business Website
Of course, you will need a stunning website for your online business. This will be your storefront, and it needs to give the right impression to customers as soon as they land on your pages. There are several factors that are crucial when it comes to designing a website that can grab the attention of consumers.
Page Layout
A consumer will make up their mind about your website in a matter of seconds. Therefore, you need to make sure your page has a clear and crisp layout. Buyers should be able to view everything on the page at a glance, and there should be plenty of white space between text and images.
Intuitive Navigation System
Having a navigation bar that allows consumers to move seamlessly from one page to another is essential. You should also have plenty of internal links that make it easy to find relevant information on your website. It’s important to make sure all your links work and to fix any that are broken.
This can help you keep customers on your pages and encourage them to browse your site for longer.
Attractive Images
The images you use on your website need to be of the highest quality. These are likely to draw the eye of consumers, and you need to ensure people are impressed. You could hire a professional photographer to take photos of your products, but you can save money by taking photos yourself using a phone camera.
If necessary, you can use editing software to enhance the appearance of your photographs.
Call to Action
The last thing you want is for customers to leave your website without providing their contact details or making a purchase. Having a strong call to action on each page means that customers will know exactly what you want them to do next. You can do this by using bold text, or by having your call to action in vibrant colors that are hard to miss.
Develop a Marketing Plan
You could be offering the best products and services on the market, but this won’t matter if consumers don’t know about your business. A marketing plan is vital for letting people know your business exists and growing your brand. There are several effective techniques you can use to increase your advertising reach.
SEO
SEO involves improving your website to attract more online visitors. This could include getting backlinks to your pages, using keywords in your content, and optimizing for page speed. This should be an ongoing process that you review at regular intervals.
Content Marketing
Having compelling content on your site can encourage customers to visit your site when they are looking for useful information. You can create blog posts that give useful advice to consumers for free. Adding articles about how your products and services can help customers can also be a powerful marketing tactic.
Paid Online Advertising
Paid advertising is probably the quickest way to reach customers. You can pay for your ads to appear in prominent positions online. It’s also possible to laser focus your ads on a particular demographic, making it more likely people will click on your advertisement and make a purchase.
However, you need to bear in mind that results are not guaranteed, and you could spend more than you make from sales.
Decide if You Need Funding
You will have online business costs such as the fees for hosting your website and buying a domain name. If you choose to pay for advertising this will be another expenditure, and you may also have to pay for help when creating your website.
These costs may be minimal, and you might not need funding. But, if you don’t have the money available, you may want to apply for a loan or seek out an investor. This could help you get your business off the ground and help relieve any financial strain at the start of your new venture.
Allocate Your Budget
When you know how you will launch your business, you can decide how to allocate your budget. While there will be some costs, such as website hosting that are unavoidable, there are other areas where you will have discretion.
For example, you will need to decide how much money to invest in website design and how much to put into your marketing plan. These are key judgment calls, and you won’t want to put too much into one area, only to find you don’t have enough for other aspects of your business.
If in doubt, you can seek professional advice to help you make prudent decisions.
Add Additional Revenue Options
You may want to focus on selling one or two main products to get started, but adding complementary items can increase your online business income. These add-ons may be small in value, but if you upsell them enough times, they could make a massive difference to your bottom line.
This is also a great way to expand your range of products and services, allowing you to organically grow your company and attract an even larger customer base.
Starting an Online Business Can Be Rewarding
Starting an online business can be challenging, but it can also be extremely rewarding. Think about creating a business that aligns with your interests, and take the time to understand the wants and needs of your customers. Developing a killer marketing plan can help you make sales quickly, while maximizing your revenue streams can boost your income each month.
You could soon be running a profitable online business from the comfort of your home.
Before you rush off to start an online business, be sure to check out more of our terrific blog posts.
