The internet is an endless system of products waiting to be bought. More and more shoppers are searching online for the things they need and want, and it’s quickly becoming the popular way to browse and shop.
According to Internet Retailer, by the year 2020, online sales are expected to reach $532 billion and there will be about 270 million active online shoppers. Most of this shopping is expected to take place on mobile devices, like tablets and smartphones.
Marketing a business is not for the faint of heart. It requires time, patience and tons of money, right? Wrong! The internet has made it easy to get your business noticed online with little to no money. If you do it right, you can potentially use just the power of the internet to advertise your business – and all you have to pay for is a website.
Small and large businesses alike turn to the internet for marketing through their websites, social media accounts, e-mail newsletters and more. The best part is, they spend very little money to do it. Aside from the expense of running a website – which, if you find a reasonable host, is not expensive – you can get your business noticed online for free.
There’s a lot to think about when you’re on the road to build your own successful ecommerce business. It’s fast becoming one of the most popular routes for start-ups to take, so I’ve come up with a rough guide for new founders, featuring five key areas to focus on.
Your Product
First things first, you need to pick your product carefully. Many independent online retailers start off as Amazon sellers (or similar). If this is the route you’re taking, you need to ensure you find a manufacturer that’s a good match for your identity, your price point and your customers. Order a small amount to test quality and reliability before committing to larger orders or outsourcing to a third party warehouse.
How do You Know you’ve got a Good Business Startup Idea?
It seems like the business world is heavily saturated with start-ups right now. The Small Business Agency estimates that around 543,000 new businesses get started each month – and every founder thinks they’re on to the next big thing.
So the big question is this: how do you know if your business or startup idea is any good? I’ve put together a quick guide to assessing your startup or business idea.
Best Advice From Successful StartUp Founders:
If given the chance to sit down with some of the world’s best business minds, there are a lot of things we’d all like to ask, but there’s one key question on everyone’s lips: how do you do it? And more importantly, how can I replicate it? I’ve rounded up some of the best advice for entrepreneurs offered by some of today’s most successful moguls.
Recent years have seen a significant rise in technology – and along with that has come a rise in aspiring entrepreneurs. Start-ups are the new beating heart of the business world and investors are constantly on the lookout for promising new business ideas to get behind and looking out for those most exciting start-up companies. I’ve selected here some of the most exciting start-up companies to launch in the past year, from tech companies to social enterprises.
Starting a business from scratch can be daunting even for the most ambitious entrepreneur. There are a lot of conflicting opinions on what you should be doing, but there are a few things that many founders agree you definitely should not. I’ve put together here a quick list of mistakes to avoid when you’re setting up a start-up.
Picking the Wrong Employees
When founding a start-up company, your employees will be your greatest assets. It’s important to weigh up salary expectations against the skills you require. Often companies will turn to interns as a way of keeping costs low, but if you don’t have the resources to train up junior staff members you could end up costing yourself in the long run. Instead, invest in talent in the areas that will be most important during your early years, such as tech, marketing and customer service.
Online stock market trading, Blue-Chip style. I began this journey at a pretty early age. Somewhere along the way the allure waned off due to my time and investments taken up by my own start-ups et al, but the interest remains to date. For those that are in a booming economy, this is a fun business and quite a lucrative enterprise. You do require that passion for the math and the ability for risk-taking; more importantly, the ruthlessness for letting a loss go. I do advise from time to time anyone who comes asking where to put in that extra moolah, and it usually is bang on.
Throughout my tryst with e-commerce, I’ve been frequently asked regarding what would be the best retail pricing strategy or strategies to adopt. Now, I know that the Flipkarts and the Snapdeals are worth billions of dollars, but do they pull any profits in yet? Not at the last count, despite being there for several years now. I feel one of the flaws they have is an improper comprehensive retail pricing strategy.
How do you manage Corporate reputation? With an emerging breed of consumers demanding dialogue from businesses and insisting on greater organizational transparency and accountability, image and reputation management for organizations has become harder than ever. It is like having millions of eyes watching over your business and a thousand mouths asserting involvement in the communication process. The challenge now is how organizations establish and sustain a positive and strong brand and corporate reputation in the Internet Age.
