How to start an e-commerce?

Hi all,

I am Ed, a watch designer from Madrid (Spain). We have worked in developing our own watch brand investing a lot of time, resources and efforts (https://tictail.com/etnica).

However, while we have undertaken an excellent job regarding the product, we are facing some problems when it comes to selling on line. e-Commerce is a market we don't know at all.

We have some problems :

- We don't know how to identify target audience
- We don't know where to sell (channels to use)
- We don't know what is working now for the watch/accessories industry.

Is there anyone with experience in selling watches or similar products online which could tell us what would be the first steps to start?

Regards
Ed

 

If you setting up your own online shop, the first step can be putting ads on Google through Adwords. If you choose the keywords carefully, it can help you reach the right customer and business.

There also social networks like Twitter, FB and Instagram that is widely used by shop owners to promote their products.

 

Dear Meetdilip, thanks very much for your reply.

We have tried some AdWords but without any success. Truth is we don't know how to sell online. I guess most important part is "choose the keywords carefully". do you know of any site or guide or tutorial on youtube I could follow?

The problem with Adwords is that we put "watch for men" or "wood and steel watch for men". Otherwise we do not obtain good CTR nor relevance in Google. However, people come to the website and then... seem not to be interested.

How could we get started on Adwords?

Regards
Eduardo

 

You could make use of tools like Google keyword planner and so on.

I am no online marketing expert. My suggestion would be to hire one if you have little experience in it

 

I think that to start an ecommerce it's also important to choose right ecommerce platform. There are a lot of different types with their advantages and disadvantages. I have read article "HOW TO CHOOSE BEST ECOMMERCE PLATFORM? STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE". It was quite useful.

 

Since you have a specific niche ie, watches to sell online. You have 3 options to launch your products:

1. You can easily start selling them on eBay, Amazon, Etsy, or any other popular eCommerce businesses.
2. You can setup a quick online store with Shopify, WooCommerce, or Magento.
3. You can start your own eCommerce website with the help of solution providers like Genstore, Reaction commerce, or Total js.

Every option has their own merits & demerits.
The first option enables you to start selling from the word go, but you have a huge competition to get through with thousands of sellers selling similar type of products.
The second option takes little time to setup the store and starts the selling process, but when branding is your aim, in the long run, it will be hard.
The third option takes some time to setup, but if your aim is to start a brand and expand the business, then it is the way to go.

My advice as an eCommerce business expert is, think through all the viable options and take the right decision.

 

Here are the Guidelines to start your own E-commerce business

1. Study the Market
Choose a product / niche / category on which your e-commerce business will be based on. -- Market research using Google Keyword Planner

2. Develop a website
Wordpress (Purchase shared hosting initially : Costs - $50-$70/ year), Shopify, Magenta, OSCommerce, etc are good options

3. Integrate a Global Payment Gateway with the website (usually payment gateways charge 2% of your sale)

3. Marketing
Onpage and Offpage SEO

4. Social Media Promotion

5. Promote on Youtube

 

According to me, Fashion accessories would be good to sell. Secondly, You can develop online store with Shopify and last choose SEO to get relevant traffic.

 

Many thanks Jessica,

Points 2 and 3 seem a little bit difficult for us. I guess it is important to start cashing money quickly via the marketplaces, and then we will have time to start looking at options 2 and 3.

On the other side, it is difficult for us to identify our target audience and how to build a brand/experience according to it

Regards

 

I would use facebook ads to find your target audience first. (Plenty how to videos on youtube) Then once you find your audience, target that same audience on google adwords. Once that proves successful, use youtube influencers to shout out your product on their channel.

 

I would do interest targeting on facebook

 

Hi TheRevenant

You identified 3 problems:

- "We don't know how to identify target audience"

Well, for this part you have a few options.
1. If you have any informations from some of your earlier customers (e-mail, name etc) you can create a custom audience on facebook for this, and then do a LLA audience and let FB do the targeting for you. We've done this a million times and it works very well, with high ROI and happy customers.

2. Split test everything. This is actually more important than it sounds, but it definitely worth every penny, even though it takes time to make good fit. We'll also wrote a few posts about this here.


- "We don't know where to sell (channels to use)"
Start with the basics. Just use your e-commerce site (shopify or woocommerce for example). Drive traffic with Google organic, google adwords and FB ads.
If this works for you can try and add more channels to your business such as e-automation, snapchat, youtube etc.


- "We don't know what is working now for the watch/accessories industry."
Look at your top 5 competitors on google, you'll learn more from them than you think.

 

Amazon is the largest e-commerce platform for selling products. I am an Amazon Seller hence I know how large competition is there while selling the products on this big platform. It is difficult to rank and get recognized easily on the top. Hence I would like to recommend using Amazon Seller Tool for all beginners. They are easy to use, helps in managing and optimizing the Ads. Also, you can get the idea of search terms used for your products and a proper report of your ads.
You can contact me for more info.

 

Set yourself up on an online eCommerce platform such as Shopify.

 

According to my knowledge, you should start with FB ads and make nice graphics which can attract people. It works very well.

Google Adwords will be a somehow expensive compare to FB ads. Try and give your feedback here.

I tried for my local clients and it had worked very well.

 

Launching an online store from scratch and without experience is really hard, and there is no wonder you need expert assistance. You managed to outline two important aspects you need to conduct marketing research over the target audience and channels of promotion. As a marketing specialist with considerable experience, I believe I could give you a piece of sound advice.

To identify a target audience, you will need to create a portrait of your potential customer, including demographic and geographic data, income level, marital status, values, interests and hobbies, lifestyle and habits, the devices they use and websites they frequent. Moreover, you will have to determine what do your customers care about, what they are interested in the most and what worries them. For that purpose there is no better tool than Google Analytics; it can provide you extensive target audience reports on your visitors and customers as well as product pages that are visited more often than the other.

What concerns promotion channels, modern marketing provides a large selection of methods and tools. Here are the most common and useful promotion channels for a new online store:

• Search Engine Optimization
• Content marketing
• Pay-per-click and remarketing
• Social media marketing
• Influencer marketing
• Affiliate marketing

 

You should hire a marketer with experience in the retail industry. He will analyze the market, your competitors and develops a plan for further actions. It will be rather complicated for you to promote your product if you don't know where to start it all. Defining your target audience is one of the key and starting point at your sales and promotion activity. As to where to sell, the easiest way to enter the fashion market is Facebook and Instagram advertisement.

 

It shows that you have little experience in e-commerce and digital marketing. Pls hire someone who expert for keyword research and analysis.

 

Hi ed
you can find the best way to grow up your own business but answering your questions:


You need to identify the people buy more watch, age, gender, nationality etc.
-You can used any channel available to sold, for example all social media , instagram, facebook (marketplace)and web page , groups on social media, sometimes if you pay monthly facebook and instagram put your adds and the people searching watch around the area, or find out influencers on social media, can give you more followers and more clients.
- watch all the competence marketing, to give you any idea, search on google, youtube, malls, etc