If you haven\u2019t got a product in mind then in this section I will give you some ideas for finding a product to build your ecommerce business around.<\/strong><\/p>\n Many products have come into existence because someone had a common problem. They designed a product to solve the problem and then they started selling to others with the same problem. When looking for a product or service to sell think about the everyday problems that you, or other people face.<\/p>\n People are passionate about all sorts of things. Think about what people love doing. Their hobbies and interests. For instance, people love their pets. Pet owners spend millions of dollars annually on pampering their pets. Every interest is a potential market.<\/p>\n Do you have any interests you are passionate about. You could turn your hobby into a business.<\/p>\n Have you ever need a particular good or service, tried to find it but can\u2019t find anything suitable. Or perhaps you have found it on an overseas website. You could design a product to fulfil your needs. Or find out where to source a product that will do the job. Alibaba<\/a> is a great place to look.<\/p>\n If you have experience in a certain field then you can use your experience to think of a niche product for a certain industry.<\/p>\n Pay attention to what other people are talking about. Do your friends, family and neighbours find buying certain products difficult. Do they have a pain point that you can solve with your product or service?<\/p>\n As well as local communities, online communities are another good source of ideas.<\/p>\n You don\u2019t need to supply a physical product either. You can offer \u2018virtual\u2019 products and offer them as digital downloads. Training is another good idea. Can you teach others how to do something. Sean McCabe<\/a> has made a great deal of money selling courses that teach how to make a living as a hand lettering artist.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n So you\u2019ve considered a few ideas and thing you might have a good one for an online business. Now you need to do some research. You\u2019ll need to consider many things to make your ecommerce store a success.<\/strong><\/p>\n Choosing a niche can help you dominate a slice of the market. For instance, a lot of online stores sell sunglasses. From discounted pairs to high end labels. But a couple of sunglass store sell wooden framed sunglasses.<\/a> It might seem like a small market but you are more likely to be seen and heard than in a large crowded market.<\/p>\n Do some searches of your product idea. See how many others are selling the same or similar products. Maybe what you find will give your more ideas or help you refine your idea.<\/p>\n Build a mind map of your idea and explore every angle of it. It can help you visualise your ideas and refine them. There are apps that can help build a mind map<\/a> or you can just use a pen and paper<\/p>\n Before you open a hoverboard store think again. It is very hard to capitalise on fads. They are gone as quickly as they arrive. You could potentially end up with a garage full of unsellable product.<\/p>\n A great way to test how popular a search term is, is to use Google Trends. Just type in a search term and Google Trends will show you the amount of searches made for the term over the last few years. You can visualise if something is becoming more or less popular.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll need to calculate your profit margin per sale. Take into account payment fees, shipping, advertising as well as the wholesale cost of the product.<\/p>\n If you are sourcing a product from a wholesaler you\u2019ll need to be able fulfil your orders. If a product becomes popular the wholesaler or manufacturer can fall behind with orders. This can lead to angry, disappointed customers on your end.<\/p>\n If you are turning your hobby into a business then you need to be able to scale production of your products. If you sell cupcakes, then how many can you realistically bake in a week.<\/p>\n When it comes to ecommerce, smaller products can be better than large ones. Large products can cost a lot to ship. Especially to far-flung areas. If your product is fragile then you will need to spend more money on package to ensure your products arrive in one piece. Perishable products need the right packaging too. Spoiled food could cause big trouble for your business.<\/p>\n Do some research on the size of your market. A great tool for discovering the size of a potential market is to use Google\u2019s Keyword Planner. Type in a few keywords to do with the product you want to sell and it will tell you how many searches are made for that term. You can refine the data by time and location. It will also suggest other similar keywords.<\/p>\n It\u2019s very rare that you can find a market with no competitors, no matter how niche. But don\u2019t be discouraged. The fact that there are others in the same market validates your product idea. Take a good look at their websites. See what works and what doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n There is an old saying. If you try to sell to everyone then you\u2019ll end up selling to no one. Think about your target customer. The people most likely to buy from you. You can create a few customer \u2018personas\u2019 that you can use to refine your message.<\/p>\n Another idea is creating recurring revenue. There are many business that sell their product like a service. For example Food bag<\/a> sells food but it\u2019s the convenience of having it delivered, with the instructions on how to cook it that really sells. You\u2019ll need to take seasonality into account too. If you sell winter items then you won\u2019t be very busy in the summer. Likewise if you sell Christmas hampers then you will be very business for one month a year. You might need to offer other products to even out your earnings.<\/p>\n FREE GUIDE Choose the right e-commerce plan for your business Before you get started selling online you\u2019ll need an ecommerce website. They are plenty of options out there. So you\u2019ll need to do some research and find the best solution for your needs.<\/strong><\/p>\n There are many choices when creating an online store. There are hosted ecommerce solutions that charge a monthly fee. Or there are self hosted solutions using open source software. Hosted solutions can be less of a headache, but you pay a fee every month. If your store becomes a success you can end up paying a lot in fees. Hosted ecommerce solutions can be less flexible too.<\/p>\n Self hosted online stores can range from being simple to set up to being very complex and expensive. With a self hosted store you could pay more up front but monthly you just need to pay for web hosting.<\/p>\n It\u2019s no secret that EG Web Design recommends and uses WooCommerce<\/a>. It is cheap and easy to set up as well as being flexible and easy to expand.<\/p>\n Here is a link to more about ecommerce platforms.<\/a><\/p>\n If your website looks dodgy then people won\u2019t buy from you.<\/a> Simple as that. A well designed site with nice photos and clear, concise copy will attract the right customers. Having an SSL certificate installed on your ecommerce website is essential. SSL certs ensure your website encrypts data travelling to and from it. If your website takes payments and accepts credit card details on-site then it is the law that you must use an SSL Cert.<\/p>\n With an online store people can\u2019t physically touch and look in real life. So you need to showcase your products in the best possible way. Poorly lit, out of focus images won\u2019t get people buying.<\/p>\n For a guide to taking better product shots check out this\u00a0post.<\/a><\/p>\n SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. Many good ecommerce solutions will have well optimised for search engines. However Google has changed their algorithms over the years. Now SEO is less about the technical aspects of websites and placing more emphasis is on the content of the site and social media.<\/p>\n Your website needs to be mobile friendly. These days people are joined to their mobile phones. About half of all web traffic comes from mobile and an increasing number of sales are made online. You wouldn\u2019t open a store and only let in half of all the people would you?<\/p>\n You\u2019ll need to take into account income tax and sales tax. If you live in New Zealand then I\u2019ve written a short guide about GST and selling online. For more advice please contact an accountant.<\/p>\n Depending on the sizes and weight of your product(s) shipping can get very complicated, <\/a>very quickly. Usually it is best to have a few shipping prices that are the best fit for most of your products. Don\u2019t underestimate the time and cost of packaging and shipping.<\/p>\n Any good ecommerce platform should be able to handle discount coupon codes. They can be a great way to sell and get repeat business from past customers.<\/p>\n Write some good copy about your product. Try to write from the customers perspective. Talk about how the product will make you feel. How it feels in your hand. How it will taste. If you re-sell a product don\u2019t just copy manufacturers product description. This is lazy and it causes duplicate content flags for Google. It could result in your sites search ranking being downgraded.<\/p>\n The art of good website copy is having a Call to Action on every page. People like things to be clear. A clear action linked to a benefit can increase engagement on your site. If you want people to sign up for your newsletter then have a large button with some copy explaining the benefits of your newsletter. Let people know what to expect and what they\u2019ll miss out on if they don\u2019t sign up, or buy, or contact you.<\/p>\n Google can\u2019t see images (yet) when they index websites for search rankings. They need to be told what is in the image. That\u2019s where ALT tag comes in. Write a short description of the image in the ALT tag area. It is an often neglected area where you can get one up on your competitors.<\/p>\n This is key to a good ecommerce website. If your checkout and payment process is confusing and difficult to use then you will lose sales.<\/p>\n Try to have a “1 page checkout”. This means that all the address and contact input fields and payment fields are on one page. Making users click through a multipage checkout process can lead to lost sales.<\/p>\n A set of requirements that ensures a safe and secure environment for every business which stores, processes or transmits credit card information. You must comply with PCI requirements. Failure to do so can result in your being responsible if your site is hacked and your customers credit card details are accessed. Your web design can help advise you on PCI compliance.<\/p>\n For explanation of any of these web design terms, check out my ecommerce jargon guide.<\/a><\/p>\n Payment gateways are payment processing services. There are a variety of payment gateways. PayPal<\/a> is easy to set up and use. They charge a fee based on a percentage of your sale. Others charge a per month base fee. Do some research and find out the best payment gateway for your needs. It may change depending on how many sales you are making. PayPal is usually a good place to start. You can always upgrade when you start making more sales.<\/p>\n Not to be confused with the SSL Cert. You will need good security on your website. Most hosted ecommerce platforms have good security. If you are going down the open source, self hosted route, then you should consult a web developer to help \u2018hack proof\u2019 your website.<\/p>\n Any new website should be registered with Google Webmaster Tools.<\/a> Registering will ensure Google finds your website and indexes it to put in the search rankings. Google Webmaster Tools can also let you know if Google is having trouble viewing your site or if you have broken links.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Build it and they will come. Unfortunately this doesn\u2019t apply to websites. Many a great website has failed because of a lack of a marketing plan. There are some basics that, if done right, will generate traffic and build a customer base.<\/strong><\/p>\n After organic search results, email marketing is the most effective form of online marketing. If you have an online store you should collect people\u2019s email addresses when they make a purchase. This gives you the chance to keep on marketing to them. Services like Campaign Monitor<\/a> and MailChimp<\/a> are easy to use. They can be integrated with your website so people can sign up for newsletters onsite and emails captured at checkout can be added to your email list.<\/p>\n You can\u2019t ignore social media. Focus on the right form of social media for your online business. For example if you make beautiful cakes then that is a visual product. So try Instagram for posting photos of your awesome cakes. For a product that occupies a certain health niche you can create a FaceBook group. People can share their experiences and diet tips.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t do the hard sell constantly on social media. This will just turn people off. You need to provide value to your followers and well as selling to them.<\/p>\n Social media is also a good way to answer questions about your product. If people love your products then they will quite often write about their experience on social media.<\/p>\n Blogging is one of the best ways to get a good search engine ranking. Try to write a blog post every week. To get started, sit down and create a blogging plan. Think of all the things your can write about your product.<\/p>\n Some ideas are:<\/p>\n The list goes on. If you create a plan and write a list of blog topics you will always have something to write about.<\/p>\n If you are struggling to get eyes on your site then paying for traffic is an option. However, Google Adwords<\/a> can be very competitive. The cost per click can be quite expensive. If you are going to spend money to get customer then you need a sales funnel in place.<\/p>\n Some sales funnels can involve writing an article that potential customers will find of value. Kind of like this one ? \u00a0and using an email signup to get the users email so you can continue to market to them.<\/p>\nIdentify and solve a pain point<\/h3>\n
Cater to customer passions<\/h3>\n
Follow your own passion<\/h3>\n
Look for gaps in market<\/h3>\n
Use your own experience<\/h3>\n
Look to local community<\/h3>\n
Online communities<\/h3>\n
Digital products or training<\/h3>\n
\nResearch<\/h2>\n
Choose a niche<\/h3>\n
Google searches<\/h3>\n
Build a mind map<\/h3>\n
![\"Create-a-mind-map-mindmap\"](\"http:\/\/www.egwebdesign.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Create-a-mind-map-mindmap-1024x476.jpg\")
<\/p>\nIs it a fad?<\/h3>\n
Google trends<\/h3>\n
What is your profit margin?<\/h3>\n
How easy to get, make and ship is it?<\/h3>\n
Potential Market size and demand<\/h3>\n
What competitors will you have?<\/h3>\n
Who is your target customer?<\/h3>\n
Subscription based products<\/h3>\n
\nMen usually hate to shop. So people have made subscription services that will deliver shivering supplies every month for a fixed fee. There are monthly sock delivery services, even underwear delivery services.<\/p>\nSeasonality<\/h3>\n
\nThinking of selling online?<\/b> Avoid costly mistakes by starting with an e-commerce plan that suits your business needs.
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\nYES I WANT THE FREE GUIDE! <\/a><\/p>\nCreating a website<\/h2>\n
Choose the right platform<\/h3>\n
Create a trustworthy site<\/h3>\n
Good photos of products<\/h3>\n
SEO<\/h3>\n
Mobile friendly<\/h3>\n
Taxes<\/h3>\n
Shipping<\/h3>\n
Discount Coupons<\/h3>\n
Good content<\/h3>\n
Calls to action<\/h3>\n
Alt tags<\/h3>\n
Easy checkout and payment process<\/h3>\n
PCI compliance<\/h3>\n
Payment gateways<\/h3>\n
Security<\/h3>\n
Google listing<\/h3>\n
\nMarketing your site<\/h2>\n
Build an email list<\/h3>\n
Promote on social media<\/h3>\n
Blog<\/h3>\n
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Create a sales funnel if paying for traffic.<\/h3>\n