How to open your own shop online

 

This is a subject that you fill a whole week with, let alone an article of a thousand words. There is one rule that really ought to be etched on your consciousness; "Fail to plan and you will plan to fail." Any business, no matter whether its an offshoot of another or as a standalone start up needs to begin with a business plan and that plan ought to include some basic information:

• Your vision for the business - even if it is just extending an existing shop or service, selling on line is a whole different ball game
• Some clearly defined objectives - a set of targets that you wish to reach within a specific timescale
• A strategy - roughly how are you going to make sure you can achieve your objectives and finally
• A set of tactics - the tools you will use to market, communicate and manage the business.

Well, that's an MBA start up course but where do we actually start?

Let's assume, for the moment' that you already have a retail or service business and you simply (ha!) want to sell stuff online, do you have a website already? If not and you are internet savvy then creating one with packages like 'WordPress' is not to difficult, you will need to have it hosted and to make sure it has e-commerce facilities so you can take orders, confirm them and then fulfill them.

If you aren't that clued up on creating a site then look in your local free press, on the web or even ask friends who have sites who they used - but find an expert to design, build and implement your site - it will be the platform for your future business's health (and wealth). A website needs to be clear, friendly but above all easy to navigate and if it's a shop then the process of placing an order and checking out has to be as simple as possible.

Do you know what you are going to sell and how to price it? If not then you may need to look at some competitors' sites to see what they are doing. And talking of the subject of money, how do you propose to take payment? If you don't make arrangements with your bank or credit card merchant then you could use PayPal but beware - for every transaction that is made on any system it will cost you money - so build that into your costs. Are you offering guarantees, what about a returns policy and how will you deal with complaints?

You could, of course, take a simple route and set up a market place presence on Amazon, it won't be an exclusive site, but only you know if that option is necessary or desirable.

How do you propose to market your fledgling business? The growth in social media such as 'Facebook' and 'Twitter' can be to your advantage once the site is created but your customers need to be able to find you amongst the estimated 400,000,000 other sites all vying for visitors. This is where the previous advice about getting a specialist to build it for you might come in handy. Finding a designer who knows about hosting, e-commerce, search engine optimization (SEO) and pay per click (PPC) and has a track record in your sector can pay dividends in shortcutting the process. Now is not the time to take risks and get it wrong.

What a good website designer will do is to look at your, the business, the product range and create something that looks good and promotes the business AND the product range. It will need clear descriptions of each product together with great photos, don't just snap away with your phone, they might be OK but not good enough to sell themselves online. It's a sad fact but your customers will be put off buying by some simple things;

• If the information about your business or your product is out of date or incorrect.
• If they find it difficult to navigate around the site and buy stuff - that is what your site is for after all
• If it doesn't look appealing they will not come back - you only have one chance to make a first impression.

So, once you have a website, it is online and you have been through the mill in terms of making the e-commerce aspects work, you need to take a step back and test it - maybe get some friends and colleagues to take a look at how it works, or doesn't, and to give you their comments, maybe even make some trial orders!

Once its up and running you need to make sure you have enough stocks to meet demand - across the board or have some way of denoting availability on site. If you intend to offer a range of delivery services (Same-day, Next Day, three-day, post etc.) then state them and the cost for each clearly - if you are offering free delivery you need to build this into your price. It may pay you to discuss some options with a local courier business (there are many) that will collect your goods and ensure they get to your customers and provide proof of delivery in case of complaints.

Have you considered what happens about returns? If so how will you handle the replacement or refund, who will do your customer service?

Now this article may have given you more food for thought than you can digest easily and it is to be hoped that it hasn't put you off - selling online can be a great way to grow your business and to create loyal and returning customers. Get it right and the world is your marketplace, get it wrong and you might be left holding the baby.

So three key bits of advice;

• Get some creative and e-commerce advice from people who have done it before
• Make sure you have a business plan and be prepared for demand to hit you
• Have the right product at the right price and make sure you tell people about your website.