The e-commerce business is booming, and as it stands, everyone wants to open an online store to market their business as well as execute it to the next level.
Agreed, there are few who have actually succeeded and are making abundant revenue via e-commerce, however, there are also many individuals, companies and corporate organisations that have failed as a result of certain reasons stemming from factors they failed to consider before launching.
Jovago.com, an online hotel booking site, throws light on four of these things to consider before venturing into e-commerce in Nigeria.
Before you set off, ask yourself: What is my niche and how can I start with a competitive edge? If your plan is just to sell stuff, you will encounter a lot of difficulties. You need to pick a specialised niche or a new product that no one else sells and going very deep in that category. It has to be something you are very knowledgeable and passionate about.
Having an understanding of the uniqueness of certain products, and knowledge of the supply and demand informs your business plan. Ensure you have a formal business plan that shows off your competence and how focused you are. Also, defer horizontal expansion to later stages.
This is one of the most important things you have to consider as it is vital to attracting people towards your business. Your e-commerce website should be not only charming, catchy and attractive, it should be functional - user friendly, easy to use and understand. Also, you would require website builder tools and personnel, hosting provider or self-hosting, merchant license and a payment gateway. Fortunately, many domain and hosting providers offer free website building tools and that alone can reduce your investment.
Ultimately, there is no product or services that cannot be sold or advertised online, however, it is important to conduct research and ascertain the chances of your product or service selling for profit online. For instance, most of the B2B products or services are not internet friendly while B2C otherwise known as business to consumer is highly and extremely successful via internet sales. Again, do not try to sell too many products at once, that way you avoid having excess inventory in your early days.
Before venturing into e-commerce, you need to strategise and map out your internet marketing plan as it is a strong decisive factor that determines how successful your online business website or e-commerce becomes. Consider SEO (search engine optimisation) to assist with site rankings, brand management for brand value and customer loyalty, also, your presence in social media and Inventory control. If you are not sure of your strategies, you can employ a consultant to provide you with a custom solution.
