Online sales are becoming more and more common for all types of commerce and launching yourself into the digital world becomes necessary to stay competitive in any branch.
Technology is increasingly present in people’s lives and consumption habits are no exception. In recent years, many companies have confirmed that having a store to do your online sales is not only an option, but a necessity.
Despite requiring an investment, the management of an online store requires as much care as one; and it can become complex when the importance of each step in the creation and maintenance of a virtual store is not understood.
The ideal is that the tasks are well defined, for example: the area of marketing, finance, purchases, inventory, customer service, payments, among others. This also applies to those who are starting their business. In the end, the fact of being the only person in the company does not mean that you should not plan.
In this article, we will introduce you to the main ways and tools to make your online sales in an organized way. In addition, we also share some online.
Read on and enjoy the content! 🙂
What are online sales?
Also known as ecommerce, online sales are those digital commercial transactions that are generated from a website between a seller and a buyer. They occur through platforms such as online stores, social networks or marketplaces.
What are the advantages of making sales online?
Making sales online can guarantee great opportunities for a business. Yes, even if you already have a physical store, selling online can increase (a lot) your income.
But in addition to the benefits, there are other advantages of making online sales:
1. You can reach more potential customers
One of the premises of online sales is to shorten distances; in that context,Geographical barriers are no longer an obstacle to buy a product or service.
You can sell to other cities, other states and even . Thus, the number of potential customers that your company can reach is also much higher!
2. Lower costs
Another advantage when we talk about having an online store is the low investmentsince in this model it is not necessary to have a physical space or a large team of salespeople.
Depending on the size of your business, having one person manage online sales, sort and ship orders may be enough. In this way, you can invest that money in other things, such as improving your product or doing marketing campaigns.
3. Shopping carts with more products
There are a few factors that can contribute to your customers buying more products from your online store than in person. The first—and perhaps the most important—is the ease of navigation. In this way, people tend to buy more products in a single order to “compensate” for the amount they pay for shipping.
But, even when the store offers free shipping, this trend continues. This is because customers are used to browsing the entire store, finding what they need at that moment and make a single purchase. This guarantees them a saving of time and money.
Finally, a third element that can influence a fuller shopping cart is the value of the products. Requiring less investment in infrastructure, virtual stores tend to have lower prices (compared to physical stores).
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4. Availability 24 hours a day
There are no “business hours” on the internet and your store does not close at a certain time of day. Thus, your customers can buy when they want: first thing in the morning, before work; in the afternoon, during your free time; or on a sleepless night.
This flexibility has benefits for everyone! On the one hand, your customer is not limited to the opening hours of the store and, on the other hand, you have the opportunity to sell even more.
How to start selling online?
It’s natural to feel confused when starting new projects. With that in mind—and to walk you along the way—we’ve created a step-by-step guide to explain how start selling online.
1. Choose your market niche
2. Know your audience
3. Develop a business plan
4. Organize the commercial area
5. Define the accepted payment methods
6. Control the shopping area
7. Pay attention to product inventory and shipping
8. Select delivery types
9. Build a customer service team
Let’s explain step by step!
1. Choose your market niche
This is the first step for any business, and digital commerce is no exception. At first, The more segmented and specialized your market niche is, the better..
To define it and bet on a business that bears fruit in the future, the ideal is to balance three main points:
- Is it something you like to do? Your business should be based on something that motivates you, not just something you do out of obligation and/or to make money.
- Is it something you know how to do? Very important to invest in a business that is within your specialty range.
- Is it something that people need? It must satisfy some need of your potential customers, so that they are interested in your product or service.
For example, if you know how to cook and want to create a frozen food e-commerce, a good idea is to start by focusing on a specific need, such as vegetarian or gluten-free dishes. In this way, you will have a better chance of winning and retaining the loyalty of your first customers.
2. Know your audience
After having chosen the niche in which you would like to operate, it is time to know your client thoroughly. Define the person of your company, understanding how they consume and communicate through the internet. The more detailed this information is, the easier it will be to direct all your strategies from here.
3. Develop a business plan
Before you start selling online, you have to understand everything that involves electronic commerce: How much will you have to invest? Who will be your partners? Who will be your competitors? How will your marketing strategy work?
Answering each of these questions will help you understand the size of your online store, and everything that needs to be done so that the processes flow in an organized way and your margin of error is reduced. In addition to avoiding losses, this will ensure that you offer a good experience to customers who choose your brand.
To do this, it is important that you record all this information in a document called “Business Plan”, in which you must include:
- your executive summary: key information about the company.
- Market analysis: presentation of your target audience, analysis of the competition and suppliers.
- your marketing plan: organization of dissemination strategies.
- an operating plan: details the operation of your company.
- your financial plan: cost structure that contains everything you are going to invest in your company.
The preparation of this document may seem laborious, but it is essential for your e-commerce to have a sustainable and orderly growth.
See how to make an online store so you can easily generate online sales of your products or services
4. Organize the commercial area
To start selling online, you need to have a sales department. This area is responsible for analyze customer orders from the moment they enter the storealthough, initially, it is only you who performs all the functions.
In this case, it is important to check that the orders have arrived complete and that the requested products are available in your inventory. This process prevents customers from receiving items other than what they ordered, as well as organizing what comes in and what goes out of your store.
5. Define the accepted payment methods
The financial aspect is the next step for the success of your store. Here the amount of the purchase and the payment method that the customer uses to pay are verified, for example: proof of bank payment, transfer, deposit, credit card, among others. Remember that some of these modalities need a few days for confirmation.
It is you who will decide which of them you want to accept in your online store and which ones you do not.
Instant payments, that is, those that do not require confirmation or bank clearing, must have anti-fraud systems that detect problems with credit card numbers and other discrepancies in the information. Those that are integrated directly into your store already offer this system integrated into the platform.
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6. Control the shopping area
Some online stores have their own inventory, but there are also others that do not have their own stock. For the latter, it is important to organize a purchasing area that ensures have everything under control and on timeto ship customer orders.
In general, retail businesses without inventory buy the product they sell. The big brands, on the other hand, partner with manufacturers and distributors, who deliver the order directly to the customer. There is also the intermediation of the purchase by the virtual store, known as , in this case the delivery is made directly by the supplier.
7. Pay attention to product inventory and shipping
E-commerce businesses with inventory need to separate orders from each sale. It is a step that requires attention, since wrong orders are losses for the store, having to make a new shipment and pay the cost of returning the customer: this is called reverse logistics.
To keep everything in order and avoid errors, the ideal is to have an (ERP) that updates the number of products available in each order. Also, it is important to check the product before shippingso that you do not deliver the same merchandise twice.
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For products that have been in stock for a long time, the advice is to create “stock burn” promotions, offering low prices to free up storage space for new products and launches.
8. Select delivery types
One of the main steps in online sales is, of course, shipping the product to the customer. Since there is no physical contact when buying online, consumers have high expectations about the arrival of the product. That is why it is so important to know and select the ones available in your online store.
Whether by mail or parcel, you must ensure that the merchandise arrives on the delivery date indicated on your website, or before! This step is one of the main elements that divide satisfied customers from dissatisfied ones.
To help you in this logistics process, a very useful tool is what we call a shipping platform.
💡 Know the ones you can integrate with your Tiendanube.
9. Build a customer service team
For your customer service channel to be effective, it is convenient to have…
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