Of course, being online does not automatically mean online sales. It’s vitally important to undertake a thorough review of your business, your processes and your marketing, and understand if you are correctly designed for your Digital journey ahead. With all that in mind, we’ve put together 12 key takeaways for you to consider if you are planning to launch an online business. Part 1 covers tips 1 to 6, then look out for Part 2 where we’ll be completing the journey with tips 7-12. Enjoy…!
1. ‘You will not catch fish no matter how good your bait, if they are not there’.
Fishermen don’t cast a line randomly into the water in front of their swim, and just hope that fish will come to them. Instead, they do some research, they understand where to find the fish, then prepare with the right equipment and offer the right bait. By researching your potential market, audience, and buying behaviours you can ensure as you expend energy, time, and money, that the products and services you offer will be relevant. We suggest spending time listening to customers’ feedback and using it to refine how you target your audiences and your ‘go to market’ plans. Remember, new customer types enter the market often, so plan frequent reviews. Your success will follow this key activity.
2. Define your target audience.
Imagine trying to sell a lawn mower to someone who lives in a flat with no garden. It doesn’t matter how good your lawnmower is; that person will never buy it. Moreover, they’re probably getting irritated hearing from you and may tell their friends and family to ignore you. People are often irritated by poorly placed marketing with businesses promoting features over understanding people’s requirements. We recommend as with Point 1 to understand your customers by capturing data and investigating their activities.
Key information would include:
- Demographic information (age, gender, marital status, income etc.).
- How they make purchasing decisions, ‘the why’.
- Interests and hobbies.
- Preferred platforms.
3. Get Pricing ‘right first time’.
When you’ve collected research on who your target audience is, what they want and how much of a problem you’re solving for them, you’ll also have an idea of how much your product is worth to them. One of the most common events we experience is poorly researched pricing, this can cost businesses a huge amount with capital wrapped in stock, with hard discounting causing great pain for profits.
This is a big problem — what if your manufacturing and overheads are higher than the market is willing to pay? Conversely, what if your potential customers would actually pay a lot more than you think?
Many business owners will set their pricing based on how much competitors charge. There’s logic to this, but if your research shows people are unsatisfied with the available options, and you’re selling a needed solution, they may pay a premium. But make sure your claims are valid. Whilst customers will often pay a premium for a unique and valuable product or service that they may not find elsewhere, it’s important never to make false claims about your offerings.
Customer trust is king, and customers will quickly work out the real value in your product or service. Your longer-term business value will come from happy and loyal customers who ultimately should become advocates for your business, generating new customers through referrals. If you harm your reputation short term, you may cause irrevocable damage longer term and find recovering and winning back trust very hard to achieve.
4: Invest in the correct Technology.
There are many software vendors all promoting they have the best tech, that it’s low cost to start and can be deployed rapidly. All tech is NOT equal. From user experience to security to customer retention, choosing the right platforms (or “tech stack”) for your online business is crucial. Investing in creating detailed requirements can save significant time and frustrations later, as very often business owners encounter false starts with under investment, or find their technology won’t scale with the business and have to migrate to different platforms soon after. We find with all of our relationships that despite the frustrations that come with being asked so many questions, very soon our efforts in attaining the right flows of information allow the very best tech purchases to be made.
5. Choose the right eCommerce platform.
There are significant differences between eCommerce platforms. Some offer only the most basic features and not always with an option to upgrade as you may assume. Others may seem appealing at first but then surprise you with hidden costs, making it more expensive than choosing a platform with an upfront fee. The right eCommerce platform will need to scale with your business, with the right features you’ll be able to expand with far more ease. For example, you may focus on B2B (business to business) today but ahead need to jump to D2C (direct to consumer).
If you’re just starting out, spend some time researching the best eCommerce platform first. Great eCommerce partners often have similar clients to those of your needs that will allow you to benchmark and will host workshops to learn how they can help you. If you’ve already opened an online store, and it’s not on a platform you can stay with as your business grows, you’ll need to consider migrating to a more appropriate one.
6. Ensure that your Website has the latest security standards.
While every new business owner needs to watch their outgoings, especially early on, security should be seen as an investment rather than a cost. Fraudsters have an endless amount of ways to attack, including financial fraud, phishing scams and infected links. Customers want to trust you with their data and will abandon you with haste if you neglect this investment. It’s a matter of “when, not if” your online store gets targeted in some form, and not having the right security in place can be devastating, stressful and costly.
Thanks for reading Tips 1-6! Look out for Part 2, where we will complete your eCommerce best practice journey with tips 7-12.
At ELLA we make it easier for businesses to embrace change with our ‘Digital Transformation as a Service’(DTaaS) framework, providing the services that guide and support our customers every step of the way, and the practical tools that make it a less daunting and more enjoyable journey.
At ELLA we adopt a customer and user-centric design approach to ensure technology solutions and supporting business processes are delivered that solve the right problems for your customers and your employees. Find out more about our services here.
Want to know more? – Get in touch with the ELLA team to discuss how we can help you transform your business. Contact ELLA Digital
If you’re just starting out, spend some time researching the best eCommerce platform first. Great eCommerce partners often have similar clients to those of your needs that will allow you to benchmark and will host workshops to learn how they can help you.
— Jamie Dixon | CEO | ELLA Digital
4: Invest in the correct Technology.
There are many software vendors all promoting they have the best tech, that it’s low cost to start and can be deployed rapidly. All tech is NOT equal. From user experience to security to customer retention, choosing the right platforms (or “tech stack”) for your online business is crucial. Investing in creating detailed requirements can save significant time and frustrations later, as very often business owners encounter false starts with under investment, or find their technology won’t scale with the business and have to migrate to different platforms soon after. We find with all of our relationships that despite the frustrations that come with being asked so many questions, very soon our efforts in attaining the right flows of information allow the very best tech purchases to be made.
5. Choose the right eCommerce platform.
There are significant differences between eCommerce platforms. Some offer only the most basic features and not always with an option to upgrade as you may assume. Others may seem appealing at first but then surprise you with hidden costs, making it more expensive than choosing a platform with an upfront fee. The right eCommerce platform will need to scale with your business, with the right features you’ll be able to expand with far more ease. For example, you may focus on B2B (business to business) today but ahead need to jump to D2C (direct to consumer).
If you’re just starting out, spend some time researching the best eCommerce platform first. Great eCommerce partners often have similar clients to those of your needs that will allow you to benchmark and will host workshops to learn how they can help you. If you’ve already opened an online store, and it’s not on a platform you can stay with as your business grows, you’ll need to consider migrating to a more appropriate one.
6. Ensure that your Website has the latest security standards.
While every new business owner needs to watch their outgoings, especially early on, security should be seen as an investment rather than a cost. Fraudsters have an endless amount of ways to attack, including financial fraud, phishing scams and infected links. Customers want to trust you with their data and will abandon you with haste if you neglect this investment. It’s a matter of “when, not if” your online store gets targeted in some form, and not having the right security in place can be devastating, stressful and costly.
Thanks for reading Tips 1-6! Look out for Part 2, where we will complete your eCommerce best practice journey with tips 7-12.
At ELLA we make it easier for businesses to embrace change with our ‘Digital Transformation as a Service’(DTaaS) framework, providing the services that guide and support our customers every step of the way, and the practical tools that make it a less daunting and more enjoyable journey.
At ELLA we adopt a customer and user-centric design approach to ensure technology solutions and supporting business processes are delivered that solve the right problems for your customers and your employees. Find out more about our services here.
Want to know more? – Get in touch with the ELLA team to discuss how we can help you transform your business. Contact ELLA Digital
