We work with some amazing clients who sell products and services all over the world but work from home or cyber commute from cafes!
The world is your oyster
Ecommerce is not just for physical products, think consultancy services, online training & education, in fact if you can deliver it via email, online or via post then ecommerce can work for you.
Training & eLearning
Online training is a huge industry and there are amazing platforms that can streamline the delivery of training courses online.
Training can be delivered in a number of ways from pdf ebooks to simple text based courses through to “how to” videos & online quizzes.
Sell your training as one offs or nurture your students with memberships and subscriptions, drip feeding content over a period of time.
Training doesn’t just have to be about professional development either, think niche hobbies like embroidery, model making, water colour painting etc. Chance is are, if you can buy a magazine about your chosen hobby or interest then there is a significant market out there. Those magazine are also a great way to market your online business once launched too as you know the target market.
Sell Your Consultancy Services
With tools like Skype, Zoom and Messenger you can run meetings from anywhere with good internet.
eCommerce allows you to sell your time & connect with customers all over the world.
Consultancy services can easily be packaged into billable chunks that can be delivered direct to a customer or en-mass via training or downloadable resources.
Webinars are also a great way to connect with multiple clients at once. Record your webinars and make them available to your members or as online snippets to position yourself as the expert.
Physical Products
eCommerce is perfect for selling physical products.
From car parts to organic muesli, tie dye shirts to chicken coops, you can pretty much sell anything online.
As with training and consultancy services, think niche. Competing will eCommerce giants like Amazon will see you fail very quickly, selling niche products to a niche market is the way to succeed.
Its all about the merchandising
Just cause your online don’t skimp on your shops merchandising!
The product images and descriptions you have online are the only way, potential customers can evaluate your products. Get it right and you’ll have happy customers filling your inbox with orders every day. Get it wrong and you’ll waste valuable time and energy and most likely never generate a sale.
Repeat custom comes from good service & value for money
As with merchandising, you need to make sure your customers are looked after throughout their purchasing journey. Nurture them with product information, be honest about the delivery costs and timelines.
Dedicated self service FAQ pages help drive support emails down and inspire confidence in your customers.
Market, market, market your business!
A huge proportion of ecommerce stores fail in the first 6 months because they never market themselves. Unfortunately these days you actively need to promote your website either through pay per click advertising or via social media advertising, especially if your after quick wins.
Facebook & Instagram advertising is relatively ecomonical and allows you to target very specific demographics right down to gender, location and lifestyle. Pay per click or Google Adwords is a good solution to drive your search engine rankings up and keep you top of page one.
Dont ignore traditional media channels such as newspapers, magazines, radio & TV. These can still work for targeting local markets, but don’t get suckered in by too good to be true packages. With ecommerce you need to be flexible and reactive to your target markets so signing up for a 6 month contract can tie up marketing funds.
What all of these options have in common is they all need a strategy first and foremost. Your marketing needs to be goal driven and target specific markets. Secondly you need need time and experience to design, deliver and reiterate your campaigns. Thirdly you need a budget specifically for marketing.
We highly recommend that you outsource your marketing strategy to a marketing professional like us as it frees you up to work on your business not just in!
What’s the right solution for me?
As with any new business it’s important to start with a business plan.
Do your research, especially for potential competitors in your chosen market. Talk to potential customers about your idea and see if there is a need for it.
Be prepared to bend your ideas to off the shelf solutions if you have a limited budget. Get something up quickly, but never skimp on quality.
Make sure you have a marketing budget and dont spend that on anything other than marketing!
Call in the professionals
Get the right advice, skills & services from day one as it can save you thousands of dollars or worst still a failed business.
If you’d like to talk to us about your next project, book in a Discovery Session and we’ll help you map out the steps you need to consider before making the leap.