How can I start my e-commerce business?
How to Start an E-commerce Business?
An aspiring entrepreneur may have to do various activities to start his own e-commerce business in India. We are giving its step-by-step details below so that any aspiring entrepreneur does not face any inconvenience in understanding this process.
1. Decide whether to own Marketplace or Existing Marketplace:
To start his own e-commerce business in India, first of all, the aspiring entrepreneur has to decide whether he wants to set up his own marketplace or wants to do this kind of business by joining any already available marketplace. It is meant to say that there are two ways to do this type of business in India, firstly, the entrepreneur can start this type of business by setting up his own e-commerce website. And secondly, he can also do this kind of business by selling the product through any already existing famous marketplace like Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, etc. Therefore, the first step of the entrepreneur should be to decide whether he wants to do this business by creating his own e-commerce website or by joining an already existing marketplace. The advantage of linking with an already existing marketplace would be that the entrepreneur would get the services of logistics etc., packing material, etc. from the same marketplace with which he is working. But keep in mind that currently, to do this kind of business with any marketplace, GSTIN is mandatory. And if the entrepreneur wants to do e-commerce business by opening his own online store, then now we are taking this conversation forward.
2. Register Your Own E Commerce Company:
Entrepreneurs who want to start this type of business by setting up their own online store may need to register their business as per the rules. Entrepreneurs can register their businesses as sole proprietorships, partnerships,s or private limited companies. Entrepreneurs may also need GST registration as per applicable tax rules in order to legalize their business. Although there is no mention of any statutory rules for selling the products online, after registering the business properly as per the rules, other business-related work of the entrepreneur like applying for PAN card, current account in the name of the business. Applying for, getting GST registration all becomes easy. Therefore, it is very important for an entrepreneur wishing to start his own e-commerce business to legalize his business properly according to the rules.
3. Book Domain Name for Online Store:
Now since the entrepreneur who started his own e-commerce business has given legal form to his business. And once the business name is done with the bank account, GST registration, etc., the next step should be to book a domain name matching the business name for your online store. That is to say, every business that is planning to set up an enterprise in this virtual world, that is, to make a name in the digital world, must necessarily require a domain name. Since the domain name chosen by the entrepreneur can be the identity of his business online i.e. his customers may know him by that name, there are many things to consider while booking it. A brief description of which is given below.
- Choose a domain name only after thoroughly considering the relevance of your business.
- If you want, you can book a domain name before registering your business. Because if you got the business registration done before then you may not get the domain name associated with your business. So first book the domain name then business registration.
- Choose a domain name that is easy to remember.
- Keep in mind that you do not use any special characters in the domain name because people have trouble remembering them.
- If you are doing business targeting only one country, then select the domain by location. For example, the extension prevalent in India is .in which indicates that this domain belongs to India.
4. Make an E Commerce Website:
After selecting the domain name for your online store, the entrepreneur doing e-commerce business will have to set up an e-commerce website. For this, the entrepreneur can either take the help of a web developer or can contact a company that provides a pre-built online store. If the entrepreneur wants to set up his own custom store, he can do so by approaching a web developer or agency. But if the entrepreneur is willing to take more business-related facilities in the initial phase with less budget, then he can approach any company that provides a pre-built online store. The advantage of this is that the entrepreneur gets various themes and templates related to this business under one package, which he can use to increase his sales.
5. Register Vendors:
Now since the entrepreneur starting his own e-commerce business has established an online store, but unless a seller is associated with you, will you sell to people? So the next step of the entrepreneur should now be to meet the nearby vendors and urge them to join by telling them the benefits of joining them. Although the entrepreneur himself can buy various goods and sell them online, doing this is not advisable from the point of view of profit in the initial phase. Because in this stage the full focus of the entrepreneur should be to promote his online store and connect more and more sellers with him. Because the more sellers connect to the entrepreneur’s online store, the more variety of products the customers will get.
6. Payment Gateway (Get Payment Gateway for your E-commerce business):
If an entrepreneur starting his own e-commerce business has associated various vendors with him, then now he will also need a payment gateway. That is to say, a person setting up his own online store needs a payment gateway to process customers’ payments through credit cards, debit cards, net banking, etc. That’s because a payment gateway allows customers to make payments through the website by credit card, debit card, net banking, etc. Hence a payment gateway is required to accept multiple forms of online payment.
7. Manage Logistics:
As we all know that when the customer buys the goods online, then the online store from which he has bought those goods, it is his responsibility to deliver those goods safely to his given address. Therefore, now the next step of an entrepreneur starting an e-commerce business is to contact a logistics company, keep in mind that the entrepreneur should contract with a company that is ready to provide services at cheap prices. Because there are many people who like the product but they do not buy the product from any particular online store because of the high delivery charges. Therefore, it is very important to have low delivery charges to reach and increase the reach of the people. And it would not be unfair to say that any online shopping portal is incomplete without shipping solutions. That is because people do online shopping so that they do not have to hit the local market and they can get their goods easily at their home. So choose a company that is ready to take maximum responsibility at a reasonable price.
7. Access the Consumers on the Internet:
Now if the entrepreneur has completed all the processes to start his own e-commerce business, then he should try tirelessly to reach out to the consumers. For Entrepreneur Affiliate Marketing can also take help of. Because in this, people will be able to promote your store under the control of earning their money, so that they will be able to earn themselves and you too. Apart from this, the entrepreneur can also promote both his store and product by running his own ad campaign on Google Adword, Facebook, and other social websites. Keep in mind that the entrepreneur will earn only when a consumer will buy any goods from his online store, so you can also find new ways to reach the consumers to make your own e-commerce business successful. One of these ways is to ask a famous blogger to write a sponsored post, this will give your store identity in the digital world.
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