start your E-commerce business in 6 Steps

First of all, let us discuss what an e-commerce business is.

An E-commerce business is one in which a company sells its products or services through digital platforms; it is a completely online business that many companies already do.

How To Start an Online E-commerce Business

There are many types of platforms from which we have to choose which platform we want to sell and create our store.

start your E-commerce business in 6 Steps

1. Choose your product according to the market.
2. Choose E-commerce Platform
3. Costing and pricing
4. Design Your Online Store
5. List Products and Inventory
6. Advertisement

1. Choose your product according to the market.

• Select Your Product or Service: First, decide what you want to sell in the market.
• Market Research: Now after selecting the product or service you should know its potential, availability, and demand of your product. For this, you can use tools such as Google Trends, SEMrush, or social media insights To know what is trending
• Product should be unique: Your product should be unique because if old brands are also selling our product then our product should be more unique so that customers will buy from our new brand.
  • Note: If you want more information about product research, we will post it in the next blog.
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2. Choose E-commerce Platform

• Shopify: It Is good for beginners, many tools are available and they also provide templates
• Wocommerce: A plugin for WordPress that we can use to design our store without knowing any coding language. Flexibility and control are good in this.
• Third-party MarketPlaces: Sell on Third-Party Marketplaces like Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra Meesho, Etc. These Marketplaces provide good traffic and audience but charge commissions as order referral fees.

3. Costing and pricing

3.1 Shopify cost & hidden charges:

• Subscription plan: You can see here
  • Basic Shopify: ₹1,499_INR/month
  • Shopify Plan: ₹5,599_INR/month
  • Advanced Shopify: ₹22,680_INR/month
• Transaction Fees: No transaction fee if you use Shopify Payments (except payment gateway fees).
  • Basic Shopify: 2% per transaction
  • Shopify Plan: 1% per transaction
  • Advanced Shopify: 0.5% per transaction

• Themes
  • Shopify also provides free themes. you can also start your e-commerce business with the free theme. but If you want to install a premium theme, you can purchase it by paying a one-time charge.
• Shipping Costs:
  • The shipping cost which is more than the dead weight or volumetric weight of our product packaging is calculated according to the charges decided by the Shipping company.

3.2 WooCommerce Costs & Hidden Charges:

• WordPress Hosting: WooCommerce runs on WordPress, so you must purchase web hosting. Costs vary depending on the provider for example hosting, hostage, GoDaddy
• Domain Name: Domain cost Range 99 to 2500 Rs/Year. depending on where you purchase it.
• for reference, you can check on Godaddy for your E-commerce business
• Themes: WooCommerce is free, but some E-commerce features come with paid extensions, such as:
  • Payment gateways (PayPal): Free for basic integration, but some advanced features are paid.
  • SEO plugins (Rank Math, Yoast SEO): you have to pay if you want to use premium features otherwise free features you can use at no cost. I want to tell you SEO is the best thing of our E-commerce Business Website ranking
  • Shipping plugins: Some are free, others may cost for advanced features.
• Payment Gateway Fees:
  • PayPal and Stripe: 2.9% per transaction

3.3 Third-party MarketPlace

Fees vary according to third-party marketplaces\\\’ fee structures

Check here for Amazon Fees

Check Here for Flipkart Fees

4. Design Your Online Store

Choose a theme: Your website\\\’s design should be professional, user-friendly, and mobile responsive.

Shipping & Logistics: Integrate the shipping provider on your website by deciding on the shipping method. (e.g., Shiprocket, DHL, or Amazon Logistics)

5. List Products and Inventory

Product Photography: Provide high-quality & attractive creative images of your product that attract customers.

Write Compelling Descriptions: Product titles and descriptions should be clear, engaging, and optimized for search engines (SEO).

Stock Management: Create an automated system to manage stock so that you know the stock, how many pieces are available in the inventory, and all.

6. Advertisement

It is very important to run advertisements in the beginning to bring traffic & clicks. There are different steps to run advertisements according to the platforms.

Read this to learn more about advertisements.

6.1 Why Advertisements Important in E-commerce Business:

• case study of Lenskart
  • Scenario: Lenskart promoted its affordable eyewear using a mix of YouTube ads, social media ads, and Google ads, targeting people looking for glasses online.
  • Result: Lenskart\\\’s ads increased brand awareness, allowing them to dominate the online eyewear market in India. They even used quirky ad campaigns to reach younger audiences.
  • Lesson: Digital advertising helped Lenskart become a go-to brand for eyewear in India, showcasing the power of targeted online ads in increasing sales.

According to the author: If you want to do business with less investment in the beginning, then start in third-party marketplaces like Amazon and Flipkart, investment in marketplaces is less, and in starting you can easily get high traffic.

Why We Should Do E-commerce Business

E-commerce offers several key benefits:

1. Wider reach – Access a global audience.
2. Lower costs – No need for physical stores.
3. Customer convenience – 24/7 shopping access.
4. Data insights – Better decision-making with customer data.
5. Scalability – Easily grow your business online.