You’ve been thinking for years about getting into ecommerce and now you’ve finally found the product you want to sell! This is great news! With the expanding market, the importance of ecommerce increases daily. It is important to note that the ecommerce experience is a comprehensive operation. We’ve put together a summary of the ecommerce stages for you, along with details to consider.
First step: Are you ready to start your own company?
If you’re going into ecommerce, everything must be legally registered. Which means you need to establish a company. The type of company may vary depending on your parameters and goals. If you have partners and your business volume is high, you may want to consider setting up a joint stock company or a limited liability company.
If you want to implement your business idea quickly, easily and inexpensively, setting up a private company, which takes about one or two days, might be the best option. It’s also relatively simple to shut it down if things don’t work out.
Do read about KOSGEB support before you establish a company. You may be able to benefit from government incentives, depending on your age, gender, and the sector in which you will operate.
Should you sell on your ecommerce website or in marketplaces?
Once you’ve established your company, you must identify the platforms where you want to sell your products. You can sell in online marketplaces such as Trendyol, Amazon, Hepsiburada, n11, AliExpress and eBay, or reach customers through your own website. Both options have different advantages. To summarize:
Advantages of setting up an ecommerce website
- You can deliver a customized design and user experience that reflects your brand identity.
- You achieve higher efficiency from your digital marketing efforts.
- You can improve and enhance your customer relationships.
- You are completely free to promote your brand with videos, blog content or product guides that benefit your users. You can enrich your website with whatever content you consider relevant and useful.
Advantages of marketplaces
- You gain an additional sales channel outside of your ecommerce website or physical store. Thus, you can reach a wider audience.
- It’s easy to open stores in marketplaces, and you can start selling without having to deal with technical infrastructure issues.
What infrastructure should you use on your ecommerce website?
To deliver your products efficiently and offer customers a seamless user experience, it is important to choose the infrastructure that works best for you and your ecommerce website.
- If you have a sufficient command of software, consider open-source infrastructures such as WooCommerce, OpenCart, PrestaShop or Magento. These options are highly flexible and will help you meet your expectations.
- If you are looking for a fast, practical and professional solution, consider Shopify and Wix Stores; these options address a number of needs, such as design, content management and payment, under one roof.
Abide by legal obligations!
Keep in mind that there are a few legal obligations that you must include in your ecommerce website to avoid sanctions.
- You must obtain “Distance Sales Agreement” approval from customers before each sale.
- You must create a “Preliminary Information Form” and add it to your website.
- If you are collecting data, you must obtain approval from users under the PDP Law and transfer the approved data to the Euromsg Express.
Directing traffic to your ecommerce website, that’s all it matters!
You’ve completed the legal procedures, along with the website design and infrastructure and now you’re ready to present your products to customers! To bring customers to your online store, you need to launch marketing efforts immediately. Let’s summarize the primary digital marketing methods involved in ecommerce.
Rise to the top of search engine results with SEO
- Follow search trends and compose product and category texts using applicable keywords.
- Make sure your website loads quickly – 60% of users will abandon the website if the homepage doesn’t open within three seconds.
- Make sure your website is mobile-friendly. According to 2020 data, Turkey has 77 million mobile users – 92% of the population!
- Make sure your website has an SSL certificate, to ensure reliability.
Reach out to potential customers with content marketing
You can create brand awareness via blog posts, infographics, videos and/or podcast content directed towards your targeted audience. For example, if you sell flowers and plants on your ecommerce website, a post titled “7 home plants that love low-light environments” will attract customers who are looking for houseplants.
Promote yourself on social media, understand your customers
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube or TikTok… Get on the platforms utilized by your target audience. Promote your products on social media, offer useful content and leverage the power of humour and communication.
Expand your audience with paid promotions
You can announce your business to a larger audience in the short term via digital marketing efforts across major media such as Google Ads, Facebook and Instagram.
Products in the depot; products in transit; products reach the customer!
With your digital marketing efforts, you invited customers to visit your store and sales have commenced! To offer the smoothest process and maximize customer satisfaction, do:
- Pay attention to the intricacies of stock management, which have sensitive stages such as managing product stocks and maintaining accurate inventory records.
- Ensure that cargo is delivered to customers at affordable prices and on time; follow up on cargo operations.
Strong communication builds strong bonds
To improve your relationship with customers, enhance your customer service. Exemplary customer service includes the provision of after-sales support, and offers solutions to customers by heeding their wishes and needs. To improve your customer service skills, evaluate all the contact points that suit your brand, such as a call centre, social media or chatbot. Approach your customers with empathy, offer them personalized experience, and care about their feedback.
Five key reasons to invest in customer service
- Transforming one-time customers into loyal clients offers significant advantages: keeping customers is more economical than chasing after new ones. Use your powerful communication skills to retain customers!
- Positive experiences are spread via word of mouth but, often, negative experiences gain a wider audience. According to Zendesk, 95% of customers tell others about their bad experiences, while 87% share good experiences.
- Customers are willing to pay for better service. RightNow Customer Service, part of Oracle, the world-renowned software company, says that 86% of customers are willing to pay up to 25% more for a quality customer experience.
- Strong communication reduces problems and creates brands that customers love. While it can be difficult to avoid negative situations, your customers will feel safe when they know that you will consistently take a constructive approach to resolving their complaints.
- Customer service makes it easier for you to make a difference in a competitive market.
End-to-end ecommerce solutions provider Fi-Commerce is with you!
Don’t be intimidated by the extensive operations of ecommerce. When a specialist company undertakes the operations of every stage of ecommerce, your workload lightens. You just need to focus on your products and your strategies. At Fi-Commerce, we provide end-to-end ecommerce solutions for brands, manufacturers, and SMEs. We design and manage ecommerce websites on the world’s most preferred platforms, and organize and manage ecommerce integrated systems such as Shopify, WooCommerce and Magento according to your needs.
With a strong brand image, we determine the optimal digital marketing strategy to reach your audience and provide traffic to your ecommerce website. We offer digital marketing solutions for your brand and products such as logos, mottos, and corporate identity, as well as creation of media-specific content, search engine optimization, and social media and advertising management. We have comprehensive services aimed at making your ecommerce store and other marketplaces best in class. Our ecommerce services also include solutions such as product listings, content, and campaign management, and KPI tracking and actions.
When you send your products to our warehouses, we meticulously manage the stocking, collection, packaging and shipping processes, and we are by your side with aftersales services. We manage the customer experience and work with our expert team to respond to customer requests from different channels such as call centers, social media, email, and webchat as quickly as possible. You gain a competitive advantage via our specialized teams, knowledge and experience in the ecommerce sector.
