How to start a E-commerce business?

Before starting your own e-commerce business in USA, you must take preliminary decisions.

E-commerce

Commerce is the purchase and sale of products. E-commerce is thus the act of purchasing and reselling products and services online. Online auctions, online ticket sales, internet banking, and other services are all included in e-commerce (basically all services that require online payment)

Several significant E-Commerce figures:

Important e-commerce surveys and research include the following:

• It is anticipated that 95% of all purchases will be made online by 2040.
• China is the world’s fastest-growing market, with an anticipated 671 billion dollars in sales in 2017.
• About 51% of online shoppers use their smartphones to make purchases.
• The e-commerce sector experienced significant growth in the 2010s, rising from 7.2% of retail U.S. sales worth $165.4 billion to 16% worth $517.4 billion. Additionally, email sales increased by 504% globally.\
• In 2020, the United States’ e-commerce revenue totaled 431.6 billion dollars. According to the Statista Digital Market Outlook, revenue will reach 563.4 billion dollars by 2025

The intense competition amongst e-commerce businesses is not surprising given how established and solvable the American market is. Despite the dominance of large platforms with a wide range of business models like Amazon and eBay, conventional brick-and-mortar distributors are nevertheless able to capture a portion of the market.

Amazon:

The US-based, multi-billion dollar firm Amazon offers a wide range of services, including cloud computing, artificial intelligence, digital streaming, and e-commerce. Amazon is a website where you can buy anything, including clothes, car seats, and a few screws.

Investment Potential in Amazon:

• Amazon, an e-commerce giant, also operates on the cloud through its AWS service (Amazon Web Services). The business dominates the cloud computing sector. The fastest-growing and most lucrative area of Amazon’s business is AWS. In the year’s first quarter, it revealed operating profits of $4.1 billion.
• Over 46% of the total operating income was in 2021.
• Despite having a market valuation of approximately $2 trillion and $100 billion or more in quarterly revenues, Amazon is a growing firm. While many growth companies are losing money, Amazon is a business that may continue to be successful.
• In addition to home marketplaces, Amazon also enables consumers to purchase goods abroad. Similar to how internet browsing and googling are used interchangeably, Amazon and e-commerce are synonymous for many people throughout the world.
• The NTM (next twelve months) PE multiple for AMZN shares is 60.7x. Over the past year, three years, and five years, the multiple has averaged 84x, 80x, and 104x, respectively.

Drop shipping

Drop shipping is a method for order fulfilment that enables e-commerce companies to contract with a third party, usually a supplier, to obtain, store, and ship their products.

Drop shipping can be expensive, yet it is frequently attractive to business owners looking for efficiency and cheap expense. Drop shipping is a business concept where you providing a storefront and product promotion online. You send the order to the drop shipper when a consumer placed an order and let them know the things will arrive soon. You have no control over the remaining steps in the physical fulfilment procedure.

What is the process of drop shipping?

Your arrangement will determine the specific logistics, but generally speaking, the drop shipping process goes as follows:

1. The seller and the dropshipper sign a contract.
2. Online customer orders.
3. The buyer places an order.
4. An order confirmation is sent to the customer.
5. The vendor transmits the order to the dropshipper.
6. Order is shipped by the dropshipper.
7. The product is delivered to the customer.

These are some advantages of drop shipping:

• Overhead expenses: Drop shipping has the ability to reduce overhead expenses by eliminating the need to maintain a storage facility or send products to customers.
• Low startup costs: Drop shipping allows business owners to launch their ventures with little financial outlay because they don’t need to purchase equipment or other resources to fulfil orders.
• Multi-channel selling: With drop shipping, you may run a business that sells through your own website, an online retailer like Amazon, social media platforms, or any combination of the three.
• Working from anywhere is now a possibility thanks to drop shipping, which enables you to fulfil orders from any place.
• Scalability: By utilizing suppliers, it may be possible to accept more orders without having to increase the amount of goods you keep on hand, package, or send out.

Possible drawbacks to drop shipping include:

• Competition: Drop shipping is a very cutthroat industry given the low startup costs and required capital.
• Product quality: Because drop shipping lessens your involvement in the order fulfilment process, you have less control over and assurance of the product’s quality.
• Branding: You can find it difficult to set your product apart from identical goods made by other merchants because the products you sell might not be particularly distinctive or noticeable from theirs.
• Profit margins: With little to no product differentiators, your company may find itself engaging in more aggressive price competition. Low price points can reduce your profit margin.
• Order selection, packaging, and shipping are not under your control when a drop shipping service handles the fulfilment process.
• Inventory management: It might not be possible to provide real-time updates on what is in stock. Customers may be discouraged from placing more orders and your brand may suffer if they place an order only to discover that the product is out of stock.
• Variety of offers: Because you don’t handle order fulfilment, your ability to run promotions and special offers like bundling or free delivery may be constrained.

Fulfillment Center

Drop shipping is frequently regarded as the simplest method of online product sales. The selling merchant doesn’t stock his own inventory in drop shipping, which is the major distinction between it and the traditional retail business. Instead, to fulfil orders, the merchant buys goods as needed from a third party, typically drop shipping wholesalers or manufacture.

In Fulfillment center / warehouse system following services included but not limited to that:

• Keep warehouse up to date.
• Keep hunting and importing new products.
• Contracts with different retailers (Drop Shippers)
• Keep an eye on orders on client’s seller central.
• Provide Pick, pack and label pasting service.
• Ship the order to the customer.
• Maintain return and refunds from customers.

Things need to start Fulfillment Center/Ware housing:

• Business Registration
• Acquire a warehouse
• Start Importing Inventory
• Hire a staff for warehouse
• Online Web Store
• CRM to maintain client’s Record.

Estimated Budget:

Make a Business Plan

Once you’ve made all the executive decisions, another essential step is to make a detailed business plan. There are number of topics you must cover in the business plan which are as follows:

• Executive summary
• Business model
• Business objectives
• Mission statement
• Vision statement
• Core values
• Company summary
• Location and property details
• Services description
• Market analysis: SWOT, PESTEL Analysis
• Marketing strategy: 4 P’S
• Business Structure
• Operations plan: personnel requirements
• Financial plan
• Feasibility report and projections
• Exist strategy

Launch your company

Once your documents and business plan are set, you are ready to launch your company. There are multiple steps as per the nature of your business that you can take.

Infrastructure

If you are opening a retail or physical business, you must get your inventory in order and set up the company infrastructure. Before the launch, the office must be set up, the supplies must be in stocks.

• Form contracts with vendors
• Form contracts with suppliers
• Form contracts with the third-party sellers
• Set up the logistics department
• Hire the team as per the company structure decided in the business plan
• Get your CRM set-up

Launch event

Having a ribbon cutting ceremony and launch event can be crucial for a new business. It is a way to announce to the community of your arrival. Launch events can play an important factor in market placement. The event can be small or big depending on the nature of your business. While it is not an essential step, it plays a vital role in branding of the company.

Branding

The key to a successful company launch is establishing a promotional mix to reach the right set of audience and create a niche in the market. With proper advertisement we will tell our customers what sets us apart from the competitors. There are several channels through we can market our services. The first step is to create a logo and set a theme for our branding.  The logo will be used at all platforms so that maximum people in the area knows about your business.

Social Media Platforms

Digital transformation and marketing became the key components of successful operations. Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest   accounts can be created   where targeted market campaigns will be launched to reach the audience.  Have an online presence with constant updates is essential as social media platforms has greater reach in today’s globalized world. The social media accounts will have creative graphics, catchy slogans and eye-catching posts  and animations  that  reaches  are  target  audience.  We have a digital marketing team that will keep the audience engage the audience and devise marketing plans for the target audience. Different contests, give aways and engagement posts will be created to maximize engagement on the social media platforms.

• Facebook – Facebook makes it easy to set up a business page and have users follow us. From our business   page, we can post   operating hours and services offered. Customers can also provide a review on our Facebook business   page, and better reviews help more potential customers find our pag
• Twitter – Twitter also allows us to create a business page. Having a Twitter business page will enable us to create paid advertisements to reach more potential customers.
• LinkedIn – LinkedIn is a professional platform and a free way to post job openings. It is also a great way to create awareness for our cleaning company’s bran
• Instagram – Recently, Instagram has become the primary platform for social influencers who have a large following and usually get paid to promote businesses and products. Influencers can collaborate with you on how to promote our cleaning business.

Email Marketing

Email marketing today is very saturated, but there is a good reason for it. Email is a quick and inexpensive way to reach our audience.  As mentioned earlier, developing a conversion website to collect contact information like email addresses is one  of the  best  ways to grow our network.  To expand our email reach beyond those who have visited  our website,  we can purchase  email lists. Companies like Mail Chimp, ZoomInfo, Exact Data, and Sleeknote  provide lists that we can buy based on the demographic information you provide, improving how you market your cleaning business.

Network

Having an effective online and advertising strategy is important, but it is also important to meet up with potential customers in person.  Establishing a personal connection with prospective clients may lead to new customers and customer  referrals. Join our local chamber of commerce to meet other professionals in your town  or city. They may become potential clients or simply grow your list of connections.  Getting involved in community events  is another excellent way to meet customers and build our network and how to market a cleaning business

Billboard

This strategy for marketing our cleaning business  will help you get seen on the road and by people  who may not have seen you any other way.

Purchase door hangers and flyer local neighborhoods.

As we are not allowed to put your business flyers in private mailboxes, but we can put them on doors.  Door hangers are less likely to fly away and are an easy way to share your cleaning business’s information.

Place Your Business Card at Local Businesses.

Many local eateries, gas stations, and other small shops will allow you to set your business  cards out for free. Network with local business owners and ask if we can take advantage of some free promotion.

Website

Many websites offer free blogging plugins that you can add to our website. Creating informative blogs that are relevant to your cleaning business will improve your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and drive more traffic to your site.