Even as giants such as Amazon, Alibaba, and eBay threaten to force smaller players off the internet, there has never been a better time to start your own ecommerce business on a small budget.
Despite many naysayers claiming that the internet today is virtually an oligopoly, it’s worth realizing that the web is much bigger than any of those monolithic companies. Smaller ecommerce businesses are finding varying degrees of success every day, despite those big companies dominating the conversation. The fact is, there is always room for more players, especially if they deliver something people want.
Today, there are several free tools to help you create and develop your own ecommerce site as well as services that specifically cater to the needs of startups. While most of them are quite helpful in helping bolster the capabilities of a lean operation, certain areas have been proven to be especially useful for smaller businesses.
The suggestions below are tried-and-tested methods for leveling the online playing field. Be sure to look into them if you are considering starting a small ecommerce business.
1.) Invest in SEO and content marketing
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of doing a set of recommended actions that will help put your business at the top of online searches. Content marketing is using online content (including articles, social media posts, videos, and others) to stimulate interest, usually without explicitly pushing a brand.
It doesn’t cost anything at all to get started on either of the two marketing practices. They’re also especially effective when done together. Doing a “good enough” job at following recommended SEO and content marketing practices is usually all you need to do to get ahead of many competitors. Of course, you can get better results by hiring agencies or qualified contractors to do your SEO and content marketing for you.
2.) Hire professional designers to help your branding and site design
As the classic New Yorker cartoon goes, “on the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog”. By the same token, nobody really has an idea how big your ecommerce operation is. With a well-designed site and professionally-executed branding, even a small ecommerce business can look like an equal of the big players.
Because there is so much that goes into branding and professional site design, you may want to take the services of creative agencies. If money is tight there are also plenty of freelance designers and developers that can help your business get “the look” it needs for less.
3.) Use a third-party fulfillment service to efficiently deliver orders
Fast and effective fulfillment is necessary for any ecommerce business to reach acceptable levels of customer satisfaction. Given that larger businesses can offer next-day or same-hour delivery, it’s virtually impossible to match this outside of your own street without pairing up with a third-party fulfillment provider. These services can easily make your ecommerce operation a match for the likes of Amazon. At least when it comes to delivery times.
4.) Automate processes whenever possible
Automation tools help you do more work with a smaller team. Apps such as Hootsuite, for instance, take much of the tediousness away from regular social media promotions by allowing you to post across multiple platforms at specified times. Others, such as Grammarly and Hemingway Editor can save you several hours each week making sure your site content has acceptable grammar and flow. You can also find automation solutions for finding qualified sales leads, such as Leadformly. There are even tools that make it easy to automate design work, such as Canva.
Another area you can look into is accounting and enterprise resource planning software. These software suites can automate payroll, invoices, taxes, and even inventory and supply replenishment processes, potentially saving you hundreds of hours each month.
5.) Focus on delivering an awesome customer experience
Delivering great service costs very little and can be a major factor that gets you a loyal customer base.
One thing that larger businesses struggle with is delivering a warm and personalized customer experience. Wide selections and fast deliveries are one thing — but being able to connect with a customer and turn them into lifelong brand advocates is something smaller businesses can do better than bigger ones.
One big reason for this is that smaller businesses have flatter hierarchies. This means that if the customer has a concern, they can immediately reach someone who has the power to make things better. This is very different from the usual experience of talking to a customer service agent who seems like they only exist to separate customers from those in charge.
This all means that a small business is usually in a better position than a big one to quickly rectify mistakes and delight customers with above-and-beyond service. Small businesses also tend to be more relatable and some customers find it easy to form an emotional bond with it — even if they only interact with it online.
The suggestions above aren’t just for small ecommerce businesses. Organizations of all kinds and sizes have benefitted from implementing these low-cost strategies. If you’re in making a presence the ecommerce world, it should be worth your time to look into these ideas.
