Long term plan for online selling
Online selling requires a lot of preparation before you set out for it contrary to popular belief that it’s as simple as it looks to the buyer, despite its benefits over selling from a store.
The greatest of online selling happens only when you plan and put some efforts in it. A good planning can result in an exceptional result!
As Technology is rapidly changing the business world, e-commerce offers countless opportunities for entrepreneurs with fast, simple and inexpensive ways to form an online selling business. However, a well thought out business plan is still an important factor to have a successful and profitable company.
If you’re new to eCommerce, you’ll be choosing between two basic types of online stores:
1. Hosted
A store software is run on a server provided and maintained by the same company, where you pay on monthly/yearly or per sale basis
2. Self-hosted
You pay for the server, download, install and maintain the eCommerce software all by yourself.
Here are the important aspects of a hosted long term plan for online selling:
Unique Products
To decide what you have to sell might not sound like a difficult question but is, in fact, the most important one. In long term planning, you just don’t include what you have to sell now, but what you will be selling in the future. You need a supplier or if you yourself are a manufacturer you have to keep in mind the demands and needs of the consumer. The products can be simple, everyday items, but they have to be unique in its own way, e.g. When we search for a coffee mug the search will show ample amount of mugs listed by different sellers with competitive pricing. If your product stands out it will be an advantage, standing out specifically means in designing, color print, something that attracts the eyes.
Keywords are the Key!
Keywords are like magic wands; they can completely transform your business! And you must be wondering what powers they contain? Well, they contain the power to generate traffic, i.e. a large number of businesses, if there is no traffic there is no business hence no long term plans. For example, for searching mugs, the most common keywords would be mugs, coffee mugs, cool mugs, unique mugs, mugs and saucers and so on.
Related: How to set keywords for your online store?
Market Analysis
You should be a pro in industry, you should know your market, your target consumer, and also you should know the trend that is followed by the buyers. The graph might vary depending on the time of the years e.g. if you re-string to sell your coffee mug, probably will be sold the most in winters, also the target audience will be adults.
Financial Plan
Before making any commitment you need to have the required funds to do it, be it the inventory cost, the delivery cost or the costs you have to bear if you are being hosted. Budget planning, funding requirement, profit and loss statement make the important factors of a financial plan that you should be creating for long term planning. This is not tough math if you are starting small, but with the progress and long-term goals, it becomes an important aspect.
Long-term planning benefits online selling businesses by allowing them to be proactive in its growth. Rather than by simply reacting to market conditions, it allows you to budget over a longer period for new initiatives. Hence making it an important aspect. So dust off and create your own, ideal online selling plan for your business.
