The eCommerce Novice

The International Co-operative Alliance (Co-op) has just completed a two-decade study of ethical consumerism within the United Kingdom. What they found was that back in 1999, when the study began, the ethical consumer market was just £11.2 billion. Twenty years later it has grown to a whopping £41.1 billion. This is showing an increase of almost four times. Whilst during the same period the household expenditure in the United Kingdom has grown by just over 2%. This shows that consumer behaviour is changing, and people are becoming more conscious about what they are purchasing.

E-commerce is also growing each year extensively with more consumers choosing to shop online rather than in-store. Australia Post reported that Australians spent a massive A$27.5 billion on online shopping in 2019, and the number of online purchases increased 24.4% year-on-year. It is only growing faster in 2020 due to the COVID-19 outbreak, as fear of infection changes consumer behaviour and how shoppers want to receive their goods. This was proven in Australia over the Easter Long Weekend of 2020 making it their busiest period in Australian online shopping history as it overtook their 2019 Black Friday/Cyber Monday shopping event which had already increased by 31.6% year-on-year. This all happened whilst unemployment was growing at its highest in decades, and fears of a recession were apparent.

It is not just in Australia the e-commerce market is seeing such growth. Consumers worldwide spent almost US$3.46 trillion online in 2019 up from US$2.93 trillion in 2018. With this steady growth in mind, now is as good a time as ever to move your store into the online realm and take advantage of the eCommerce market, but where do you start?

With so many options these days, it can be hard to know which path to take. If you have capital behind you, I will always recommend leaving it up to the professionals. Hire someone experienced, who can build your website from scratch and whom you pay to manage your expectations; however, if you are a small business and that isn’t on the cards for you, there are an array of tools at your disposal. The first thing to consider is how tech-savvy you are. Even if you think you have a fair idea, it might be worth hiring someone in the initial stages to build your site and social media pages to a point where you can manage them on your own. Even if you are going to do this, you should acquire enough knowledge about the options available to you, so you go with a choice that will be best for you to manage on your own. Some of these include but are not limited to WordPress, Wix, Shopify and Squarespace. These tools allow you to quickly build and manage your site using applications integrated with their software.

The best way to start is to write a list of the software you want to use and then figure out which ones work with the options available to you. These days there is an application for almost anything you can think of, so start by writing a list of what your brand needs for example payment gateways (e.g. PayPal, Stripe etc.), membership, email marketing, online marketing, the ability to sell through social media etc. Then find the best application for that need by researching and looking at reviews. Other users opinions are most helpful, especially if you are a rookie. Once you have compiled this information, you need to research which website provider the application works with best. You may need to compromise in some cases, so go with whichever one has the most options on your list.

Give yourself time to familiarise yourself with the tools. Don’t expect to build the website in 24 hours. It is super easy to do, but there are always problems, so make sure you test out everything, from the emails your customers will be receiving to the connection of your social media sites when they click the icons. The smallest mistake could mean you lose your shoppers trust, so you want to make sure it’s professional. Most importantly, you want to make sure that the process is easy for the customer; if not, you will lose sales. Test everything.

One of the most important things to consider when moving from a brick and mortar store online is to make sure you invest a great deal of your capital into marketing. Marketing somewhere along the way got a bad reputation, but the truth is marketing is the only way people know about your business in the online realm. The more money you spend on marketing, the more money your business will make. If you are unfamiliar with up to date marketing strategies like SEO and link building, then I would consider hiring a marketing company to assist you. You may even want to consider looking at hiring a PR company as well, but again do your research, see their results, and only hire companies who understand your brand’s niche.

This may feel daunting, but after a little bit of research, you will start to feel like an expert. Just remember, education is vital. Keep yourself up to date on eCommerce strategies, and you cannot go wrong.