Ecommerce is now more popular than ever. It was already on an upward trajectory before recent events, but they have helped solidify the transition from physical retail to digital. The beauty of e-commerce is the lower barrier of entry. People can literally start their own e-commerce website from their living room for a few dollars and turn it into a multi-million business. While they are not the norm, they still exist, and thousands of people make a living with their e-commerce websites. Let’s take a look at how to start an e-commerce business in 2021.
Choose Your Model
There are many ways that you can enter the space. You could decide to own a storefront and have items shipped directly from your supplier’s warehouse with your name on it. This is what’s referred to as dropshipping. Alternatively, you could buy inventory and ship it yourself. Others decide to buy inventory and let a fulfillment company handle things for them. This is the best option if you want to be able to source your product, have possession of them, and have more control over the shipment process than through dropshipping. On the other hand, you won’t have to handle any of the inventory yourself, so that gives you the best of both worlds. Not only that, but you won’t have the same issues with returns as some drop shippers who deal with overseas suppliers. Besides, some people will trust company thEat ships from the US more and will appreciate the shorter delivery times.
Choose a Platform
Next, you need to choose a platform for your website. Shopify and sites like Wix are obvious options, but you have to be careful with these. Since they will be hosting your website, you will be at their mercy. They can decide to change rates whenever they want, or they could go belly up at any time.
Not only that, but services like Wix will not allow you to move the site to your servers. This means that if you want to add a feature that they don’t support or scale up, you might run into some issues. So, if you’re in it for the long run, we suggest you look at other options such as Magento or WooCommerce which can be used with WordPress. This will give you more independence and flexibility.
Find the Right Suppliers
Next, you have to find suppliers. There are many ways that you can go about this. You could have agents on the ground sourcing products. This is much safer than dealing with someone you know nothing about on Alibaba or DHGate.
An even safer option would be to join a wholesale and dropshipping club that has a strong reputation. One option is Oberlo. They have one of the widest selections of products available and a list of verified sellers that you can choose from. They can also help facilitate things like returns for you and have great resources for sellers.
Once you have all of these components in place, you’ll officially have your own eCommerce store. The next step is finding clients and making sure that you make a solid reputation for yourself.
see: What is E-Commerce? The Major Different Types of E-Commerce
