How to start an e-commerce business in 2023: The Ultimate step by step guide

According to studies, India’s e-commerce industry is expected to be worth more than 350 billion USD by 2030. With the current situation in place, it is growing at an even faster pace. So here we have discussed everything that is required to take your business online and to keep up with the current era of business.

First of all, you have to decide what kind of products or services you want to sell. After deciding that there are mainly two ways to sell them. You can have your own website with your products listed on them or you can sell on other existing markets places like Flipkart, Amazon, eBay, etc.

Selling on your own website is better if you already have a customer base who wants to buy from you. You can redirect the customers to your website and they can buy from there. If you don’t already have a customer base you can sell on big market places like Flipkart or Amazon to their huge customer bases which they already have.

How to start a successful e-commerce business

Selling products and services on your own website

If you choose to sell through your own website, you need to register a domain name first. Then you need to build a website to which you will point your domain name. There are two ways to build an e-commerce website. The first is to use SAS (software as a service) software. This software already has the required features built inside of them for an e-commerce store.

You need to choose a theme and template to make your store look the way you want and then list your products. they also give a backend to process your orders. Normally these services charge a subscription-based fee for building your store with them. Different companies have different rates. Shopify, Zeppo, Kartrocket, and Instamojo are few such companies that provide these services.

The benefits of SAS software are that you don’t need to have a high level of technical knowledge, they are ready to use and it requires very less time to set up a new store and run it, and they also provide customer support services which can be helpful in case of having any problems with the shop. But the negative point is that you cannot completely customize your store according to your will.

You can also build your own e-commerce website with open-source software. With this software’s you can have lots of customization options and build your website according to your own requirements. For this, you need to know about developing a website or you can hire a developer for the job. Magento, WooCommerce, etc are a few such open-source software.

Selling on already existing online e-commerce marketplaces

To sell on online market places you need to create a merchant account. Then you need to list your products with the best pictures and product descriptions. They already have huge customer bases who are actively looking for things to buy so you can start your business without doing much marketing. The choice of the marketplace is to be made according to the type of products that you are selling. Fashion apparels sell well on platforms like Myntra, Jabong, etc, electronic items like mobile phone, laptops, etc. do well on Flipkart and Amazon.

Apart from this, you should also look for a marketplace that has good customer service, goodwill, good transaction methods, and a good customer base for your products. These marketplaces have different fee structures most of which are some percentage of the price of items you are selling.

Collecting payment in both mode online & offline

In India currently, most people prefer to have cash on delivery while shopping online, meaning people like to pay the price of an item in cash once they receive the item. There are many courier services which provide the service of collecting payment from customers after delivery. Bluedart, Delhivery, FedX are few such examples of courier companies.

Also Read: RBI bans QR Codes of Paytm, PhonePe & other third party Payment Services

They take a small fee for collecting cash from customers and sending it to you. You can also have online payment options on your e-commerce website where customers will be able to pay through credit or debit card or net banking or UPI.

For this, you need to integrate a payment gateway with your website. Citrus pay, Paytm, Razorpay are some payment gateways operating in India. These companies usually provide great support services. Keep in mind if you use big marketplaces instead of your own e-commerce website, they do all these things for you.

Shipping

If you want to ship the products that are bought from your e-commerce website by yourself, you can partner with courier services like Bluedart, Delhivery, FedX, etc who will ship your products and will also collect payment on your behalf when required. If you are using a big e-commerce marketplace, they usually have their own shipping services and they will do the shipping for you for some charges.

Marketing your Products

Now you have learned all the important steps for How to start an e-commerce business, after setup all things your business is ready to serve the products and services. But how you will target the audience so that they generate interest in buying your products, Marketing your products are the best way to start a successful e-commerce business.

They are many ways of marketing your products like google ads, social media marketing, and TV and radio advertisement. Nowadays Digital Marketing is a great tool for marketing because in this marketing you don’t require money, all you need is skills.

Also Read: The Ultimate Guide to Dropshipping: Start Dropshipping Business in 6 Easy Steps