Online selling is a booming business, offering people worldwide access to markets they never thought possible and a source of income that can be both flexible and lucrative. At its best, it’s become an essential part of our global economy; however, operating in this space means navigating an ever-changing environment with its challenges.
We spoke with more than 90 online sellers across the globe (from just starting to those doing over $1 million in sales per year) to find out what keeps them up at night. Although there were many shared concerns, we found a few primary pain points for merchants.
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The Boom of Online Marketplace and Their Challenges
When you sell on an online marketplace, you don’t have to worry about the physical space where your customers are going to buy. The online marketplaces are made for a particular part of the world, and they will ship globally. As a seller on an online marketplace, you only need to provide product information and pricing details.
Most of the time, these platforms come with their payment processing solutions so that you don’t have to worry about it either. But you need to ensure the following things to be a successful online seller.
Order Fulfilment
As an online seller, you want to be able to fulfill orders quickly, accurately, cost-effectively, and in a way that is convenient for your customers. Fortunately, there are many ways to ensure the best order fulfillment arrangements.
Dropshipping—sellers do not keep merchandise on hand; they ship it directly from the manufacturer or distributor after receiving an order. This means no inventory costs at all! But there are disadvantages; drop shipping requires more time since you don’t have physical possession of products until they sell.
Physical fulfillment (picking and packing)—you have items stored at one or more warehouses where you can pick them up and process them into shipments for individual customers. This option offers scalability and requires significant storage space and labor costs (i.e., employees who will pack items).
Business Inventory
When running a business, it’s essential to have an effective system for managing your inventory. Inventory management is about ensuring that you have enough of the right items on hand so that customers can buy them when they want them. To do this, you need to know how many items are in stock and your vendors’ current delivery times. If you’re not already using inventory management software or system, consider consulting with a professional who can help set up an appropriate solution for your business.
Understanding Your Customer Base
One of the most important things you can do as an online seller is to understand your customer base. Understanding your customers will help you predict demand, know what they want and need, and how best to serve them. One way that brick-and-mortar stores have always been able to compete with online sellers is by knowing their customers, which allows them to anticipate sales trends and order accordingly.
They also know where their customers are located, so if there’s a sudden spike in demand for something in a particular region or city, they can make sure there are enough items on hand at any given time. This gives brick-and-mortar stores an advantage over online sellers who don’t know where their customers are located (or how many of them there are).
Choosing a Right Storefront
Choose a storefront that is easy to use. Your customers will be purchasing items online, so the checkout process must be simple. You want to minimize any barriers to entry, so they can quickly reach their goal of buying things at your website. The checkout flow should be as simple as possible while collecting all necessary information for an effective sale transaction.
Choose a storefront with a good reputation in the industry. It’s important to research different e-commerce platforms before deciding which one is right for you and your business goals in 2019 and beyond!
Make sure it has good reviews from other users who have used the platform successfully (and not just random people who may or may not know what they’re talking about) or ask around through social media groups related to selling products online so others can give advice based on experiences using these types of tools themselves!
Choose a storefront with good return policy options available within their system so both parties won’t get stuck paying extra fees when trying because something goes wrong during the delivery process, such as being damaged by the shipping company. This way, a customer doesn’t have a horrible experience with shopping online, thus never coming back again.”
Keeping Up With Competitors
You can’t get ahead of your competitors if you’re not keeping an eye on them. After all, they are also trying to keep up with you! To stay on top of things, you need to know what your competitors are doing right and wrong—and then use this information to improve yourself.
Make sure that what you’re offering is better than what competitors are offering; if it isn’t, why would someone want yours? If no one does care about it, try something else! This could mean lowering price/costs or improving speed/ease of use—whatever works best for YOUR business model!
Understanding E-commerce Taxes and Regulations
As a seller, it’s essential to know your business tax obligations to avoid costly mistakes. You should be able to identify the different taxes that may apply and ensure you’re paying the proper amount at the right time.
In addition, your customers must understand their tax obligations as well. If they don’t realize how much they owe on an item or service purchased from you, there could be some confusion when they file their taxes with their state or federal governments.
Writing Quality Product Descriptions
The product description is the most important piece of copy on your website. It’s the first thing that people see when they find your products, and it needs to convince them to buy. Good product descriptions do not just describe what the product looks like, but they also explain how it works, what its benefits are, why customers should buy it, and where else they can use it.
The best way to write good quality product descriptions is by taking a step back from your business for a moment and looking at things from a customer’s perspective. Why does this particular item appeal so much to you? How does it fit into their lifestyle or solve problems for them? What makes this item different from others in its business category? Most importantly, what do YOU want the customer reading this information to feel about buying from you versus someone else who sells similar products?
Conclusion
Without a doubt, the e-commerce industry has grown tremendously in recent years. That’s good news for those who want to start their own online business, but it also means that there are many challenges that you will face as an online seller. But with brainstorming and online resources, you will be able to overcome them while finding success.