A Guide to Selling Products Online: What you Need to Know

There are many Australians who have taken the plunge and set up a shopping cart website; if you are worried about the uncertainty of working for yourself, you can start the website as a side hustle and keep your job until you are sure you can survive on your e-store revenue alone. One of the reasons why people like e-commerce is it costs very little to set up; web design and hosting, some professional images and sales copy and you are good to go. You do not need to buy any products until you make a sale, which is how most small e-stores operate, but sooner or later, you will buy products wholesale and store them securely.

A Guide to Selling Products Online: What you Need to Know
[image: pexels by karolina grabowska]

Web Design, Build & Hosting

Your shopping cart website needs to be professional, visually appealing and easy to navigate; you can find a single provider to design, build and host your e-commerce platform. If you are planning to move into a niche market such as Christian jewellery in Australia, for example, your design should be appropriate and visually appealing in a simplistic way. The provider would have several hosting packages and you should have enough bandwidth to facilitate fast page loading, which is essential for a shopping cart website.

Digital Marketing

If you want to generate a strong online profile, you will need to hook up with a best digital marketing agency; they would carry out a digital audit to determine your current online profile and this helps them to compile an aggressive digital marketing plan that includes social media and search engine optimisation. Click here for a few secrets about TikTok.

Order Fulfilment

This is a major part of the sales process; as soon as the customer clicks on ‘proceed to checkout’, the clock is ticking; if you have half a dozen customers a day, picking, packing and delivery are not an issue, but when you are getting 30-50 orders a day, you need to outsource your logistics to a 3PL company. 

How does that work?

You deliver your products and packing to the 3PL warehouse and when orders come in, you forward them by email to your logistics partner, who handles everything. This is the smart way to deal with order fulfilment and probably the cheapest too. Why bother with picking and packing when you can outsource to a professional carrier who has the resources to guarantee same-day delivery.

Organising your supply chain

If you are selling a high volume of products, you need to have some warehouse space, unless you are using a 3PL company and making sure you always have a supply can be challenging. It is critical to nurture good relationships with suppliers/manufacturers and when Xmas and New Year approaches, you should put in bulk orders for popular products.

Setting up a winning e-commerce business is like cooking a meal; all the right ingredients must be added and with a lot of hard work and a little good luck, your e-store will enjoy steady growth.