How to Start an e-

Commerce Business
By
Dr.Syed Asim Shah
Lecture #5
28092020
RECAP
• What is e-Commerce?
• What are different business Models?
• What are the benefits of e-commerce?
How to build an e-Commerce online store.

• setting up an actual online store would probably take less than a day,
researching,
• building,
• launching and growing a profitable e-Commerce business is a multi-
layered process involving a number of steps and decisions
Choosing and sourcing a product
• The first step is deciding what products you’re going to sell.
• Finding a profitable idea can be hard work, so be prepared to do some
serious digging and thinking.
• choose products with healthy margins
• to turn a profit and scale the business in the future.
• know what you want to sell,
• decide how and where you’re going to source the products
Methods of Sourcing Products and Inventory
• Making, manufacturing, wholesale and Dropshipping
What is Inventory?

• Inventory, also known as ‘stock’, refers to the physical goods and materials
that a business owns with a view of future resale.
• Inventory can be divided into:
• Raw materials – materials or components used in making a product
• Work-in-progress (WIP) – materials and components that are being used to
make a product
• Finished goods – goods ready for sale
• Goods for resale – returned goods that can be resold
• Inventory is one of the most important business assets because the turnover
of inventory typically represents the primary source of revenue of any
How to Form Your Inventory?
• A smartly formed inventory can not only contribute to a higher
turnover, but can also help you alleviate seasonality slumps and
capitalize on market trends.
• This is especially relevant if you’re running a drop shipping online
store, as you can add and remove products in minutes without any
upfront investment.
The essential elements to take into account
when assembling your
• Stocking niche products
• niche e-Commerce stores have quickly gained ground and become the
new e-Commerce trend.
• There is no point in fighting the big players – focus on discovering
niche products that are underserved and supply to special interest
groups to secure steady income and potential for growth
Stocking trending products
• catching a trend just before it explodes would be an ideal scenario.
Products that are trendy enjoy high search volume and can generate a
fair bit of traffic, a portion of which you can hopefully convert into
sales.
• Not to source products that are available everywhere else because
high competition will eat into your margins
Stocking products that sell all-year-round:
• There are certain products, such as sunglasses or winter hats that
yield great margins but expose you to seasonality risks.
• It’s always a good idea to base the core of your business on products
that sell all-year-round and stock season bestsellers to capture the
fleeting
Coming up Next---
• Conducting research and planning ahead
• unique value proposition
• What is a Unique Selling Proposition
• Why is a Unique Selling Proposition Important
• How to Develop a Strong Unique Selling Proposition?
• Examples of Effective USPs
Lecture #06 Wednesday 30092020
• Recap
• Any Query?
Lecture#6.
Conducting research and planning ahead

• Product idea will dictate which aspects of the market you need to
research, but some of the most important areas to look into will be
• competition,
• pricing strategy,
• unique value proposition
• Business Plan
What is a Unique Selling Proposition?
• The unique selling proposition, or unique selling point (USP), is a
marketing concept that refers to any factor or aspect of an object or
service that differentiates it from competition and highlights its
unique benefits to consumers.
• A USP answers the question “how is your product better than that of
your competitors?”.
A USP is
• An effective tool to apart a brand from your competition.
• An integral part of a company’s branding strategy that helps it to stay
memorable and form a positive impression in the consumer’s eyes.
How to Develop a Strong Unique Selling
Proposition?
• a USP is not a tagline, but a good tagline will effectively summarize
the full USP in one sentence to make it impactful and digestible
• Answer one question: “Why should a potential customer buy from
you?”
• can be just a few words (like a tagline) or a full paragraph, the word
count doesn’t matter as long as you capture and clearly articulate the
promise to your customers that makes you different
• starts with extensive market research
• The first step to establishing a strong connection with your customers
is figuring out what motivates their buying decisions and what they
care about.
• Different sales features, such as convenience, quality, friendliness,
reliability, cleanliness, customer service, etc., that can influence your
customers’ decisions and entice them to come back.
• Without that knowledge, understanding what matters to your target
audience and focusing on it in your marketing materials will be
impossible.
Continued
• USPs are often grouped into the following categories:
• price,
• quality,
• service,
• speed,
• selection,
• convenience, guarantee, customization, originality, and specialization.
• Pick one that will be at the core of your promise and work from there
To crystallize and communicate your unique
strengths, ask following
• What problem does my product/service solve?
• What do I offer that my competitors don’t?
• How easy is it for my competitors to copy that?
• Can this strength be communicated easily?
Examples of Effective USPs
• Class Assignment
• Time 5 minutes
• Reply on MS chat box
Getting your brand right
• start thinking about the key elements of your store,
• such as your brand name,
• domain name,
• brand guidelines, and your logo.
• Getting your brand right from the start can help accelerate the
growth and conquer the hearts of potential customers.
• Before turning your attention to building the store, you should spend
some time studying the basics of SEO, so that your business gets off
to a good start.
Home Assingnment
• What is a Brand Strategy?
• What are the different phases of Brand Strategy?
• What are different Branding Theories?
Coming up Next
• SEO
• Image Search
• Online Store
• Designing Logo
• Developing Facebook Ads
• How to sell online?
• Pre-Launching Strategy
• Post Launching Strategy
Lecture#7 05102020 Monday
What is SEO ?
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the
rankings of a website or a web page in non-paid, also known as
“organic”, search engine results.
• SEO combines creative and technical aspects that influence search
engine rankings and can be broken down into three main areas:
• on-the-page SEO, off-the-page SEO, and violations
Continued
• You won’t be able to improve your search engine rankings by focusing
on and optimizing only one area of SEO, as they are interconnected
and affect one another.
• As a marketing strategy, SEO focuses on optimizing all elements that
influence search engine results, including keyword research, content,
HTML, site architecture, link building, and so on.
• It’s also important to note that SEO can target different kinds of
search:
• image search, video search, local search, news search, academic
search and vertical search that focuses on a specific industry.
What is an Image Search?
• sorting through and finding a great selection of images you can use in
your online store.
• to search images on Google, you’ll be able to find images labelled for
reuse that you can use to for your logo, website banner, blog post, or
even your Facebook ad
How to create Logo and Facebook Ads
• https://youtu.be/bRLzmfQqNA0?t=16
• https://youtu.be/WbdvVSpryH8
Deciding how you will sell
• Online shop can be achieved in two
• You can build an eCommerce store from scratch
• either developing it yourself or hiring a freelancer/agency to do it for
you.
• It can take longer and cost more, but building a custom online store
will guarantee 100% customization and give you the power to make
all the decisions.
• You can use an off-the-shelf eCommerce platform like Shopify, which
makes building an online store a quick and easy process.
• means less customization, as you will need to choose from an existing
pool of themes and tools provided by the platform.
• If you opt to run a dropshipping business, eCommerce solutions like
Oberlo will allow you to get the store off the ground and start selling
in as little as few hours.
Pre launching
• defining your key performance indicators upfront will help you track
your progress and performance and fix any issues as they emerge.
• include setting up your social media profiles, getting your
email marketing ready, installing Google Analytics, doing keyword
research, defining your shipping strategy and finalizing the launch
promotion plan.
• try running your store through the Shopify store grader to catch
errors if there are any
Post Launching
• immediately move on to the promotion phase.
• Marketing your store and optimizing conversions will be your daily
bread and butter from now on.
• experiment with regularly expanding or refreshing your inventory.
• A particularly easy thing to do for dropshippers, as they can
import new dropshipping products in minutes,
• Make it a priority even if you’re manufacturing or making the
products yourself.