Considering starting an online retail business?

These days we all know that you don’t need a physical shop to start selling a product. Almost every day you come across a story about someone who setup an online store selling XYZ and being hugely successful in their ventures. At Kiwi Self Storage we have numerous customers who are developing successful businesses from the ground up.

If you’re considering giving it a go here are 6 tips you’ll want to keep in mind while getting setup:

1. Focus your efforts
When starting out launch with one product, or a very small range. Simple is good.

2. Find your niche
Following on from above, you want to be able to refine your offering to target a niche market. You’re literally competing against the World, so finding a ‘gap’ in the market will help your online efforts. You will have an easier time with SEO, and be more focused with any targeted advertising you may setup.

3. Do your research
This is a very broad statement, but you want to make sure you’ve done your research when it comes to key areas of your business including things like website hosts/designers, product suppliers, and operational suppliers (e.g. storage facilities, accounting system, inventory management, payment processing, couriers), and very importantly the legalities of your product in your region.

4. Getting Noticed
Having a live site running is not in itself going to bring in the sales. You will want to take time to think about your marketing. You’ll often be working with a limited budget, if not NO budget. In these scenarios optimizing your site so that search engines up your rankings should be a priority. The bulk of visitors to your site will be coming from a search result. Come up with a plan to create regular relevant content to promote on your site and be sure to share it on your social media channels. This lets search engines like Google know that your site is legitimate.

5. Prepare for growth
Once you’ve launched your ecommerce website and started some marketing, things can begin to move quickly. You want to ensure your operational systems are agile enough to keep up with your growth. A simple example you may not even think about is your product storage. Considering the use of a self-storage facility to store your stock is a wise move. Secure storage facilities like Kiwi Self Storage give you the flexibility to grow into more space as you need it. There’s no point paying for empty space and storing your stock in a monitored storage facility will also usually end up saving you some money on your insurance premiums compared to cluttering up your garage or spare room.

6. Be wary of fraud
Start-up businesses are not immune to fraud. Often criminals will see you as less sophisticated than larger retails, making you easier targets in their minds. If a sale looks suspicious, do some investigating before completing the order.

Opportunities are truly endless online, so find your passion and start selling! If you are considering the use of a storage facility for your retail business in Auckland or Wellington, give our friendly Kiwi Self Storage managers a call today on 0800 58 57 56, for a no obligations chat about how we can help.

And finally, if you need some inspiration to keep you efforts going, here are a few online retail success stories from around the web:

5 Unbelievable Ecommerce Success Stories That Will Blow Your Mind
https://www.business2community.com/ecommerce/5-unbelieveable-ecommerce-success-stories-will-blow-mind-01893594

E-Commerce Examples | 5 Inspirational Case Studies for You
https://www.websitebuilderexpert.com/e-commerce-examples-case-studies/

12 eCommerce Entrepreneurs That Will Inspire You
https://pixc.com/blog/ecommerce-entrepreneurs-that-will-inspire-you/