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The complete guide to launching your very first online store – tools and strategies inside

The complete guide to launching your very first online store – tools and strategies inside
Mohab Ecommerce 0

The complete guide to launching your very first online store – tools and strategies inside

“If your business is not on the internet, your business will be out of business” – Bill Gates

Starting an online business isn’t a trend but a necessity. It is comparatively easier to set up than a brick-and-motor store, less resource intensive and allows you to experiment and iterate quickly as per your customer’s demands. There is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow… and here’s your guide to get started.

Find a problem to solve: From selling cars to buying accessories to finding dates, the digital world is uniquely finding ways to solve problems by making lives convenient, and   saving time and money. The key to create a successful business online is to not only find the right problem to solve but also have the expertise and skills to solve it. What is your core expertise? What problems do people face in that industry? Why are YOU the best entrepreneur to do this job? Once you have the answers, you’ll know what your online business will be.

Build your website: Your website is your store front. It’s key to determining how you’ll sell and how much time, effort and maintenance you are willing to put up. You may have a store with hundreds of products which will need back end management that you’ll have to think through like updating stocks, offering discounts and being search engine friendly. In this case, you’ll have to make your choice between options like Shopify, WooCommerce, Open Cart, Get Shop and other such services based on their terms and feature list.

Write copy that sells: This is one of the most important parts of your online business. Once people come to your website, they’ll give you a minute or less to make your pitch. Your content will have to be cutting edge, to the point and push people towards the sales funnel. Explainer videos and infographics are strongly recommended to deliver your punches in the shortest possible time.

Choose a payment gateway: A payment gateway is a very important feature for your store. Its functionality will ensure that you can get paid not only in your native currency but from anywhere in the world where people can pay in their own currency and you can receive the money in yours hassle free. The right payment gateway can ensure you can reach any corner of the earth with your products.

Choose a fulfillment partner: A fulfillment partner is as important as your payment gateway. If your products have the chance of getting damaged in transport, you’ll have to find someone who can deliver with care. Some countries have restrictions on the products you can ship and you may need to work with different fulfillment partners who know the local regulations and ensure you aren’t selling anything that can’t be delivered in that country.

Start with PPC and then jump in to SEO: Pay per click advertising on Facebook and Google will allow you to do a quick market validation. Start this as soon as your basic website is ready. You’ll know if customers are understanding your website and products and if they are willing to trust you and make the purchase.

Get social: Social is a great place to build your community. Get together people who have similar likes and you’ll eventually find customers there.

Use email marketing: Build your email list from day one and offer incentives for people to sign up. Email marketing will allow you to sell, up-sell and cross sell, automate your communication and be in your customer’s inbox.

Go on, try it for a few months until you have proof of market. Your online store, if done well, can fetch amazing returns.

7 years ago
10 great quotes that inspire me always as a small business entrepreneur
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

10 great quotes that inspire me always as a small business entrepreneurIt isn’t easy to be an entrepreneur. Those who’ve taken up this uphill journey will tell you that it is a life changing experience. It can take you to the heights of euphoria, pits of darkness, awaken a sense of passion and sometimes drive you insane. It can do all of this on the same day!

Often, when you start living the journey, you look at fellow entrepreneurs around you – those who’ve made it, those who didn’t make it and those who are struggling just like you every day. It is then that a sense of epiphany appears and their world – the collective world of entrepreneurs – begins to make sense. You look for inspiration and motivation and most of all a sense of belonging from this world. Here are 10 legendary quotes about entrepreneurship that will make you look at your own business in a new light.

  1. The richest people in the world look for and build networks. Everyone else looks for work – Robert Kiyosaki

On most days, you want to leave the free fall of entrepreneurship and take up a job that assures a salary at the end of the month. But there is a sense of adventure in that free fall that is a lure. Those who dare take the risk sometimes receive the best rewards. It isn’t easy to be among the elite club of entrepreneurs but it’s worth it.

  1. Karen Lamb: “A year from now you will wish you had started today.”

When the entrepreneurship bug bites it also injects a bit of fear in us. That fear makes us stall and push our entrepreneurship dreams to ‘a bit later’.  A bit later when you have time; when you have money; when you can afford it. A year later when you see another entrepreneur successfully executing your idea, all you’ll have is regrets. Time and tide favours the brave. Take the risk. Fail fast if you have to so that you can learn and move on

  1. Scott Belsky, Behance: “It’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen.”

Many entrepreneurs think that they have landed a goldmine with their million-dollar idea. The key here is that it isn’t the idea that investors pay for. They invest into the entrepreneurs’ ability to make the idea work. They invest into your cumulative experience, you team and your leadership in executing the idea.

  1. Mark Twain: “Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”

As a small business entrepreneur, everyone thinks they have the right to judge you. Advice, often unsolicited, will become a part of your life. But not all of it is great and people can be harsh. It’s best to ignore people whose advice is counterproductive. Keep you spirits high by surrounding yourself with people who share constructive criticism.

  1. Bill Gates:“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.”

Speaking of constructive criticism, you will get your fair share when you start. And it’ll come from the end user who uses his savings to buy and try your product – a product that hasn’t got the backing of a trusted brand name. It is their criticism that’ll help you evolve faster and learn from small mistakes now rather than big mistakes later.

  1. Warren Buffett: “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”

If you are an entrepreneur today, you’ll be an entrepreneur for life. What you do today, how you do it and how you treat people on your way up will all be remembered at every critical juncture in life. Be good because Karma is watching!

  1. Rocky (movie): “Nobody is going to hit as hard as life, but it ain’t how hard you can hit. It’s how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. It’s how much you can take, and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done.”

Failure is a part of entrepreneurship. If you don’t fail, you can’t learn. And if you don’t learn, you won’t grow. If you don’t grow, you won’t succeed.

  1. No matter how educated, talented, rich or cool you believe you are, how you treat people ultimately tells all. Integrity is everything

This quote is one that all entrepreneurs should remember. Those who you meet and employ today (and even the ones you don’t) will remember how you treated them when they were ‘nothing’.

  1. Vivienne Harr, Make A Stand: “Stick with it, even on the bad days.”

Entrepreneurship will have its days. Good ones when you get orders and things look bright. Bad ones when your biggest customer walks away. You can’t have the rainbow without the rain.

  1. Albert Schweitzer: “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.”

This one little word – happiness – is what entrepreneurs tend to forget in the rush. And it is all that matters in what you do. Be happy – everything else will fall in place.

7 years ago
Five Things Every eCommerce Entrepreneur Should Be Ready For in 2018
Mohab Ecommerce 0

Five Things Every eCommerce Entrepreneur Should Be Ready For in 2018

The world of business is a constantly evolving one, more so when it comes to the eCommerce businesses that have gained immense popularity over the last few years. The increasing number of online consumers and the advancements in technology has worked together in making eCommerce businesses one of the most thriving ones today. Consequently, eCommerce entrepreneurs also realize the fact that the competition is more fierce than it was ever before, which is why, they need to keep evolving and focus on long-term objectives.

Every entrepreneur starts a new year with renewed zeal to achieve maximum success for their business. For doing that in 2018, here are the top 5 things you should be ready for now if you are selling online.

eCommerce Automation –

To let your business enjoy a competitive advantage, you must welcome the eCommerce automation that is expected to make operations easier. Automation will also save time and streamline the tasks. For instance, you can automate your eCommerce platform to detect the medium risk orders and forward them automatically to the finance department for review. For high risk orders, the same can be automated to be cancelled. This is just one aspect where eCommerce automation prevents chances of fraud. There can be several other ways to improve the overall shopping experience of your customers by leveraging automated techniques.

Mobile Payments and Wallet Apps –

Payment gateway is an integral part of eCommerce business and the smoother the checkout process, the better is the experience. In 2018, you should be prepared to embrace mobile payments and wallet apps, which does not require your customers to provide all of their personal information at checkout. This concept can work wonders in preventing customers from dropping off at the last moment, due to lengthy checkout processes.

Social Media –

Social media has been there since a long time now but as an entrepreneur, if you have not yet utilized it properly for your business, 2018 is the time to make the most of it. Social media channels are predicted to be huge drivers of eCommerce so much so that Facebook, Instagram etc. might let customers shop directly from these platforms.

More Subscription Box Models –

Although subscriptions have always been a part of an eCommerce business and eCommerce shopping experience, you should be ready for an increased emphasis on the subscription box models. A subscription mentality with at least a part of your product inventory will be crucial for surviving in the eCommerce industry. More the subscription box models you adapt, the higher will be your chance of a competitive advantage with regards to subscription offerings.

Professional Content Development –

Most entrepreneurs have already realized the importance of content that is developed with the interests of the target customers in mind. Content marketing is going to have a lot of impact in the ecommerce business scenarios. So, in 2018, you should focus more on personalized, engaging and premium content being developed by experts in the field. Whether it is a video about your product and service or targeted ads on the social media apps or perhaps, blogs and articles on emerging trends and so on, content will continue to create an indelible mark.

While these are some of the most important trends and strategies that entrepreneurs should be ready for in the coming year, there will definitely be many more to join them. The best way is to understand your business and its unique requirements to be able to make the most of the advancements in technology and the way internet works. Also, it is advisable to seek the guidance of expert professionals to enable your eCommerce business to move in the right direction.

7 years ago
5 biggest hurdles in eCommerce and their solutions
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

5 biggest hurdles in eCommerce and their solutionsAccording to eMarketer, global B2C eCommerce is set to hit 2.3 trillion by 2018. It has made it easier for sellers anywhere in the world to sell their wares and get a fair chance to compete with the biggies in the business. It is fairly easy to set up an eCommerce website with little or no coding knowledge. Some even set up their website before they procure products to sell.

While selling within the city, state or country is common for eCommerce platforms, the true game of harnessing its power lies in catering to an international audience. In reality, your website can be accessed by anyone anywhere around the world. Shouldn’t you be able to sell to them too? From language barriers to tech issues, to fulfillment, there are quite a few things that are acting as hindrances preventing businesses from going global.

Here is a look at the top 5 reasons plaguing the eCommerce industry and solutions you can use to overcome these for your own business.

1. Speaking your customer’s language

Did you know that 60% of global consumers spend time on sites of their own native language than they do on English sites? If the site isn’t available in the local version, they might just boycott the site altogether. Language has a big implication for eCommerce websites. Not only do you need to provide an option for customers to view your site in local language, you need to run a site wide check to see none of your products or services have an offensive meaning in the local language.

Solution: Translation softwares are easily available in the market. Get your developer to embed that into your website so that the content can get easily viewed in the preferred regional language. What’s more important is that you hire a local language expert to run a content audit on the website to ensure things mean what they should and there isn’t any important message lost in translation. Nothing, however, beats humans doing the translation.

2. Tech infrastructure:

Does going international mean that you’ll need local hosting to speed things up? Having local servers for load balancing can tip the costs quite high and isn’t sometimes possible due to infrastructure limitations. Some markets require that you use Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) and geo-based load balancing servers to improve domestic site speed and reliability. So what’s the right solution?

Solution: The best solution will come from hiring a reliable turn-key vendor who provides dedicated IT resources and geo-load balancing as per what the situation demands. A client request from a particular geography can be directed either to a service node that is geographically closest to the client or to a node that has the most capacity. This allows us to optimize performance proactively.

3. Logistics and Fulfillment:

You may be all ready to ship your order overseas and even have potential clients waiting on you. In fact, according to a provider of international dispatch services, companies that ship overseas can increase their revenue by an average of 17% Fulfillment agencies are available too, more easily than before. Then what’s stopping companies from shipping internationally? A lot of times local government regulations are a problem. While some items are prohibited others need to abide by local expert laws. It is difficult for a company to keep track of each item for each country.

Solution: First, you’ll have to do the difficult task of picking out risky items and keep them out of being available in all countries. Second, you’ll have to choose the right fulfillment partner who is aware of local regulations and can even guide you to ensure you don’t violate any terms.

4. Local customer support:

So you have built a website in the local language for more sales. But is that enough? What happens when your customer reaches out to you via email or the ‘Contact us’ form on your website with a query or concern or help? Most of the time, websites are not equipped to handle this even though they have taken the effort to translate the content of the website into the local language. Most of the times, customers get back an auto-generated response, which of course does not make them happy. The risk here: Lose a hot lead or a loyal customer.

Solution: Start by having a vetted FAQ page in local language which is as detailed as possible to handle customer questions. Next, you’ll need to provide a local phone number where customers can reach you with local voice support. You’ll also need a real person replying to emails in real time.  These are people who are paying you money. So it’s best you don’t lose out because you fail to understand them clearly.

5. Preferred payment methods:

When eCommerce first launched in India, many people were apprehensive about shopping online because they didn’t think of credit cards as a secure way to transact online. Besides, digital penetration was low and not everyone had a credit card.

Solution: Though Cash on Delivery option was present earlier, it was popularized by Flipkart and soon other major eCommerce players followed suit tipping the entire eCommerce game in India. Five years after Flipkart launched this payment option, it contributed to 80% of its sales. It is important for eCommerce companies to understand nuances of the local market and provide payment options preferable to locals.

 Take away

International expansion is bound to bring whole new opportunities to eCommerce players by tapping new grounds for their products. With the right local partners who have understanding of local culture, politics, and customer expectations, it’ll be a sure shot way to build a global brand.

7 years ago
The top 5 business skills that you must hone as a small business leader
Mohab Ecommerce 0

The top 5 business skills that you must hone as a small business leader

Running a small business is not an easy thing. For starters, you are always wearing multiple hats and switching roles from a sales director, to a marketing guru, to an HR person to a visionary leader. That is because running a successful business and driving it towards growth requires more than a good idea. Great and effective leadership can make or break a small business. While some of us are born natural leaders who take to running a small business like fish takes to water, there are others who learn on the go. Whichever category you fall in, it’s necessary to understand real leadership skills since that is what is going to help you respond to changes, adapt to new requirements, pull the pack together and rise to new heights of success.

So here you go – in no particular order, here is a list of 5 skills that will see a small business owner through all challenges and will come in handy in growing their businesses.

Communicating well– Ensure that whatever you communicate is clear, precise and consistent. It is not enough to have a great vision unless you clearly communicate it. A true leader should be able to communicate the business’s vision to employees, investors and customers alike. Employees and investors should also be aware of goals and objectives of the business. A series of miscommunicated objectives can be detrimental to your business. It is also important to let your employees know about what is going on and what is expected from them. And to achieve this clear communication is paramount.

Being a good listener- Most of what we know and learn comes from listening. Being a good listener is one of the most important skills you can possess as a small business leader. Listening to your employees will let you stay in touch with what is happening at the operational level. And will also contribute to employee satisfaction. Listening to your customers will let you know the pulse of the market and how they feel about your business. Developing this skill will also encourage you to ask for opinions, feedback and ideas. Enabling you and your business with different perspectives and newer ideas. Needless to say keeping both internal and external customers is important for a small business.

Not fearing failure and bouncing back – This is probably the biggest armour you will need. There is no great business leader who has not experienced the lows of failure. The faster you can accept and get out of the trough of depression, anxiety, disappointment and frustration, the better. Be ready to handle failure – as and when it comes. Mistakes are bound to happen. But running a business without making mistakes is impossible. So why fear them? A good leader will not fear making mistakes; he/she will, in fact, turn them into a valuable lesson. How you bounce back from them matters most. Accept your defeat with humility, learn from them and move on. Take ownership of the mistakes and let employees own the successes.

Sales –As a small business owner, this is probably the single most important skill that you need to learn as a business owner. After all, its sales that drives a business. Essentially, sales skills are nothing but excellent communication skills. It’s about understanding your buyer, it’s about listening more than talking, it’s about skillful persuasion and getting others to agree to what you are saying, it’s about learning the art of negotiation and building self-confidence. Understanding the whole sales process and honing the skills needed to crack a deal should help you for as long you are in business.

Accountability – A small business has fewer people taking care of a varied set of functions. This may make setting expectations tougher and sometimes ambiguous. As a small business leader learning to set clear expectations and communicating what is expected out of each contributor is essential. This will help set accountability in place. And being accountable as a leader for the business will help you lead from the front. Leading from the front or by example is something you are always told is expected out of leaders. This is true for small business also, be accountable and an inspirational leader.

Your skills as business leader is important since finally its you who can make a huge difference in how your business is being built and where it goes from there. What you make of yourself as a leader and your business is all up to you.

7 years ago