How to launch an online store in 2020

Why invest in e-commerce as soon as possible?

Sooner or later, there will come a time when, for some reason, you will not be able to sell directly to the buyer. Or when a situation arises where you can’t rely on your traditional shop. This is where e-commerce comes into play. E-shops have countless benefits that can help you eliminate problems like this.

Time is money, right? E-shops allow you to significantly reduce your costs, such as travel costs while helping to overcome geographical limitations, not to mention the time saved. Another advantage is that with an e-shop you can easily gain new customers and reach more people, and it is also much easier to organize your supply and information.

In this article, we will show you what factors to consider before setting up an e-shop and what are the important steps that are essential for implementation.

How to start?

Who do you want to sell to?

The first important step is to define the customer base. Even if you are in the B2B segment, an e-shop allows you to open up to other customers. E-commerce makes it easy to combine B2B and B2C. It is also worthwhile to specify what specific goals you want to achieve with the e-shop. Increase revenue? Increasing the number of customers? Or just cut your costs?

The more accurately you answer these questions, the better results you can expect.

If you plan to sell B2B make sure you read our blog post about what to consider when establishing B2B e-commerce.

Build up your brand

First, you'll need a name and a matching domain address. It’s also worth investing more time and energy into things like design, user interface, and how information is arranged. Several companies offer pre-made templates from which you can choose the one that suits you. But if you have specific ideas or other needs, a simple e-commerce template won't be enough for you. At Cloudempiere we offer web design and consulting services to create a valuable shopping experience for your future customers. Although, if you want a beautiful UX-friendly website without making a big effort a template might be ideal for your e-commerce business.

Build up your system

To have a reliable and well-functioning e-commerce system, it is important to define the organizational tasks. What products would the offer consist of? How many types of products do you want to sell? It is a great advantage to have specific pictures and descriptions of the products at the beginning.

A key step is to set up internal processes, starting with defining payment and delivery options and business conditions. Also the definition of logistics tasks, including the preparation, packaging, and delivery of products.

The importance of cloud

You should also consider the technical requirements. A stable and strong platform is essential to run an e-shop. The solution may be to use a reliable, cloud-based system from the beginning, where you can keep your data safe. Here can help Cloudempiere, which is a complex, cloud-based ERP system that combines all services on one platform.

What can our e-commerce solution provide for your business?

• the e-commerce solution is fully integrated with Cloudempiere ERP system
• we ensure immediate synchronization of data from the system to the e-shop
• security and stability - a reliable system in which you can keep your data safe
• marketing and SEO - use of keywords, Google Analytics integration, automated email marketing, Google AdWords, Facebook
• sell through multiple subsidiaries on the same platform
• use multiple languages and different currencies
• B2B functionalities - automation of bulk and repeat orders, use of catalog
• single source of truth - all the data comes from one source and is completely consistent