Crush It in 2016 With Your At-Home E-Commerce Business
Build a HQ (online)
Years ago, website building used to be an area that your semi-skilled hobbyist cousin would do for you (rather slowly). Well, not anymore. The ease of making sites has really come leaps and bounds and I wholly recommend you do this yourself. E-commerce platforms such as Shopify are so simple to use, have a great finished looking product, and the site will work seamlessly across desktop, tablet and mobile.
Hired Hands
99 designs and Upwork are two very popular online outsourcing sites, which is basically hiring a freelancer who will work online. You can find graphic designers for making your logo and branding, admin assistants for dealing with your spreadsheets, and image editors for the photographs of your products. The best thing is that costs are very low and everyone is rated and reviewed by their previous clients.
[Tweet “4 essential ingredients for starting an at-home #ecommerce #business:”]Packaging
This is so overlooked, maybe due to the fact that the sale is already made but it really shouldn’t be. This is the first time your customer is seeing your product and it is a great time to truly engage. You can give your postal packaging a custom design by using a quality hand stamp. You can also write handwritten thank you notes with links that drive people to your social channels. These personal touches have a big impact on gaining customer loyalty and repeat purchases.
Get Social
Social marketing is huge for a reason, and that’s because it’s where the attention is. It is also the area that so many businesses get completely wrong and feel disillusioned with. Setting up a Facebook page and Twitter handle and continuously plugging your product really isn’t going to work. What does work is engaging with people and really exploring how other platforms work. For instance, Pinterest has direct purchasing and its demographic is considered aspirational with intent to buy. Instagram is peaking with the highest levels of users and engagement. There are many other free platforms with lots of attention, so jump in and start talking to people!
Starting a new business is never easy. You will make plenty of mistakes – in fact, I believe you have to make them so you can learn. You will find out some skills you are great at and some you’re just not. Self-awareness is a valuable tool and I recommend constantly evaluating yourself and your at-home e-commerce business so you can move forward.