If you already work from home as a blogger, freelancer or in any other capacity then running a business as well could be a great way to boost your income. And retail businesses are a great way to go, the method of buying wholesale and selling for a profit is tried and tested and can be done without too many special skills (although you will need to educate yourself on how to go about things for the best results). Here’s what you need to know if you’re considering it.
Find the right platform
Spend time choosing the right ecommerce platform, bear in mind that there are different platforms available. For example, some are best suited for businesses that sell to other businesses, others are for businesses that sell to consumers and others that sell to administrators. Add a number of payment options in the checkout so that people can choose their preferred method, and give customers the option of saving their basket and adding items to a wishlist.
Think about fulfillment
Storing and shipping out items is an issue you might be wondering how to overcome as a home based retail business. But both of these things are easily solved, simply outsource this to a fulfillment company. They will already have the manpower, equipment and space needed to deal with your orders and get them where they need to be. From there you can simply run everything from your home from the top.
Consider your marketing
It doesn’t matter what you do or what you sell, marketing and branding is important. This applies to both businesses with a physical store and online businesses- work with experts in retail design to get this right. Get clued up in ecommerce marketing, which is the practice of using promotional tactics to drive traffic to your online store. You’ll want to be converting that traffic into paying customers, and retaining those customers post-purchase. One simple and effective ecommerce marketing idea to reduce the frequency of abandoned carts is an email recovery campaign, which can convince your visitors to make a return visit and complete their original purchase. A wishlist reminder email is another marketing tactic to consider. The wishlist reminder email is closely related to the abandoned cart email. Both are designed to convince shoppers to take the final step in purchasing the products they have shown intent to buy.
