How to start your own eCommerce business – easily – Review Testify

Wow! We are in 2022. and now there are millions of ways to start a worthy e-commerce business. In fact, maybe you are already selling but here is a pie for both beginners and pro players.

Although online selling businesses came with many different name frames. Everybody is using his own terms. Like (marketplace selling, dropshipping, social selling, affiliate, subscription service and endless more).

But according to me. There are only two ways of online selling. 1st selling on others’ websites (Amazon, Etsy, Flipkart, etc.) 2nd through own website. That’s it, simple enough!

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Difference between selling on other’s websites and your own.

Analysis basis	In other’s websites/marketplace	Own website
Ease of doing	very easy to start and maintenance cost is around 0$, just launch products and watch the results.	quite hard to start on, require skills and knowledge, and setup takes time and effort.
Cost Required(CR)	CR in Opening is a minimum of 200$, including domain, hosting and other services. CR in maintenance depends on traffic. CR in launching a product is 0$ but spend $s on Advertisement.	CR in Opening is a minimum of 200$, including domain, hosting and other services. CR in maintenance depends on traffic. CR in launching product is 0$ but spend $s on Advertisement.
Scope	Have a very bright & profitable future, until you do not break any terms & conditions of the website.	Only have to follow govt. rules and policy, the more value you provide the more scope you got.
Reliability	Reliability in terms of profit and return on investment is good, but not in Everlong sustainability.	More reliable than any other, only govt. is above then you.
Product returns	Can’t refuse to return bcz of website policy.	Can refuse the return if applicable in your type of business.
Results & Rewards	Quick results with some good efforts, because of already existing customer base.	Results take time, effort & money because of no existing traffic or customers, but worth it when came
Freedom	Until you do not break the T&C policy of that website, they can take any action if breaks. not 100% independent.	100% independent bcz of own T&C,
Conclusion	Many sellers sell on the marketplace to jump their brand value and awareness, easily but mostly their end goal is to open a website.	own website takes time effort and money but it became the most profitable and lifelong passive income when it sustains the credibility of customers.

Don’t forget to see this infographic for a better understanding – PDF

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Am not here to giving you the procedure of how to start a e-commerce store, it's already available on-----> youtube, google and millions of websites. I am here to give you some "key steps" that will make your ecommerce business lifelong sustainable in any circumstances.

And now, that you have identified the different ways of online selling. I will give you a few steps that are commonly applied in every type of e-business you start. Doesn’t matter even if it’s your own website or not.

These steps are good to follow. But not a rule of thumb 🤔 it applies universally. So do not worry about your business category.

Master put it right – “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”. – by, Lao Tzu

Start with Steps.

– Understand your game

Yes, the first step before doing anything is to learn or understand it properly. Not from above but from depth. If you don’t know much about the nature of your business. How it works in different situations and seasons, you can’t follow up with growth anymore.

Here am saying for both kinds of sellers. Who are already in offline selling with years of experience but new to online selling. So they have to understand how their business will work in the online world. And for those sellers who are already selling online and now moving to a new category of business. Then they have to learn more and start small to take experience in that field of business category.

for eg. (suppose you deal in clothing offline and now want to shift online. You started without understanding the behaviour of an online customer. And jump on start listing cotton-wear shirts in summer and waiting happily for orders. But my friends you should do the product research first. If you did, then you must know that people prefer T-shirts more than shirts in summer.)

Now the point is whether you are in any kind of business offline/online. With any category of business, you should understand it properly with all its highs and lows. If you do you never stop at one place, many successful sellers mostly have both offline and online stores.

Because they know the value of both places. In lows in the offline market their online selling booms, and vice versa. And when they understand it properly they always moved forward by looking for new opportunities provided in online selling.

– Catch a niche

Niche in business means-> “selection of only a particular thing which your business does”.

It can be your single service, single product, single business category anything. But one and only, eg. from the vast category of furniture business, you opt to do only sell chairs.

In easy words ‘The one thing for which you and your business is known to customers’.

why choose niche over multiple?

have you ever noticed that you can’t handle two different or even similar things at once? If yes! that’s good you are a human. We can’t do two things at once for eg. You can’t write two different topics on paper at the same time or even the same thing with two hands on the same paper.

We can only do one thing at a time. so why? We opt for selling multiple business categories at a single time or on a single platform. It’s okay if you opened a departmental store bcz that is the nature of business. But not okay to jump on different businesses continuously. It only wastes money, time & effort.

Either when you choose your single niche for selling you got amazing benefits.

• Relax from the complexity of handling multiple business categories.
• Focused on a single business type.
• Perform better as gain experience more.
• Leverage all advantages and opportunities
• Can sell anywhere by building a strong brand image.

There are more when you experience it. It will make you better and better every day.

– Understand consumer

If you can’t understand the people whom you gonna sell. My friends why have you even started a business, oh that hurts! but true. Understanding a customer is similar to understanding an infant baby ‘why he/she is crying?’.

The real thing started after you have made up your mind to enter the business world. You understood your niche and business. Now the next is to understand a customer, the most complex one. Don’t fret! if you follow some good tips from experienced players. It will be a cakewalk.

Actually, the complication is that everyone is a customer. And thus we created a vast complication of thinking. Which confused marketers from history to the present. And we customers become unpredictable to understand properly. That’s why we can’t be convinced by even watching a thousand ads daily.

So what is the solution, wait my friend? The only thing that great marketers suggested from the past to the present. Is to “Put yourself in the customer’s shoes”. And directly know the truth about what a customer is actually thinking about your product. Or use Japanese technique Genchi Genbutsu.

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Both solutions are successful but not that much easy to follow. Because, on 1st one, our perception and thoughts of the mind are not much real as a customer. Because it is impossible to dig into someone’s thinking and imagination. We only can get an idea, estimate or assumption on that. If our estimation is luckily true. We succeed otherwise lose bucks. Although we have no psychic powers!🧐.

Or directly asking customers is not like taking a survey. People are bored of survey stuff. They fill in the wrong data to skip the survey process. If the survey does not work! are you going to directly ask the customer, will they answer you? If they answer, are they telling the truth? and how much time and effort it will take sounds like not worth that much.

Secondly, Genchi Genbutsu is a good budget eater.

The 1st solution is good to get the idea but it is a very tough task, 2nd takes a huge investment. But wait-wait you are reading this at Reviewtestify, which motive is to understand complex customer thinking for sellers. We have made it simple and online. C’mon, we are now in the 21st century, someone has to find the solution to this problem, So we did.

Reviewtestify gives you exact accurate data that what a customer will think about your product. Either he/she will suggest someone buy your product or not.

So, you finally got leverage in understanding complex customer thinking.

(Regretfully apologise, currently, we are not giving this service.)

– How do you sell?

What are you talking about? Is it relevant? Who doesn’t know how to sell and still do online business, are you joking? my curious friend asks me and I reply ~ “not everyone” bro.

Many sellers do’s the common mistake that not learning about how to sell actually. They think that they had started a business and they also know about selling. Diving at risk is good for a businessman. But a fool can dive into the river without knowing how to swim.

I am not here to give a long lecture on learning to sell. it’s a vast concept. But think it yourself that, are you properly aware of selling? If yes that ”s awesome’ but if not! You should learn first. or if you want to learn by experiencing mistakes as I did, go for it. It’s a fun thing if you love to learn at any cost. But remember learning from mistakes came with a price tag.

- how you will sell actually means ->what is your plan to showcase your product to the customer in such a way that he/she can't stop himself to buy or try it.

Ever heard the idiom “What is seen is sold” popular in Hindi (जो दिखता है वही बिकता है।). That’s so much truth in the online selling world, let’s think for a min. The last time you bought something online what you have done, how you converted to a customer, what makes you buy that thing. 1st your need/want/urge to buy, 2nd the display of the product by the seller.

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If we talking about purchasing. 1st need is already there that’s why we go to a shopping website. 2nd the most important thing that you have to understand as a seller. That is in online selling. Actually, the content you are showing to the customer is helping you in selling the actual product. Your content will create the urge to ‘buy’ not your product which is stored at your warehouse.

read the past line again, and focus on the content of the displayed product that means to its (images, video, bullet points, description, reviews, offers, whatever is displayed to the customer when he opens your product on the shopping site)

without good images or content in the display of the product neither your product is displayed to the targeted buyer nor it creates any urge to sell to a buyer. it is a really serious thing to focus on.

you can estimate its seriousness/importance that if you can’t able to do this step properly above mention 3 steps are a total waste. because if you can’t present the products you can’t sell.

here, some sellers conflict that they will do marketing and I ask them how they said advertisement and promotions, I question my friends- how many times you see ads, and how many times you have bought the product when you see ads on your mobile.

they are clueless, actually, we only buy something when we need/want it, and then our mind subconsciously searches that product everywhere, we now open ads related to that product and after that, we make a final decision only if we find that it will satisfy our needs.

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and how you reach a final decision by seeing the content of the product, again friends ask – our ads are shown to only the target and relevant buyer according to their analysis of search history and all.

I 100% agree with you, but do you know what is the result of ads came mostly, they curiously listening, the sellers who have used ads with good content of products have a chance of getting high sale volume but listen! what are those numbers?

after the creation of ads when it starts as per budget and time limit it will present, suppose it showed 20,000 times but only 2000 people who have strong wants/needs will click on ads, and move back for a better option or comparison with a competitor after that only or maybe there is a chance that 100 people will make a real purchase by satisfied with your content displayed.

it means most time our ads burn our money only, so what to do-never use them! no!!! buddy, ads are the most powerful leverage if used properly with efficient content of products to a minimum targeted audience. bcz ads are more of targeting & spreading awareness of a product, selling is just a by-product of that.

It’s important to understand how you sell for long sustain in the game.

– Ultimate value

do you know the secret of business success,- it’s very simple ” customer repetition”.

but how and why a customer will buy from you again and again? what are you giving special?. ever asked these questions??? yourself, if not start asking.

what makes a customer repetitive in your business, don’t say ads! they only spread awareness, the thing which matters to any business is its long life. how much it will sustain in the market, let’s think beyond profits.

we have started a business that is running well, helping employees to run their families smoothly, contributing to the nation by taxes, your own life has gone better, you are making everybody happy around you and living life on your own terms. NOW>?

don’t you think, how it becomes possible! yes-yes only because of the lovely customers who pay for your product and service, don’t you think we should provide them something in return, something beyond selfishness, something that really adds value to their life. think it in deep.

if your heart agrees to that, congratulations reader you will be happily successful.

in a short summary I just want to say – please focus on making the products that really worth buying, adding value to life, which makes seller and buyer became happy, in last we all are the same.

want to know what by-product benefits you will get from this mindset of thinking in business. your happy, satisfied and loyal customer will give you the world’s most expensive marketing strategy which is a dream to achieve even for marketing champions, that is “word of mouth“. for absolutely free.

what is the word-of-mouth strategy? -> When people are satisfied and like a product or service they tell their friends and their friends tell more friends which creates a large sensation of product selling.

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the funny thing is that it can’t be gained through burning money on ads, according to research around 92% of the purchase in the world are made through this strategy, thatswhy it is the most powerful marketing strategy that exists in the business world.

I understood this after a long time and consistent failure, you have the opportunity to understand it now.

– Are you trendy?

there is something that will always help you to grow, want to know about it, it will always lead you ahead of competitor, it is not a trick, everybody knows about it but forget to apply. Its name is “Awareness”

awareness! What are you talking about, I am aware of everything surrounding me – my friend said cleverly. so why you haven’t grown sales in the Amazon Diwali sale? – I said.

Little did I know that bottles would sell for less on Diwali, if I had known, I would have listed the candles – he said, raising eyebrows. thatswhy am asking for “awareness”-I said.

Online selling is a game, I have already said many times and you must know that it does not take time to change the game and it is changing every moment.

I said above that I will not talk about any rule of thumb but there is only one which should include every time everywhere in all types of business. If you are aware of the surrounding of your business you will be able to see the opportunities which normal competitors can’t imagine.

just observe what is happening around you, what is the trends, what people like or dislike, whom people are following, what is the condition of the industry, what innovation people need and all other questions in the context of your business category awareness.

Trendy means being aware to face the changes. Because hard trees are destroyed first in a storm. You must be flexible.

You should understand the importance of flexibility and changes, “If you want to survive, be aware”.

if you remain updated your business never goes outdated.

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Conclusion – “Do business by heart, profit will be a by-product”.

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