In today’s digital landscape being an e-commerce merchant is not impossible to achieve. With fantastic services supplied by large e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and Flipkart, a seller may now take the opportunity to sell their products online and reach out to buyers throughout the globe easily.
Select Your Field of Expertise
Selecting the correct niche in the enormous world of e-commerce can make or kill your business. It is more important to identify a lucrative industry that simultaneously meets a demand from customers than it is to blindly follow trends and walk with the herd.
E-commerce niche refers to a certain customer market that you aim to reach. E-commerce behemoths like Amazon and Walmart serve a wide range of customers and offer a wide range of products.
Considerations for selecting a lucrative ecommerce niche
Market Trend
Performing market research on popular items can help you identify potential new product ideas and gaps in the market, in addition to providing you with a better understanding of the competitors.
You can use Google Trends to find the exact product that customers are consistently requesting more of. After focusing on a single product, pay close attention to the specifics of your marketing plan and search engine optimization (SEO).
You can use tools like SEMrush and Google AdWords to find popular search terms that are associated with your product.
Evaluate Your Profitability
When there is an investment there should be the return on investment as well along with acknowledging the demand of customer and interest of seller towards a niche, which leaves with only two ways to incur profit either a seller serves the mass market by utilizing the volume to generate revenue or they can serve to premium section of a market with an exclusive product range.
Considering the above choices, a seller should also take into account the cost of acquiring or producing a product, and transition charges above that product.
A seller should always look out for balancing between spend and revenue generated from their business.
Emphasizing the Particulars
To segment your niche, focus on the age, gender or ethnicity you want to serve. Segmentation is used to identify unique ideas. Additionally, focusing on a specific market will promote clarity and prompt action when starting an online store.
Choose the Right E-Commerce Platform
Amazon: It is one of the largest online marketplaces, which provides high visibility to brands, with approximately 2 million sellers and 310 million customers across the globe, setting up a seller account is a game-changer move. Amazon offers various services to its customers which help them to scale their business. Some of the key features of Amazon are
Wide Product Range
Amazon provides a wide range of selection of goods in 40 categories, ranging from books and electronics to apparel and home goods which creates a huge consumer market due to the wide variety of products offered.
Reviews and Ratings
Reviews and Ratings given by users help customers to make informed purchasing decisions that also provide feedback and scope of improvement to a product that assist sellers to grow their online business.
Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA)
FBA is a service provided by Amazon to sellers that helps them in providing storage, packaging, and shipping. In this facility, a seller is required to send their products to Amazon Fulfilment Centre where Amazon employees are in charge of packaging and delivering the product in minimum business days to the customer.
Amazon Advertising
Amazon Sellers can promote their products through various types of ads such as display ad, sponsored ad, and Sponsored Brand ad which increase the visibility of the product and drive traffic to their product listing.
Prime Day and Promotion
Amazon hosts special sale events like Prime Day, Great Indian Festival sale which offers significant discounts on the product which attracts shoppers.
Shopify: An e-commerce website which allows offline sellers or individuals to create their own online store. Shopify provides a user friendly interface which is perfect for small to medium sized businesses and easy for beginners to navigate through it.
- Shopify offer tools to users to manage their product, payment, inventory and shipping, some of the key features include
- Customizable Template where a user can choose themes to build their online storefront.
- Payment Gateways which includes credit card, PayPal and Shopify Payments.
- 24/7 Customer Support via chats, email and Phone.
Flipkart: It is an e-commerce platform founded in 2007 which operates in India, initially entered in the market as an online bookstore before expanding to massive categories such as apparel, electronics and home appliances.
Flipkart offers several features to its customers some of are-
COD: Indians choose to pay the amount once the product is received and like few other platforms, Flipkart is one which provides the delivery option at the time of product receive.
Return and Refund: Customer friendly return policy which simplifies the difficult task of returning a good.
Flipkart Plus: It is a program offered by Flipkart that gives its user to avail services like free delivery, early access sale and exclusive offer.
Setting Up E-Commerce Platform
Once you have selected your e-commerce platform, now is the time to do the brand registration and set up the online store.
Lets deep dive into the procedure of brand registration on E-Commerce platform:
Amazon Brand Registration
- Verify the Brand Eligibility
- Brand Asset: Sellers seeking brand registration on Amazon should do the research on brand name which has to be unique.
- Trademark registration: It is compulsory to have before entering into brand registration. A trademark could be a wordmark or a logo.
- Social Presence: Brand needs to have an online presence such as a website, social media platform or
Set Up Amazon Seller Central Account
- Registration on Seller Central: Go to Amazon.sell.in and click on start selling which appears on the homepage.
- GST Details and its verification: Provide your GST number and verify it, in case of tax exempted goods such as bangles and books, GST number is not required, you can click on “I only sell non-GST categories, like books, etc.”
- Authentication of GST number: Once you have provided the GST number and clicked on “continue to verify”, now you have to submit your GSTIN Certificate which can take authenticated time up to 72 hours.
- Enter the name of your Store: Whether you are a new seller on an experienced one you are free to enter the name of your existing store or you can create a completely new one in Amazon.in.
- Enter the Pickup Address: To deliver your product to the customer, Amazon requires your pickup address which you can choose from GST information or you can also opt for adding a new address in your seller central account.
- Choose Shipping Method: Amazon provides several options for shipping such as Easy Ship in which you have to store and pack your product at your pickup location and Amazon employees will pick it and deliver it to the customer. Another shipping method is Self Ship in which you can display your product on Amazon and get an order from the same but the seller needs to store it, pack it and deliver it to the custom by a third party delivery service.
- Provide Bank Details: Sellers need to provide their bank account details which is preferred as current account details to Amazon in order to receive the successful sale of their product.
- Do the Listing: Enter the default GST Rate and start listing your product on Amazon.
- Start Selling: Once you completed the listing process of the product, click on start selling and embark on your Amazon Seller Journey.
Getting Started with Brand Registration Portal
- Log into Brand Registry Portal: Search for the brand tab in Brand Registration Portal and start with the enrolment of your brand.
- Fill Up the Enrolment Form: Submit the brand name that goes on the product, submit the trademark registration number and country of registration.
- Provide the list of products of categories.
Provide the Brand Verification Documents
- Upload the Trademark Evidence: To ensure the authenticity of the brand, sellers need to provide the trademark registration certificate copy or trademark application number along with the packaging image which clearly showcases the brand name or symbol.
- Email Verification: Seller identified as trademark proprietor needs to verify the email promptly otherwise delay in responding can lead to delay or block in the registration process.
- Amazon takes a few days to authenticate the details and if everything aligns, sellers receive the brand registration email.
After the completion of Brand Registration on Amazon, a seller can start to access the tools of Amazon such as Brand Protection tool, A+ Content, Amazon Brand Store and Brand Analytics tool which provide data-driven insight into customer purchasing behavior, their search term and competitor performance.
Registration process on Flipkart
- Submit the Contact Details: Go to www.seller.flipkart.com and provide your contact details after submission, OTP is received for mobile verification, further enter your email address.
- Enter the GSTIN or PAN: Once the contact details are provided you will find a question stating “What are you looking to sell” and two options will get appeared that is All Categories and Only Books, if you choose to proceed with all categories, you are needed to enter your GSTIN number or if you want to sell books, you are required to provide your PAN detail. Now you can proceed to “Register and Continue”
- Create a Password: Secure your account by creating a strong password which should be of eight characters that include uppercase, lowercase and a special character, after password setting enter your full name, display name and continue to proceed on to the next step.
- Email Verification: Just as you verified your contact information, now you are required to verify your email address, upon continuing you will be directed to dashboard which has a button besides your email address, click on the button, you will receive an email which contains verification link, click on it and your email verification will be done.
- Enter Your Signature: Create your signature manually or generate it manually you have to draw your signature, for generating your signature you need to enter your name and an e-signature will be generated. Signature appears on all the invoices, so choose wisely.
- Enter the Pickup Address: To make the delivery to the customer, a seller needs to enter their pickup address along with the pin code and save it to ensure the hassle free process of delivery.
- Add Bank Details: Provide the bank details which you use for your business along with the IFSC Code, the information should be the same to the one given in the GSTIN.
- Create your Listing: Click on “Go to Listing” now list your product by selecting “List your Own Product” and your online store on Flipkart is ready!
Registration on Shopify
- Enter your Brand Name: Start with picking up your brand name in this process you can approach Shopify business name generator or you can do your own research and keep in consideration the social media and domain name.
- Next step is to choose a business structure which includes Limited Liability Company (LLC), corporation, general partnership, and limited liability partnership.
- Complete the registration for Employer Identification Number to safeguard your business.
- Check the requirement for running business in different locations and getting the knowledge of what needs to be registered legally.
- Do the registration for taxes which varies from place to place.
- File a registration process for your trademark which is accountable for source identifiers.
As we have discussed the parameters to register the business on different platforms, let’s cover the crucial part of establishing a successful brand which is advertising the product.
Advertising the Products
Irrespective of how great your product is, advertising is important to get in the eyes of potential customers, and experience can only drive results which can fuel your business. This is where Adsify can help, Adsify is an Amazon Ads Agency which helps businesses to grow on Amazon through our curated ads strategies. Till date, the company has helped over 200 brands to grow their businesses successfully. The company focuses on running Amazon advertisements which also got a tag of amazon certified ads partner. With our expertise, sellers can pay attention to other aspects of their business like sourcing and customer service while they ensure their product is reaching the right customers.
Conclusion
The journey of becoming an e-commerce seller is filled with new learning, experimentation and growth. Utilizing the giant e-commerce platform can turn the table of your business with the services they provide to their users. From selecting the right niche to advertising your products on platforms like Amazon, each step requires a strong strategy and to back you with advertisement, Adsify has got your back.
So, whether you are starting as a new seller or expanding your online business, remember a successful story is written by carving the single step and with the right partner and strategies which can raise the bar of your potential.
