eCommerce for Beginners / Audiomania Blog

From a translator: this translation is intended for those who are taking their first steps in the field of e-Commerce or are just thinking about creating a business in this area. Here, with rather large strokes, is outlined what to start with and what it is advisable to think about at the beginning of this large (and, of course, interesting) path. We decided to add some links to our articles and translations to the material - they can be addressed in order to study in more detail a number of issues raised in this topic.

Perhaps you have recently thought about creating a business in the field of electronic commerce, like many others. And this is not surprising, given the increase in sales in this area by 12% in the United States for 2013 alone. This means that the total revenue from such sales amounted to about $ 296 billion. By the way, the e-commerce industry in the same India also expanded by 30% compared to last year 2013. Now there the share of the proceeds from e-commerce is $ 12.6 billion.

About what features characterize American e-commerce can be found in our post " What Russian e-Commerce can learn from American "

Looking at the numbers listed above, you can decide that this industry is too large for you to make sense to engage in such activities, but this is simply not true. In fact, it will be easier for you to open your own business and start selling goods, precisely because this market is so large. Yes, there is competition, but there are also a huge number of buyers viewing the products offered in online stores with a wallet at hand.

This article will tell you how to start an e-commerce business from scratch, creating a solid base so that your business grows and develops properly. We will not delve into more complex processes, such as sales organization and logistics, because they are not the main problems at the start.

Beginning of work

E-commerce is one of those types of business within which it is easiest to start a business, as here you will not encounter any special obstacles. You don’t need a lot of capital, you don’t need a website for $ 10,000, you don’t need to spend $ 4,000 every month on non-production costs and you don’t even need to have a warehouse. We will discuss the topic of the warehouse a little later.

Of course, the tips below are quite universal, but if you are interested in the regional features of e-commerce, we recommend that you refer to our publication " 7 factors for the success of an online store in Runet ."

The first thing you need to do is to define your goals in e-commerce: do you want to open a kind of “shopping center” and sell everything your hands reach? Or would you rather create a specialized store, focusing on meeting the specific needs of society by selling your products?

“Shopping centers” are more likely to succeed when trading on a large scale, and there is a constant risk of failure if you do not have a lot of capital for investments, there are no resources for conducting quality marketing research, and the like. Also in this case, it takes much more time to purchase a large assortment of goods from reliable suppliers.

The best option for you at the very beginning is to choose a particular specialization, or niche, in other words. This is a small market segment in which you will strive to take a leading position as an expert in this field. Examples include horse riding equipment, scooter equipment, original motorcycle helmets, t-shirt printing or toys for children from 3 to 6 years old. By choosing a niche, you significantly increase the chance of success, and also greatly simplify the search for suppliers, sales and logistics management.

You will need to find reliable suppliers to trade quality goods. Look for suppliers working in your field and learn what they offer. If you are purchasing goods from another country, you should study the import rules and the system of import duties. If you do not want to maintain too much storage space, then a direct delivery system is also suitable for you, in which you, in fact, buy goods from the supplier only when the customer places an order with you. Thus, the absence of risk makes this option quite suitable for you in the early stages.

How we ourselves created and optimized our storage facilities can be found here: 1 , 2 . And about what to do if the goods selected by the buyer are not in stock (with examples), we told here .

So, after you have decided what you want to sell, the next step is to think about where to sell. Do not worry too much about this, since e-commerce is a large industry today, and there are dozens of places to sell where you can place your goods, even with a limited budget or not at all! 


Creation of a highly professional brand

When you create a brand, through e-commerce platforms and / or marketplaces, you should have a constant customer audience, as well as sufficient capital. You should use this capital to reinvest in your online business, thereby increasing the level of sales, and developing your online trading overall.


The first thing that needs to be done is to correctly present yourself on the Internet, which will require the development of a specialized website for the sale of goods. Creating a website for e-commerce is not an easy task, therefore it is best to hire a web designer - do not try to create a website yourself. Ask him to use the site development platform. They allow you to make small changes yourself without the help of a web designer, and you will thus avoid future costs.

Your logo and branding are also important factors to consider. It depends on them what buyers will associate your products with. Hire a professional graphic designer and instruct him / her to design a beautiful logo that perfectly reflects your business.

Drawing up a unique selling proposition (USP)

When your company becomes more famous, you will need to think about a unique selling proposition (UTP). It is not difficult to sell a certain amount of goods from time to time, but expanding your business and thereby increasing sales and revenue is much more difficult, and this requires more careful planning, preparation, as well as more intensive work.

What to do if you are selling a non-unique product, but want to create a unique selling proposition, you can read in this translation .

Your USP is what distinguishes you from your competitors, this is the reason why your customers will buy products from you, instead of them. When drawing up the USP, it is necessary to think about the shortcomings of the industry and how they can be fixed. This may relate to an extended warranty period, shorter delivery times, improved customer support or detailed product catalogs that will help customers purchase exactly what they need.

Many e-commerce firms choose the price as their USP, and, in most cases, this affects them negatively. Buyers who are looking for the cheapest product are most likely not the customers you need. There is a possibility that you still do not have sufficient capital due to the fact that you want to purchase goods at a low price, which requires massive purchases. Moreover, if your store does not specialize in selling discounted goods, your customers will go to another place as soon as someone offers goods cheaper.

Track important information and key metrics

It is very important to keep track of relevant information and key indicators, as this will help increase the efficiency of your activities and cope with any future difficulties. To analyze information means to objectively evaluate your business. You simply cannot argue with the data if it is in front of your eyes.

The most affordable key metric that will be easiest to track is the conversion rate. It shows the number of users who bought your product relative to the number of all visitors to your online store. For example, if 1000 people visited your site, but only 20 of them made purchases, then the conversion rate will be 2%.

Another indicator that deserves attention is the cost of customer acquisition (SEC or CAC, Cost of Acquiring Customer), which reflects how much money was spent to convince customers to buy something in your online store. For example, if you spent $ 2000 convincing 50 visitors to buy something from you, then the CAC would be $ 40. The lower this number, the better.

The indicator of the number of “abandoned shopping baskets” is also important, since it reflects how many visitors were going to buy goods from you, that is, the number of your potential buyers. Try to keep this figure as low as possible - a high value of this indicator may mean that your site needs to be improved.

Average order value (GCC or AOV, Average Order Value) is the average amount of money that one customer spends shopping on your site. You need to try to constantly increase this figure, for example, assigning discounts for bulk orders or additionally offering various related products or something similar. Amazon makes excellent use of such tricks, placing links in the section "users who buy this product also buy ...".


Customer value over its life cycle (LTV, Lifetime Value) is considered the most important indicator in e-commerce. It reflects the total amount of money spent by one buyer minus the cost of attracting it. Thus, if, for example, a customer comes back to your online store four times and spends a total of $ 600, then the LTV value will be $ 560, provided that you spent $ 40 on attracting it.


By tracking the information and key indicators indicated above, you can know exactly how successful your online business is at any stage. This can be very useful when you start planning to expand your business, increase your assortment, increase revenue, provide more traffic to your site and the like.