Online business is one of the most trending businesses nowadays, but not everyone knows how to do a good online business and can generate lots of profits.
One of the keys to the success of an online business is how you start the online business itself.
Simply put, starting an online business is important for you to pay attention to, because this will have a significant influence on the development of the online business.
So, what’s the right way to start an online business to be successful?
Read Also : What is Human Resource Development? Definition, Functions and Methods
So, for more details, let’s look at a review of 7 online business methods that you need to follow below.
7 Ways of Success Online Business
To make it easier for you to start an online business, knowing the basics of how to start an online business from scratch is the solution.
Here are 7 main ways you can start an online business.
1. Determine the Products to be Sold
As with starting a business in general, the first thing you have to do is determine which products will be sold in your online shop later.
Determining the product to be sold is very crucial because it will determine the results of an online business.
Not only determine, but you must understand the product you are going to sell in as much detail as possible.
Especially when in the middle of the road you will choose to add a variety of products to be sold, not just a few or part of it, but all of them.
Understanding a product that will be sold will be useful to know the product purchase price, product selling price, product quality, competitors selling the same product, how to promote the product, target market, and many others. In order not to forget, data such as buying and selling prices can be recorded in accounting software to store information on each product sold.
In addition to understanding the product in as much detail as possible, you also need to understand market tastes or trends that are being liked by people today.
For example, if you want to get involved in the thrift shop business , then understand what the latest models are trending and your target market likes.
If you understand market interest, then the opportunity to sell more products will be even greater.
So, if you can sell a lot of products, the profits will also be bigger and your online business can grow.
Next, you have to find out how much search volume about the product you are going to sell on Google.
How to? The trick is that you can use Google Keyword Planner.
Then, you can find out how many people are looking for the product.
At least, choose products that are searched for by people on Google will be a lot of potential buyers.
However, the challenge is that the more goods are sought, the higher the competitors will be.
Read Also : What is Employee Performance? Definition, Benefits and Important Aspects
The solution is to find a unique variant or type of product that you are going to sell and is rarely sold by other people, but is still in demand by the public.
2. Competitor Research
The next online business method from scratch is to know your business competitors.
The way to do competitor research is to find out how competitors sell their products online.
You can start by looking into e-commerce platforms, such as the online business methods of Shopee, Tokopedia, Lazada, Bukalapak, and so on.
Then, find out what makes the product have a lot of buyers, such as find out what offers are being offered, whether giving attractive discounts or not, and so on.
Apart from that, also find out what the weaknesses of the competitors are, for example a slow response.
Thus, you can use these weaknesses to become the advantage of your business.
So, you have to provide fast response customer service so that buyers like it and don’t forget to continue to provide products of the highest quality and the best price.
Besides that, talking about online business means dealing with packaging of goods.
Packaging of goods is also one of the things you need to pay attention to when starting an online business.
If the product is good but the packaging is bad, then customers will usually give bad reviews and ratings because the product arrived in bad condition.
Therefore, try to add cardboard or bubble wrap in each product delivery so that product safety is maintained while on the way.
Read Also : What is Ledger? Definition, types and how to make
3. Find a Trusted Supplier
The next online business method is that you have to be able to find a trusted supplier.
The first opportunity that you can choose is to buy goods from a trusted wholesale center.
However, if you buy products at wholesalers, it will be a little difficult to make a lot of profit.
The reason is, the price of the wholesale center is not too cheap. So, what other suppliers can you choose?
Another solution is that you can buy goods from foreign suppliers or by empowering artisan centers in the regions.
Another profitable solution is to work with suppliers as resellers or dropshippers.
You can also use opportunity cost calculations to factor in which supplier will be more profitable
After knowing which suppliers will be used as suppliers, make sure to also use the goods stock application to monitor the flow of goods in and out so you know when to buy supplies again.
4. Determine the Online Business Brand
The next step for online business methods is to determine the brand of your online business.
Deciding on a brand is important because it builds first impressions and trust from people.
So, think carefully about your brand name and business logo, so that it is accepted and embedded in people’s minds when they want to buy the products you sell.
5. Create a Social Media Account or Website
As the name suggests, you take advantage of online platforms, such as social media and websites for product marketing activities.
In other words, the social media account and the website become an online store that will sell your products.
Having a website is also important because based on a survey from Verisign, as many as 56% of people say they don’t believe in the quality and credibility of an online store if they don’t have a website.
Apart from being able to sell products on websites and social media accounts, you can also market your products to a number of e-commerce platforms, such as Shopee, Lazada, Tokopedia, and so on.
The process of promoting business products on various social media can be accessed easily through one omnichannel chat application. This application can share promotional messages across channels quickly and evenly.
6. Product Promotion
The next step for online business methods is to promote products.
You can promote products online paid or free.
Both paid and free promotions can increase sales, but of course paid promotions have a higher level of effectiveness because they can adjust the target market.
As an illustration, the price for paid promotions using social media ranges from 72 thousand rupiahs to 720 thousand rupiahs in one week.
You should also take product promotion seriously as it is essential in making an online business successful.
Read Also : What is Export and Import? Definition, Benefits and Purpose
7. Maintain Loyal Customers
The next stage for how to make an online business successful is to keep loyal customers buying your product.
You must maintain a good relationship with loyal customers to keep buying your products.
This is because doing promotions to attract new customers will require a higher cost.
Then, how do you do the right clothing online business to retain loyal customers?
The way you can do this is to give bonuses or discounts on the products you sell.
This method is also a symbol of gratitude and appreciation to the buyer from the seller.
So, those are a number of ways that you can use for online business methods to be successful and continue to grow.