According to Statistica, worldwide sales of retail eCommerce amount to US$4.28 trillion in 2020, and these are expected to grow with each passing year. The world has already adopted the innovative concept of ordering products online as it saves them time, money, and energy.
Online stores are coming up with new products and designs in the fashion industry that is setting people free to place orders from any part of the world. It is the right moment for Pakistani entrepreneurs and businessmen to showcase their creative and high-quality products for the locals as well as people across the globe.
Why restrict your business to a city or province when you can entertain people from the USA, Europe, Gulf, and other regions of the world? If you are new to the internet world, please go through this guide as to how to start a successful eCommerce business. It is a step-by-step tutorial for you to know, state, and move at your pace and end up setting a useful and profitable online venture.
How to Start a Successful eCommerce Business in Pakistan?
The eCommerce ecosystem is developing at a fast pace in Pakistan. With the launch of various marketplaces, people get used to online shopping. However, there is a great vacuum of reliable and authentic stores where customers can get exactly what is shown on a product page.
Learn how to create an online store to mend the gap by providing a top-notch shopping platform to your target audience. Let them find a place where they can trust a brand, vendor, or supplier on getting the right product. Website setup becomes simpler when you meet a reliable eCommerce development company that possesses all that it takes to build a business rather than a mere website. This blog post may prove to be a useful guide for you to take the initiative and fulfill your dreams of owning and running a successful online venture with innovative business ideas in Pakistan.
Step 1: Product Selection
Choosing a product to sell online is a difficult decision in the recently developed eCommerce arena of Pakistan. An online store that gets traction and starts getting famous in a community has to experience new competitors coming out of the blue so soon.
Everyone starts to replicate their business model and comes up with quite a similar product line. It may work for a couple of months but not longer than a year. The key to success lies in the selection of a product that cannot be replaced or replicated easily by anyone else.
For example, everyday new clothing brands are popping up in the market, but none is capable of breaking into the mainstream business because the top brands are different with their creative and new designs printed with the latest technology printing facilities and techniques. Think about doing something different in your domain to come up with a product no one else offers.
Step 2: Know Relevant Trends
Study only the trends relevant to your business as it defines consumer behavior. In Pakistan, the fashion and clothing industry highly influences the general public the way it does in other countries. A wearable item, cell phone, or fashion accessory soon becomes a trend if a celebrity endorses it. Some people follow the exact trend while others want to be part of it in their traditional way. So try to follow a trend for your product and localize it for the group of people you intend to target. It will help you get the most out of your idea.
Step 3: Source your Product
Get to know different sources of the product you want to display online. It may get a final product and stock it, process the raw material to form a unique product or decide on dropshipping. Finished products need to order and stocked at your premises or the warehouse if you want them to be fulfilled by another service provider.
Production may need investments in labor and machinery. However, dropshipping may neither require purchasing inventory nor installing a production unit. It requires an agreement with the manufacturer or supplier for shipping products from their warehouse to your customers on behalf of you.
Step 4: Put your Products Live
An eCommerce business can be of any form and scale in Pakistan. It may be a small business promoting its products on a Facebook or Instagram page or it may be established on a marketplace such as Daraz, Goto, Homeshopping, Yayvo, etc. However, these are said to be quick and cheap alternatives to an online business. You never know when your business is removed or banned from a social media or famous marketplace.
An ultimate solution is setting up a dedicated eCommerce website of your own. That’s when you need a reliable company for eCommerce website development in Pakistan which not only builds an entire website but creates an interactive and useful web presence for your business venture. The development stage itself includes multiple steps that start with a selection of a reliable hosting service provider, a secure eCommerce platform, installation of themes and extensions, and customizing the platform to provide the simplest user experience. Currently, there are many solutions for you to have an e-commerce store. You can open your online store through Shopify, eBay, Amazon. These are marketplaces where millions of users shop online every day.
Step 5: Launch and maintain
An eCommerce website launch requires an energetic team that keeps on testing different pages and features to ensure everything works fine and smooth before it goes live. Developers can use the staging technique for producing better websites, testing different features for errors, and continue adding innovative options without worrying about website halt or shutdown.
Once your website is launched, ask your eCommerce development company for an exclusive maintenance plan. You may need quick fixes for a few months as soon as the users interact with your website.
Step 6: Advertising and Marketing
An eCommerce business never gets traction; it is not advertised and marketed through proper promotional campaigns. You must hire an expert digital marketer or a competent agency to draft a marketing strategy for your brand. It may include the use of social media, social networking, social communication, paid promotions through popular search engines, and traditional advertising channels.
The inclusion of print and electronic media in marketing campaigns for an eCommerce business is a smart move as people in Pakistan are still not moving to the internet medium. Reaching out to them with the traditional mediums like television, newspaper, and radio still needs consideration.
Final Words
Since the COVID-19 is hitting hard the business community of Pakistan from the very beginning of 2020, starting an eCommerce business is the ultimate solution for the existing as well as new businesses. With the uncertain situation of lockdown, unavailability of staff, and various other restrictions on physical customer interaction, running a traditional business has become almost impossible. Having an eCommerce website can help you continue business operations.
