Many people, these days wish to be their own bosses, to work for themselves, and to have no one stressing them. E-commerce is an easy and reliable place to start a business, that if you have the knowledge to navigate it.
E-commerce business is a business model where the buying and selling of goods or services are done over the internet. E-commerce businesses will digitally transfer money and data to execute these online transactions.
According to Regis Dushimiyimana, Founder and CEO of MisoziX, a Rwandan Sportswear brand operating online, E-commerce has major pillars for it to function, and those pillars are what a person willing to start an E-commerce business should learn about first.
"There is the Suppliers or Products pillar, the WareHouse or Storage pillar, the Logistics or Transportation pillar, the Platform pillar, and the Visuals pillar. Products must be of the quality you mention in the descriptions and those products must be stored in the conditions they require, then the reliable delivery system must be in place to help with timely delivery, not a random moto taxi rider you stop to deliver,” he says.
Dushimiyimana adds, "The platform that you use to trade must firstly be user-friendly, secure, and easy to navigate. It should also accept several payment options and be available to all users regardless of their devices, then there comes what makes the user take the decision, the photos of the product should be realistic and clear, and you should not use a downloaded photo or a digital created product photo, and lastly users data should be protected at all costs”.
Aline Uwamahoro, an online cosmetic business owner, says that before engaging in an E-commerce business as a business owner you need to understand what clients you want to serve.
"You would want to start a business that will not fail before it’s beginning especially if it is a business online, as a business person you need to first analyze your clients, the ones you need to be serving according to the products you are going to sell to avoid being irrelevant to your clients, for example, you can’t be selling sanitary pads to a male community they will not even pay attention to your adverts, look for clients that will be drawn into your products and will be interested instantly,” she says.
Uwamahoro also adds that after analyzing your clients, you need to be loyal to them and not lie to them about your product's quality.
"If you get your clients’ interest and end up not being a loyal seller, they will be disappointed and you will go back to where you started from. Be loyal the products you sell should be matching what you advertise, because when a client is disappointed it will take you a lot to convince them back or even to get other clients,” she explains.
According to Mark Macdonald an American author, the first step to building an e-commerce store is knowing what products you want to sell direct-to-consumer.
"You’ve found your product, evaluated its potential, and sourced a supplier. But before you get into that, you’ll need to thoroughly research your competition so you know what you’re up against and how you can differentiate your business from theirs. Aside from finding an actual product to sell online, another challenging decision is determining your business or brand name and choosing an appropriate and available domain name,” he notes.
Macdonald adds that, after you have launched your E-commerce, the hard work of marketing your products begins. While many new store owners should consider selling their physical products in person, the rest of digital marketing relies on doing one thing well: driving targeted traffic.