Running a Successful Ecommerce Store – an inside story !

Hi Friends, 

Ecom is the buzz word today. From Alibaba’s IPO to Flipkart’s Funding, everyone across the globe is talking about Ecommerce. 

It’s been almost three years that I have been associated with a successful Ecommerce Brand. During this time, we have achieved a lot and have done a lot of things as well to build this brand. We have seen a lot of ups and downs too. I certainly believe in the power of sharing so, here are my learnings so far with a respected Ecommerce brand. I hope you find some wisdom here which could help you in building your respective Ecom stores. 

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• Get the basics right and then move forward for other things. Let me give you a small example around it. Let’s say you own an ecommerce store – it has sales and everything else is going great. But, there’s one thing that is bothering your customers, it is the tracking of their order. They just can’t track their order online, it doesn’t show the orders they have placed in their account area. So, what will you do? I am sure right now your answer is “Of Course, I will fix it”. But believe me, when you are in business, basics go for a ride. I know many people, who want to build apps, who want to build a world class Ecommerce platform, but they miss out on basic things like these. Don’t fall in trap for big things, solve smaller things first.

• Under Promise, Over Deliver – A lot has been said about this, but just for the sake of discussion, let me put my point forward. Did you notice, Flipkart , Amazon and other major online players have started giving longer timelines. For ex. An order placed at Flipkart today will give you a delivery promise of 5 – 6 days. Similar on Amazon. Although, you might receive the product in 2 days, but they just don’t want to falter on their promise. I recently raised a complaint at Flipkart, I was told that it will take 7 – 10 business days to resolve. I was wondering why they need that much time, but I thought, I’ll go with the flow. But I was really happy and amazed, when I received a call the very next day and my issue was resolved. Although, I am not saying that you keep your promises so low, that customers keep wondering what’s gonna happen. All I am saying is that set your benchmarks right and with a little lenience and then improve upon it.

• Ecommerce is all about Options, Value and Ease of use – Keep all these things in mind. All of us are super busy in our daily lives; nobody really has a time to go to market to get things. And this is the reason why Ecommerce is booming. I mean, they sure treat you like kings and queens , don’t they? You order anything you want, check it on delivery, or even after that, return it if you don’t like it or else keep it. And then, if you want to return or exchange it, someone will come to collect the old piece and deliver a new one. How neat? But sometime, we forget how all of this started. As an Ecommerce Entrepreneur, it’s very important, that you keep these things in mind while taking any decision that will affect the customer.

• Options / Variety – Yes, I want to see a lot of options, before I take my decision. I definitely want to compare and choose.
• Value – Unless you give me value for money, I am not going to buy from you. Why should I buy from you, is the big question, every consumer has in mind while browsing through your store.
• Ease of use – There’s no point selling until you take care of the customers. Fundamentally, it’s the ease of use that has brought me to your store, but If I have to struggle to communicate with you, or to get something exchanged / return, it won’t make sense. I would never buy from you again. 

• There’s no Brand loyalty it’s the value that matters – At least, this is true in India. You won’t find too many Brand loyalists, and even if there are, same brand is being sold at too many places, so there’s competition to woo them too. So, what will protect you at the end of the day? It is the value that you are providing. People are ready to pay extra to flipkart just because of the value it provides to its customers. Value in everything, delivery, customer service, trust, payments, everything. 

• Defining your TG is must, otherwise, you’ll get lost in the internet world – This is another very important thing to keep in mind. Like they say, “Failing to plan is a planning to fail”. Unless you decide and fix your target audience, you will get lost in the internet jungle. The more crisp and defined your TG is, the better results you will get. It’s all about finding the right people; otherwise, you just can’t please everyone. 

• Set your goals and focus on them – More often it happens, that as an Entrepreneur we set huge goals for ourselves but later in the business we just forget about them. Focus is the key here. Internet is huge and you’ll get lost in that, until you focus. Keep an eye on your goals and keep polishing them until you achieve them. For ex. You will have to define the purpose of everything you are doing. Just don’t go by what others are doing. If you’ll notice, a lot of Ecommerce players are building Mobile Apps as well, but until you know what you are going to do with it, there’s no point building it. May be your business is such, that it doesn’t even require an app. Get the purpose straight, means will follow.

• Innovate, innovate and innovate – Believe me, there are no rule books to play with in a world of business. So, don’t believe in what others are saying or doing. If you think there’s a better way of doing something, do it. For ex: For long, keeping the inventory stocks were thought to be the best way to manage better delivery times, however, Drop Shipping method have completely changed the scenario now. 

• Competition is disguise – Internet is huge and there’s something for everyone. Seriously, if you are thinking that there’s a lot of competition in your segment, you may be right, but on the other hand, internet users are growing everyday with leaps and bounds. There is something for everyone. You just have to keep focused. I personally know some people who just sell Deodrants or socks, or artificial jewellery online without even having their own webstores and they are doing well for themselves.

• It’s the action that matters, not the analytics – Please don’t get me wrong here; I am not saying that we should not do the analytics at all. All I am saying is analytics should be used as a tool to take right action. But action is more important than analytics. It’s okay to be 70 % – 80% sure before taking that action; you don’t need 99% accurate data analysis before jumping into action. Just get into action, make you own stories and mistakes, and judgments and then come to conclusion.

I hope you liked the insights I have gained over a period of time. Do share your thoughts around it. 

Disclaimer : All the thoughts mentioned above are purely mine, and I am not associated with any of the companies mentioned above 🙂