How I started my E-commerce store from scratch?
I am really very creative since my childhood. Putting a smile on someone’s face with a nice personalized gift always made me feel
fabulous (and still does!).
So, it all began with creating unique gifts for my
friends and family while still in college. Looking at my gifts, my friends
approach me to create gifts for their friends and family. And that’s how I
started getting orders.
I loved what I did so it was never a burden. While in
college and even during my CA internship I would manage my gifting side the business post office or on weekends.
After qualifying as a Chartered Accountant from ICAI, I
joined EY, Mumbai in their Transfer Pricing team. You can see my complete
journey How I started a profitable e-commerce business in 7 months?
I continued the same even after entering EY, balancing my
work, and my gifting side business.
while working with EY, was a dream that comes true. I
feel super lucky to get into this profile beginning in my career. But, while
working at EY, and I realized that I was looking for something else.
Now you will be wondering if I ‘Quit my job‘ to start my
online store? The answer is NO.
I quit my job randomly without anything in hand or in
mind.
In short, I did not know what I wanted to do next. Even
after quitting my job at EY, I couldn’t understand what exactly I wanted to do
in life.
In the meanwhile (like always) I continued taking small
orders to curate gifts for others.
After quitting my job, I had nothing in mind. I met my
mentor and told her that I did not know what to do in life. She was aware of my
gifting site and suggested that I should take it seriously and focus a lot more
on it.
She explained to me that I should give a few months of
dedicated time to my Gifting business and see if it worked well for me.
While working at EY, I had observed that many of my
friends had the will and capacity to buy gifts for their family and friends but
they had no time. So knew that there was a gap in the market and I could fill
in the same.
So when I decided to go full time with my gifting
business (this was in Feb’18) the first thing I did was to start – Gifting
Wardrobe Instagram page.
Now I had no clue that I would land up launching a proper
e-commerce store in July 2018.
In fact, the idea of setting up an e-commerce store
website begun only in early June 2018 (almost 5 months after starting my
gifting business full time). This is how I started working towards setting up a
private e-commerce business.
As I had a good idea about the gifting business and about
the growth, I chose to explore that segment.
So, this is what I did when and started gifting wardrobe
as a full-fledged company:
I figured my opportunity cost as opposed to my salary at
EY.
And I started setting goals to say like a minimum of 100
orders every month.
It was tough to meet my target initially but somehow, I
started working harder and harder towards it and started achieving my goals.
There were times when I would not even get a min of 100
orders per month. But I kept pushing.
Also, at times, I would take orders from a few big
clients even if my profit margin was not sufficient.
The goal was to always keep serving. It helped in
marketing as well.
Getting the first few clients for business is the most
challenging task.
So, I do not have like a goal book or so, but I do have a
Vision board where I keep posting my vision for Gifting Wardrobe and for
myself. Having a fiction board is so essential to everyone.
I would recommend all of you to create a vision board for
yourself. In fact, this New Year I secured amazing concept boards for my
clients.
How
many orders did I get in my first month of business?
During the first month on Gifting Wardrobe happily, we
had one bulk order and a few small ones. In the first month, I had a total of
35 orders.
At times we get 100/ 200 orders per month. We have also
seen months with 250 orders.
at the time of Diwali 2018, it was the first season of
Gifting Wardrobe for making an amazing profit and we made too.
Yes in between we did face a month with only 10 orders as
that month I was engaged in sourcing of products and building my e-commerce
store’s website in detail.
What was the cost of operating an E-commerce store?
To operate an e-commerce store, the most essential thing
is the Website. to attract the customer.
The website might cost you around $3500 (approx INR 1.5-2
lakhs) along with GST and accounting software (more details below!).
So, depending on the country you belong to, you will need
software to keep your taxes in place.
The website also needs monthly maintenance and that will
cost you around – $100 – $175 per month.
Since I have started my e-commerce business with my own
money, all the money I earn goes back into the business.
Luckily, we have been getting so many offers from
Investors. However, we are yet to find that investor who shares the passion in gifting
as we do!
Exact steps you can take to start your own online store
1. What is an e-commerce business?
Before acknowledging how to start your personal online
store/e-commerce business you need to know what is an e-commerce business.
An e-commerce business is a business in which you conduct
transactions over the Internet.
If You are selling a product or service, making sales and
collecting payment online.
So basically, if any shopping is made online will be
considered as an e-commerce transaction.
The best part is there is No limitation, anyone at any point in time can visit your website and purchase what they want.
2. You need to know – Your WHY?
You won't be able to start an e-commerce store or
business until you are not passionate or interested in the product.
While working at EY, I observed that many of my friends
had the capacity to buy gifts for their family and friends but they had no
time.
And that’s when I decided to start a Gifting Wardrobe.
I had started a Gifting wardrobe with a vision was to
make professional and corporate people’s life easier when it comes to Gifting.
So it is very important for you to have a question WHY to
start any business.
3. Pick a niche for your e-commerce store
Decide what you’d like to sell. Examples: attire, home
decor, kids wear, electronics, footwear, etc.
See whats your USP or what is it that the best you can an offer that is different from others or not in the market.
Now with digital products, you can also sell printable
products and many other products. There must be several products a person can
choose to sell.
This is how you can pick a niche.
4. Source the right products
Once you know what product you want to sell on your
online store, the next step is sourcing those products!
Research where you will purchase your products from. This
would automatically be answered once you find your USP as mentioned above!
a lot of small-scale businesses or artisans in the
locality with great products but don't have a proper place to showcase/ trade
with their products.
Also due to lack of knowledge or lack of funds they
cannot start an online or offline store. You can buy those products through an
e-commerce store.
You can also find products from wholesalers or
manufacturers and sell them online.
5. Set up your e-commerce store
Creating an e-commerce business is not as challenging as
you may imagine but it can be time-intensive. There are 2 ways you can
establish your e-commerce store:
Build a website of your own:
if I say setting-up your e-commerce business I mean ‘you
need a website where you can list your products‘.
Once I made up my mind about designing an e-commerce
website, I knew I had to find someone who could do the same for me. Remember
creating a website for your e-commerce business is a one-time investment so it
is a good idea to select the right person to do the same for you. I was lucky
enough to have a friend of mine who was into website designing so I approached
him.
Now if you do not know anyone, you can search on social
media platforms and find a good web designer. Before finalizing your web
designer – Go through their past work and shortlist them accordingly. However,
I would always recommend going through someone you know.
Setting up a website from scratch might cost you around
$2500 along with GST and Accounting software etc. So, depending on the country
you belong to, you will need software to keep your taxes in place.
You will also need a payment gateway so that people can
pay you for your products.
The website also needs monthly maintenance and that will
cost you around – $100 – 175 per month.
Also, if you plan to start your own website one should be
ready to learn how to operate your own website. I have to learn how I can
list my products, create discount codes, make products out of stock on the
website, and other details related to the same so that I did not have to depend
on others all the time.
So if you want to start your own website you will need – A domain name, a platform, and a web host.
although I have bootstrapped my company,
whatever money I earn it automatically goes back into the business. I was
always sure that I wouldn’t take money from anyone to start my work.
6. Choose a Delivery Partner
For any e-commerce business, the most crucial part is a –
Delivery Partner.
From my personal experience, I found the sorting delivery the system was the toughest of all.
I must have tried almost 4-5 best delivery companies but
I wasn’t happy with the work.
you have to choose the best delivery partner for your a business which suits and give you better output
I have tried Experts, like FedEx, Maruti, Anjani, etc.
Yet these being the best brands didn’t work well for me. So depending on the
areas you have to select your delivery partner accordingly!
Depending on the place of delivery, the delivery guys are
decided.
for outstation deliveries, I check up with 2-3 courier
companies, and depending on the requirements I select the company.
7. Inventory stocking
Inventory is expected to get a bulk reduction and have
ready options at all times. I have stocked up at least 1 – 2 pieces of the
products to ensure the timely delivery of urgent orders.
Stocking up helps to keep ourselves safeguarded against
urgent orders or when the vendor is out of stock.
8. Promote your e-commerce store
you can generate more traffic for your online business
while paying or investing in the advertisement.
Its been a long time in the gifting business, I had a set
of faithful customers. So through my bunch of customers, I can attract more
customers.
However, successfully when I started my e-commerce
business side by side I started promoting my business through Facebook and
Instagram ads. However, while allowing for such paid ads you have target your
achievement you want through the add.
Keep an eye on the ROI when you go for paid traffic.
You have to do the marketing of your business to get
customers.
To find customers for e-commerce is easy as well as
complicated, we have to keep patience to see the growth in e-commerce and
constantly spend time and money on marketing.
Digital marketing modes such as an advertisement on
social media, search engines, and blogs, Google adds play an important role in
marketing.
Word of mouth has been a constant source of marketing for
our brand.
To Conclude…
It’s important that you’re aware of the reasons why you
want to start your own e-commerce business. This will be the driving motivation
behind you wanting to create a successful e-commerce business.
Do you hate your boring job and desperately want to try
something new? Are you looking for more flexibility with your work? – Whatever
your reason is for wanting to start an e-commerce business, it’s important that
you think about the amount of time and effort you think it will take to make
that reason a reality.
this is how you can start your e-commerce business while
working full time as well but be ready to put in the efforts.
