How to Start Selling Online?

The right marketplace makes it easier to secure sales since it offers access to a rich pool of qualified leads. For instance, Etsy is a great marketplace for unique and handmade items, which buyers know and flock to find such items. It is also easy to set up your shop and start selling online, but how can you realize more sales?

Herein, we’ll answer the most burning question: How do you start selling online and continuously increase sales profits?

Answer What, Who, How, And Where

Turning your online selling desire into a business starts by researching the market. This will help you establish what you can profitably sell, to whom, where, and give you an idea of how. Let’s dive a bit deeper into the research. 

What Will You Sell?

Decide what you want to start selling online. This could be physical or digital products. It might sound easy, given your interests, but product research can be daunting. What can you sell on Etsy, what’s the demand, how is the competition, and which seasons do sales hit an all-time high? The easiest way to sell online is by focusing on high-demand products, helping you to quickly break into the online market and curve a profitable niche.

Product research doesn’t have to be overwhelming when you have inventive tools within reach. Roketfy’s Product Research tool can help you fast-track the process. The AI-powered tool provides rich marketplace analytics like estimated sales volume, top selling periods, and monthly turnover. You also access valuable information about competitors. Such insights help you to position your operations strategically, enhancing your success rate.

Who Are Your Target Users?

Do you know your target audience, their preferences, and purchase behavior? Selling on the Internet requires you to target potential customers where they are, meaning market research is critical. You must understand your audience to position your products where they’ll easily discover and buy them.

Besides establishing who your customers are, you also need to research and identify your competitors. Roketfy’s Competitor Analysis feature comes in handy at this point, allowing you to quickly identify gaps in the market and take advantage of the opportunities they offer to differentiate your offering and gain a competitive edge.

How Will You Do It?

Selling on the Internet sounds easy, but it is the opposite without a plan. Like any other undertaking, you need a plan. A business plan is the easiest way to sell online since you have a roadmap guiding your every move.

The plan should outline your business goals, financial projections, and strategies to help you get where you want. A well-thought-out business plan guides your actions as you start selling, helps you track the progress, identify what’s not working, make adjustments, and keep working towards your goals.

Where Will You Sell?

Your chosen business venue can make or break your efforts to start selling online. Do you plan to sell via an independent online store? Is a third-party marketplace like Etsy the best option? Should you start to sell online through social media platforms? Each model has its advantages and disadvantages. The trick here is to weigh your situation and pick an option that marks most boxes on your checklist.

For instance, if you are not well-equipped to handle varying online business complexities, the easiest way to sell online is through marketplaces. Etsy has a massive pool of customers, meaning you are more likely to attract qualified leads than selling through an independent online store. You also access innovative tools that help optimize your shop and listings, which increases your sales.

Roketfy’s tools, like keyword research, AI Writer, and listing checker, help optimize your listings for Etsy research. The best part is that you can build from there, for example, incorporating social media by promoting your Etsy shop on Pinterest, among other platforms. You can also develop an independent store as you learn the ropes.

After answering the above questions, you are better prepared to start selling online. Now, you can dive into the basics that help lay a solid foundation for your operations. Let’s look at the critical basics to set you on the right path.

Have a Business And Domain Name

Your online shop name is a significant part of your brand identity. Therefore, you must creatively craft a memorable and unique shop name that you’ll consistently use across diverse platforms. Users first see the name, which should be informative enough to prompt them to choose your shop.

It should be easy and descriptive enough, meaning buyers won’t be confused and can easily remember, pronounce, and spell the name. Besides being relevant to your products, a good shop name tells your brand story and is SEO-optimized for better discoverability.

You must develop a unique domain name if your plan involves running an independent online store. Like the shop name, the domain name must be relevant to your business, easy, and memorable. Avoid numbers or characters like hyphens to ensure users can easily type the domain name.

Including keywords is smart for SEO, but remember to keep it short and straightforward.

Since it is your business’s address, a well-thought-out domain name is a valuable asset that can help build trust and credibility. This emphasizes the need to pay more attention and develop a domain name that isn’t simply catchy.

Set Up The Store

If you plan to run an independent online store, select an ideal e-commerce platform to start selling online. Setting up your store is easier once you pick a platform that matches your needs. Consider the inventory size, features you need for an efficient online store, and your budget to help you choose an ideal platform.

Setting up the online store can be overwhelming. It entails considering the visuals and shop structure. You want the store to be as attractive as possible to catch the eye without sacrificing functionality. If the shop is visually appealing, but navigation is complex, you’ll hardly convert the traffic into active buyers since they’ll keep bouncing off before checking out.  You can use professional designer services to ensure your shop exudes the right image and offers visitors a great experience.

The easiest way to start selling online is by choosing marketplaces like Etsy. The platforms are all set and offer support to help you start selling. You’ll have an easier time setting up the online shop, more so with the many tools available that can help you every step of the way. For instance, for your visuals, you’ll find resourceful Etsy photo guides that’ll help you quickly navigate the setup and create an appealing shop without spending a fortune on professional services.

Your shop is all set, and to start selling on the internet, you need to:

1. Establish Your Shipping Policies

Shipping policy is among the most notable aspects that can help fast-track your quest to run a profitable online business. Selling on the Internet means buyers expect you to ship and deliver their orders in good shape and fast since they won’t be physically visiting your shop.

A clear shipping policy tells buyers when to expect the delivery. They also know how to track their order, minimizing the anxiety as they wait. The shipping policy should also cover returns, exchanges, and refunds. The best principle here is honesty, which helps inspire confidence. Shipping policies are so important that on marketplaces like Etsy, they impact your search ranking.

2. Set Up The Payment Options

Online shoppers want to feel secure as they transact with your store. A sensitive part that demands more security is payment processing. Include diverse payment options. Nonetheless, it is wise to stick to popular and reputable payment gateways to offer a sense of credibility and security.

More payment options mean buyers can use a mode they are comfortable and familiar with, making their shopping experience smooth. It is the easiest way to sell online since you’ll win more buyers with such an experience and inspire them to keep returning for repeat purchases.

3. Sort Out The Legalities

Acquiring the relevant permits or licenses is essential. Also, ensure compliance with tax, data protection, and intellectual property regulations. You may feel like selling on the internet is hardly regulated, but that could come back to haunt you just when your shop picks. If you sell on marketplaces like Etsy, check the guidelines to determine whether you need a business license. This way, you won’t fall into the wrong hands of the law, which can sink your thriving online business.

4. List Your Products

You are about ready to start selling online; you just need to start listing your products. The listing process takes work and time, though. It is not all about writing the product title and sketchy description; that won’t win you any notable sales.

You must optimize your listings with relevant keywords. A quick way to do this is by conducting keyword research. Roketfy’s Keyword Research feature makes the process a breeze. You’ll discover the top keywords in your niche, ensuring you optimize the product titles and descriptions for search engines.

Optimizing the listings with top keywords entails using the phrases that users frequently use. This means your listings fulfill the user intent and rank higher on search results, driving more traffic to your products. You must also optimize the descriptions to rank higher and provide valuable details. You can use Roketfy’s AI Writer to ensure you craft optimized and detailed descriptions for all your listings within a fraction of the time you’d need to write each manually.

Once you are done listing, the process isn’t over. You need to evaluate your listings to keep up with the trends. Users’ behaviors change, including the search phrases they use. Roketfy’s Listing Checker feature makes this process more manageable. You’ll quickly check all your listings and receive recommendations like missing keywords or tags. The assistant ensures you catch all the issues affecting your ranking and visibility. The continuous optimization gives you an edge since you’ll comfortably keep up with the trends and drive more traffic to your online shop.

Develop A Marketing Strategy

Your online shop is set, but is this enough to bring in sales? The most straightforward answer is NO! You still have to market your shop and products. The good news is that selling online provides extensive marketing opportunities. Nonetheless, you still need a practical strategy to do it right.

You know your target users and where to find them, which you identified when doing product and market research. Now, you need a strategy to ensure your marketing campaigns are laser-focused on the demographics. For most sellers, leveraging social media platforms is the easiest way to sell online.

Today, social media platforms have proven invaluable gateways to virtually every modern undertaking. Working with influencers lets you quickly capture social media attention and drive qualified leads to your online shop. Influencer marketing entails partnering with social media users with notable influence and following. Tapping into such an extensive follower base helps expand your reach and grow a more significant audience base. This makes it easier to build credibility and win user trust as the growing audience signals that you are a reputable online store.

Besides social media, you can leverage other digital marketing approaches like creating a blog or vlog. Creating valuable content does not result in direct sales. Nonetheless, it helps position your brand at an advantage. Relevant and authoritative content establishes you as an industry leader. The content helps your shop rank higher on search engine results pages. It also helps create trust and credibility since users find value in your content. The process takes time, but with the right e-commerce techniques, you’ll notice long-term results worth the investment, if not more.

Online marketing is all about positioning your shop to rank higher, capture user interest, and keep them hooked long enough on your page to convert them into buyers. The good news is that you have a range of solutions, like diverse keyword research tools, to help set you on the right track.

Monitor And Continuously Optimize Your Business

Winning the first sale, not from a supportive relative or friend, is exciting. It tells you you’re on the right track, but don’t relax. Selling on the Internet is quite competitive. If you drop the ball, you can quickly lose your competitive edge. Besides monitoring your sales and marketing strategies’ effectiveness, you should pay attention to user reviews.

Sign up today for a free plan and let Roketfy help you launch and run a successful online business.