eCommerce Businesses have started to boom, especially after the spread of Covid. Every other person has developed a habit to shop for Goods Online. It has become the safest and easiest way to Shop.
Not only customers but new businesses have also started to explore this flourishing business opportunity. But since it’s new and very different from setting up a physical shop, you need to have in-depth knowledge to start an eCommerce Business in Panama. From setting up your website to purchasing the domain & hosting and then promoting it to the target audience includes a huge set of tasks and responsibilities.
That’s why we have brought this article to you, where we have explained the step-by-step process of starting an eCommerce business. Along the way, we will provide you some useful tips and also suggest some of the Best Brands to purchase different elements required in building an eCommerce website.
Choose the Products you want to Sell
You must have already given a thought regarding the products or services you want to sell, but before you start an eCommerce Business you must research more about the product. Since you are going to invest your time and money into it, you need to be completely confident about the product.
For that, you need to do Market Research. Find out who your competitors are, gather data about their sales, revenue, audience, and other critical factors. Also, if you are planning to sell in Panama then identify whether this product has good demand or not. Further, also make sure that you will be able to manage the sourcing and stocking of your product inventory.
Identify your Target Audience
Once you have decided on the product the next step is to identify the target market. If you know your potential customers well, you will be able to fulfill their needs in a better way. It will improve your business revenue and will ensure long-term growth.
Once you know who your target audience is, narrow down their interests, demographics, location, etc.
Considering these points for further filtering your target group.
- Demographics – Gender, Age Group, Location, and Income
- Background – Occupation, Family, Marital Status, and other personal information
- Interests – Shopping, Makeup, Fashion, Beauty, and other kinds of interests.
- Goals – Identify the Goals related to Family, Career, etc.
- Solutions to Problems – How your business can solve the problems they face.
- Challenges – Write down the reasons why the target audience may not purchase your products.
Get Domain and Hosting
After deciding on the product and identifying the potential customers, now it’s time to start building the website. To start an eCommerce Website the two most important elements are – the Domain Name and Web Hosting. You need to choose both of them carefully, as they have a huge impact on the business.
Domain Name
A domain name is similar to your Home Address. People need it to visit your website. The Domain Name usually consists of the name of the business and the most common format of a Domain Name is “www.businessname.com”. So, for visiting your eCommerce store customers will use this address.
Choose a Domain Name that resembles your product and is easy to remember. You can discover if your preferred domain name is available or not using Domain Checker Tools. Also, here you can find out the price of your domain. Some domain names come at a premium price.
Web Hosting
Web Hosting is the server that stores the entire data of your website. It plays a crucial role in the speed and performance of the website. If you choose the wrong Hosting Plan it may adversely impact your business.
Majorly, there are 3 different types of hosting plans –
Shared Hosting
It uses a Shared Network, where multiple websites use the common server resources, such as RAM, Disk Space, Bandwidth, etc. With multiple websites located on the same server, the risk of a security breach, slow speed, and frequent server crashes are very common. In a Shared Server, when any of the network websites go through a traffic spike, it slows down the performance of others. Though it is the cheapest plan but comes with various limitations.
Dedicated Server
In a Dedicated Server, you get a completely independent server. There is no sharing of RAM, Bandwidth, or other resources. It ensures superfast speed, provides optimal performance, and protects your data through high security. But Dedicated Servers come at a very expensive price. Also, technical expertise is required to easily manage it.
VPS Hosting
VPS refers to a Virtual Private Server that lies somewhere between a Shared and Dedicated Server. In VPS, the server has multiple users, but each user gets an individual virtual server. Using virtualization technology the server is divided into numerous servers having their own Resources and Operating System. VPS comes at a budget-friendly price and is the most suitable option to start an eCommerce Business.
As per the recommendation of our experts, VPS Hosting Panama is the best alternative for new eCommerce Stores. Serverwala a recognized Global Web Hosting Company provides the most affordable and reliable Panama VPS Hosting. With their plans, you will get 99.9% Uptime, Superfast Speed, Premium Resources, and DDoS Protection. Also, their technical support team will help you with any problem you face 24/7.
Set Up Your eCommerce Website
After purchasing the Domain and VPS Hosting the next step in the process of starting an eCommerce business is setting up the website.
Set Up The Basic Website Pages
The first step in building the website is to set up the most commonly accessed pages. They are-
- Home Page
- About Us Page
- Contact Page
- Shopping Page (Most important for an eCommerce Store)
- Payment Page
- Terms and Conditions Page
Build the Payment Gateway
You need to provide your customers with multiple payment options. For the customers located in Panama Cash on Delivery (COD) could be a suitable option. So, make sure you provide this along with other online payment options. Some of the popular payment options are –
- Credit and debit cards
- Net Banking
- Paypal
- Stripe
Product Shipping
Shipping is a crucial factor to consider. The shipping charges and the return & replacements of products may cut a large share of your revenue percentage. So, either you may charge the delivery charges separately from the customers or already include them in the product price.
For the delivery of products, you may tie up with a delivery company. FedEx, BlueDart, ShipBob are some of the popular companies.
Promote Your Business
The last step is to attract customers by promoting and marketing the business. All the above steps are of no use if you do not market your business properly. You can use the following Online Business Marketing techniques.
Search Engine Optimization
With Google being the major source of organic traffic nowadays, it’s important to optimize your website for attaining higher search result rankings. SEO involves a set of activities that helps you in achieving it. SEO has two major components On-Page and Off-Page.
On-Page focuses on optimizing the loading time, webpages, and technical aspects of your eCommerce websites. While off-page SEO is majorly building the links of your website on other platforms.
Email Marketing
Email Marketing involves sending the newsletter, offers, coupons, etc to your email subscribers. Various email marketing services allow you to send multiple emails to your subscribers at one time. Regular nurturing of your target audience using email marketing is very effective.
Social Media Marketing
Social Media has become very popular in the past few years. It can be used to promote your products based on the demographics and interests of your target market. You can build your organic presence by regularly posting valuable content and interacting with the followers. Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, and Pinterest are some popular social media platforms.
Summing Up
When you start an eCommerce Business, you get the key to reach audiences across the globe which is certainly impossible with the brick and mortar store. But with the growing demand for online products, the competition amongst eCommerce stores has also risen. So, follow all the above-given steps to build an effective and long-lasting eCommerce Store.
Also Read: All you Need to Know About Reseller Hosting