If you are considering quitting your salaried position and joining the thousands of people that earn their living selling on a digital platform, there is much to consider. There’s never been an easier time to create your own business, and with digital solutions, you do not need a huge amount of capital to start trading, simply choose a cheap Windows VPS, create a suitable website and away you go!

E-Commerce Platforms

A shopping cart website is quite easy for a web developer to build, and, of course, your design ideas would be incorporated, and with the right products presented in a professional manner, your platform is almost ready.

Payment Gateways

When trying to attract the online consumer, the more payment options you have, the better. Here are some examples of preferred payment gateways that you should provide:

• Major credit cards
• PayPal
• Direct bank transfer
• Bitcoin

It is your goal to make the user’s purchasing experience as smooth as possible, and by offering a wide range of payment methods, you are doing just that. Digital currency is most definitely the future and setting up a Bitcoin virtual wallet is relatively easy, and within a short time, digital transfers will become the norm.

Digital Marketing

It is essential that you join forces with a leading SEO provider, and for example, let’s say you sell bathroom tiles; when a consumer is looking for large floor tiles, they will type suitable keywords into a search engine and your website would show up in the search results. This is known as search engine optimisation, which is critical for every e-commerce platform, and the SEO specialist would use a number of strategies to improve a website’s ranking within a search result. This must be an ongoing service, as the Internet changes almost on a daily basis, so don’t think of your digital marketing as an optional extra, as it most certainly is not.

Reliable Supplier

Whatever you are selling, you need to be sure that your supplier is reliable and has adequate resources to handle a high volume of orders, and it pays to do a lot of research before entering into any agreements with suppliers or wholesalers.

Logistics

You might, for example, have the supplier send the products to the customer, or indeed, you may have your own warehouse and logistics operation, although this is a drain on your resources and perhaps the best solution is to outsource order fulfilment to a 3PL provider. They would have your packaging and would pick, pack and deliver on your behalf, and it is essential to have fast and reliable deliveries, which a third party can ensure at all times.

Obviously, there needs to be a high demand for your products, and you should try to come up with a unique concept that offers something that other suppliers do not. You might be price focused, or offer a comprehensive service, but you do need to present your company in the right way.

If you plan accordingly and have untold amounts of energy and determination, there’s no reason why you can’t build an online business empire.