How to Start a E-commerce Business in NYC
With pandemics and social isolation becoming the norm in many countries, the business has mostly gone online, with a sharp increase in the number of people shopping online. Companies can now transition from brick-and-mortar stores to digital stores.
According to the Digital Commerce survey, 81% of businesses anticipate increasing eCommerce sales following the COVID-19 situation. It also states that global sales rise to $2.68 trillion from $2.08 trillion in 2020.
However, the question remains as to how to start an eCommerce firm in New York City. Creating an internet presence comes with a slew of challenges.
Here are the top 10 Steps or guidelines to Starting an Online Business in New York:
- Explore various eCommerce business models
- Build a website or app
- Establish Customer Trust
- Provide excellent client service
- Be Customer-centric
- Seek Customer reviews
- Follow social media trends
- Invest in SEO
- Optimize your website and register with Google MyBusiness
- Make strategies to attract customers to your online store
Expert Tips to Start an eCommerce Business:
- Explore various eCommerce business models
This is the initial step in addressing your question on how to start an eCommerce company. Before you begin putting out the plan for your firm, you must first choose an appropriate business model based on various business features, like what you sell, whether you are offering products or services, your organization’s size, etc. Create a well-researched model to assist you in seamlessly scaling and growing your firm.
- Build a website or app
Build a website, app and create a brand identity. According to Statista, there are more than 113 million iPhone users in the US accounting for nearly 47% of all Smartphone users in the US. Building an app can help in scaling your business, reliable iPhone app developer can assist you to achieve it.
- Establish Customer Trust
One of the most effective methods to set yourself apart from the competitors and scale your business is to earn your clients’ trust. However, securing and retaining customer’s trust is challenging, especially if you are new into the business.
Consider these suggestions for establishing a reliable online brand. Your reliability online is enhanced by reviews, ratings, and recommendations. According to a report by Statista, about 85% of consumers globally bought the items through the internet.
- Provide excellent client service
The inability of eCommerce businesses to allow shoppers to touch, feel, and try products before purchasing is the critical drawback of an eCommerce business. You can compensate for this issue by providing additional features.
Offering proper pricing, providing free delivery, making the buying process as simple as possible, and making the checkout process seamless with simplified shopping carts are some of the best things that attract consumers and keep them loyal to your site.
- Be Customer-centric
People will lose faith in you if you fail to deliver on the promises stated in your marketing. Create a specialized service team and set high criteria for customer service speed and quality. Customer loyalty and retention will increase due to excellent customer service, as will your reputation as a customer-centric company.
- Seek Customer reviews
Additionally, 79% of customers (and 91 percent of 18- to 35-year-olds) trust online reviews just as much as personal recommendations. It’s vital to include average ratings and customer evaluations on your ‘About Us page and each product page. Additionally, encourage your happy customers to submit an online review for your company.
- Follow social media trends
Ignoring social media presence can be your greatest blunder. In reality, social media serves as the heartbeat of your company, providing you with an unending window into the lives of your customers.
Social media can be an essential part of your company’s decision-making process. When it comes to Instagram’s evolution to help eCommerce businesses, the company recently announced to solely focus on the app’s eCommerce features by forming a separate team.
- Invest in SEO
More businesses will enter this increasingly competitive area as the eCommerce industry continues to proliferate. Even if you had a list of 1,000 SEO ideas, you wouldn’t be able to focus on what you should do to improve your search engine ranking.
There were 2.2 trillion Google searches in 2013, yet 90% of consumers only visited the first three results. Thus, if your product is towards the bottom of the page, you can only rely on the remaining 10% to reach your site.
- Optimize your website and register with Google MyBusiness
Consider optimizing your titles, URLs, and descriptions, as well as providing meaningful and new content, reducing your website’s loading time, implementing Google authorship, and registering your site with Google My Business.
- Make strategies to attract customers to your online store
The first step toward good traffic is to have a solid marketing strategy. You may need to use multiple marketing tactics and platforms depending on your target population. If your items are designed to meet the needs of millennials, for example, you should advertise through appropriate channels, including social media.
In a nutshell!
Starting an eCommerce business in New York City requires specific permissions and licenses as any other type of business. According to the law for establishing a business in New York, specific rules must be followed.