Consolidate your own financial position – Minimize personal expenditure and budget all personal and business spending, making sure your finances can withstand the (probably lean) initial months of your venture

A typical internet-retailer business plan will look something like the following:-

Form a plan of action – make sure you indicate where you want your company to be in six months, two years and five years from now.  Try to be realistic, unless you have a huge advertising / marketing budget sales will probably grow quite modestly.

Consider your products – if you don’t already have a product, decide on the products or services you wish to sell

Identify your target market – who is going to buy your products? Do they use the internet? How much money on average do they spend on this type of product?

Identify suppliers – establish where and who you will source your products from.

Establish profitability – what will your products cost, what price will they sell for and what other fulfillment costs will you incur… illustrate with appropriate documentation that your product is profitable?

Analyze  your competitors – who are your main competitors? and how can you create a competitive edge?

Analyze your business model -  (How, What, When, Who & Why) ask yourself as many questions about your business as possible and then answer them all in your business plan.  Ask friends and family to be objective about your proposed business, take any concerns or criticism on board and provide answers in your business plan.

Purchase sample products – make some sample purchases, remember to order in small quantities so you can confirm the legitimacy of the supplier, check the quality of the goods and make sure there is a market for the goods.

Test your market on eBay – before building a complete retail environment test your product sales on eBay.

Decide on your e-commerce infrastructure – research and decide what e-commerce software is best suited for your requirements and if necessary, decide who to register and host your domain with.

Choose your payment gateway – research which payment gateway is best suited to take your credit card receipts.

Populate your infrastructure with your products – load your products into your e-commerce software, paying special attention to accurate, informative product descriptions and high quality product images.

Experiment with various on-line marketing techniques – PPC & CPC, Search Engine Optimization ‘Content SEO’ & ‘Link building’, Forum Contributions, Blogs etc. etc… your traffic building techniques will become an ongoing task but you need to decide and plan the techniques you intend to use to build traffic momentum to your new on-line venture

Analyze your site for weaknesses – is your site fast?  Do all the procedures work?  Are there any broken links?  Are your products well categorized and easy to find?  Is your site easy to navigate?  Is your site atheistically pleasing? Are all potential reasons why your site may not convert visitors into sales!

Analyze your competition for improvements – look for anything your competitors do that is better or cheaper than you.  Where possible add or make improvements to your site so it is better and/or cheaper than all your obvious competitors.

All these topics and many more are discussed in detail on this site

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