Starting an online business - Part 2 - Launch

For anyone interested in starting an online business who has landed on this page directly without reading our first blog in this series, we recommend reading that first.

It is available here – Starting an online business – Part 1 – Pre Launch

For everybody else, who has been there and done that, we welcome you to the second part of the process of starting an online business – the launch phase.

This blog entails covers the first steps that you would be taking in this phase along with some insights on the processes as well.

A. Platforms - Marketplaces -

Irrespective of the product category, pricing, packaging and size – you should register on Amazon. Is is not only a mrket place but has become one of the biggest search engines that is in use today.

Next come Flipkart, Meesho and Snapdeal. For any new brand without previous e-commerce experience, these 4 should be good enough to begin with and test some waters.

For the more category focused brands or more experienced brands, there are a few category focused marketplaces as well, mentioned below –

- Fashion – Myntra, Ajio
- Beauty – Nykaa
- Electronics – TATA Cliq

One also needs to however know that these category specific platforms work on ‘an invitation only’ model and the registration process also differs from other marketplaces.

The brands needs to approach these platforms mostly through references and strike up a conversation. A lot here depends on the networking skills and relations that a brand or their representative can build.

B. Product Cataloging -

All the energies that you spent in the pre-launch phase in getting the good pictures of your product range will be utilized here.

To put simply, in this step, you have to fill up a spreadsheet with all the product information including pricing details, add links of product images to it and upload it on your seller portal.

Now to tell you the truth, it is not that simple.

Many categories have ‘variants’ – multiple versions of the products with different attributes. For ex. in clothing – sizes, food – flavours etc. Listing such products is time consuming and can often get rejected.

Listing rejections are cases where your information or the way it was submitted was not accepted by the cataloging system and corrections need to be made.

Correcting rejections is another time consuming process and might be a daunting task for an inexperienced person as clearing every rejection is like learning a new lesson.

And while doing all this, one also has to remember to make the listings look good – both in terms of imagery and content.

You have to keep this one rule in mind throughout the process –

It if does not look good, there is no way it sell good.

C. Pricing & Discounts Management -

Your products’ Maximum Retail Price (MRP) and Selling Prices (SPs) will be one the primary factors that will decide how your products will sell. However, they would not work by themselves in silos but in tandem with another inseparable attribute of online business – discounts.

You need to plan the selling prices with and without the discounts for at least one year. This should be done with complete and clear understanding of the Marketplaces’ Charges and Commissions structure.

This varies from one marketplace to another but most commonly includes logistics, category commissions, closing fees, listing fees etc.

One sad but interesting fact here is that many sellers or businesses are never fully aware of all the types of charges marketplaces levy upon them. They only take into account what is very clearly visible and decide their selling prices as per that.

Eventually they end up making losses and closing down as they never are able to comprehend what are they receiving in hand from the sale of their products.

D. Managing Operations

Completing the registration processes and uploading the product details correctly on the platforms in not a battle half won, it has just begun, to be honest.

Running an online business on marketplaces is a full time job – for one person or more depending upon the product range that you carry.

For businesses selling on only one platform, managing inventory is relatively easy vis-a-vis someone who is selling on multiple platforms. Businesses going online for the first time will find it even more difficult.

And this is not limited to inventory alone – a seller also has to make sure that the final selling price of their products after all discounts and offers does not have much variance across the multiple platforms that they are selling on.

The multiple tasks that a business needs to perform in operations can broadly be grouped into 3 categories –

Inventory Management – Managing inventory across various platforms and offline business if that exists as well. The objective here is to always showcase the correct inventory that is actually available at the seller’s warehouse.

Order Management – Fulfilling orders within the Turn Around Time (TAT) is crucial to maintain a good seller rating which is directly related to orders.

Returns Management – Except if you are selling a product that fall into ‘no-returns’ category, be ready to accept returns – courier returns as well as customer returns. How good is the condition of the returned products will determine your next course of action.

To summarize -

Running a e-commerce business involves a lots of processes and tasks that need to be done on a daily basis – these tasks require specific skills and experience as well.

Many businesses think having an in-house team will be better as they can fully utilize the resources for the remuneration that is being offered.

However, building a team like this is not an easy task. We have seen many businesses wasting a lot of time and energy trying this which eventually hurts the business profitability in the mid and long run.

Outsourcing to a specialized team is definitely the better thing to do. So you can focus on your work and let them do theirs.

Contact Amidora Infotech for building a sustainable e-commerce business right from day one.

Starting an online business – Part 2 – Launch