Wholesale E-commerce: How to Get Started

The gross merchant volume for B2B e-commerce globally was over 7 trillion US dollars in 2017. The huge revenue share is probably one of the reasons why many entrepreneurs are investing in wholesale ecommerce. Additionally, with an automated ecommerce processes, wholesalers can now make money without doing so much work.

Whether you are in B2C looking to get a share of the B2B market, or a new entrepreneur who wants to venture in wholesale, consider the following tips to help you in getting started.

Know Your Products and Customers

If you are not in business already, the first step is to identify what you want to sell and who you will be selling to. Many entrepreneurs make the mistake of skipping the customer evaluation process. You should not skip the process because it will show you how to set up your store and the most appropriate marketing strategies to use. Also, at this stage, identify a suitable storage location for your goods and shipping services to use.

Choosing An Ecommerce Platform

The next step is to choose a platform where you will host your store. Some of the factors that you should consider when choosing an ecommerce solution include the nature of the products you are selling, customizability, integration with other systems, sales features, customer service features, number of users, ease of use, security, mobile friendliness, SEO and support among others.

Most platforms offer a number of packages each with different features. The more the features, the higher the price will be. Thus, go through the features and pick one with only what you need to avoid paying for features that you will not use. You can always upgrade as your business grows. Check out WebJaguar B2B E-Commerce Solutions for an example of different packages.

Offer Multiple Payments Methods

Offering multiple payment methods allows many customers to buy from you. Having a number of payment options is an ecommerce tip that can reduce the cart abandonment rate for your store. Thus, in addition to debit and credit cards, you could consider PayPal and Skrill. Also, if you are targeting international businesses, you may want to look into a platform that supports multiple currencies.

Setting the Price

Setting the price, especially in a competitive market is a big challenge for many entrepreneurs. One mistake that you should avoid is setting the price too low in order to make more sales than your competitors. The strategy rarely works in most cases because customers end up doubting the quality of your products and the entrepreneurs makes meager profits.

The best strategy is to calculate the cost and add a profit margin. Don’t forget to take into account the cost of hosting your store, administrative costs and shipping.

Optimize for Mobile

Optimizing for mobile is an ecommerce trend to remember when setting up your store. A good number of the ecommerce transactions are completed on mobile devices. Thus, if your store is not mobile friendly, you may end up losing a number of customers. You can accomplish this by choosing a platform that is mobile friendly and avoiding cluttered pages.

Don’t be in a rush especially when choosing products, ecommerce hosting packages and shipping. Careful evaluation and comparison can save you a lot of headache in the future.