Our experience of launching an Ecommerce Website

An Ecommerce Adventure with Rock My Roost

Our Ecommerce adventure starts with Rob & Warren having a passion for design, the web and a burning desire to launch an Ecommerce business.

A couple of things before we start

Expectations - Launching an Ecommerce business is not something that happens quickly. Previous experience may speed things up a little but there is so much to do.

Your business and website will be an ever changing project that is never finished.

Broadly, Online sales have grown year on year and recent news from the primary retailers shows 2013 was no exception...so you’re making the right decision.

The beginning of the adventure

What to sell?

• What got us excited?• What was diverse and expandable?• What could we sell that we were interested in and more

importantly what a customer would be interested in?• What product was manageable to buy, receive and ship?• What products could we make a reasonable profit margin?

REsearcH, Research, Research

Following a lot of research we decided that Spring Fair 2013 (or similar trade shows) was the best place to go and meet suppliers and get some perspective of the retail world. I would advise anyone looking to set up an Ecommerce store to do the same.You get to speak to some very helpful people that are extremely willing to answer your questions about things like:

• Minimum order quantities• Drop shipping or stock• Product availability

Homeware

We came away from the show with a clear idea of the suppliers that we wanted to use and the products that we wanted to sell.We had settled on Homeware and furnishings for a number of reasons:

• There is a large market (homeowners)• It gives us flexibility to diversify into all sorts

of products in future• We absolutely love products for the home• We can have some fun when marketing

the products with trend ideas and interior design tips

Branding

Probably the hardest part of the project. We decided early on that we want to build a brand so a lot of thought went into the name.

We wanted the logo to be contemporary but also appeal to our intended primary audiences who we identified as Adults 28+ (principally women).

We also wanted the brand to have some personality.

• Exciting yet daunting prospect• Detach yourself - think about the customer• Ask the suppliers what products are selling well• Ask the suppliers what the upcoming trends are• We tried to get the largest range possible for the budget we had

Purchasing Stock

• Create a beautiful on brand website. It’s your first impression• Focus on usability• Make finding & buying products an easy process for visitors• Create promotional areas. Marketing banners, featured products etc• Think about your on page SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) for each page• Create ‘Content Marketing’ opportunities

Creating THe Website (Design)

• Make sure the system driving the website enables you to easily update it

• Easily manage products, orders, sales & discounts• Responsive (Adapts for mobile devices)• Security

Creating THe Website (DEvelopment)

Photography

Packaging

Packaging is a research project in it’ s own right.

We shopped around a lot for packaging as we wanted to get the best value for our money.

We also put a lot of thought into buying packaging that we could use for a variety of product types.

Ecommerce project Checklist

• Registration of company/domain names• Setup of business Social Media accounts.• Design concepts and design finalisation of the website• Development of the website. There are many features on our

website so this was a very long process.• Competitor and price research.• Creating the product spreadsheet data to drive the website• All product photography - Often the supplier’s photography

is basic. Remember this is what may entice visitors to buy so good quality photography is a must.

• Writing all of the product descriptions, measuring and weighing all products.

• Writing all other website content e.g. home page, delivery, returns, blogs.

• Opening a bank account and applying for a merchant account. This can take some time so I would advise doing it sooner rather than later. However the merchant application will want to see a preview of your website so you will have to wait until you have this.

• Setup a Royal Mail and Courier accounts.• Creation of marketing banners and marketing material.• Purchase SSL Certificate.• Testing and Launch.

Ecommerce project Checklist

• Our website will never be finished as we are always improving it.• We have some fantastic marketing & PR ideas.• Develop our product range.

Launch & THe Future