Ever thought of creating your own company but didn’t know where to begin? Here are 5 steps that could get you started!
The ongoing pandemic has accelerated the growth of e-commerce throughout the globe as consumers shopped online out of necessity. Data from the Office of National Statistics found that in the UK online sales in January 2021 accounted for 35.2% of all retails, higher than May 2020, when the coronavirus crisis was at its first peak.
Amid the third national lockdown, 50% of textile, clothing and footwear sales came through online channels in the first month of the year, declining to 37.4% for department stores.
Tom Holmes, founder of Wax London – a sustainable clothing brand for Men said: “Make sure to do your research. Understand why the customer would come to you because there are 100 people out there doing the same thing. You should be the difference.”
Step 1: Find your idea
You need to decide, what do people need? Focus on things that you know a lot about. What are you passionate about? Is it sports, football, art, fitness or cooking? It has to be something you are an expert in.
Step 2: Do your market research
The fundamental thing to be able to answer straight away is whats your point of difference? If you can’t answer, then maybe you need to keep working on the concept! You have to find your customer base and find out their interests and tailor your business to their needs.
Step 3: Decide how you’re going to make it
You need to decide if you’re going to buy your product in inventory (bulk) and make it yourself or are you going to use a printing service such as Printify or Printful. Who will print on demand and send it directly to the customer, a form of drop shipping.
Step 4: Create your website
It takes around 20 hours to create a website, but try to constantly think of ways to improve the site. This will improve the conversion rate which is the rate of people who purchase an item when visiting your store.
Step 5: Learn how to use social media and digital marketing
Create content that your target audience is going to enjoy and engage with. Growth on social media means people following your page, people will only follow your page if they enjoy your content and want to see more of it. People enjoy content that doesn’t try to sell them anything but simply is funny, relatable and potentially informative.