When you’re running an online store, you’ll know that there are several advantages to retailing on the internet. For one, there are none of the overheads associated with running a physical store. You’re also selling not just too your local town or neighborhood, but to a world of people when you set up a store online. But perhaps the most exciting aspect of running an online store is that you can scale it: you’re able to move from selling ten products a day to ten thousand without having to shift your efforts too much. Here’s how you’ll make that scaling possible, in three easy steps.
1. Preparation
Before you make your efforts to scale, you’re going to need to prepare yourself and your business for the inevitable shocks that come with scaling fast. That includes the shocks to your workers, the shocks to your processes, and to the partners that help deliver your products. As such, consider preparing:
- A reserve of staff you can bring in at short notice to help manage huge demand peaks
- A reserve of stock so that you can keep getting packages delivered fast if demand increases
- Your partners and customers, by explaining the scaling efforts you’re making
You should also ensure that all your partnerships are robust enough to deal with an increased flow of cash and orders in advance. That goes for your web hosting, your shipping firm, and even your payments providers.
2. Scaling
Now it’s time to work on scaling your online firm. This is easy to do, and merely requires you to pull the usual levers in order to reach more customers and to encourage them to trade with your firm. If you’re especially keen on ramping up your marketing efforts, you should certainly partner with a marketing agency that has experience working with ambitious e-commerce firms. Head over to nuancedmedia.com to see how this could work for your firm.
When you’re pushing a marketing drive in order to scale, it’s important that you have the budget and the cashflow ability to finance this big push, often devoting at least $5,000 to your marketing. The more decisive the push, the more likely you’ll be to achieve the scaling that you’re after.
3. Consolidation
Finally, you’ll want to consolidate your position by ensuring that all of the extra customers you now serve are going to have a positive experience with your brand and your store. Companies that scale and reduce the level of customer service they offer as a result often tend to decline shortly after, as poor reviews and disgruntled customers drive away custom down the line. So you need to concentrate on getting those packages to doorsteps on time.
This might mean working extremely hard on the delivery side of your obligations to your customers, or it might simply require you to hire an extra customer services expert who can help you navigate life with many new customers, some of whom are likely to have questions and complaints for your firm.
There you have it: three simple steps to help you effectively scale your online store in 2022.
