What Does it Take To Build An E-commerce Business?
E-commerce involves any type of business done online where individuals buy your items through the interface of a website or web portal. It could be an information product or a tangible good. A typical example of commerce business is that run on Jumia, Konka, Jiji, Olx and so forth.
They have a remarkable site that you can purchase goods and services from the convenience of your home and get them conveyed to your doorstep before or after delivery. The internet is free but when it comes to setting up an e-commerce business, you have to pay for the cost of setting up your eCommerce business website, advertorials, and branding to make it stand out. You can stack up goods in your home, shop, or warehouse and be offering them online to individuals upon demand.
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While there are big players in the Nigerian and African online business industry, there equally exists a large number of intending e-commerce business entrepreneurs void of information on the costs and how to start an online business in Nigeria or Africa. Many are scared of being misinformed.
They would appreciate if they can avail themselves of detailed information on the nitty-gritty of the business. And this, exactly is what this paper is about. That is, an envisage on What it Takes To Build An E-commerce Business in Nigeria.
What Does It Take To Build An E-commerce Business in Nigeria?
1). Site/Domain Setup:
An e-commerce business solely runs on a website or portal. You can’t run an e-commerce business without a website. What you need is to engage a good website developer or specialist to fix a decent and well-planned website for you at an affordable rate.
It should have a simple and memorable web address. The site should be secured – DCMA. It should have functionalities for online purchase and other basic e-commerce plugins and accessories like cart, shelves, automatic payment processor, etc.
2). Accessories:
These consists of basic software which can be installed on your site to process payment, create an account and take care of things like customer support.
3). Hosting:
Budget for your hosting and domain renewal. You can pay bi-quarterly, bi-annually or annually – the choice is yours. You’re also free to choose your domain extension such as .com, .com.ng, .net, .biz, .org, etc. this is the generic link via which visitors and buyers can access your e-commerce store to purchase things.
Your web host is where your website lives. For an e-commerce site, free hosting service is not recommended. This is to avoid issues like uptime or bandwidth. good, large storage space is also advised to avoid your slow response rate on your website.
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You don’t necessarily need an office space to run an e-commerce business. You can operate it even from your home. If you consider office space, it could be for official reasons. hardly can any shopper or buyer visit your workplace? As an e-commerce business grows, you simply grow with it and expand.
6) Website Security System:
In the world of competition, it is most likely that your competitors would want to hunt your business down. They may go to the extent of trying to hack your e-commerce business website, but if it was properly secured then they will not be able to achieve and ill schemes.
It is advisable to change your password on a regular basis and also avoid the use of weak passwords. This is a security measure to avoid being detected. As such, use long and strong password system with a combination of symbols, numbers, and alphabets. Intimate your web developer to frequently run a hacking test on the website to ensure that all loops are patched. Hackers most often lookout for loop to capitalize upon and progressively try to shut the site down.
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7) Proper Research:
It is important to do research on your e-commerce business website. Research plays a cardinal role when it comes to online business. Like every other business, there is a need for you to do a feasibility study, effective planning, market survey and customer utility test on your e-commerce business website prior to, during and after its launch.
By this, you would study consumer behavior, preferences, buying patterns and competitors threats.
8) Promotions:
Advertise your e-commerce business website on top websites and forums as well as the social media platforms – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. also engage the mass media such as, radio, newspaper, television etc. organize conferences, symposiums, seminars etc. to expose your business to wider reach of people who are looking for such services. And if its affordable you are good to go.
If you need more information on this, please make use of the comment box and I’ll to respond to you as soon as possible.
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