The world of eCommerce is both stressful and rewarding. It is changing constantly and competition is fierce. Yet a quality strategy along with some time and dedication can produce tremendous results, making it an attractive choice for many entrepreneurs.
But because it has so many benefits, building a quality eCommerce store can be quite difficult. It is easy to run into roadblocks along the way and get discouraged. But don’t get discouraged. This is normal—it occurs in every industry—and overcoming this adversity will bring your businesses to new heights.
However, building and running an eCommerce store isn’t all about profits, although they are certainly important. No, it is also about building a functional, efficient and valuable business. It is important to take a holistic approach so that you can create something that will stand the test of time and be able to weather any storms that may come your way.
Let’s take a look at how to do this.
First, let’s take a look at why it is so important to increase the value of your eCommerce store. A profitable business is not always valuable. For example, you may be turning huge profits, but if you don’t have a long-term strategy or ideas for future growth, that well may dry out at some point, leaving you gasping for air in an ever-deepening sea of eCommerce businesses.
Business value is less about what your company is worth now and more about what it can be worth. Where is it going? How will it get there? Is there a plan? Are there structures in place to help carry out that plan?
Building a highly-valuable business has benefits beyond just the pride you will feel for starting a company from scratch. It helps to attract investors so that you can exploit new growth opportunities, and it will help you fetch a much higher price should you decide to sell your business down the road.
So let’s take a look at some ways to help build the value of your eCommerce store.
The world of eCommerce is fiercely competitive. To be successful, you need to stand out from the crowd. And you need to have authority. If you are recommending or comparing prices, people need to trust you. Otherwise, they won’t follow your advice and buy what you are selling.
A way to build this trust is by taking time to construct a brand. What are you about? What are your company values? Why should people trust you? What does doing business with you mean? Answering these questions will help you clarify what type of brand you are building, and it will strengthen its standing with customers.
A business with a strong brand is more valuable. Plain and simple. Why is Coca-Cola considered to be so valuable? Its tremendous profits are part of it, but what really sets it apart is that people see those fancy letters on a red background and they instantly know what they are getting. That kind of branding is priceless.
Don’t expect to achieve these results right away—Coke has been around for ages. But this is the idea that you want to chase if you want to turn your eCommerce business into something with real value.
Pricing has a tremendous effect on a business. The land of pricing is strange and ever-changing, and it’s one you may not know a lot about. But it can have a tremendous effect on your business. Good pricing strategies help you stay in front of competitors and to maximize profits.
Using pricing software to help you stay in front of trends and employing an aggressive pricing strategy can lift up the value of your eCommerce, mostly because it shows the business’ sustainability moving forward. You’re not going to end up being beaten by competitors on price, and because you are constantly working to reduce costs to provide a better price, you can expect to take the heat from those competing with you.
By this point, if you’re in eCommerce and aren’t at least familiar with SEO, it might be time to admit you’re a bit out of touch. Search engines and organic search are the top source of traffic to your website. You need to be paying attention to where you rank in search results.
SEO has tremendous value in driving revenue. It brings people to your site, and then from there, you do all you can to convert people into buyers. In some ways, it’s a numbers game. The more people that come to your site, the more money you make.
But having a robust SEO strategy makes your business infinitely more valuable. It demonstrates a commitment to driving constant traffic to your site, and it is far more cost-effective than other strategies. If you are already ranking well for valuable keywords, and have a plan in place to stay there, you’ve just made your eCommerce site that much more valuable.
We’re all familiar with the expression ‘time is money.’ It could not be more true when talking about eCommerce. We mentioned earlier how competition is fierce. You constantly need to stay ahead of your competitors. One of the ways to do this is to keep costs low so that you can keep prices low without sacrificing profits.
You need to be constantly revising and redoing different processes so that they can be done more quickly, efficiently and cheaply. Leave nothing untouched. Just because you’ve always done something doesn’t mean you need to keep doing it. In fact, these are often the perfect opportunities to do something different. Instilling this in your company culture will make your business more valuable as it will demonstrate your ability to stay competitive in the short, medium and long-term.
Keeping good records will help make it easier for you to determine where you are so that you can identify areas for optimization and streamlining. It also helps keep you out of trouble with regulators and authorities, something that can destroy the value of your businesses if you’re not careful.
Employing these tactics will help make your business more valuable, attract investors, encourage growth and ultimately bring even more profits and value. Put them to use and transform your eCommerce business today.
Jock is an internet entrepreneur and founder of Digital Exits, a business brokerage specializing in working with digital businesses and eCommerce stores.