Author: Rodney Laws

You don’t need a degree to operate your very own ecommerce business, but you do need desire — and a cracking idea to get the ball rolling. 

Do you have the seedlings of a business idea ready-made for success? Ecommerce is a rapidly growing industry, home to unique opportunities and profitable niches — so there’s no better time to jump on the trend and build your dreams online.

Store builders like Shopify and WooCommerce are making it easier for the average Joe to set up a professional-looking online store, but one question remains: what do you fill the store with?

More and more people are leaping into entrepreneurship and the room for market innovation is endless. But in a world full to the brim with ideas, each business venture is paired with both inherent risks and enormous upsides.  

Read on as we discover a list of the best ecommerce ideas and a few examples to help spark your entrepreneurial inspiration. 

The best ecommerce business ideas

Ecommerce is all about connecting people with the right ideas. In this section we outline a few profitable niches with the help of some fantastic real-life examples: 

• DIY meal kits
• Men’s grooming kits
• Kids’ subscription boxes
• Dropshipping stores

Discover the best business ideas and get those ecommerce cogs whirring as we explore these niches on a deeper level. 

‘Do it yourself’ meal kits

Image: Pixabay

2020 has been a testing year for all business owners, but for none more so than those who operate in the hospitality industry. As we jump from one lockdown to another, our local restaurants and bars are left in the lurch, viciously yo-yoing between sudden closures and grand reopenings. 

From a consumer’s perspective, one of the biggest things we’ve missed is the comfort of attending our favourite eateries. Ordering a takeaway on Deliveroo always comes with a tinge of guilt, and — despite the desire to unleash our inner Gordon Ramsey — we quickly grow tired of our culinary repertoire, especially after polishing off the fifth spaghetti bolognese of the week. 

Thankfully there is a solution to our foodie woes: DIY meal kits. 

Restaurants affected by the coronavirus pandemic are exploring new online revenue streams to keep themselves afloat during lockdown, and meal kits are one brilliant example of this. 

These meal kits contain pre-prepared ingredients along with step-by-step instructions, so you can recreate restaurant-quality dishes from the comfort of home. 

The sudden trend of DIY meal kits showcases the versatile nature of ecommerce — and how it can be on-hand to help businesses survive through hardship. 

Here is one of our favourite examples so far: 

Pizza Pilgrims: Pizza In The Post

Image: Pizza Pilgrims

We first heard about Pizza in the Post on the Shopify Masters podcast — and just like good pizza, we couldn’t wait to share this ingenious idea with you.  

Pizza Pilgrims are a wildly successful Neapolitan pizzeria who boast restaurants across central London, including hotspots like Camden and Carnaby. When the pandemic spread, these bustling locations fell silent and were forced to close. So, with the registers empty and doors firmly shut, what was the next logical step? 

Nope — not Deliveroo… Instead, Pizza Pilgrims took a different approach by setting up an ecommerce pizza store on their website. This way they’re able to securely mail fresh ingredients across the country, without fear of it arriving stale or ruined. 

Now, with the store up and running, its popularity has exceeded owners Thom and James’ wildest expectations. 

If you’re not a skilled pizzaiolo, it doesn’t matter, because Pizza Pilgrims have you covered with a frying pan method guide to use when your ingredients arrive. Sorted.

Fancy yourself to be an ecommerce entrepreneur in the making — or simply relish the idea of distributing great food around the country? Use Pizza Pilgrims’ Pizza in the Post idea to inspire new ecommerce business opportunities. 

Men’s grooming kits

When we hear the term ‘subscription service’, our minds conjure up images of Netflix and Amazon Prime — or we flashback to the magazines we read as children. But subscription services, or more specifically subscription boxes, rose to prominence in the early 2000s and are fast-becoming an ecommerce heavyweight. 

Forbes says subscription boxes are here to stay, which makes these goodie bags an ideal foundation for your ecommerce business idea. In a world full of choice, these boxes allow people to escape their comfort zone and try new things, yet they also serve to make our daily routine a little more streamlined. 

Take men’s grooming kits for instance, which make perfect sense as a set-it-and-forget-it subscription service. A monthly grooming kit can keep you stocked up on the essentials like shavers, moisturiser, and hair wax without ever needing to give your morning routine a second thought. 

Men’s grooming kits come in many forms and cater for almost any need: beard nourishment, dental care, skin care, and fragrances, just to name a few. 

In a saturated market it pays to stand out from the crowd — but how do you do that? Here’s how one ecommerce business became one of the most widely-recognised men’s grooming brands:  

Dollar Shave Club

Image: Dollar Shave Club

Dollar Shave Club is an iconic subscription-based grooming kit known for its quality products and ability to personalise your orders. The idea started with a simple problem: people buy razors and shave regularly, so they need to be replaced.

Dollar Shave Club identified that this product category lends itself seamlessly to a regular subscription model, hence why they recorded an impressive 23.40% customer retention rate back in 2015. 

Fast forward to the present day and the company has kept the name, but expanded far beyond shaving supplies to become a real all-rounder. They now supply kits tailored to individuals containing a range of items: cleansers, shower soaps, and oral care products too. 

What’s the secret ingredient to Dollar Shave Club’s success? Customer care. Every move the company has made has been taken to bolster consumer experience — you can even take a quiz to find out which of their products suits you best. 

Kids subscription boxes

As we’ve seen with grooming kits, subscription packages are a rich tapestry for ecommerce opportunities. But now many marketers are moving into new territory and exploring a much broader (and far younger) demographic: kids subscription boxes. 

Kids subscription boxes are a rapidly growing trend. In fact, out of the top five ecommerce product categories, ‘kids’ experience some of the largest growth spurts of any ecommerce niche. 

In such a broad market, there is plenty of scope for new products — but to make the most of the opportunity, you need to decide what parents and their children value most. 

On one end, you’ll have kids to entertain; on the other, you’re providing a tool to parents that makes their job a little bit easier. Take these examples for instance: 

• Nike Adventure (children’s shoes)
• ToucanBox (colours & crafts)
• Mud & Bloom (connecting children with nature)

But our standout favourite has to be BakedIn — a baking club subscription box ideal for keeping kids entertained during the lockdown months. Here’s the overview of our top children’s subscription box: 

BakedIn

Image: BakedIn

Good food is fast becoming the ultimate crux of lockdown life — and while parents share a fine-dining experience with restaurant standard meal kits, kids can explore their sweet tooth by making some BakedIn treats. 

Applauded by the Independent as the best kids subscription box around right now, BakedIn boxes boast a non-wasteful approach to baking by pre-preparing every ingredient for you, which means no unnecessary trips to the shop or potential flour explosions. 

With various avenues to explore, the kids subscription box is a creative and plentiful ecommerce niche. All you have to do is think about your theme and all the goodies to fill the box with — and in that sense, it pays to be a parent or a big kid yourself. 

Launch a dropshipping store

Ecommerce is a fantastic avenue to explore if you’re starting a business on a small budget — and to go one better, consider dropshipping as your go-to method of distribution. 

You don’t need a warehouse stacked to the rafters with inventory, nor do you need a wad of startup capital. Instead, dropshipping lets you explore profitable ecommerce niches on a budget by sourcing pre-existing stock from a supplier and have them take care of fulfilment. 

So how does dropshipping work? 

Although the jargon might feel intimidating, the process is widely adopted because of its simplicity. When an order is made, you purchase the product from a third party wholesaler like Oberlo who handles tracking and delivery. 

Adopting a dropshipping method means you dodge many of the potential worries that come with running a startup business: stock management, storage, and mailing packages. And as you don’t keep large quantities of stock around, dropshipping also provides a greater degree of flexibility, something which allows you to experiment and fine-tune your market research. 

Need help picturing the potential of this ecommerce business idea? InspireUplift is one example of a wildly successful dropshipping store. Here’s what they’re all about: 

InspireUplift

Image: InspireUplift

Dropshipping is an ecommerce shipping method with bags of potential — and if you set up anything like InspireUplift then you’re onto a winner. 

InspireUplift is one of the oldest and most successful dropshipping stores on the web today. Starting life back in 2015 (under the name Hype Dojo) they went through a rebrand in 2017 and haven’t looked back since. 

As a general store, InspireUplift sells anything from quippy t-shirts to sink caddy racks, but this broad niche is what has founded their success. By selling useful tools and cool gadgets to a women-led demographic, InspireUplift has created a business which generates millions a month. 

Dropshipping is no overnight success story or get-rich-quick scheme, the key is to keep chipping away and refine what best works for you and your market. If the dropshipping method piques your interest then check out this helpful guide. 

Choosing an ecommerce niche 

Image: Pixabay

90% of ecommerce startups fail in the first 120 days — a statistic that experts say is a result of bad business planning and poor search engine visibility. 

If we’re talking about an idea your heart is set on, the thought of failure is a bitter pill to swallow. However, it’s something you need to consider — not least because it’ll be you who is emotionally and financially liable for doubling down on a bad business plan. 

When scrutinised under a business lens, your big idea might mutate from a homerun into a foul ball; after all, there are a lot of boxes to tick off when it comes to turning an idea into a viable company. 

Ecommerce success starts with knowing your target market, solving people’s problems and catering to their desires.

Not only does your ecommerce idea need to solve a problem, but it also has to tell a compelling story that makes consumers choose you over your competitors. Here are two steps you should take before choosing your niche and powering on with an ecommerce idea:

Consider ‘The Golden Circle’ of business storytelling

The Golden Circle is an idea theorised by acclaimed author and all-round marketing guru Simon Sinek. He suggests the difference between most companies and the Apples and Microsofts of the world is the word why. 

Where most companies build a story around what they do, really you should be focusing on why you do it. So, if you’re thinking about ecommerce opportunities for your startup, ask yourself this in descending order of importance: 

Image: Wikimedia

Why: the core beliefs of your startup and why it exists.

How:  refers to how you fulfil your core beliefs.

What: answers what the company does to fulfil why.

The key thing to remember when formulating the perfect ecommerce idea is to realise people buy into who you are rather than what it is you sell. 

After all, ecommerce is a big market — there are likely thousands of others who do what you do, but your unique story is what puts you ahead of the pack. 

Perform a SWOT analysis

A SWOT analysis — or SWOT matrix — is an evaluation of your ideas strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It’s a method of planning which evaluates the validity of your business proposal, with the process being able to be carried out across industries, products, and even people. 

Many aspiring entrepreneurs are advised to perform a SWOT analysis. Not only does it indicate a business’s chances of success, but it also results in research that fuels new opportunities and competitive strategy further down the road. 

Image: Pixabay

Strengths: consider what your ecommerce idea has going for it and ask: is it cheap to set up like a dropshipping store — or perhaps your company culture sets you apart? 

Weaknesses: this should be a list of things that hold your idea back like a lack of capital, little to no immediate brand recognition, and the overall emotional hardship of running a business. 

Opportunities: here you can dare to dream and think about your ecommerce store’s future: what lies ahead — and can you establish an expansion strategy when business picks up? 

Threats: every idea has a list of threats that put everything at risk, be this market competitors, legal issues, or sole liability for the business. 

SWOT analysis is an incremental tool to help you understand the health of your ecommerce business idea. 

Some business plans fall in line and flourish into successful organisations; others fall flat at the first hurdle, doomed by the inherent risks of business management. But all of this starts by evaluating your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. 

Are you ready to bring your ecommerce business idea to life? We can discuss potential ideas and create a detailed plan as big as Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, but sometimes it’s best to kick off and get things started.

Use our list of niches as inspiration, consider the risks, and go off to create the next big ecommerce success story.

 

 

Shopify is one of the most popular ecommerce platforms, used by thousands of retailers around the world, but there are plenty of other platforms out there and many reasons to use an alternative to Shopify. 

In the guide below, we take a look at seven  of the best Shopify alternatives to help you decide which one is the best fit for your online retail store:

Why should you consider alternatives to Shopify?

If you’ve done any kind of research into different ecommerce options, then you’re bound to have come across Shopify. It’s one of the best known platforms out there — it’s incredibly easy to set up, and provides all the tools that you need to establish and grow an ecommerce business. 

However, it does have certain limitations that mean it’s not the best choice for all retailers looking to set up an online store. 

While Shopify provides templates for stores that can be customised — which are great for getting started quickly — you might want to do more with the design or add extra features to your website that Shopify doesn’t support. 

You also need to consider and prioritise customer experience when choosing a platform. If you want your site to have a more creative or advanced design, then you might be better off looking for alternatives to Shopify or creating your own custom website. 

It’s also worth bearing in mind the cost of Shopify. The initial monthly fees are fairly reasonable but as you start to use more apps to add more functionality to your site, you’ll have to pay additional monthly fees — and these can quickly add up to a very significant amount. 

For small businesses just starting out online, it could be worth considering one of the more affordable or free Shopify alternatives.  

The best Shopify alternatives

There are a lot of Shopify alternatives to choose from. 

Some offer more advanced features, some are more suitable for smaller or larger businesses, and there are also a number of free Shopify alternatives. 

Below we’ve outlined some strong options that are worth considering: 

BigCommerce

Image: BigCommerce

BigCommerce is a highly versatile ecommerce platform, and their Enterprise platform is ideal for larger businesses with lots of products. They do offer an Essentials platform with three pricing tiers, but these are quite expensive.

This platform gives you everything you need to create a great online store, with multiple options to choose from with each element — although this may overcomplicate the setup. There are only a few free themes, so if you want something more unique you’ll need to pay for a premium one.

BigCommerce is also good if you’re selling on other platforms as well. You can manage stores on Amazon, eBay. and several other channels all through BigCommerce.

Pros of BigCommerce

• You can have up to 600 product variants as part of your standard set up. In comparison, Shopify only offers 100 product variants, unless you use an app 
• BigCommerce doesn’t charge any transaction fees
• It’s very good for SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) — making it easier to improve your store’s rankings

Cons of BigCommerce 

• BigCommerce pricing plans have a sales threshold — if you go over it you’ll be moved to a higher plan 
• It’s not very easy to create content pages such as a blog or ‘about us’ 
• There’s no option to have a multi-language store unless you code it yourself 

Why is BigCommerce a good Shopify alternative? 

BigCommerce does have some similar cons to Shopify, so you need to consider whether it’s worth the more complicated setup, and how much value you’ll get from the additional features. 

However, for big ecommerce stores, the product management capabilities are going to be far better than Shopify. One thing you do need to be careful about is moving up into the next price plan as your sales increase. 

Volusion

Image: Volusion

Volusion is a popular ecommerce platform for smaller or growing companies with some technical knowledge. 

Pricing plans start at $29 per month, which is similar to other platforms, but this only allows for 100 products, and also has limitations on turnover, user accounts, and access to features.

Pros of Volusion

• It comes with lots of features for marketing, upselling, cross-selling, and improving product pages 
• Volusion has some useful promotion options including the ‘Deal of the Day’ which takes users to a dedicated landing page 
• No transaction fee charges for any payment method

Cons of Volusion 

• You can’t have a blog for your store that’s fully integrated with your site 
• It’s more complicated than Shopify and it can be a bit difficult to use 
• If you exceed your allocated bandwidth you can end up paying a lot

Is Volusion a good alternative to Shopify?

If you have some technical and coding skills or you’re willing to pay a developer, then Volusion offers a lot of potential. It also provides a lot of features and tools that will help with marketing your ecommerce store and increasing sales. However, you need to consider the impact that not having a fully integrated blog might have on your content marketing plans. 

Squarespace

Image: Squarespace

Squarespace isn’t just an ecommerce platform for traditional online retailers — it’s a website builder that offers functionality for artists, musicians, and bloggers to monetise their businesses. 

It’s fairly easy to set up, with a wide range of plugins, and no limit on the number of products you can sell. It also offers one of the best blogging tools of all the Shopify alternatives listed here.

Pros of Squarespace

• Squarespace offers a lot of potential to design a completely unique website and offers a number of themes that are easy to set up
• It has a lot of features for ecommerce businesses such as social media integrations, inventory management, and tools for marketing your business
• You have access to 24/7 email support, live chat, and a big help library. However, there is no phone support

Cons of Squarespace

• Squarespace is one of the more expensive Shopify alternatives, with no free plans
• It offers limited payment options, primarily using Stripe
• The templates that make your website look great are quite restrictive, making it harder to tailor the design
• Aside from social media integrations, Squarespace doesn’t offer many other third-party apps that you might want to use

Is Squarespace a good alternative to Shopify?

Squarespace offers all the key ecommerce functionality that you’ll need to set up an online store and it’s very easy to get started. 

It’s a good Shopify alternative for retailers looking to use a simple tool to get started with — however, some of the limitations might be frustrating for growing ecommerce businesses.

Wix

Image: Wix

Wix is another popular website builder, and for ecommerce businesses, it offers a very accessible platform for creating an online shop. It has 100 different templates, which are all customisable, and a big range of apps and plugins for adding live chat, payment systems, coupons, and anything else you might need.

It’s really easy to get started with the Wix ecommerce website builder. You can either use an automated assistant that creates a site based on how you answer a series of questions, or you can use the Wix Editor for more control over the website building process.

Pros of Wix

• Wix is straightforward to use with a drag and drop editor. It also has lots of tutorials and guides to help with setting up and running a store
• Its price plans are very affordable and Wix has no transaction fees
• Lots of templates and design options to make a completely unique online store

Cons of Wix

• The lower price plans have bandwidth and traffic limits which most other platforms don’t have
• While Wix does have a lot of apps and plugins, it’s not as many as Shopify offers

Is Wix a good alternative to Shopify?

Wix is a good value Shopify alternative that offers a really easy store builder and a lot of useful features that growing businesses will use. 

On the downside, it’s not quite as customisable as Shopify, and it doesn’t integrate with as many other tools and software.

It’s also worth noting that Wix used to have a bad reputation when it came to SEO, but it seems that they’ve resolved this now — so it is possible to rank with a Wix website. 

Magento

Image: Magento

The Magento platform is free like WooCommerce, and you have to pay for hosting, themes, and plugins. It offers a lot of potential, especially for larger ecommerce businesses or stores that are looking to scale. 

However, it’s not as easy to set up as Shopify, or the other Shopify alternatives listed here. If you don’t have some fairly good technical skills then you’re going to need to hire a developer to get your ecommerce store up and running using Magento. 

The community version of Magento is free, but it does mean that you have to set up and develop it yourself. Otherwise, you can pay for the Enterprise Edition which gives you access to support from Magento developers — but costs a considerable amount. 

If you sign up to Magento now you’ll be using Magento 2, which offers improved speed, is more SEO friendly, and has better checkout systems than Magento 1. 

Pros of Magento

• Magento is completely customisable and offers responsive website designs
• No monthly charge for using the platform
• Lots of tools, integrations, and extensions are available

Cons of Magento

• Not for beginners — you need to have some coding skills or be willing to hire a developer

Why is Magento a good Shopify alternative?

Magento is the best alternative to Shopify if you’re looking to have complete control and flexibility over the design and functionality of your store. It’s probably not a good ecommerce platform for smaller businesses due to the amount of time and money you need to invest to get it set up.

Best free Shopify alternatives

If you’re just starting up an ecommerce business, or your store is fairly small, then you might be looking for free alternatives to Shopify. 

There are a few options to choose from but the best two free Shopify alternatives are WooCommerce and PrestaShop, as they both offer enough functionality to run and grow a successful ecommerce store. 

We go into them in further detail below:

WooCommerce

Image: WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a plug-in to create an ecommerce store on a WordPress website. It has a lot of useful features for a very reasonable price. It’s effectively free — you just need to pay for hosting, domain, a theme, and any extra plugins you want to use. Many plugins are available for a one-time payment or annual cost, so they don’t add on to a monthly fee. 

However, you do need to know your way around WordPress so it’s not that easy for beginners. 

Pros of WooCommerce 

• WooCommerce is highly customisable. You can add plugins for pretty much any functionality you might need as your store grows 
• It’s easy to create customer logins and administrator accounts to segment who has access to what 
• There are hundreds of templates to choose from and plenty of great free ones 

Cons of WooCommerce 

• It can be quite hard to get started, especially if you haven’t got experience with WordPress
• There isn’t any support offered by WordPress — you have to rely on researching online or hiring a developer to fix any problems 

Why should you choose WooCommerce instead of Shopify? 

If you’re already familiar with WordPress then it’s definitely considering WooCommerce as a good alternative to Shopify. It offers a lot of the same functionality and it could work out cheaper than Shopify as well. 

However, the lack of support from WordPress is something to be aware of — it’s not always easy to identify and fix any problems with your online shop.

PrestaShop

Image: PrestaShop

PrestaShop is one of the best free alternatives to Shopify, although you do need to pay for hosting and buy a domain. Themes and templates aren’t as advanced as the ones that Shopify has but PrestaShop offers a lot of the features and functionality that smaller businesses are going to need, especially considering the pricing. There are no transaction fees and unlimited products and attributes.

Pros of PrestaShop

• It’s a great free alternative to Shopify with no additional transaction fees or limitations
• Great for multinational, multi-lingual stores — PrestaShop supports 65 languages, multiple currencies, and international sales 
• PrestaShop Metrics tools give an overview of traffic, sales, conversion rate, average spend 

Cons of PrestaShop

• A limited number of free themes and templates
• Not as many features and plugins available as Shopify
• It can take some time to learn how to customise your site, or you might hire a developer

Is PrestaShop a good alternative to Shopify?

For smaller ecommerce shops that are just starting out PrestaShop is one of the best free Shopify alternatives. It’s also a great option if you want to sell globally, with built-in multi-language functionality and multiple currency options available.

However, it doesn’t have a lot of features and add-ons that will make it easy to scale the business. 

If you’re frustrated with Shopify’s limitations or costs and you want something different, then there are some great alternatives to Shopify out there. 

These are the best Shopify alternatives, but it’s important to find the right one to suit your business and your future plans. 

If you’re hoping to scale your business quickly then it’s important to consider a platform that offers more advanced features and can help you to grow. Many of these ecommerce platforms will offer a free trial so you can get a better understanding of how it will work for your store before you commit to it. 

For most ecommerce businesses, delivery of the products is the only physical contact customers will have with the online store — so it’s crucial that it goes smoothly and provides a great experience. 

That’s why it’s really important to pick the best ecommerce shipping solution for your business to provide a reliable, cost-effective service.

In the guide below, we’ll be looking at some of the best ecommerce shipping providers out there, as well as ecommerce shipping best practices, how to set up shipping rates for your ecommerce business, and anything else you should know. Read on to learn more.

Comparison of best ecommerce shipping providers

Before we get started, here is an overview comparison table of the best ecommerce shipping providers. We’ll be covering them in more detail further on in the guide. 

Name	Type of software	Costs (Lowest and Highest)	Features
Shippo	Cloud-based shipping software	-Pay as you go 5c per label -Professional $10-125/month	-API access -Carrier discounts -Unlimited platform integrations -Shipping notification emails -Customs forms
ShipStation	Cloud-based shipping software + inventory management features	Starter $9 per month – 50 shipments/1 user Enterprise $159 per month – 10,000 shipments/10 users	-Branded labels and packing slips -Email & community forum support – Order management – Inventory management
Veeqo	Cloud-based inventory and shipping software	Accelerator – $156 per month – 2 users Premium – $260 per month – 5  users	-Order management -Parcel tracking -Mobile app -Branded labels and packing slips -Shipping rules
Shipping Easy	Cloud-based shipping and customer marketing software	Starter $0 – 50 shipments Premium  $99 per month – 6,000 shipments	-Carrier discounts -Order management -Customs forms -Shipping rules -Reporting
Easyship	Cloud-based ecommerce shipping software	Free – 100 shipments per month/1 user Premier – $49 per month/5 users	-Unlimited platform integrations -Reporting -Branded automated messages and tracking – Discounted rates -Order management

 

What is ecommerce shipping?

Ecommerce shipping broadly covers services designed to make it easier and more affordable to ship products to customers from online retailers. 

While smaller ecommerce businesses might use regular postal services such as UPS and FedEx, as a business grows they will need to find dedicated ecommerce shipping solutions that provide a faster, more efficient way of managing their shipping.

This is where ecommerce shipping providers come in.

What are the ecommerce shipping best practices?

If you’re shipping products to customers and using an ecommerce shipping provider, you need to make sure that you — and the provider — follow best practice.

But what exactly are the ecommerce shipping best practices?

Clear shipping costs

It might be tempting to hide your shipping costs until someone is about to checkout, but it’s actually just going to put them off completing their order. Be upfront about shipping costs, include them on your product pages or make them easily accessible so that shoppers can see exactly what they’re going to be spending. 

Show estimated delivery date

Customers also want to know exactly when they can expect items to arrive, so it’s always important to show an estimated delivery date. And don’t promise a delivery date that you can’t keep — always try to get your orders there earlier than you’ve said, or provide tracking so customers can see where it is. You’ll dramatically reduce the number of customer service inquiries about orders or complaints when items don’t arrive when they are expected.

Resolve problems quickly

Items are bound to go missing from time to time, which is why you should use tracked delivery services as much as possible. But when there are problems, don’t mess your customers around; they don’t want to hear excuses. Apologise, track down their order, let them know what’s happened, and give them a refund or discount if necessary. 

Branded packaging

The packaging you send your products in is an important part of your ecommerce business. It’s not as simple as getting your products to customers in one piece (though this is the main priority when it comes to packaging) — it’s also an opportunity to give shoppers a good experience unwrapping their order. Packaging is a chance to market your brand. 

Choose the most suitable packaging whether that’s cardboard boxes, padded or non-padded envelopes, or poly mailers, which can be more lightweight and versatile. Then consider whether you want to brand the outer packaging, how you present the items inside, and what branded materials (packing slips, flyers, offers) you can include with the order. 

Image: Pexels 

Labels+

Many small ecommerce businesses will start off handwriting the shipping address, but it quickly becomes too time consuming, and prone to mistakes. You should look at using ecommerce shipping services that connect orders with your shipping courier so that you can automate your labeling process and print them in bulk. 

Tips on how to set up shipping rates for your ecommerce business

When you’re setting up your ecommerce shipping policy you need to start by deciding how you are going to charge your customers: 

Free shipping 

You can either offer free shipping on all orders or you can offer it based on certain conditions. These conditions could be a minimum spend, a limited-time promotion, selected items, or shoppers can choose between free slower shipping or fast, paid shipping. 

It’s important to remember that you’ll have to cover the cost of shipping somehow, so if your customers aren’t paying then you need to work that into your product prices or other costs. 

Charge courier rates 

If you can’t offer free shipping then one way of charging is offering customers the real-time carrier rate. You can calculate the shipping costs based on the customer’s address and the size and weight of their order. This makes shipping costs transparent for the customer — they’ll be able to see that you are just charging them what the courier charges, and you’re not gaining anything from them. 

Offer a flat shipping rate 

This is one of the simplest shipping rates, but it only works out well if you have products that are similar size and weight. You need to look at the average cost of shipping out your products to figure out the best flat shipping rate. However, if your orders range dramatically in size and weight then you’ll be overcharging and undercharging for shipping a lot of the time — and either you or the customer is going to lose out.  

Delivery speed

Most online shoppers now expect their orders to arrive within a few days, and a lot of people are willing to pay more for next-day delivery. Unless it’s a big bulky product or there’s high demand, customers won’t want to wait longer than a week for delivery. 

It’s best to offer a range of shipping options — next day delivery at a premium, and standard shipping that can take 4-5 days. Consider the average delivery times for different couriers when you’re making a decision, and ensure that you pick someone who can reliably meet your estimated delivery times. 

International shipping  

While shipping internationally can open you up to a much larger customer base, it can involve a lot more admin. Different countries will have different restrictions and requirements about what can be brought into the country, import taxes and duties, and customs forms. 

You’ll need to have a good understanding of what products you can send where, and it’s best to work with an experienced international shipping provider to ensure everything is taken care of. 

Image: Pexels

Pick-up options 

Shoppers are increasingly looking for flexibility when it comes to deliveries. 

If you have a brick-and-mortar store, then it’s worth offering in-store pickup so customers can get their items quickly and you don’t have to ship them. Visiting customers may even be enticed to buy more when they come in to collect their goods. 

Some couriers also offer options for customers to have their orders delivered to drop-off points to collect at a later date. 

How to calculate ecommerce shipping costs

The shipping rate that your chosen carrier charges will be based on the size and weight, origin and destination, plus customs charges or duties, and insurance or tracking. Most popular carriers will provide shipping calculators so you can work out what your costs will be. You may be able to get discounts for large volumes or business accounts, depending on the service you use.

It’s also important to work out how much your packaging is going to cost — and you need to take into account the overall cost of fulfilling each product when working out shipping costs..

Add up the cost of the product, packaging, shipping, customs, and the payment processor fee to get to your total. Depending on what profit margin you’re aiming for, you can either charge the right amount for shipping or work the cost into your product price. 

Best ecommerce shipping software 

Ecommerce shipping software is intended to streamline your dispatch process and save you time. 

It’s always best to consider what your budget is, what features are essential, and how easily it will integrate with the ecommerce platform you’re using for your store.

Here are some of the top ecommerce shipping options:

Shippo

Shippo provides straightforward and easy to set up shipping automation for ecommerce businesses. They have integrations with all the main ecommerce platforms, and API access to create other integrations. 

Shippo offers discounts with USPS and DHL and on insurance rates. It works on a  pay-as-you-go pricing model, which means that retailers sending less than 5,000 orders per month don’t have to pay a monthly fee, just five cents plus postage for each order. For larger volumes, their subscription plans go up to $125 per month. 

ShipStation 

ShipStation is another cloud-based shipping platform that includes features such as custom views, shipping rules, and reporting tools — as well as a handy mobile app. 

ShipStation integrates with most platforms you might need, as well as offering a custom integration feature. 

They offer subscription plans starting at $9 per month for up to 50 orders, and they go up to unlimited shipping for $159 per month.  And they also offer a discount on USPS shipping. 

Veeqo

Veeqo is primarily an inventory management system, but it can include shipping software functionality as well. While the focus is on product and inventory management, it does integrate with most other ecommerce platforms and offers some simple reporting tools. 

Because it’s not just shipping software, Veeqo is one of the more expensive options with prices starting at $156 per month. However, it could be worth investing in it if you’re considering a few different ecommerce business tools as this combines them into one. 

Best free ecommerce shipping solutions 

Many ecommerce shipping solutions will offer a free plan for smaller businesses or a free trial, so when you’re starting out you can try their software without committing. 

ShippingEasy

ShippingEasy is a very user-friendly, simple shipping solution that’s aimed at small to medium ecommerce retailers. If you’re shipping less than 50 orders per month, then it’s completely free. They also offer several carrier discounts and integrate with most other ecommerce platforms. 

Shopify Shipping

If you’re using Shopify for your ecommerce store already, then they actually include a Shopify shipping solution as part of your subscription. It doesn’t have many advanced features, but for small businesses, it’s a pretty simple solution that works well enough. They also offer discounts with a number of carriers.

Ecommerce shipping considerations for dropshipping businesses 

If you’re running a dropshipping business — where products are sent to your customers directly from the supplier or manufacturer — then the shipping process is mostly out of your control. 

However, it’s still crucial that you’re checking up on how your products are being shipped, how long they are taking, and the condition they arrive in. 

Image: Pexels

Before you start dropshipping, you need to do some test orders from your suppliers and discuss with them which couriers they use, what delivery times they can offer, and the packaging that they are going to use. And once you’re up and running, keep an eye on customer feedback and reviews to check how your orders are being shipped. 

If items are arriving late or damaged, you need to discuss with suppliers whether you can switch couriers or improve the packaging. Poor deliveries can very quickly ruin your ecommerce store’s reputation. 

From different carriers to packaging, there’s a lot to consider when you are setting up ecommerce shipping. 

One of the most important things to start with is working out the cost of shipping. You need to know how much you can charge your customers or how you can incorporate the shipping cost somewhere else to offer free shipping. After all, you don’t want to end up losing money on your shipping. 

And, as your business grows, if you’re going to start using an ecommerce shipping software solution, then take advantage of free trials to find the one that works best for your online store. There’s a perfect ecommerce shipping solution out there for everyone.

Do you know how much your dropshipping store is worth?

I’m not just talking about how much net profit you’re generating month-to-month, but also, how much would buyers on the open market be willing to purchase it for. 

To answer these questions, it first helps to understand what goes into valuing a dropshipping store. From there, we’ll tell you all the tips that you can start implementing right away to increase your valuation and maximise your exit. 

Whether you’re thinking about selling now or you’re still getting to grips with the tools, running your store as if you’re planning to sell it down the road can help make your business more profitable. This is because a business’s valuation rewards more than just net profit. 

How to value a dropshipping store

The formula for valuing a dropshipping store is as follows:

12 months average net profit x multiple (typically 20–60+)

The average net profit should be something you can calculate pretty easily. If you haven’t created a profit and loss statement, then this will be an important first step to get your financials in order.  

The second part of the formula is the valuation multiple. This is where you can look to improve the value of your dropshipping business. There are many factors that go into determining this valuation multiple, but here are some key areas that you should focus on. 

Diversify income and traffic

A one-product store is the starting point for many drop shippers, but there is a lot you can do to multiply your success after that starting point. 

Diversifying operations to include multiple products will improve your store in more ways than one. The first and most obvious is that it brings in more profit. The knock-on effect of that is it spreads the risk out so you aren’t reliant on the success of a single product. 

Buyers of dropshipping stores are aware of the competition that comes with the business model. To alleviate this fear, build on the success of your store by adding additional products and diversifying your sales. 

An easy way to begin this is to add colour and style variations of existing products, where possible, to get some quick wins. While this is a good starting point, different but complementary products should be added to make your store even more appealing. Keeping the products in the same niche allows for cross-sells, which makes it easier to sell more products. 

A similar line of thinking can be used for channels you use to drive traffic to your store. Paid advertising is the main one that’s usually used and can bring instant results. To build more of a fortress around your store from competitors, consider adding additional traffic sources. 

Using search engine optimisation in the form of ranking your product pages or a blog to diversify traffic and lower your customer acquisition cost. Social media is another way to do this, but both options take time, so it pays to start implementing them early even if you don’t want to sell just yet. 

Building a dropshipping store with multiple successful products and traffic sources makes your business a much more attractive prospect for buyers, so it will receive a higher multiple when you do reach the point of selling. 

Shore up the supply chain

The ability to run an e-commerce business without handling inventory is the beauty of the dropshipping model. 

If your supplier is running a tight operation, then it’s important to get this locked down in writing. It might be possible to negotiate a better rate with them if you’re doing a high volume of orders. Also, ask about an exclusivity agreement, which makes it harder for copycat sellers to start selling your exact product. 

The bottom line is that all of these details should be outlined in a contract where possible. One of the first questions a potential buyer is going to ask is how your supply chain works. Responding that the supplier contracts are in place to be transferred to a new owner will make their life easier and your business more enticing. And the deal is even better if it comes with improved rates that are unique to your business. 

The money’s in the list

Email marketing is a big winner for almost any kind of online store. 

An email list acts as your very own marketing channel. You don’t have to worry about your ads becoming overpriced or a google update tanking your search traffic. Instead, you’ve built up a warm audience of people that you know are interested in your niche. 

This is a huge asset to have and the bigger the email list, the bigger the valuation multiple tends to be. It increases even more if you can monetise your email list, and there are quite a few ways to do so.

New product releases become easier if you can do an email blast to promote your new product to people that have likely brought something similar previously. Discounts for holidays and on customer birthdays are also great customer incentives. Abandoned cart campaigns can do wonders to improve your profits, and your email list can also be uploaded to your Facebook ads manager to do retargeting and lookalike campaigns. 

There is so much potential with an email list, so set up a capture form early on. Consider promoting a discount or free downloadable to help it grow that much quicker. You might not have time to grow a considerable number of subscribers if you’re planning to sell soon. In this case, setting one up is a good start, as it can largely be run in the background once the initial setup is done. 

Outsource your operations

Most buyers don’t want to spend a large sum of money to buy a business only to work more hours than they already are. 

If you’re spending more than 15 hours a week on your business, then consider hiring people to take some of the workload off your shoulders. For example, virtual assistants can be hired from sites like Upwork and Freelancer to help you with administrative tasks, such as customer service and order processing. 

Having a dropshipping store that operates with little involvement from you is a good sign to buyers. It means that they can take over the reins knowing that the day-to-day operations are being handled, allowing them to focus on improving the business or running it hands-off. 

Creating standard operating procedures, which detail how to perform day-to-day tasks like order processing, is a necessity. This should give the buyer all the important information on how to run your business and makes hiring new people easy. 

How to sell a dropshipping store

Now that you have an understanding of how to value a dropshipping business, it’s time to value yours. 

Getting an impartial valuation is the best way to see how your business is doing. From this point, you may choose to sell, or you can spend some time building up your store to sell at a later date. 

Use our free valuation tool to get an accurate valuation that’s built on the latest sales data. It takes less than five minutes to fill out, and you can connect to one of our Business Analysts who can give you an overview of the sales process and give you more detailed exit planning advice. 

You might be surprised by how much your dropshipping store is worth. 

Guest Author:  Max Lapit is part of the Marketing Team at Empire Flippers. Before joining the company, he was involved in creating content sites and copywriting. Outside of work he can be usually found watching sport or travelling the world to watch it. He’s hoping to take in more new places after memorable trips to Budapest and Croatia.

Blogging is one of the most effective marketing methods open to ecommerce businesses.

Blogs offer an array of benefits for online stores: they generate leads, increase relevant web traffic, engage prospective customers, outline brand values, and so on. Beyond that, it’s relatively easy to do, requires no extra software or tools, and can be done anywhere at any time.

If you’re writing content for your online store today, you need a blog post template to go with it.

But why is using a template for your blogs such a good idea?

Creating high-quality ecommerce blogs on a regular and consistent basis can be difficult. Writing fresh content is a time-consuming task, and blog templates speed up the process by giving you a clear direction of where to go.

Using a template for your articles saves you time, guides your writing, and helps you create an engaging blog post that your customers will actually read.

We’ve created this essential list of ecommerce content templates to help you quickly and easily create a great blog post. Read on to discover eight great ideas for your ecommerce blog post calendar to suit any occasion.

Blog post template #1: listicles

Revered by some yet reviled by others, you can’t deny that the listicle is a popular format of digestible content that readers love. It’s compact, concise, and perfect for a mobile-first age.

And listicles are flexible too. You can choose whatever theme you like to collate your listicle around, as long as it’s relevant to your audience’s interests.

Generally between 5-20 points long, they can be strategies, tools, techniques, tips, even memes — whatever resonates with your target audience. But for ecommerce, products also make great listicles.

Don’t be afraid to lighten up your listicle with a little humour — listicles are quick, digestible blog posts, and a joke here and there makes them easier to read.

The anatomy

Your listicle should contain:

• One overarching theme: recipes, style, products, etc
• 8-10 resources related to your theme, with the following:
  • High-quality image
  • Link to each
  • Concise but engaging description
  • Prices (where applicable)

Blog post template #2: roundups

A roundup post is a great way to reuse old content by transforming it into something new. It’s also perfect for when you’re stacked out with Christmas or Black Friday orders but you need to fill your content schedule in a pinch.

The best roundup posts are those that cater to different audience segments’ specific needs. They will vary depending on your customers and what other competing content you’re up against, but they all generally follow the same structure.

Remember — just because you’re reusing old content, it doesn’t mean you can simply reproduce it and leave it at that. Give it a bit of a shine by adding in some fresh copy and intersperse some images or memes throughout.

The anatomy

Your end-of-year roundup should contain:

• A brief intro for each post
• 5-10 of your top-performing posts from the past year, including:
  • Links
  • Prices
  • Photos
  • A short but engaging description

Blog post template #3: interviews

Interviews are an ecommerce content quick win. They’re easy to do (most of the content is provided by your interviewee), great for nurturing relationships by showing some love, and deliver insight from a fresh perspective.

Beyond that, interviews also cement your position as an authority within your niche. Speaking to an expert in your industry shows you’re active and engaged within your niche, rather than a passive observer.

Finally, interviews offer a great chance to amplify your content too. If they’re interesting or valuable, your readers will (hopefully) share your interview with others too. This generates valuable social shares that increase your content’s SEO and brand value.

Remember to offer open-ended questions to encourage your interviewee to offer more information. If you want to know more about something but your interviewee has clammed up, simply politely ask them to elaborate a little for you.

It’s also a good idea to acknowledge your interviewee’s expertise. Praise them for their knowledge, and then ask them a question — you’ll get a lot more out of your interview by creating a positive connection between the two of you.

The anatomy

Your interview should include:

• An interviewee: someone relevant to your industry that your customers will find interesting. If you’re struggling, it’s worth using tools here — influencer marketing platforms are a good way to find relevant people in your niche
• 8-10 interview questions: try to go beyond the usual and craft questions that elicit insightful, interesting responses
• A good photo of your interviewee. If possible, take an original snap that you can share in your social media promo.

Blog post template #4: gift guides

In the run-up to gift-giving events such as Christmas or birthdays, customers often need a little inspiration. Gift guides collate this inspiration into one handy place, helping shoppers find the perfect present to buy their loved one.

As well as helping the individual with gift ideation, these gift guides also function as shareable wish lists for your customers to pass on to their friends and family. For those shoppers struggling to find that perfect gift for a distant aunt for Christmas, your gift guide might provide the inspiration they need.

Beyond that, gift guides can also be optimised for search engines for other struggling customers to find and use for inspiration. This is a handy SEO trick that helps you take advantage of seasonal web traffic, giving your online store a welcome boost in the SERPs.

The anatomy

Your gift guide should contain:

• A selection of 10-15 products (of which at least a third should be yours)
• High-quality photos of each product (at least two)
• A short but snappy description of your product, with price and any discounts
• A link to each product page.

Blog post template #5: how-to guides

How-to guides are great content that drives traffic by helping your customers out. They’re useful and informative, and make for some superb evergreen content too.

People often turn to the web to find out how to complete a specific task, or if they need advice on an issue. These tutorials are your chance to deliver that knowledge, solve your audience’s pain points, and drive traffic to your online store too.

Indeed, how-to guides are also a great opportunity to showcase your expertise within your niche. Position yourself as an authority and deliver value to your customers with comprehensive instructional guides.

The key to creating a great how-to guide blog post is to make it accessible. You might know all the necessary jargon, but your audience probably won’t. Keep it simple — short sentences, basic vocabulary, and no fluff. Include only what is necessary and make it as readable and accessible as possible.

The anatomy

Your how-to tutorial should contain:

• Keyword research: use keyword research to identify what kind of queries your audience is searching for. This will help inform what kind of guides you create
• A brief into explaining what you’ll be teaching your readers, why you’re teaching it to them, and how it will help them
• A step-by-step breakdown of the entire process
• Images for each step to better visualise the process (where applicable).

Blog post template #6: newsjacking

The word ‘newsjacking’ was coined by the marketing strategist David Meerman Scott in 2011. It refers to the practice of adding your own opinions and insights into a current news story, often as it’s breaking.

For ecommerce businesses, this is a huge boon. Newsjacking places your brand into real-world events. It shows that you are active and current, engaged with your industry in real time.

By responding to industry news and providing your opinion on it, you educate your readers and position yourself as a thought leader rather than simply an observer.

Of course, it’s important to tread carefully when newsjacking. It’s easy to stray into difficult territory, and many brands have fallen into the trap of being tone-deaf in their attempts to analyse or insert themselves into the news.

Strive to offer a fresh insight, but be wary of going too far in an attempt to be unique. If in doubt, ask someone to proofread your blog before you publish — a second pair of eyes can be useful for spotting problematic copy.

The anatomy

Your gift guide should contain:

• A compelling intro that shows why your audience should care about the story
• A link to the original news story: this helps your readers contextualise your piece
• 2-3 excerpts of the original story: these serve as anchors for your opinions.

Blog post template #7: trends

People like to know what’s current — something buoyed by the real-time nature of social media.

Being in touch with what is happening right now as it happens is essential, particularly in ecommerce. Style-savvy fashion customers always want to stay ahead of design trends, for instance, and tech geeks are always eager to know about the latest gadgets. 

Trends blog posts help you provide that to your audience — they’re a chance to deliver insight into the future of your niche.

Like other content templates on this list, sharing a trend blog shows that you are engaged in your niche and that you are at the forefront of your industry. It builds your authority as a brand, a valuable thing when it comes to expanding your customer base and growing your store.

But beyond all this, trends blog posts show that you are an active, exciting brand that cares about your niche. It is this that sets your ecommerce business apart from the rest, demonstrating an energy and passion that extends to your customer community.

The anatomy

• 3-10 genuine trends within your industry: these need to be current. Don’t simply rehash trends from last year (unless they have developed in a significant way) — make your content stand out by listing real, relevant, and current trends
• Solid research: while it’s certainly possible to rewrite a list from other resources, you likely have the requisite knowledge and expertise to be able to recognise developing trends within your industry
• Actions: how will these trends impact your industry, your business, or your customers?

Blog post template #8: beginner’s guides

Whether it’s learning how to tie your shoelaces or finding the perfect method of making scrambled eggs, every journey starts with a single step.

As an online store, you can help your customers take that step with simple, easy-to-understand beginner’s guides. You know your industry and your audience inside-out, so you’ll know how to educate people about your niche too.

These kind of article templates are essentially entry-level how-to guides, designed to help complete novices understand elements of your industry. They provide actionable value to your audience that they can take away and use.

But beyond this, beginner’s guide templates build your authority too. They depict you as a source of knowledge and expertise, increasing your value as a brand as a result.

The anatomy

• Use clear, basic language: avoid unnecessary jargon wherever possible, or include explanations to help your audience get to grips with your guide
• Keyword research: identifying the most commonly-searched queries, especially those with the suffix “for beginners” or similar, will help you create content that actually resonates with your readers
• Use visual aids where appropriate to help cater to different kinds of learning within your audience.

The ecommerce blog templates above are just a few examples of possible content ideas for your online store. You can use them as they are, or tweak them for your own purposes — whatever suits your online store’s goals.

Whether you’re still getting to grips with content marketing for ecommerce or you’re just struggling for inspiration, these blog post templates will help you create engaging, relevant content that your audience will love, time and again.