How to Prepare Your eCommerce Store for 2021

In the midst of all the chaos in 2020, it seemed that eCommerce was the only niche that thrived. Of course, it was already growing at a fast pace, but the global pandemic catapulted the eCommerce world to new heights. Consumers were no longer shopping online for clothes and other luxuries.

Today, people are shopping for things like groceries, home essentials, health, and hygiene products, etc. Now that we have entered 2021, and there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight for COVID-19 the eCommerce world is only going to continue to grow.

So, if you want a piece of the eCommerce pie, now is the perfect time to get started. Here are four things you need to know to set up an eCommerce in 2021.

Find Your Niche

This may sound like an obvious one but, you would be surprised at how many people don’t think this step through properly. The eCommerce world is flooded, especially now. In fact, there are 24 million eCommerce stores worldwide!

According to Statista in 2019, 1.92 billion people purchased goods and services online. That’s a whole lot of competition, so you need to stand out. Do your homework, find a niche you love, and more importantly find a niche that will be the answer to people’s needs.

What problems are they having? What solution can you give them? Today, consumers are looking for convenience, simplicity, and immediacy. Another reason why you need to select a niche is so you know exactly how to use your resources and do the right marketing.

This leads us nicely to the next point…

Create A Marketing Strategy

this may sound a little cliche but, it needs to be said. If you think that this step isn’t important then you probably shouldn’t set up an eCommerce store. You might as well throw your money down the drain.

How will people find your store? What will make you stand out so that they buy from you and not your competitors? You need to put your product or service in front of people that are more likely to buy from you. It doesn’t have to be costly, social media is a powerful marketing tool if you use it correctly!

Don’t just think about your short-term goals, think long-term too. It’s not an easy task, it takes lots of research, trial and error, planning, preparation, and keeping up with trends.

Speaking of trends…

Keep Up With The Latest Trends

Although eCommerce is extremely popular, it changes at a rapid pace, and with so much competition you really need to keep up. You have to more innovative than ever before. You have to adapt and make the most of all these technological advancements.

Some new trends to look out for in 2021 include:

Artificial Intelligence
Mobile eCommerce
Voice commerce (Amazon’s Alexa, Google Home)
Eco-friendly products

Your business needs to stay seen and stay relevant. See what Amazon is doing, you may not have their budget, incredible tech, and marketing team, but even so, you can still learn a lot from eCommerce giants.

Check out your competition, follow other eCommerce platforms. Look out for the strategies they use or don’t use.

Offer A Variety Of Payment Options Like Consumer Financing

So, you have set up your store, done your research and planned out your marketing strategy. Now, you need people to buy from you. How many payment options are you going to offer? Sure, credit/debit cards, Paypal, Apple Pay, are the obvious ones.

When it comes to offering payment options, the more the better. More specifically, you need to offer consumer financing. Consumer financing, also known as buy now pay later, will increase your conversion rate. According to research consumers are more likely to buy from a business that offers consumer finance. If you are selling a product or service that is in the higher price range, consumers may need it, but can’t afford it.

Offering the buy now pay later option allows you to:

1. Retain more customers

2. It gives you the change to upsell and offer special incentives

Did you know that it is actually much easier and cheaper to keep loyal customers than attract new ones?

If you want to see your conversion rate increase you need to offer consumer financing from reputable companies like ChargeAfter.com.

The Bottom Line

The opportunities for eCommerce seem limitless, so if you are planning to set up, now is the perfect time to do so. But, you need to be prepared, the eCommerce space is thriving and competition is rife.

So, if you really want to take off, you must get the basics right so you can really be able to enjoy your success.