Grow Your Start Up e-commerce business in Australia! Here’s a blueprint to start that right

1. Phone: +61 3 901 35868 Email: info@designomate.com PLANNING TO START YOUR E-COMMERCE BUSINESS IN AUSTRALIA? HERE’S A BLUEPRINT TO START THAT RIGHT.

2. 1 Decide what you want to sell and target Are you planning to start an online store in Australia? Well, you couldn’t have picked a better time to do so. The country’s grow- ing economy in the e-commerce sector gives you the perfect op- portunity to make some serious profits. We know that starting an e-commerce business needs a lot of hard effort and a deep understanding of the steps required to make it come to life. That is why we have brought you a simplified but a comprehensive blueprint to help you get started in no time. 2 Know the cost of building store 3 Register domain name & business 4 Learn about SEO 5 Build your store on right ecommerce platform 6 Create a 360 Degree Marketing Strategy to expand your reach 7 Create a great shipping plan 1. DECIDE WHAT YOU WANT TO SELL AND WHOM The very first step of starting your own business (online or otherwise) is to decide what product range you want to sell and to whom, i.e., a target audience. For this, you need to determine your business model, whether it’ll be a B2B(Business to Business) model or a B2C (Business to Customer) e-commerce store. Once your business model and target audience are decided, it’s time to figure out how to obtain the products. Whether you want to be a manufacturer, wholesaler or want to opt for drop-shipping method, it’ll be the foundation of your business. If you’re planning to import and export goods, you’ll need to get the import and export license as per your country’s norms. Though the US Custom and Board Protection (CBP) doesn’t need a license to import or export goods from United States, you need to take into consideration the rules and regulations of your respective country for a smooth working. If you’re planning to drop ship your products from China, you need to take into consideration product safety standards (i.e. AS/NSZ standards) and substance restrictions (i.e. AZO dyes). Also you need to make sure that your supplier has US and EU compliance documents to get the custom duty clearance. 2. KNOW THE COST OF BUILDING THE STORE Apart from the cost incurred in purchasing of products to be sold, there are a lot of other expenses that you need to take into account beforehand. Such as business registration cost, bank fees, gateway service fees, domain name & hosting prices, postage cost, GST/ Tax, PayPal cost, server security cost and most importantly the cost of your time.If cost calculation looking tough, you can get in touch with DesignOmate’s Ecommerce expertand they will help to figure out the price to start the ecommerce business.

3. 3. REGISTER YOUR DOMAIN NAME & BUSINESS Once you have decided a strong business plan and taken into account the substantial expenses, it’s time that you get your business registered by taking Australian Business Number (ABN) or an Australian Company Number (ACN). An ABN is 11 digit number issued by Australian Tax Office (ATO) to all businesses and associations while an ACN is a unique 9 digit number issued by Australian Secu- rities and Investment Commission (ASIC), issued to those who are willing to trade under a registered company. You do need to have an ABN to register a business name and you do need to have an ACN to register an ABN sochoosing the right mode of registration will depend on the nature of your e-commerce store. It is advisable that your domain name and business name match and correspond to the products that you wish to sell. By doing so, it is likely that your customers will remember you better. 4. LEARN ABOUT SEO 5. BUILD YOUR STORE ON THE RIGHT E-COM- MERCE PLATFORM You’re on the right track to getting started with your e-commerce store, but even before you start building your Ecommerce by hiring best ecommerce web design company or try do it yourself, you need to understand the basics of search engine optimiza- tion (SEO). Most of the business owner do it wrong by jumping on designing their Ecommerce store without a SEO plan. If you’re unaware about SEO, then there are many tutorials which can help you understand the basics of SEO and moz.com is one them. Now that you are through with deciding what to sell, whom to trade, business and domain registration, it is time to select the right e-commerce platform for your business. This is the most crucial step as it is the foundation of your online store. DesignO- mate offers the most user-friendly e-commerce platforms such as Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, etc., to help curate the on- line store that your business demands. 6. CREATE A 360 DEGREE MARKETING STRATEGY TO EXPAND YOUR REACH The final yet forever essential step to reach the targeted audience is marketing. Once your online store is up and running, you need to opt for a 360-degree marketing strategy to bring customers to your website. Your marketing strategy will depend on your niche.

4. 7. CREATE A GREAT SHIPPING PLAN Having a shipping or logistic plan is the last step when starting an online store and indeed an important step. If the shipping doesn’t go right, you won’t be able to land a single sale for your e-commerce store. There are a number of options of logistic companies avail- able to choose from such as FedEx and UPS that deliver your products over the globe. Make sure to check out registration process, pricing, speed of delivery and quality of packing before you start your online store. Having a blueprint is just a beginning to the challenges that lay ahead. We, at DesignOmate, are here to become your troubleshooters every time you come across a hurdle. Need the perfect marketing strategy? We are here. Need help with the Search Engine Optimiza- tion? We are here. Need a mobile app for your store? Guess what! We are here! Need an e-commerce website designer? We are here. A good book keeping app to fill the taxes at the year-end is also very essential as you take off with your online store. Don’t worry we aid you there too. No matter what your problem is, we have a solution for it.

5. HOW TO FIND THE PERFECT CART FOR YOUR E-COMMERCE BUSINESS IN 5 STEPS? Phone: +61 3 901 35868 Email: info@designomate.com

6. You have decided whether you want to start B2B or B2C business; it is time that you pay attention and find the perfect cart for your ecommerce business. You have multiple good options WordPress, Shopify, Magento, ZenCart or BigCommerce. Puzzled? Don’t wor- ry! Below we have given the detailed version of each, evaluating which you can pick the perfect shopping cart for your business. Source: creativeengineeringstudio.com IF YOU’RE A START-UP THEN SHOPIFY WILL BE YOUR PERFECT CHOICE Shopify is an excellent and complete solution for those who want to establish, grow and manage an online store i.e. it is the choice if you’re a startup or a small business structure. It is an easy to use platform with following features. Beautiful storefront themes Perfect platform for less tech-savvy people. It offers you 1200 different plugins, including an accounting plugin, that can help you automate your tasks. It has a ‘Buy Button’ functionality that enables you to use Shopify as a Point of sale. Shopify excels at providing all the necessary marketing tools you need to grow your business such as SEO optimization, Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Blog Posts, etc. The price for Shopify’s services ranges from $29/month to $299/month as per your feature require- ments.

7. LOOKING FOR A MORE TECHNICAL AND HIGHER END PLATFORM? TRY CHOOSING MAGENTO. Magento is built as an open source platform that mainly suits the requirement of big e-commerce companies and enterprises. All the big companies that want their website as per their require- ments opt for Magento because; You can get a customized look, content, and functionality for your online store. It offers robust and powerful marketing, search engine optimi- zation and catalog management tools. Magento enables you to develop mobile-friendly websites with much hassle and with the best mobile viewing experience to the customers. However, unlike Shopify, marketing through blog posts is a no-no in Magento until you take expert magento developers help for in- cluding it for your store. Not only it offers site customization, it also allows several discounts and promo codes during check-out as well as more than 50 payment gateways. WHEN YOU’RE LOOKING FOR A CART SUITABLE FOR A SIMPLE PRODUCT INVENTORY, BIGCOMMERCE WILL BE YOUR GO-TO SOLUTION. BigCommerce is an all-in-one e-commerce platform that allows you to create and maintain your e-commerce store in a very simplified manner. Hence it is suitable for start-ups or small business units that possess a relatively simple product inventory and offers. It will enable you to integrate your store with various sales channels to help boost up your sales, i.e. you can sell everywhere from Amazon, Facebook to eBay. It’s Abandoned Cart feature gives you a higher chance in revenue generation by sending three automated emails to visitors that didn’t finish the checkout process. You are free to set up your promo codes and discount coupons. An added bonus with using BigCommerce is that there are more than 40 integrated payment methods that will enable your customers to choose to pay by their desired payment mode. SMALL BUSINESS WITH A COMPLEX INVENTORY? WORD- PRESS WILL BE YOUR HARBOR. As you all know, WordPress is an online, open-source website cre- ation tool. It is the most comfortable and most powerful website platform for blogging, business & e-commerce (small to medium scale), and creating portfolio websites. What’s the best part? It is free and possesses endless customization possibilities in its themes and plugins for your out-of-the-box feature need. WordPress is SEO friendly, which means, a website developed via WordPress tend to rank higher in search engines. It allows you to update and manage your themes and plugins from your WordPress admin dashboard itself. It aids in accelerating your conversion rate. You can either choose a self-hosted WordPress a.k.a. WordPress.org or link your domain, hosted by a third party, with it. WordPress is gaining popularity in e-commerce as well with its plugin ‘WooCommerce,’ that gives you a simple and efficient website. You can rest assured with WordPress that you will have a safe & secure payment gateway for your customers.

8. RUNNING YOUR BUSINESS ON A LOW-BUDGET? ZENCART WILL PROVE TO BE YOUR POCKET FRIENDLY SOLUTION. ZenCart is perfect for those who want to start operating their online store at a lower budget. ZenCart is the best online store management system that enables you to sell virtually everything from your online store. What ZenCart offers? This platform allows for your customers to navigate through your online store with ease. Once your customers have put the products in the shopping cart, it takes just three simple steps to purchase it. You can easily switch between templates without having to re-do all your content on your website. Not only that, you are free to add or remove discount coupons on the products you want, feature your prime products on the home page, restrict site access for B2B selling, set email campaigns to notify customers. If you’re still confused about which will suit your requirements, DesignOmate has your back. We know them all, and our expert ecommerce consultants possess substantial experience of working on all of them. Check out our portfolio and see for yourself. Whatever your e-commerce website needs, we are here to provide you with it.