Are you wondering how to start an online business but don’t know where to begin? What products should you sell for profit? What are the steps for online business, and how to make it effective? Where should you learn online business? These are common concerns for everyone intending to start a business.
Let’s address these questions in the following article to help you get started with your business!
What is Online Business?
Online business has become a popular trend in recent years, with the explosive growth of the Internet and smartphone users. So, what is online business?
Online business is a form of selling goods online, conducting transactions over the internet. It is a place where buying and selling activities are vibrant at any time when customers have needs, and goods are delivered to the hands of the recipients.
Online business activities can be seen through various sales methods such as:
- Selling on Facebook
- Selling on a Website
- Selling on Shopee, Tiki, Lazada,…
With just a computer or a phone connected to the internet, you can start selling online. Thanks to online sales, many people can achieve monthly incomes ranging from 20 to 30 million and more.
Advantages of Online Business:
- Sellers have freedom and autonomy in their work.
- Diverse and abundant sources of goods.
- Simple business methods.
- Initial investment costs are not too high, no need to rent physical space.
- The customer base is broad and growing rapidly.
- Sellers have the opportunity to earn high income.
1. Opportunities in Online Business Today
Whether you are someone who has been selling online for a long time or is preparing to start a business, believe that there are still significant opportunities to develop in this field.
Let’s look at the following numbers:
- The number of internet users is 68.17 million (accounting for 70% of the population) as of mid-2020.
- The number of mobile users is 145.8 million subscribers.
- The number of people participating in online shopping is 44.8 million people. In 2015, it was only 30.3 million people choosing to shop online.
These are extremely favorable conditions for those who want to earn money online to achieve their wealth-building goals.
2. How to Start a Successful Online Business?
Creating a business plan is not a difficult task. The key is to “start”
Let’s go through the steps to start a successful online business, from planning to implementing online business:
- Business idea
- Set goals
- Business plan
- Research target customers
- Market research
- Competitive analysis
- Evaluate feasibility
- Strategy, online business model
- Implementation steps
- Choose and search for sources of goods
3. Hot Online Business Ideas
If you already have a business idea or are in the process of finding one because you don’t know what to do, you can observe those around you—friends and family members. See what they are doing in their online business. Learn how to sell on Facebook and observe reputable shops on e-commerce platforms of successful people. See what products they choose to sell, their pricing, and how they post sales posts on Facebook.
However, before deciding on what to sell, answer the following questions:
- Is it a HOT product?
- Where to source products?
- Does the product require a significant capital investment?
Some suggested ideas include selling fashion clothing, footwear, cosmetics, fruits, or utilizing existing items at home to make snacks for online sale if you are skilled and passionate about cooking.
You can also register as a distributor providing fresh, organic food for users. This is a growing trend in consumer preferences, so your business is likely to be in high demand if you have good sources and reasonable prices.
4. Online Business Products – 1 Capital 4 Profits
Choosing the right online business products is one of the most important factors determining whether you will succeed or fail. Choosing the hottest, best-selling, and profitable products is something not everyone can do. Depending on your actual conditions, you can decide which products to sell.
Products that many people are selling: These are products that do not require too much capital. If you have not prepared enough capital, try your hand at products such as snacks, handmade cosmetics, fashion accessories, or you can choose to order from platforms like Taobao.
These are products that do not require much capital, and you can use the profit from previous orders to keep the business going and prepare for subsequent orders.
High-capital, high-profit products: Businesspeople often say, “big capital, big profit.” When you invest a significant amount of capital in valuable products, the opportunity to earn a high profit is entirely possible.
Products such as household items, kitchen equipment, etc., can be priced at millions of dong per item, helping you earn a high-profit margin. If you have good marketing and sales skills, high sales volume means you can achieve substantial income.
Choosing the right products for online business will open up opportunities for success, helping many people earn good money and improve their lives. Not only meeting essential consumer needs, but many products are also sought after based on hot trends.
5. Steps to Properly Sell Online
To have an effective online business, many people study through documents, books, or learn from those who have gone before, as well as articles on the internet. Below are suggested steps to start the most common online businesses, which you should refer to:
- Step 1: Search and meet market needs
- Step 2: Create an online business plan
- Step 3: Set up online sales channels
- Selling on Facebook: Create a Fanpage to post product introductions; participate in groups to share information, enhance connections with potential customers.
- Selling on e-commerce platforms: Register an account, create a store, post products with high-quality images and attractive product descriptions.
- Selling on a Website: Designing an online store is a trend and is evaluated by economic experts as the most effective, sustainable, and proactive online sales channel.
- Multichannel selling solution: Multichannel selling is chosen by many online sellers because of its superior effectiveness. You can sell on Facebook while simultaneously doing business on e-commerce platforms like Shopee, Tiki, Lazada, Sendo, and selling on your website.
- Step 4: Use search tools, advertising to reach customers
- Step 5: Build credibility for your online shop
- Step 6: Combine marketing plans
- Step 7: Post-sales support services
6. How to Register Online Business
Many people wonder whether they need to register their online business.
According to regulations, those who need to register online business include traders or organizations operating in the field of trade promotion or business support, with an e-commerce website providing at least one of the following services:
- E-commerce trading floor service.
- Online promotional service.
- Online auction service.
Therefore, if you only own stores on e-commerce platforms or sell on Facebook, you do not need to register online sales. If you build a website to sell, you must confirm that you have notified the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
7. Shipping Services
Choosing a shipping partner is also a crucial step to help your online business be more efficient. Your goods can be delivered to customers quickly, ensuring the most cost-effective solution.
Currently, there are many shipping partners on the market such as Fast Delivery, Cheap Delivery, etc. Research these delivery companies thoroughly before starting your business to ensure that your orders are always smooth.
8. Learn Online Business for Easier Success
8.1 Learn How to Sell Online
You really want to learn how to do online business so that you are not confused and limit mistakes when entering reality. The fact is, very few people can succeed immediately when starting a business. Therefore, learning will help you prepare the best methods to be ready to solve arising problems in online business.
8.2 Where to Learn Online Business?
You can learn right away by observing busy shops with many customers, many orders on Facebook or platforms like Shopee, Lazada, Tiki, etc. Learn how they post sales articles, respond to customer comments.
In addition, there are many successful online sellers’ online business courses. You can register to get answers to all your questions to help you do business effectively.
8.3 Books on Online Business
Business books are abundant on the market. Especially, the business model is becoming a trend, attracting readers’ attention. Therefore, you should read some online business books to grasp systematic knowledge and detailed guidance!
9. Online Business Ideas with Little Capital
Capital is the most important issue for business people in general and online business in particular. But if you still want to do business with limited capital, what to do?
First, you should refer to the experience of those who do online business with little capital to see which business areas are suitable and how to do business effectively.
You can also search for ideas for low-capital online business on Google. From the suggestions in the search results, you can choose the most suitable business model for yourself.
10. Solutions to Support Your Online Business
Online business is becoming more challenging as more people join the market, and competitors always find ways to “intrude” on you. Many people face situations where competitors snatch customers during live sales or slow customer feedback, missing messages.
Or you are doing business in too many places, both establishing an online store and selling on Facebook or e-commerce platforms like Shopee, Tiki, etc., and cannot control all orders?
Understanding the problems of online sellers, Sapo provides a comprehensive solution to help you provide timely customer feedback, quickly confirm online orders, easily control inventory, and integrate with many reputable shipping companies.
Conclusion
So, this article has shared with you all the issues you need to be concerned about in online business activities. If you plan to enter this profession, study carefully the information mentioned above.
In particular, from searching for business ideas to implementing online sales plans in practice, you need to both work and learn to accumulate valuable experience for yourself!
Credit: Sapo
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