Starting online selling portal? Before penning down a business plan for starting online business one should also take care of some small - small intricacies involved in the overall business structure. These are generally silent in nature but have a great impact on the overall structure of the business.
I would like to divide this in to section: internal and external factors.
External: Generally every start up before starting its business takes into consideration, what other online portals are offering. But they should not forget what offline retailer is also offering. Because, Indians have an habit of checking out product and service at the local retail shop also before making any online purchase.
“BE WILLING TO DO A LOT MORE THAN WHAT AN OFFLINE RETAILER DO, AND ALSO WHAT OTHER ONLINE SERVICES DO”
Internal: When I say internal, it means your business partners, who play critical role in the success of the overall model. These are further divided into:
1. Suppliers: They are the ones who provide you products to be sold. Be it your own brand supplier. They need to keep you updated of the changes in the features, pricing, availability, etc. of the products, which will then be updated on your portal. If the updates are regularly received and taken care of, and if a single order gets cancelled due to any of these reasons, it will create a very negative of YOUR website and not supplier on the customer.
2. Payment Gateway: Any failure in the transaction while making payments by your customer will create a feeling of “not-so-secured-payment” in their minds. This again will badly effect the reputation of your website and the customer might not buy anything in future also from your website.
3. Courier: In India, people expect that their orders should be delivered as early as in a physical store. Even when you process them timely, but your courier partner makes some errors on their part, that mistake is also registered in account of your portal reputation.
“SO YOUR PARTNERS ARE NOT BEING GOOD ENOUGH IS YOUR FAULT”
I would like to divide this in to section: internal and external factors.
External: Generally every start up before starting its business takes into consideration, what other online portals are offering. But they should not forget what offline retailer is also offering. Because, Indians have an habit of checking out product and service at the local retail shop also before making any online purchase.
“BE WILLING TO DO A LOT MORE THAN WHAT AN OFFLINE RETAILER DO, AND ALSO WHAT OTHER ONLINE SERVICES DO”
Internal: When I say internal, it means your business partners, who play critical role in the success of the overall model. These are further divided into:
1. Suppliers: They are the ones who provide you products to be sold. Be it your own brand supplier. They need to keep you updated of the changes in the features, pricing, availability, etc. of the products, which will then be updated on your portal. If the updates are regularly received and taken care of, and if a single order gets cancelled due to any of these reasons, it will create a very negative of YOUR website and not supplier on the customer.
2. Payment Gateway: Any failure in the transaction while making payments by your customer will create a feeling of “not-so-secured-payment” in their minds. This again will badly effect the reputation of your website and the customer might not buy anything in future also from your website.
3. Courier: In India, people expect that their orders should be delivered as early as in a physical store. Even when you process them timely, but your courier partner makes some errors on their part, that mistake is also registered in account of your portal reputation.
“SO YOUR PARTNERS ARE NOT BEING GOOD ENOUGH IS YOUR FAULT”