How to Set Up an E-commerce Website and Be Successful

How to Set Up an E-commerce Website and Be Successful

Thousands of Thai people make a good living selling products online and if you have lost your job because of the pandemic, or see no future in your current job, why not become a digital nomad and make your living selling products to the online community. It might seem like a big challenge, which it is, but with careful planning and the right marketing strategies, you can create a strong online profile.

Sourcing Products

Of course, it is vital to forge an alliance with either a manufacturer or a wholesaler and after crunching the numbers, there should be around 30% mark-up; lower than that and you would struggle to turn a profit. You need to carry out some thorough market research to ensure there is adequate demand for your product line; If your products stand up to scrutiny and are in demand, you should be successful. If you need to contact a factory manufacturing electrical products of a very high standard,  Google can help you find a leading Thai supplier who has a good reputation win the industry. Becoming an agent is a cost-effective way to get customers and if you have some expertise in one field, then your products should be relevant to that.

IT Needs

Of course, you need a slick-looking shopping cart website and the good news is that you can outsource all your IT needs to a single provider. As an e-commerce business, you do need to have a basic understanding of crypto-currency, which is very much the future.

This type of company would offer the following services:

• Domain name registration – Your chosen URL will be registered with the relevant authority.
• Web hosting – There would be several packages with varying bandwidth, from the single person business to a large multi-national corporation.
• Site management – If you are not into IT, your web host offers administration and they will also provide essential cyber-security. You simply send your images and product description and they take care of everything.
• Secure payment gateways – As your customers are paying, you need to offer a variety of payment gateways’ major credit cards, bank transfer, PayPal and Bitcoin are all popular payment platforms, plus your IT provider maintains your SSL certificate, which is essential for shopping cart businesses.

Digital Marketing

This is the key to success and hooking up with an award-winning SEO agency in Bangkok, who have a wide range of digital marketing strategies they can apply. Your site must be optimised for Google in order to gain a high ranking within specific search terms and a good SEO agency would drive traffic to your site. How important is SEO? It’s everything and without it, you would certainly end up as an also-ran; a digital marketing plan would be put together for your approval and once agreed, the work can begin.

Logistics

This should be outsourced to a local third-party logistics (3PL) provider who has the know-how and the resources to pick, pack and deliver your products, plus they have a global network and can deliver quickly. Once you hook up with a local 3PL company, you simply forward all orders to their warehouse and that’s it!

Here is some Thai government information about setting up a business, which is something you should read.