Entrepreneurship, StartUp

ONLINE SALES. OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS

03/09/2022

E-commerce is increasingly becoming part of our lives by giving rise to many exploitable opportunities for female entrepreneurs who want to start selling a service or product online. Indeed, each seller finds her own space and niche within which to develop her passion.

Once you have defined the product to be sold or the service to be proposed, understood what needs that product/service satisfies, analyzed the potential and criticality of the competitors, you have to check whether the customer is really interested in the proposals presented. It is obviously necessary to have a Web site where one can describe and propose the offer. Alternatively, you can take advantage of those affiliate sites where, having paid a small entrance fee, you can promote your product on all the sites that the platform makes available to you. Once you have paid this fee you can choose among the various sites the one most in line with your target audience, place your offer there and pay a percentage to the site that hosts you only in case your product is sold.

Among the many, for example, is Awin, an international affiliate network active in fifteen countries around the world. Awin also recently developed a service dedicated specifically to small start-ups and small eCommerce businesses, called "Awiin Access" with the aim of helping the growth of these online businesses through a minimal initial investment. Of course, there are also similar ones so it is advisable to search for the one that best adheres to one‘s own needs or company profile. 

Selling online is therefore also a great opportunity for those who have small businesses and do not have sufficient economic and managerial resources to open a physical store. In addition, if you are a woman who wants to open a business there are various opportunities made available by the state, the regions or the chambers of commerce with numerous calls for proposals some of which have capital given on a grant basis.

If you want to sell online immediately, you can use several quick methods that require simple technical knowledge. Among these, the most widely used platform is Ebay. Defined as a large digital mall with the purpose of getting a business up and running immediately, investing as little as possible and performing simplified technical operations. The goal could be to make one‘s brand known and then accumulate financial resources for the purpose of opening one‘s own e-commerce. 

Instead, should you want to land on the broader e-commerce platform brands can turn to Amazon, which guarantees small businesses at least two major advantages: the first lies in the spectacular visibility you can gain on the platform thus multiplying your presence; the other concerns Amazon‘s logistics system. Thanks to Amazon‘s Marketplace, the platform will take care of collecting payments and turn them over net of its fees.

If the entrepreneur is in a more advanced state and has already experimented with her product and understood her target audience well, has her team, has already established her business, then she can think about setting up her own e-commerce site with the help of an expert in the field. We highly recommend this support! Through the payment of a monthly fee, you can also build your own e-commerce site through the use of online services, such as Jimdo, Wix, Weebly, Squarespace, Shopify, Bigcommerce, PrestaShop. The advantages are: ease of use, payment systems already in place, numerous additional features such as blogs and newsletters, and the ability to sell digital products. On the other hand, the disadvantages are: fixed monthly costs, commissions on sales, and dependence on a third-party service.

To open your own ecommerce business you need to set up an online bank account so you can make collections, register a domain name, and rent a hosting service (e.g., on Aruba). Of course one has to be very careful about the domain name one chooses, because often, after one has racked one‘s brains to come up with a beautiful name, one discovers on the first Internet search that that domain name already exists. 

In short, unless you are an SEO and web development or graphic design expert yourself, you are better off going to competent professionals who can get you off on the right foot.