1. Choose The Right Products
The first thing you need to do is figure out which products to sell. This is the first step in venturing into your new e-commerce business. This might sound easy, but it’s not always the case.
Identity A Niche
The most important thing you need to do is identify a niche. While you may already know you are going to be selling car parts, you need to niche down.
To have a successful e-commerce business, you’ll need a specific niche to narrow your target market down to. You want a specific niche that allows you to target your focus on a segmented part of the marketplace. For instance, you could niche down by car brand or even by car part. These things will give you a target audience to market to. This can help differentiate you from the big sellers in the arena.
Choosing a Niche Helps With:
- Minimising the number of direct competitors you have.
- Target an audience better.
- Narrow down the products you need to carry.
When you are looking to choose a specific niche, you want to think about various things. For one, you want to look at any insider knowledge you may have. You may be a Honda expert. If so, you can leverage your previous knowledge of the brand. Also, you’ll want to factor in any interest you may have. Think about some of the value-adds you bring to the marketplace. You want to look for gaps in the marketplace too. Then, you can leverage keyword research tools to figure out what people are searching for when they are searching for car parts online, for example, if your business sell lowering springs, you would what keywords like ‘lowering springs UK‘.
Know Your Market:
Another important thing you’ll need to figure out when you are choosing your product is your target demographic. You need to figure out who you will be selling to. This will allow you to identify your target audience. This will have a big role in determining how you set up and market your business. You will find that your target audience will impact everything from branding to online marketing.
You need to think about if you will be selling to people that are looking for parts or if you are going to be selling to mechanics fixing vehicles.
One of the first options you have available is selling directly to the consumer. This is known as Business-to-Consumer (B2C). The other option you have available would be selling to businesses. This is known as Business-to-Business (B2B).
If you end up going with a B2C model, you will want to ensure that you place a big emphasis on your branding and marketing. Both of these things are essential because consumers tend to make much more emotional purchasing decisions. Thus, you will want a solid website to establish trust, a good and recognisable brand for brand awareness, and more. These things tend to be less important when you are selling to businesses.
Think About The Hot Products:
Once you’ve identified the right niche and once you’ve narrowed down your target audience, it’s time to start looking at the products you’ll be selling.
A good way to identify products is by going to Amazon’s website. From there, you can sort based on bestsellers within the Automotive category. You’ll be able to see the most popular products in the category. You can check for the most popular products across the various categories including:
- Car care
- Interior
- Exterior
- Oils and Fluids
- Replacement Parts
2. Source The Products
Once that’s done, you’ll need to figure out where you will be buying the products from. You will have a multitude of options.
However, before you choose, you need to ensure you are choosing authentic and quality products. Your business’ longevity will depend on how good your products are. Therefore, you want to ensure you are not choosing poor quality products. Always vet your source before going with them.
Wholesaler
This is the easiest way to acquire the products you need to start selling online. When you go through a wholesaler, you will be buying from a company that sells B2B. They will sell you the products at discounted prices and you will mark them up to the end consumer. This is a good option if you are selling B2C.
Go To The Manufacturer
This is another good option. This is the best option if you want the best margins. If you go directly to the manufacturer, you will get the products at the cheapest possible price. This will allow you to effectively make the most money on every sale. This is especially good if you are niching down to a particular brand. You can discuss details with them and set up a supplier relationship. Not only do you know they are authentic and high-quality, but they typically have a warranty backing them.