The independence that an ecommerce business can bring you is unbeatable. You can be your own boss, make your own decisions, and even quit your job if you find a good amount of success. It’s a path to owning your own life and destiny. If freedom is something that you dream about, starting an online shop is a great way to get there.
That level of independence is a great thing, but it also presents a variety of challenges. Sure, you get to be in charge of your own business, but there’s a great sense of responsibility that comes along with that. The choices that you make will be the ones that determine whether the business succeeds or not. You really need to pay close attention.
To make sure that you aren’t missing anything, you should be constantly asking yourself the right questions about your business. No one else is going to ask those questions for you, so it’s your job to make sure that you are covering your bases.
But that’s not quite as simple as it sounds. Which questions should you be asking to make sure that you are on top of your business? What questions are conducive to success in the ecommerce world? In this article, we’ll go over the 10 questions you should be asking yourself as an online seller.
What are my (and my business’s) biggest strengths?
You can’t find success if you don’t know yourself. In this sense, business is a lot like playing a sport. If you know that you’re good at throwing but bad at catching, you’ll put yourself into positions where you’ll be catching. If you don’t know that, you might accidentally spend all of your time throwing. That’s no way to be the best athlete you can be. The same principle applies to business: you should focus on knowing – and accentuating – your strengths.
In a way, you don’t even need to be a seasoned business veteran to know yourself. Even just basic character traits that you have recognized in the past will carry over into business. Have you noticed that you are very social and great at making new connections? Awesome! Leverage that into your business plan by building relationships and networking with other business owners to reach your highest potential.
Do you know that you are someone who is great at coming up with new ideas? That’s perfect. Creativity is a massive strength to have in ecommerce, and it will help you stay ahead of your competition. And you don’t need to run several businesses to learn that you’re great with ideas. Your experience in daily life will tell you that.
So play close attention to yourself. Do some thinking. Look inside your own brain. What is it about you that makes you special? What are your talents? If you are able to critically evaluate what you’re good at, you should make sure that those skills are holding up your business choices.
Once you’ve made an established online shop, you can start doing the same thing with your entire business rather than just with yourself. The nice thing about looking for the strengths of your store is that it doesn’t require as much introspection. In fact, you can determine the strong parts of your business by just looking at data.
Take a look at all the aspects of your business. Do you find that customers are really happy with how quickly your items ship? That’s a huge strength! Maybe your business is really good at finding unique items that other shops don’t have. That’s certainly something to take note of.
No matter what it is that makes your shop effective, it’s important to recognize it. You can then work on incorporating those strengths into marketing, copywriting, or anything else that will accentuate them. This will help build business, as customers will want to see those strengths for themselves.
What are my (and my business’s) biggest weaknesses?
To continue with the theme of introspection, here’s a question that is equally as important to ask yourself. To return to the sports analogy: knowing you’re awful at running is really useful. It will make sure that you don’t choose a position that requires a lot of running! Mitigating your weaknesses is just one more way to put the focus on your strengths – something that will really help your business succeed.
It seems like common sense, but many online sellers don’t like to look at themselves and determine what they’re no good at. That’s understandable. Recognizing your weaknesses is hard for everyone. It’s not really fun to make mental notes of your blind spots or failures. It can be a real ego bruise.
But sometimes you need to be willing to take blows to the ego if you want to succeed in the ecommerce world. If you don’t actively find out what your weaknesses are, you might be relying on things that just aren’t your strong suit. It also prevents you from improving those weaknesses.
As an example, imagine that you’re really great at marketing… but not so good at keeping track of inventory. Your brilliant newsletters and ad campaigns get hundreds of customers to your shop every day, and you start to sell a lot of products. Because you didn’t take the time to notice that you’re not so great at keeping track of inventory, you sold way more items than you actually have on hand. You now have to scramble to work with your vendors to get more items. Shipping is slow, costs are astronomical, and customers aren’t happy.
That’s a bad situation. And it would have been completely avoidable by just acknowledging that inventory is a weak spot and working on it. It’s as simple as just practicing with an inventory management system – or hiring someone else that is an expert at inventory to fill in that weak spot.
No, it’s not fun to take note of things that you’re bad at. But try to think of it as an opportunity to work on those things and get better. Ecommerce is nothing if not an opportunity to grow as a person and a business owner, so take advantage of that fact and iron out those weaknesses!
Do I know my competitors well enough?
Ecommerce can be very rewarding, but it can also be very challenging. One of those challenges that every seller eventually needs to face head on is that of competition. Unlike traditional shops where you just need to worry about local competitors, you’re up against shops from all around the world. That means that understanding the other online stores in your niche is critical if you want to succeed.
So try to frequently ask yourself whether you truly understand your competitors. Sure, you might know what items they’re selling, but is that enough? Do you know what their business plans are? Do you have a sense of how they’re going to move in the future and what kinds of innovations they’re planning on? If not, you may want to invest more into researching the habits of those that sell in the same realm as you.
Here’s a scenario to imagine. Say that your sales trends indicate that you should raise the price of an item that you frequently sell. You do so, and the other shops that you compete against notice that you’ve done that. Are they going to raise prices as well, or are they going to stay with their original prices to try to undercut you?
That’s an important thing to know. If you make a move like increasing the price of an item without being confident of how your competitors will react, you can potentially back yourself into a corner where all of your buyers migrate over to another shop. That’s certainly the last thing that you want.
Of course, you can’t just call up your competitors and ask them what all of their business plans are (well, you could try that, but we don’t recommend it). So how do you actually get a sense of what their habits are?
There’s no perfect method. Sadly, there’s not some document out there that has all the information you need. Instead, you’ll just need to take notes on what they do. When you change your inventory, do they change their inventory? When sales increase during the holidays, do they roll out promotions? Small things like this are important to know, so pay close attention and really get to know who you’re up against.
What is my exit strategy?
Starting an online business can be lots of fun, but very few sellers go into the ecommerce world thinking that they will run a store until the end of their lives. But having a vague sense of the impermanence of your business isn’t enough. You need to actually have an exit strategy so that you don’t get shackled with it for longer than you actually want.
But how do you select an exit strategy when you’re so focused on, you know, actually running a business and turning a profit? Who wants to think that far ahead?
Those are fair questions. But it’s important to at least have some kind of sense of how you’d like your exit to look. You don’t need to decide the date and time that you will sell your business, as that’s just not realistic. But you should know what your goal is. Do you want to run this business by yourself for the next 5 years? 15 years? Do you just want it to become profitable and then seek out a conglomerate to sell your business to? If you could have it your way, what would your ideal exit look like?
Having this ideal exit in mind can be a really helpful guiding principle for all the decisions that you make going forward. It’s natural for your conception of your exit to change over time, but it’s useful to have some idea in the back of your head at all times. It will help you decide how much growth to pursue, how many employees to hire, and many other choices that will come in due time.
At the very least, you should have a sense of whether you plan to sell your business or continue running it and eventually pass it along to someone else. Building up a business and then selling it is a very viable exit strategy in the ecommerce world, particularly as more and more companies are purchasing smaller businesses in order to control niches.
But running your own business for as long as you can is a realistic option too – you just need to have someone to pass it off to when the time comes. Do you want that to be someone in your family? A friend? Someone who works for you?
These are all tough decisions, but you should be asking yourself these questions to make sure that you’re working towards something that feels right for you.
Am I innovating enough?
You undoubtedly already know this, but it bears repeating: the Internet moves quickly. Culture is progressing faster than ever before thanks to the web, and you really need to pay attention to stay on track. Just notice how many new trends and pieces of technology the older generation has missed out on in just a few years.
This is especially true for the ecommerce world. Shops can see what their competition is doing as fast as a web page can load, so it doesn’t take long for new ideas to disseminate. Business trends can be accessed at the speed of light, and data can be collected, analyzed, and acted on in the blink of an eye. The Internet has changed business forever, and ecommerce shop owners need to be aware of just how quickly things move.
So why do we say this? Because it brings up an interesting point: you may not be innovating fast enough. There are some businesses that can get away without changing much, but your shop likely needs to be innovating and rethinking its strategy pretty frequently. Ask yourself: are you innovating quickly enough, or are you dragging your feet because you’re afraid of change?
There’s a trap that many newer sellers can fall into. They start up a shop, find some success, and gain some confidence. They figure that they must be doing something right. They’re turning a profit, after all, and their shop seems to be growing. They then get afraid of changing anything. “Don’t fix it if it ain’t broke,” as the adage goes. Why should they alter their business plan if they are already doing well?
There are a few reasons why innovation is key even in this scenario. For one, growth necessitates new ideas. As more customers flood in and more inventory starts to move, you’ll need fresh plans to deal with that growth. For two, you can grow even quicker if you innovate. Why be satisfied with the level of success you currently have? You should always strive for more!
And finally, you’ll need to innovate because your competitors are bound to do so to stay ahead of you. Doing well now doesn’t mean that you’ll be doing well in a week from now when other shops figure out bold new strategies that are better than yours. You need to be ready to respond to their innovations with your own – or, better yet, beat them to the punch.
Asking yourself whether you are innovating enough is an important step to improving your business and remaining successful. That’s the goal, right?
Am I on the right platform?
One of the first decisions that any online seller needs to make is which platform to go with. It’s almost like choosing a location for a brick-and-mortar store, but it’s perhaps even more important than that. Your platform determines what kind of audience you will have, what tools you’re being given to help sell, and what kind of growth potential you really have. It can also affect funding, as each selling platform has its own built-in funding initiatives.
So you did some research, decided on a platform, and started selling. But now that you’ve constructed a business and started selling items, ask yourself: are you sure that this is the right platform for you?
If you can definitively answer yes to that question, that’s great. Carry on. But then ask yourself the same question next month. And the month after that. And a year from now. It’s possible that, as your needs morph and evolve over the course of your business career, you may find that the original platform you started with is no longer perfect for you.
Because each selling platform is so unique, each one offers you different things. And the tools that you need at the start of your business and later on might differ. Try to constantly evaluate whether your service – whether it’s Shopify, Amazon, or anything else – is correct for you. Don’t just stick with something because it’s what you’re used to; only stick with it if it’s the best choice.
There are lots of pros and cons to each selling platform. For instance, Shopify has the benefit of having three different pricing models ranging from Basic to Advanced. Amazon, on the other hand, typically prices by taking a cut from each sale you make. If you’re moving a ton of products and are making lots of sales each month, Amazon might be more costly to use than Shopify.
But you also have to factor in whether the switch from one platform to another will damage your business or not. Sure, you can easily rebuild your customer base on a new service, but the transition won’t be immediate. You need to decide whether that period of decreased revenue will be harmful to you or not.
To summarize, you should always be asking yourself whether you’re using the right selling service or not. But don’t just switch platforms because you feel like it. Think long and hard about any move you might make.
Is the experience for my customers as good as it can be?
Offering a great customer experience in the ecommerce world is very different than in physical stores. Brick-and-mortar shops have the benefit of interacting face-to-face with customers; you don’t have that luxury when you’re selling online. Instead, you need to be particularly creative with how you design your customer experience. Satisfying your buyers should be your number one goal, and there’s more to that than just selling them the products that they want.
That’s why it’s so important to ask yourself whether you’re giving the best experience to your customers that you can. In general, the answer will probably be “no.” Don’t let that discourage you, though. It’s just an indicator that there’s the potential for you to make your business even better and to create a shopping experience that will have your customers coming back time and time again.
But how do you create a great customer experience online, exactly? Well, there are a lot of factors that go into it. Aspects of shopping as mundane as returns and emails should be focused on. Because you can’t make them feel welcome with a smile, you need to enhance other parts of your shop to keep them happy.
Returns should be smooth, efficient, and easy for customers. Your emails should be personable, warm, and helpful. Your shop should be easy to navigate. These are the kinds of things that really make the difference for your customers.
Another way that you can enhance the experience of your shop is to add in a custom chat option for shoppers. While default FAQs can be helpful when shoppers have questions, many of them prefer the personal touch of being able to immediately talk to someone that will help them out. While this may not be easy to implement, it can really enhance your store.
How you go about perfecting your customer service and experience will ultimately be up to you. But it’s worth frequently reevaluating in order to stay as effective as possible. If your shop is simple and fun to shop at, customers are going to want to return over and over. Think outside the box, get creative, and have fun with it.
How are my reviews?
Whether we like it or not, customer reviews are one of the biggest deciding factors for whether someone will use an online shop or not. In fact, Internet reviews are even a make-or-break situation for physical stores these days. Even just a few negative reviews on Yelp can make a business completely fall apart. That’s not a good thing.
That’s why it’s so important for you to keep track of what kind of reviews that you’re getting. You might think that you don’t need to listen to negativity, but you really do. The reviews you get will completely change what decisions you should make in the future, and ignoring them is a massive mistake.
So now you know that you should take a look at your reviews. But what should you do about them? It’s not like you can change the minds of those who are unsatisfied with buying from you… right?
Well, no, not entirely. While you can’t undo the past, you can (and should) reach out to those who leave bad reviews and see if you can do anything to change their minds. This may even lead to them editing their comments and leaving you a better review. It may not happen every time, but the chance of a better review is worth the effort.
Another key reason why you should look at your reviews is so that you can address anything that seems to be a common complaint. If you see customers over and over again talking about delivery times, it might be time to look into different ways of shipping your items. If you see them complaining about your prices, maybe you need to adjust your pricing.
Reviews can be a goldmine to you if you look at them the right way. That’s why it’s so important to always be asking yourself how your reviews are. If they are largely negative, there’s a lot that you can do to use that to your advantage and make a better situation for yourself. If they’re positive, see what people love and keep doing that. Ignoring your reviews is ignoring real, actionable feedback from the people who matter the most: your customers.
Are all of my products necessary?
Any online shop worth its salt has a relatively diverse inventory. That’s a great way to ensure that you constantly have something to offer your customers. You don’t want to just sell one thing, right? But when was the last time that you truly took a look at what you were selling to determine what was actually necessary to keep in your shop? If it’s been a while, you’re doing things wrong.
As a seller, you should always be asking yourself whether all of the products in your shop are necessary or not. You don’t want to have an excess of useless items that no one wants to buy. It can be tricky to figure out what is truly important to continue selling, but it is critical to do so.
If you feel a bit lost on determining what to keep selling and what to drop, just take a look at your sales metrics. Are you actually making money on everything that’s in your shop, or does it just feel like you’re turning a profit on all of your items? If you have a lot of data pointing towards certain items not selling well, it might be time to get rid of them and start selling something else.
Another factor to consider is whether or not an item accurately matches your brand or not. Say that you primarily sell candles. But, for whatever reason, there’s a drill in your shop that brings in a profit for you. That money is nice, but your buyers are naturally going to be confused when a drill interrupts their candle shopping.
It’s an absurd example, but you get our point. Sometimes profit shouldn’t be the only motivating factor in deciding whether to keep selling a product or not. You might actually have a stronger overall online store if you remove something that seems out of place – even if that item isn’t currently harming your revenue.
Consistency is important, and you want to keep your shop as simple and easy to use as possible. Striking a balance between keeping a stock of sellable items and keeping your inventory focused can be challenging, and that’s why you should be constantly evaluating what you are selling. Ask yourself the hard questions about your inventory and you should be able keep growing and progressing.
Am I ready for unexpected problems?
Many people who get into ecommerce do so because they think it’s a really simple way to make money and grow a business. In many ways, this is true. But it also doesn’t capture the full reality of ecommerce. Sure, it can be simple compared to many other industries, but there are also many logistical challenges that you need to be aware of. To put it bluntly: you can’t just sit back and watch the money roll in.
Of course, you already know that. You need to stay on your toes in order to succeed in ecommerce. The best sellers are those who are prepared for all scenarios. But ask yourself this: are you prepared for unexpected – and unpredictable – problems?
It’s one thing to have a business plan and act on it. But it’s another thing entirely to actually be ready to tackle unexpected obstacles. And as all sellers quickly figure out, there are lots of unexpected hurdles in the world of ecommerce. You should always be thinking whether you’re actually ready for these problems or not. Improvisation can only help you so much. You need to have a solid plan B for when these issues crop up.
Do you have a plan for what to do when there are issues with your vendor? Do you know what to do if there are delays with shipping? What’s your course of action when the items that you have based your business around just stop selling? These are tough questions, and their answers are equally difficult. But you need to have these answers in your back pocket in case these unlikely scenarios pop up.
Even if you don’t have specific plan Bs to act on, you need to structure your business so that you can act quickly when the unexpected happens. If you have a company structure that is rigid, you won’t have the flexibility to be able to tackle issues like shipping delays. That can pose a huge problem.
It would be great if everything in ecommerce always went how you would prefer it to. Unfortunately, that’s just not reality. Frequently asking yourself whether you’re prepared for all kinds of unexpected scenarios will help you deal with the unpredictable nature of life and business. Be ready to spring into action when life doesn’t hand you lemons.
