Questions

I am currently pursuing an MBA in the USA. When I move back to India, I would like to start an e-commerce business. What groundwork do you recommend I do in order to have as smooth a start as possible?

Not to brag but I can say "I been there done that". I was actually part of few reasonable size e-commerce businesses from inception in the past from online printing ( http://1800BusinessCards.com ) to selling jewelry etc. After dealing for a while with different kind of physical products I decided that it's too much of a liability compared to any sort of digital products (ex. app, mobile game, website template, ebook etc).

The reason why I say that is before you get into e-commerce you should really think hard which route you would like to take, Digital or Physical?

Personally any day I am willing to pick digital goods over physical goods e-commerce business.

Secondly you should look into Lean Startup methodology a little bit and get a general concept in your head to keep your self bootstrapped through out the process.

When it comes to getting your online business up, I suggest few options as I have tried and tested.

FOR DIGITAL GOODS.
1. Gumroad
2. Wordpress/WooCommerce

FOR PHYSICAL GOODS.
1. Wordpress/WooCommerce with Layers Plugin & Layers Store kit. Go to layerswp.com to find out more.

2. Prestashop eCommerce Platform.

Of course there are few other good once such as Magento but I haven't used them.

Few other resources:
Checkout Themeforest for Website template under ecommerce category that suites your business need. They have Templates for Wordpress, Prestashop etc.

For getting cheap and dirty jobs (logo, website content, quick online legal advice etc.) to start off lean, checkout Fiverr. If you are looking for quality then look else where.

Hope this helps. If you need Free advice, send me a msg and you can book a FREE 15-30 mins call with me and we can go over few things. I can probably give you my 2cents from 5+ years experience in the e-commerce industry.


Answered 8 years ago

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