How to Build a Successful Independent Website?
Step 1: Product Selection
For cross-border e-commerce sellers, the most difficult question to answer is what products to sell? Products with good sales have intense competition; high-priced products may not sell well; niche products raise concerns about customer development. Indeed, for B2C export sellers, choosing a good product is more important than anything else. Without a good product, everything is zero. Data surveys show that commonly seen products in B2C, such as clothing, formal wear, electronics, outdoor sports, wigs, etc., are quite popular. For newcomers who have just entered the e-commerce industry, the most direct method is to find hot-selling products, which is also the most conventional method. Alternatively, develop some non-mainstream products that can meet personalized demands? My suggestion is to choose non-mainstream products because: First, it reduces homogeneity; Second, it offers higher profit margins.
Product Selection Principles
In terms of product selection, you can start with six principles: small in size, high in value, light in weight, non-infringing, not easily breakable, and non-dangerous. Use your keen eyes to explore a new world. Small size means good packaging, high value means good profit control, light weight means low logistics costs, non-infringing means no worries about shop closure, not easily breakable means low return risk, and non-dangerous means safety assured.
Product Selection Source
Product selection sources can be referenced in several ways to help you choose the right products faster and more accurately.
Selecting products through platforms: This method is the most common and simplest, with low entry barriers. It involves searching for keywords on platforms such as Amazon, AliExpress, Wish, etc., viewing popular sales rankings, and comparing them with some local data tools. You can also browse through categories, click into each category from the main category to subcategories, and look at hot sales products.
Through Google product selection: We can search for keywords on Google, and a list of best-selling products will appear. For example, search for 'outdoor toys for kids'. Then based on the websites in the search results, select several websites that rank at the top to enter the target market website. Click on the best-selling rankings on the website to see which products are selling well. You can also look at the following pages, such as beyond the third page, to see what other target websites there are. There may be some products with potential that are not prominent in the Google rankings. You can use this as a reference and then conduct surveys on Facebook.
Choosing channels to find products
To find suitable products for selling, you can contact suppliers through various channels such as 1688, cross-border supply, selection conferences, etc. Obtaining samples, on-site inspections, and other methods can help better understand product quality and target markets, while maintaining relationships with suppliers. However, regional constraints may increase the cost of inspection processes.
Product selection advice
When selecting products, one should not only consider individual products, but also need to consider factors such as the product's follow-up development capabilities, supplier stability, industry competition, and advertising material production. At the same time, the target market and audience of the product need to be clearly defined.
Three modes of building an independent website
There are three modes available for building an independent website: traditional outsourcing, self-built team, and SAAS model website construction. Traditional outsourcing uses open-source systems or custom paid services, which are flexible but have high risks. Self-built team requires the establishment of a technical team, with high risks and greater time costs, more suitable for large sellers. The SAAS model website construction involves selecting a suitable website building platform such as Shopify, Shopyy, with easy operation and controllable costs, more suitable for startups.
Advantages of an independent website
An independent website can help companies achieve brand promotion, avoid platform rule constraints, accumulate customer information, and control funds independently. Through an independent website, companies can autonomously shape the brand image, not restricted by platform rules, making it easier to attract customers and flexibly control funds.
Marketing strategies
For marketing, you can use CPC pay-per-click and other methods to promote, select the target audience, drive traffic to the independent site through pay-per-click, and control ROI well. Google Ads, Bing ads, and other search ad engines are effective promotion methods, suitable for early promotion of newly established B2C websites.
Through the above steps, you can more effectively use the independent site for product sales, make up for the shortcomings of third-party platforms, and achieve brand sedimentation, user data accumulation, and marketing expansion.
SNS Social Media Marketing
Social network marketing is a strategy that uses a large user base to quickly promote products or services. Currently, social network marketing has received wide attention in foreign trade enterprises, such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and other social networking platforms. These social networks gather a large number of potential customer groups, and the rapid spread of information through social networks helps companies achieve marketing goals.
For example, Facebook, as the world's leading photo sharing site, companies can enhance their ranking by creating a dedicated page, selecting appropriate titles and positioning, and taking advantage of its high authority and fast indexing to attract a large amount of traffic. In addition, Facebook also supports paid advertising methods such as dynamic messages, sidebar ads, and ads on Instagram and the Audience Network.
Discount Information Network
Discount websites provide discounted goods to meet the needs of budget-conscious users, attract precise buyers through brand concessions, reduce traffic costs, and achieve a cost-effective transaction. The Discount Information Network can help brand merchants achieve marketing goals.
Internet Celebrity Fan Marketing
Utilizing the influence of internet celebrities and their fan base for product marketing, converting fans into purchasing power, accumulating brand resources, and enhancing market competitiveness.
CPS Commissioned Advertising
CPS Commissioned Advertising settles advertising fees based on the number of products sold, reducing the advertising risks for brand merchants, and is a cost-effective promotion method.
SEO Organic Optimization
SEO natural optimization is to optimize the overall structure of the website, page keywords, external links, etc., to improve the weight of the website and its ranking on search engines, and increase target traffic. It is suitable for medium to long-term operation and is an effective promotion method.
EDM Email Marketing
Through email marketing to achieve secondary marketing, with strong pertinence, non-coercive, it is an effective marketing strategy.
External Link Advertising
Promote through blogs, advertisements, forums, portal websites, etc., related to products, attracting the attention of potential customers.
Offline Advertising
Promote offline advertising through methods such as package cards, offline exhibitions, billboards, to increase website traffic, suitable for long-term brand promotion.
Massive Strategy
For products with high unit price and clear customer groups, it is possible to promote through the formation of a sales team, to improve sales performance.
Online Payment
Shopping websites need to pay attention to online payment issues. Currently, there are mainly the following payment methods: PayPal, third-party credit card payments, Moneybookers, Western Union transfer, telegraphic transfer, etc. Choose the payment method that suits your website to improve the customer shopping experience.
Logistics
For B2C products, the main logistics method is mainly air transportation, and the recommended delivery methods include EMS, DHL, TNT, UPS, FEDEX, Hong Kong Post, among which EMS has price and customs clearance advantages. Choosing the right logistics partner can save trading costs and enhance the customer shopping experience.