When the E-Transaction Act went into effect in Jamaica in 2007, it set up a legal framework that made it safer to do business online. After the act was passed, there was a lot of growth in e-commerce in Jamaica. As more and more people get used to digital transactions and shopping online, setting up an e-commerce store could be a good way to start a business that makes money.
The process of setting up an E-Commerce business in Kingston
Here are the steps you need to take if you want to set up an online store:
Identify your product
This first step will set the stage for a lot of important decisions you’ll need to make if you want to start and run an e-commerce business. Make sure you know exactly what you want to sell on your e-commerce platform. If you are selling a physical product, you should check to see if it:
- Demand is high.
- A big profit.
- If it can be stored and shipped without much trouble.
Talk to your website design and development company in Jamaica if you want to offer digital products like webinars or coaching sessions online. They can help you figure out what features you will need to offer your digital products to your customers in the best way possible.
Acquire your online presence
After you know what you’re selling and have chosen a name for your business, buy a website domain. You also need to quickly claim your business name on social media. With the help of sites like Namecheckr.com, you can find out which handles for your brand name are free and register them right away so that they don’t get taken by other businesses.
Supply and logistics
If you run an e-commerce business, you have to ship the goods to your customers. During this step, things to think about are:
- Which shipping company are you going to pick?
- Who will supply your products or make them?
- Where and how will you store things?
- Is drop shipping something that your business could do?
Get your website ready
Here are a few examples of e-commerce platforms:
Shopify
It is a popular e-commerce platform that has everything you need, is easy to use, and gives you a lot of ways to customize it. With this hosted software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform, you can choose from different subscription plans based on what your business needs.
Squarespace
It is a platform for making websites with modern templates. It also lets you sell things online. It is easy to use, but you can’t customize it as much as you can with Shopify.
WooCommerce
It is an open-source plug-in that you can add to your WordPress site to start selling things. It’s free to download and has a lot of e-commerce tools. Entrepreneurs who have used computers before should use them the most.
Magento
If you know a lot about technology, you might want to use Magento, which is an open-source platform that lets you (or a developer you hire) change every part of your online store.
Launch your online store
The last step is to build a website that works well in terms of speed, ease of use, navigation, and safe payment processing. Remember that your e-commerce site will also be a marketing tool, so make sure to add high-quality, attractive images and detailed descriptions of your products. If you’re selling digital products, you can add videos, give discounts, and offer other enticing benefits to get more people to buy. You need to work with both your website design and development team and your digital marketing team to make sure your website has everything it needs to be a successful online business. Once you’ve decided on an e-commerce platform, you can build, customize, and launch your online store. You’ll choose the template’s design, make a wireframe, add your products, and write about your business to introduce it. As your business grows, you can start keeping an eye on your metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) once the business is up and running. Keep trying out different kinds of digital marketing to get people interested in your brand.
In addition to managing your inventory, logistics, and marketing, you’ll want to make sure that every customer’s shipping and fulfillment go smoothly. It’s smart to make plans for what to do if something goes wrong. Statistics from 2020 show that 80% of Jamaicans have access to the internet, and this number is likely to have gone up since then. This shows that e-commerce in Jamaica has even more potential to grow and spread.
