Help with E-commerce Ideas
I'm a 34 year old looking to venture into the E-commerce space. Reason being a weakening local currency in my country, my need to do business and invest internationally without the limiters of borders and my experience being a part of a retail chain, just to name a few. From the little research done, drop shipping seems to be an ideal business model to follow.
I would really appreciate it if anyone could please put me through this process. I'm eager to learn and quite possibly be a part of a project centered around the aforementioned goal.
Work in e-commerce already (tech solutions not a retailer) so not looking to partner up but happy to answer any questions you have.
Oh that’s great, thank you so much.
I’ll definitely be looking to integrate some sort of tech solution to my goal. But first, I’ll have to get answers to the following questions before the picture becomes clearer.
Like I mentioned earlier, these are just a few of many questions I’ll need answered after an extensive research to get a clearer picture of what tech solution to apply.
If there’s any that comes to mind or any material that I need to look at, please let me know. Once again, I appreciate the feedback.
I would even take a step further back.
What are you trying to solve and for who? Get your product right first and then the other questions become easier to answer.
In all honestly, selling cross-borders is not easy there is a crazy number of things you need to consider before selling internationally.
IMO you can take two approaches
Made up example for point 1
Made up example for point 2
Whatever approach you take you are looking for 3 things
I highly recommend picking just one market to start.
Your’e absolutely right.
This is why I have decided to study the trends in each region, eventually allowing me to zone in on one. By trend, I mean what the region is searching for online but is unavailable in the open market.
Figuring this out will definitely help me zero in on a market segment and what product to deliver to them. Hence solving said problem.
Hopefully I’m able to get a wider understanding on the selected region, identify a problem within a segment, then seek possible ways to solve it.
In regards to selling cross-borders, I understand it may seem uneasy. But given the various vehicles
dedicated to working with traders to ease trading processes, I certainly think it’s doable.
An example of said vehicle is Firstbase. This is a US based company I found on Indie Hacker. They specialise in opening US Companies for Foreign Founders. According to their site, they take care of the registration process, bank account creation, tax advisory, e.t.c. A vehicle like this would be very helpful in the execution stage. Hopefully an equivalent would be available in any other region I decide to settle for.
https://firstbase.io/en
As for delivering products to consumers, If you recall i mentioned Drop shipping as a possible module i might follow. Worldwide brands and Wholesale2b are two organisations i could get in touch with. Both are good for sourcing credible wholesalers or a distribution chain to work with. Being that they are in the trading business, they should be able offer key information on how to operate within my preferred region given that they export to said region as well.
https://www.wholesale2b.com
www.worldwidebrands.com/
Some work obviously needs to be done but I’m optimistic about this. Especially in regards to the unexpected findings during my search.
Makes sense.
Last point on cross-borders, I'm not trying to discourage you but more allow you to avoid wasting focus on things that can be avoided until later.
At face value cross-border seems solvable, the devil is in the details though. I spend a lot of time interviewing large ecomm retailers and the decision to sell cross-border is one that takes considerable investment and planning.
Most opt for a third-party vendor to manage it due to the overhead. Here are some of the top vendors solving that today
https://www.global-e.com/
https://www.flow.io/
https://www.eshopworld.com/
Full disclosure I work for a cross-border provider, hence the insight.
To be honest, that was a genuine worry of mine about cross-border trade. The unknown roadblocks and how tough it could get going through the regional requirements and customs. Coming from you and your experience, your input means a lot. Thanks.
So, this just means i need to fine tune my strategy to eliminate my interaction with the borders and leave it to the vendors or avoid the cross border trade all together and focus on locally sourced products/solutions.
Again, thanks for the recommendations. The links will definitely be helpful.
I hope you don’t mind if i run things by you as time goes.
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