How to Start a Brand in eCommerce: “Drive” Your Business to Success

We hate to break it to you, but starting a business is like falling face-first on cement pavement. You’ll go through tons of highs and lows when you start building your brand and establishing your service or product with your audience. However, knowing where to begin can lighten the load you will have to carry on the first steps of establishing your business. There are countless talks about business strategies, but the first and most compelling part is establishing good contact with your supplier. Suppliers have a seat at the table when you provide products or services. To get out of the swampland, here is some vital information you should practice as you establish the business you’ve always dreamed of having.

Table of Contents

What is B2B?
How to start a Business on an eCommerce Platform?
Steps
Market Feedback
5 Tips in Forming Business Partnerships
Pros and Cons
The Gist

What is B2B?

Coined from the abbreviation of “Business-to-Business,” B2B, simply put, is the interaction between two businesses. These may be through the formation of partnerships, the collaboration of brands, or an agreement between two parties exchanging goods or services.

How to start a Business on an eCommerce Platform?

Starting a business online is like learning how to drive using a vehicle with an automatic transmission. For those already familiar with the wheel, you can probably relate easily to this. For those still learning how to drive, you’ll get a business and driving lesson here today. As you go through the steps below, remember that you will be the person in charge of the wheel, just as you will be in charge of developing and establishing your business through an eCommerce platform. Remember that, similar to driving a vehicle; you will also be driving in the different directions your business will be journeying towards. 

Steps: “BLOWBAGETS”

B stands for Battery
L stands for Lights
O stands for Oil
W stands for Water
B stands for Brake
A stands for Air
G stands for Gas
E stands for Engine
T stands for Tire
S stands for Self

Battery in Business

The “battery” for your business will be the goals that your business will revolve around. Whether you’re a supplier looking to find businesses that will form a partnership with your company, or a small business owner looking to establish your products and services at more affordable production costs, you can successfully build your brand online. One of the benefits of using eCommerce platforms in building your business is its characteristics of generating information about your business’ daily, weekly, monthly, and annual performance. 

When it comes to driving or using any motor vehicle, the purpose of the battery is to start the vehicle. It is usually rechargeable and supplies the electric current to power the vehicle. The science behind it is when the vehicle is started, the internal combustion engine that is chemically powered will begin to propel the vehicle. Nerding out of all this science, in terms of business, as mentioned above, your goals become the powerhouse of the business you are looking to build and establish with your target market. 

Lights in Business

What comes to mind when you hear the word “lights?” Is it saving electricity to address climate emergencies? Is it switching to LED lights to lessen our carbon footprint? Is it similar to a moth being drawn to a flame? Or perhaps, is it a combination of all previously mentioned? Whether or not your idea was mentioned, when it comes to business, “light” is the thing that attracts your target market. When you already have your goals set, discover why you can entice your selected target to notice you. Say you’re driving or learning how to drive; you use your light to make other drivers aware that you are on the road. You also use these lights when you’re driving in the evening or afternoon; it draws attention to your vehicle, making other drivers aware that you are in the same plane of asphalt as they do. 

Oil in Business

Motor oil, also known as engine oil, in driving, is used to lubricate combustion engines. Engine oil is used to reduce the friction of the moving parts in your engine. If you think about it, engine oil makes each drive run smoothly. So, in terms of business, your engine oil will be your team, the people who will be with you from day one to the moments you break down in stress and jump for joy when you reach your goals to make your driving run smoothly, be it in business or using an automotive vehicle, it is crucial that you pay attention to the people around you. Like getting lost in an unfamiliar location, you ask for directions. Just like that, you work with others to move closer to your business goals.

Water in Business

Automotive vehicles use water to cool the running engine and the person or people inside the car. In business, water is the “buffer” that reminds businesses to stay on track. This may be in the form of providing your business-to-business partners with collateral or special perks to raise the appreciation rate of your small business. Business appreciation makes your supplier business or small business more credible to other potential partners in the industry. The more trustworthy and well-progressing your business is, the higher your chances of building lasting partnerships. When you relate this to driving, the fewer your strikes violating road laws and regulations, the more you can be approved for renewing your license or getting a new car. 

Brakes in Business

The term “brakes” in automotive vehicles is used to inhibit motion. In simpler words, when you’re driving, and you want to slow down or stop, you press your foot against the brakes. When it comes to business, your brakes represent your scope and limitations. Before you make an indecisive and hasty decision, gauge the situation you are in and rationally decide whether or not you should give something a go. 

Air in Business

For automotive vehicles, oxygen intake is necessary for the combustion process of generating a well-breathing engine. No driver wants their engine to overheat, especially in this humid climate caused by greenhouse gasses and excess CO2. As drivers, it is our responsibility to take good care of our engines to avoid beating up the internal machinery of our automotive vehicles, causing environmental damage, and denting our budgets. When we bring this under the microscope of business, the air is used as our platforms, strategies, and mediums to breathe. To have a well-running business, we must allow our team, alongside our business goals – to have ample room to breathe.

Gas in Business

When driving, automotive vehicles use volatile fuel (gasoline) and filtered air to make a compressed mixture that will produce pressure to push the pistons and supply power to keep your engine running. Regarding business, gas can be perceived as a mirror reflection of funding. Depending on the size of your business, you will always need a certain amount of funding to function. Having a budget for all your business operations is essential. If you’d like to reduce the number of your costs when spending on raw materials and middleman services, try forming a partnership with supplier companies on a business-to-business engagement. There are countless businesses out there that are more than willing to form a partnership with a small business owner like yourself. You don’t have to be a conglomerate to partner with wholesale suppliers. If you know where to look, you’re about halfway there; in this case, Shoppable is one place where you can enjoy good and trustworthy partnerships. 

Engine in Business

The engine is the heart of your automotive vehicle. This complex machinery is designed and built to convert volatile fuel into a force that allows your car’s wheels to run and turn however you drive it. In business, the engine is the platform that drives the sales towards the direction where your company is located. With your manpower and funding, you produce a speedy motion of operations in your small business or supplier company. Choosing where to get your suppliers and target market will decide how your sales will go and how your business will be driven from where it is now to the different journeys it will reach.

Tires in Business

For automotive vehicles, it’s pretty much self-explanatory. Your tires are the rubber and metal things you see on the exterior of your automotive vehicle. So, in business, these are what your business uses to navigate the different directions you will be venturing into. Say you want to expand your business by using more sustainable raw materials. These tires represent your efforts in exploring different opportunities and outlets where you can obtain these sustainable goods.

Market Feedback

Receiving feedback is good, whether constructive, excellent, or not so pleasing to hear. For your business to receive feedback, you must provide your clients or target market with an avenue where they can share their insight about your products or services. You may also utilize social media where you can collect and embed feedback. This includes tags, mentions, or reviews on your product pages. When you’ve finally obtained market feedback, you may use these reviews on marketing materials such as your website or social media page. Showcase what you’re good at, and let others know about it. For example, suppose you’re a small business advocating for zero-waste cosmetics. In that case, you can include reviews that share how committed your brand is to zero-waste management. 

You can also share this feedback in the statistics of your annual case study. Remember, feedback creates improvement for businesses. Continuously receiving feedback is good for developing your business, whichever industry you belong to. The more feedback you receive, the more input you take into understanding how your target market and clients react toward your products or services. While not all feedback may be positive, you may take the negative ones with a grain of salt and understand how and why the negative response came to be. Through this process, you can easily discover the areas for improvement in your small business or supplier company. Luckily enough, one of the best features of Shoppable is its skillfully designed interface that allows users to contribute feedback to the brands they purchase from easily.

On the side of the consumers, since all of us are, we can use this avenue to share how we like or dislike a particular product or service. We can share how we want this product to be improved or how the price can be adjusted according to our needs. If the company comes across our feedback and makes it possible for it to be turned into reality, then it’s a win-win situation for both parties. The basics of creating and receiving feedback have a common ground of respect. No matter how much you like or dislike a particular product or service, keep in mind that you still have to be diplomatic with what you share online or in physical stores. 

Speaking of improving your business, you can also work on all the improvements you want to make online. There’s this eCommerce platform designed for digital procurement; it’s called Shoppable. It offers all the tools and features you’ll need as a seller. One of the things that makes it unique is how it can grow your numbers. Since the eCommerce industry is the largest and fastest-growing industry in the world, you wouldn’t want to miss out on the opportunity to operate your business online. 

Here’s why you should join Shoppable…

• It’s FREE – It’s free to start selling on the Shoppable platform. As long as you’re a legally registered business, you’ll be able to list products for free on Shoppable. You only pay a commission if an item sells on the platform, and you get paid. 

• Expand your Customer base – Through Shoppable, you’ll reach thousands of new customers for free. Think of Shoppable as your marketing arm that you only pay when you have a sale. 

• Get your eCommerce Store – Increase sales by digitalizing your product catalog and reaching customers worldwide. Print catalogs are dying, costly, and not environment friendly – digital is the future. Sellers can get their eCommerce store on Shoppable Business, which can be given to any client. 

• Procurement Technology – Enable your customers to pay you online through Bank Transfers, Credit Cards, Over-the-Counter Payments, Recurring Payments, and more. Easily track and manage orders, payments, and shipping through the Shoppable platform. 

• Shipping Technology – Shoppable has integrated directly with multiple shipping couriers, enabling you to provide same-day to next-day delivery to your customers. 

• Compliance – Sales invoices and 2307’s required? Don’t worry. Shoppable has got you covered! The platform keeps sellers fully compliant, never worrying about missing documents. 

• 3PL & Fulfilment Services – Need additional manpower? Shoppable can provide you with warehousing and fulfillment solutions to expand your brand to different locations enabling you to get products delivered faster to your customers. 
  
• Real Sellers, Real Buyers, and Real Products only – We vet and interview sellers that join the platform, so you will be assured that all of the products and transactions are authentic and legitimate. 

5 Tips for Forming Business Partnerships

Forming business-to-business partnerships can be troublesome and tedious. Sometimes it’s even nerve-racking if you’re a newbie in the industry and have no idea how to talk to potential partners, let alone investors. However, no matter how sweat-excreting you think business partnerships ought to be, it’s pretty simple. Instead of panicking and shaving your eyebrows because you’re already overthinking a thousand ways you could fail, direct your attention towards how you can focus on creating a partnership plan that is a win for both parties. Here are five tips for forming business-to-business partnerships. 

1. Identify the alignment of your business.

There are countless businesses out there. Some may seem extravagant, coated with sugar and glitter, while others may seem austere and painted in white – just plain. Ever heard of the saying, “don’t judge a book by its cover?” This goes out to all businesses of whatever size. This applies to all businesses of every size. Identify, through your research, which companies have the exact alignment as your business. This process may also be a trial and error, so whenever things don’t go as planned, don’t be disheartened. Keep your head up and go on with working on your business partnerships.

2. Plan how your business goals will be achieved with your potential business partner.

Once you find business partners aligned with your business goals, form an agreement established on your common ground. Set your roots on the goals each of you wants to achieve together as business partners. Establish the hows, the timelines, the platforms, and the expected outcomes to be achieved as you work together in reaching these aspired results. Established companies want to partner with businesses that know what they want instead of forming a partnership with a business that barely knows what they want to make out of their partnership. 

3. Create a marketing strategy that is based on research.

Instead of going with the flow and just working on trends, consider creating a concrete marketing strategy anchored on statistical data. Be sure that when you do so, include the demographics and market behaviors of your target market. This way, you can quickly get a grasp of your business outcomes. Knowing how your target market functions will tell you a lot about how your sales and business development goals will go. If you encounter unprecedented business obstacles, see that you have a contingency plan.

4. Identify the sales management and compensation or dividends.

Some partnerships come into different forms of disagreements because money matters. There’s a saying that goes, “never do business with friends,” this is closely anchored on the idea that friendships come to a halt because, one way or another, the agreement about money matters will always come between them. To avoid this issue coming around when you’re conducting your business partnerships, ensure that the fine print is always understood by all participating parties and have the corresponding documents signed and notarized. Nobody wants to fall victim to frivolous lawsuits and be shamed by their business partners because they missed out on the key information that makes their business round.

5. Be receptive to suggestions.

When you lay out plans and proposals, there’s no guarantee that all of these will be liked or accepted by your prospective business partners. Sometimes you would have to adjust to different circumstances that come your way. In business, you must take things with an open mind. No matter how much you believe in your idea, plan, or strategy, there will always be room for improvement. So, as much as possible, never let your emotions get the best of you, and keep your professionalism intact.

Pros and Cons

When starting, the inevitable aspects include the pros and cons. The things we deem most important will create an enormous effect on what we’re working on. In terms of business, there are always a couple of things that fall under your pros, while others fall under the category of your cons. To use both aspects to your advantage, we can begin identifying a few for each. Below are a few pros and cons that you may include when analyzing how to go about your business. Whether you’re a small business or a supplier company, these pros and cons are 

Pros

1. Suppliers offer lower costs per unit.
   
   One of the reasons clients turn to the wonders of using eCommerce platforms is that suppliers are found to provide wholesale items at more affordable costs per unit. Instead of lurking on the streets trying to find the most affordable supplier, companies venture into eCommerce platforms like Shoppable to look for the things they need to produce their goods and services. If you’re a supplier and haven’t ventured into placing your wholesale goods online, perhaps you should jump in and open the double-door entrance of opportunity for your business.
   
2. The direct transaction is guaranteed.
   
   Unlike other platforms or mediums that require the help of middlemen, when you switch to using an eCommerce platform for your business, you don’t have to be tied to other extra expenditures. Plus, the lighter side of using eCommerce platforms is transacting directly with suppliers and couriers. There’s no need for you to worry about whether or not your goods will be delivered securely or whether they’ll arrive at the seller all damaged. Direct transactions guarantee that whatever you order will be all the things that will be delivered to you.
   
3. Secure payment channels through each transaction.
   
   Nobody wants to be conned, not even con artists themselves. We know it from textbooks; we work hard for the money we earn. We spend hours trying to make ends meet and pave the way for our future to be more comfortable than it currently is. This is one of the primary reasons we need to protect our hard-earned money and ensure transactions are designed with the highest security and are encrypted. Compared to conducting transactions through the marketplace of the different social media platforms, when you use an eCommerce platform like Shoppable, each transaction is encrypted and protected, directly connecting from the payment channel to your wallet. There’s no need to fret and panic because through the well-structured design of eCommerce payment channels; you can accomplish each transaction securely.
   

Cons

1. Direct access to competitors.
   
   Similar to having a social media account, you can also search for the different producers in your industry. Like what we studied in economics when we were in high school – and the world was somewhat more straightforward, there’s such a thing called “perfect competition.” More players in the game mean the market is less condensed, and more consumers are looking for products and services. Having direct access to your competitors means that you are closely holding each other under their noses. However, if you enjoy competition and like looking at challenges with an optimistic outlook, you can add this to the list of pros above.
   
2. An overwhelming number of clients.
   
   Technology made online connections possible through applications, social media, and platforms like eCommerce stores. If you’re a one-person company and you’ve begun to venture into supplying small businesses, this may be a challenge that you will have to adjust to and overcome. Small businesses and individuals flock to your store’s online page, asking for their orders and wanting different custom-made requests. This can be stressful if you’re still learning how business-to-business transactions work. It may also be confusing how you will handle hundreds of orders, but once you get used to it, it could be the next favorite thing you’ll do.
   
3. Application of received feedback.
   
   When your store receives feedback, whether it’s positive or negative, there’s ample room to apply this feedback. The not-so-pleasing idea about this is that if you receive feedback that isn’t so pleasing to the ears, then that review – like all other reviews, will still be featured online. On the contrary, if all you receive are good reviews, it will be challenging to discover your areas for growth. If this is something you’re working on with your supplier business or newly launched small business, you can gather feedback through social media or newsletter surveys instead. This way, when all you receive is excellent feedback, you’ll also learn about how you can improve. 

As you’ve just previously read, these are just a couple of pros and cons you may encounter once you begin your small business or wholesale supplier company on an eCommerce platform. Like anything, there will always be difficulties that will help us grow. Alongside these difficulties are also beacons of good cheer that bring our personal and business endeavors an excellent and enticing experience. So, as you go your way in finally doing your business a favor, keep what you’ve read so far always at the back of your head, guiding you through each careful decision you embark on.

The Gist

The “two cents” you can take with you as a summary of everything you’ve read in this article are these two intriguing reminders you must digest and absorb. First, nothing is easy. Be it launching a supplier business or making coffee, something considered one of the most mundane things in daily life. Despite nothing being completely easy, there are also avenues for you to learn and discover the way where you can learn and be well-rounded. For supplier businesses, if you’re having difficulty gathering the right clients that require your products and services, then perhaps you can explore the green grass of eCommerce platforms – where clients look for you. 

Second, on the two cents, whatever business industry you’re in, it’s a staple that sustainability must come along with every move you make. Whether it be in your team, the products and services you’re offering, or the materials that you’ll be using as you operate your business, make it a habit of thumb that each of your decisions will foster a lasting positive impact and will create a notable change that can be nurtured as your business grows. There you have it! Launch that business, start on an eCommerce platform, make your dreams come true, and work around your goals. We wish you the best of luck, good health, and an incredible journey as you embark on the yellow-brick road of business.
If by any chance you’re a business owner looking to expand your business in the world of eCommerce, an eCommerce business platform like Shoppable can assist you with all of your selling needs. Say hello at [email protected] to learn how we can help you grow your eCommerce business.