Dubai is indeed the best place to start an eCommerce business. This is because of its huge internet penetration. UAE collectively has more than 9 Million Internet users which is more than 95%. Moreover, the eCommerce market is going to boom in the upcoming years in Dubai. Considering this great opportunity, it is the right time to begin an eCommerce business. It could be any specific product that you would want to sell online and establish your own business.
But before you start your own eCommerce business in Dubai you must ask a few important questions. What are the benefits of starting a business in Dubai? What are the steps in building a successful eCommerce business in Dubai?
Let’s begin by taking first and a simple question. Why start an eCommerce business in Dubai? What are the benefits?
- Encouragement to eCommerce: eCommerce is on the top in Dubai. The government has taken the initiatives to boost the eCommerce market through its Dubai eCommerce Strategy. Under this strategic plan, the government is planning to bring more foreign direct investment into its e-commerce space and reduce the Ecommerce operations costs by more than 25%. So, what could be better than this?
- Great Support To The New Businesses: As per World Bank’s ‘Doing Business 2020’ report the UAE ranks 16in the ease of doing business. Besides this government provides the benefits such as tax reductions, low operation costs and great networking opportunities.
- Huge Transport Infrastructure: for Transportation and logistics UAE is one of the best in the world. This transformation infrastructure enables the eCommerce companies to take their eCommerce business to the next level. Transportation is one of the main factors for the success of eCommerce, and in Dubai, you have the full fledged transportation facilities.
So these advantages can be leveraged for your eCommerce business idea. Now with all these benefits by your side, let’s see how you can build an eCommerce business from scratch.
- Select Your Product: The very first stage is to decide which product you want to sell online. Finding the product for an eCommerce website could be challenging. But it is better if you start with the product which you know from the inside out. This will help you to build your business nicely in the next stages. Also, you can start selling the products with a limited range first and then expand as you proceed. Focusing on the limited products first will give you a clear idea of the operations of an eCommerce business. Once you become familiar with everything you can bring more product range.
While selecting the products you should take the following factors into consideration
- Which products are in demand as per the recent market trends?
- Check the future scope of the products.
- Whether the profit margin is good enough.
- Is there any scope for innovation to stay ahead in the market competition?
- Check for the inventory and logistics infrastructure needed for the selected product.
Do Thorough Research
Once you are sure about your product you can check for the market competition. Which are the leading eCommerce companies selling the same product. What has been their business strategy and can you possibly do well in the competitive digital space? While doing the analysis of your possible competitors check every parameter carefully.
Check their eCommerce website tools and features. By this, you will get an idea about the recent trends of a commerce website. Here are some more points to consider while doing research on your competitors
- Who are their Target Customers?
- Which is their key product and how they have diversified their products
- What are the set product prices and how do they attract customers with the discount slabs?
- What are their shipping processes and logistics infrastructure?
- Check their performance over the past years and projections for the upcoming years.
Take inspiration from each of your competitors and learn as much as possible.
Create an eCommerce Business Plan:
After the detailed research in this stage, you will prepare your own business plan. If you have done research well you will be able to create a perfect eCommerce business plan.
If you have decided about the product check for the dealers and the companies manufacturing those products. Select the price tags with them and set price slabs for the various products. Also, decide whether you will have your own transportation infrastructure or you will outsource it. Set up the inventory and stock stores for the operations. Check the cost for all these necessary business steups and choose what is best for you.
Then plan for your digital infrastructure. This includes your eCommerce website and your marketing strategy and tools. Shortlist the design ideas for your eCommerce website and how you can stand out from the market competition.
Create Your Ecommerce Website
The website is at the centre of the eCommerce business. All your customers will come to your website and if they are impressed they can further make a decision to buy the product. So carefully decide the design plans for your website. Always check for the recent trends for an eCommerce website and ensure that you have all those latest features and functionality.
There are some essential features that you need to reflect on your eCommerce website. Features such as Mobile Friendliness Great User Experience Simple and Streamlined Navigation Secure and Simplified Checkouts Quality Payment Gateway Recommended and Related Products, Quality Content Management Online Chat Support and Customer Reviews Module are key for the successful ecommerce website design UAE
Moreover, there are two possibilities: you can design the eCommerce website in-house if you have a good IT infrastructure. else you can give this task to an established eCommerce development company. The benefits of giving eCommerce development to other companies will help you to focus on the core business and the experts will be handling your eCommerce development. For eCommerce website design Dubai you can check the portfolio of Delimp Technology for their significant work as an eCommerce development company.
Market Your Product:
Once you have a fully functional and creative website you can proceed further with marketing. Set a clear digital marketing plan for your eCommerce website by analysing the current market situation. Select the different marketing channels such as email marketing, Google Ads, PPC, Mobile Marketing or SEO to spread the brand awareness.
Here are some of the Digital Marketing strategies to consider.
- Organic Social Media Connect
- Advertise on social platforms
- Create interesting, useful content
- Optimize your site for SEO
- Use email promotions
- Retarget Your Ads
- Try PPC Google Ads
- Referral Programs
Maintain The Ecommerce Website:
Maintaining the eCommerce website is also important for an eCommerce business. It is not only a one-time activity, you need to be consistent and check the smooth working of the site. So place all the resources in such a way that there will not be any hurdle in the working of your eCommerce business.
While maintaining your eCommerce website, always consider whether all the features are working or not. Do frequent performance testing on the eCommerce website and do the necessary changes or modifications.
You can hire a company to maintain your eCommerce website so that you will be able to only focus more on the eCommerce business operations. This is a fine way to save your resources and time. Delimp has been instrumental in helping eCommerce companies with their website maintenance. You can check Delimp’s portfolio here (Add Link).
Keep Evaluating:
Once you set up your e-commerce business. Design a great eCommerce website and promote it effectively when you are ready to go. But it is necessary to improve as you go forward in your eCommerce business venture and therefore you must keep evaluating your performance in all aspects. The best way is to take the feedback from the customers and carefully work on them. Keep making the changes for the customer unless and until they are completely satisfied with the shopping experience. Keeping consistency, creativity and customer satisfaction at the top is the key to a successful eCommerce business.
