The Premise

The internet age has provided a whirlwind of opportunities for every hardworking dreamer that wants to fly without wings. Much like the infamous Gold Rush of the 1800s, the world eCommerce and internet has proven to be the holy grail for visionaries and go-getters.

With its low barrier to entry, Amazon has quickly become one of the most popular routes to business ownership. Whether you want to generate a side income or eventually scale operations to make a living off your business, one of the best places to start selling your products is on Amazon, undoubtedly!

What it Means for You

Amazon is a leading contender in the third-party marketplace industry. You can sell nearly anything and make a profit. However, doing so takes time, skill and dedication.

Here are a few of our handpicked expert tips on how to find success and make money on Amazon, if you’re willing to put in the effort:

1- Start by Building your Brand

Before you start selling your products, you’ll want to focus on building your brand. Your brand reputation is the very identity of your business, it is the mirror upon which the light of the world reflects.

You need to ask yourself questions such as: How can I set myself aside from other sellers? Who is my target audience?

Secondly, you need to first and foremost identify your niche and the products you want to sell. From there, analyze your competition to determine proper pricing, challenges, buying patterns, behavioral trends and so forth.

Quality is the soul of your brand. You’ll want to focus on delivering the highest-quality products for your consumers. Don’t forget about setting a solid Return Policy for your Amazon business journey that customers can refer to.

2 – Marketing Yourself

Setting up your Amazon account is the easy part; attracting potential customers to your page is more complicated. However, Amazon does much of the work for you, bringing traffic and buyers to your listing.

To be successful on Amazon, you simply need to know how to leverage their advantages for your own business. This includes using Amazon Sponsored Product Ads, Amazon Internal Promotions and Fulfillment by Amazon.

A good Amazon-specialized Virtual Assistant can help you to test advertising, promotions and deal opportunities, and to refresh listings and look at top 100 listings for continual research, keeping you in the loop at all times!

3 – Seek Reviews

As the saying goes, “word of mouth advertising is the best form of advertising”. This holds true for Amazon as well. How many times are we all guilty of reading reviews when shopping for items on Amazon ourselves? If you want consumers to choose you over other brands, you’ll need to make sure your reviews are positive. If they aren’t, you’ll need to acknowledge them head-on.

Always put the customers’ needs first. Respond to customer inquiries quickly, be proactive, and respond to negative reviews as quickly as possible, and go above and beyond to make customers happy

In essence, the most important thing to implement in conjunction with reviews is good customer service. A great way in accomplishing this by focusing on the product listing content, following up on emails, offering tips and usage recommendations, and maintaining a dedicated customer support team at all times.

4 – Establish Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA)

If you’re looking to be successful and make money on Amazon, it is important to understand the beauty of FBA. Amazon offers great quality and delivery, which is why consumers are so loyal to the company. Having Amazon on your side, organizing orders and handling behind-the-scenes work through Fulfillment by Amazon will undoubtedly attract more buyers and boost your sales.

So what exactly is FBA? It is an all-encompassing service designed specifically to meet your needs as a seller on Amazon, such as shipping items stored at fulfillment centers and handling customer service issues pertaining to orders.

Successful Amazon sellers use FBA to ensure their customers receive the most efficient service possible, without delays, hassles or unforeseen issues.

Conclusively, if you’re entering the Amazon eCommerce arena as an aspiring seller, the first things you need to do are the ones we’ve discussed above, before you start making those millions! Focus on offering the finest quality products, customer responsiveness, and amazing listings.

The sky’s the limit when it comes to selling and making money on Amazon, and its full potential is truly realized by leveraging the power of FBA for any new or experiences seller.

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You just nabbed a great E-commerce Consultant for social media. Congratulations!

Everything checks out; their experience, credentials, milestones, proven results, and raving testimonials from clients the world over.

Now what? What matters now is how you utilize your new secret weapon. An E-commerce Consultant is essentially under your leadership, the pathway and evolutionary journey ahead depends on the vision and deliverables you put forth in front of your E-commerce Consultant.

And this is where the power of Social Media Marketing is crucial. Can you effectively use your E-commerce Consultant for results-centric, customer-focused, goal-oriented Social Media Marketing campaigns and initiatives that make your target audiences glued on for more?

Focus on communicating effectively. That is the end result you want and what your audience really expects. And this is what your E-commerce Consultant must skillfully apply in all endeavors ahead.

Some of our tried and tested personal tips on Social Media Marketing, visibility, persuasion, and building a following are as follows:

1. Knowing Your Audience Type

Your E-commerce Consultant should be well aware and deeply immersed in the psychology, behavioral patterns, and emotional triggers that make your particular brand’s audience type resonate with you!

For example, the consultant must understand that if you’re writing for regular people, use words and sentences that apply to them, not words that an Astronaut from NASA could only grasp!

2. Building a Network

Any successful online business knows one essential fundamental recipe. The recipe for growing a network. That recipe starts from the very first brick towards building a network that stands the test of time. And this is where your E-commerce Consultant diligence, professionalism, skills, and overall ability to gather data + communicate it is utmost critical!

Effectively building a network on Linkedin, Instagram, Twitter, Google Plus, Discussion Boards, Industry Forums, and a plethora of other avenues is critical in leveraging the power of the internet and merging it with the beauty of Social Media.

Email lists, consumer outreach, and other online initiatives ensure your network grows, cement, and viably resonates with your value proposition as a business. A good E-commerce Consultant will make ample use of each avenue and exploit it to the nth degree!

3. Complexity in Simplicity

Your E-commerce Consultant should be able to turn complexity into simplicity – ensuring all audience types pertaining to your business can understand and grasp information – successfully!

If you’re talking about a technical topic, say it most straightforwardly without the jargon and fluff. Your E-commerce Consultant must be able to not only gauge this invaluable skill; but also apply it with zero bumps and hassles.

4. Managing Facebook Ads

Facebook ads are one of the most lucrative business facets any online business can employ. It has far more reach, conversion rates, and overall mass appeal than other social media platforms.

Hence, understanding its depth, substance; and intrinsic value in a proactive manner is a crucial trait every E-commerce Consultant worth their salt must embrace! Managing your various marketing and social media advertorial campaigns on Facebook in a timely, proactive, and results-driven fashion is the very lifeline to consistent revenue.

A great E-commerce Consultant will manage time, resources, study trends; and audience patterns and successfully be able to utilize your ads budget for maximum throughput!

Conclusively, E-commerce Consultant for social media marketing is about evoking emotions and thoughts – in a long-lasting manner; while constructively utilizing the tools and resources at one’s disposal. This is where a capable E-commerce Consultant’s true colors shine, and this is precisely how you need to implement your e-commerce consultant skills in a guided and goal-oriented manner.

In the world of business and commerce, it is important to believe in the compelling might of innovation and disruption. Disruptive Innovation is a form of social; technological, commercial and humanistic alteration that spearheads creativity with a revolutionary approach in every sphere of our lives.
With the fast-paced and ever-evolving world of business going through tremendous technological changes, it is imperative that companies around the globe – particularly those in the E-commerce Consulting Services – understand, employ and effectively apply the power of technology and great customer service.

The great E-commerce Consulting Companies will offer a full range of administrative, receptionist, social media and web development services at your fingertips.

It will employ E-commerce specialists who have amassed years of industry experience and specialize in serving all kinds of global markets, industries, and niches. It will harbor a top-notch team and all-encompassing platform to whom you can feel confident in delegating your work; knowing that it will be done: accurately and on-time!

Here are 6 things that successful E-commerce Consulting agencies must possess, and which you should be aware of while hiring an e-commerce consultant!

1. Professional Tools and Resources

E-commerce consulting agencies thrive on the power of professionalism. The presentation of your work, as well as things like your invoicing and business correspondence, should reflect your professional nature. A professional website (preferably with a domain-specific email address), billing and invoicing software and time tracking and scheduling tools like Time Doctor and Google Calendar that is essential to getting your job done in an efficient and timely manner.

While hiring an e-commerce specialist, you should do your due diligence and research on the e-commerce consulting agency to ensure that its consultants employ the power of these highly robust resources and tools in order to gain benefit for your business.

2. Strong Client Relationships

Most e-commerce specialists agencies are clueless about this part, and naturally, the consultants have also lacked this insight. Interpersonal communication is a crucial element for e-commerce specialists. Let’s face it, email exchanges and web conferences don’t help to build the kind of strong interpersonal relationship a consultant should have with his or her client.
To truly develop a rapport with a client; a consultant must consider the things that they can do to make the client’s project easier. It’s important for the eCommerce consultant to always have the client updated with what’s being done and why it’s being done!
Good E-commerce services will empower and train its consultants to learn the clientele’s business. So that a valid contribution can be made to the overall functioning of the business without hiccups.

3: Dedicated Professional Work Space

It’s concerning how most self-proclaimed professional e-commerce consulting services lack a dedicated professional workspace.

As a business owner scouring the internet, looking to hire a consultant, it can be confusing and truly overwhelming to set apart a good e-commerce consulting agency from a make-belief one. We understand that!

Hence, one of the major problems that digital assistants face is their non-work lives interfering with their work. The best way to deal with a situation like this is to have a dedicated work area such as a home office. Having all your equipment in one dedicated place that is sequestered away from the rest of the house; does wonder for a consultant’s productivity and is far more conducive to the type of work a dedicated e-commerce consultant does.

This is why a reliable E-commerce consulting agency will harbor a physical office; well-equipped with all the latest technological and organizational office facilities.

Since the e-commerce specialist industry is a 24/7 world; it is important to look for an agency that stays true to this mandate by being open 24 hours a day – regardless of geographic time zone – from Monday to Friday.

4: The Power of Referrals

Your business grows based on referrals. When you’re looking for professional E-commerce consulting services; it is imperative to look for one that is proactive when it comes to understanding the value of referrals.
For e-commerce consultants worth their salt, it is critical to treat each task as an opportunity for drumming up referrals. The best way is to approach a client as soon as a task has been completed for feedback.
A good E-commerce consulting Agency will make this habit a fundamental practice for any consultant it provides you. This helps you by leveraging your business and its clients to boost your value proposition in an effective manner.

5: Specialization = Competitive Edge

The rapidly evolving e-commerce services market is becoming quite competitive both domestically and globally. Specializing in a particular field is an important quality a good e-commerce consultant must possess.
A good E-commerce consulting Agency will understand this and enable its specialists to develop skills; that can lead to becoming experts in a particular field such as Search Engine Optimization or Social Media.

Going the extra mile to become an expert in a field makes an e-commerce consultant far more suited for some positions and increases a consultants value for being hired.

For example, if your business is in the area of E-commerce; it is important to look for an E-commerce consulting Agency that is well-known in eCommerce and Online Merchant Selling as a specialized niche of operations.
Whether you’re a Seller on Amazon, Shopify, eBay, Etsy or any other platform, a good E-commerce consulting Agency practices in specializations that are applicable to you.

6. Constant Training and Refinement

Knowledge is power! That’s why; a proactive and truly professional E-commerce consulting Agency will live the highest version of its value proposition on a global scale through constant training and refinement of its consultants!
When looking for an e-commerce consultant suitable for your business; it is crucial that you evaluate the  E-commerce consulting Agency practices for measuring its consultant’s performances all year round based on various KPI facets; including but not limited to client review and self-development, etc. Is the agency consistent in ensuring this?

It’s common to see people complain about other agencies or freelancing networks; that their consultant is not responsive to or they don’t know what they are working on.

Hence, a good E-commerce consulting Agency will have a Dedicated Manager at your disposal. To ensure all things go smooth and work is delivered on time; the Dedicated Manager works as bridge between the e-commerce consultant and yourself.

The e-commerce consultant industry is highly competitive. As human beings, we are creatures of emotion. We thrive on emotion, we grow in it and we embrace it for life’s entire endearing journey.

Employing empathy and using it to satisfy the major pain-points of your customers; is a great way to not cement trust and build a brand name. The great E-commerce consulting Agency will not only do that for you; but also make your life easier by taking on work and making every task productive in a truly effective way!

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Have you been sitting at your desk pondering the best way to maximize revenue flowing from your Shopify store during holiday shopping season?

Making the decision to embark on the journey of building a business is one to be commended. But watching that business flourish with exponential growth requires skill, diligence, and perhaps most importantly, vision, and foresight. Shopify has provided a tremendous platform that makes it possible for us to launch a business easier than ever, but there is still much “leg work” to be done.

While of course, making money is the motive for most, if not all, business owners; when to make the most money must be of high priority. People shop, and love to spend money throughout the year. But when do they spend the most money? Doing your homework, and planning ahead could open your eyes to great possibilities.

Why It’s Urgent to Plan in Ahead

The last quarter of the year is the holiday season, so it’s a very important time for consumers, and businesses. The last two months of the year are a particularly important time because of the many holidays, and it presents a great opportunity for you to hit your marks with all the splurging, as well as get rid of the surplus.

However, Capitalizing on the opportunity that the holiday season brings can be difficult. Maintaining the day-to-day operations, and constantly grinding to keep your business alive can be taxing, and that can lead to being unprepared for big events down the line. And you don’t want to be the business owner who misses out on the holiday shopping due to lack of planning.

When To Start Planning

As the saying goes, “better late than never, but never late is better.” Apply that to running a successful e-commerce business by knowing when to do your planning. For example, last year, 2016 do you know what period of the holiday season was peak time in shopping? If you’ve already started preparing for the holiday season this year, you would know that Google Trends shows that in 2016, November 23-26 was the peak time for shopping.

You could look at past years to accurately depict your current year outlook. Have you missed important shopping periods like this in the past? The only way to assure that you’re well prepared to capitalize is to plan accordingly.

Upcoming Holiday Shopping Schedule

As you now know, the last quarter of the year is a major one for your business. For you to take advantage of what the holiday season can mean for you, you must first gain an understanding of what days all of these holidays are on. Check out the 2017 fourth-quarter holiday schedule:

• September 4 Labor Day 2017
• September 10 Grandparents’ Day 2017
• September 11 Patriot Day
• September 16 Stepfamily Day 2017
• September 17 Citizenship Day 2017
• September 22 Native American Day 2017
• October 9 Columbus Day 2017
• October 16 Boss’s Day 2017
• October 21 Sweetest Day 2017
• October 31 Halloween 2017
• November 5 Daylight Saving 2017
• November 11 Veterans’ Day 2017
• November 23 Thanksgiving 2017
• November 24 Black Friday 2017
• November 27 Cyber Monday 2017
• December 7 Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day 2017
• December 25 Christmas Day 2017
• December 31 New Year’s Eve 2017

Other fourth quarter (non-official) holidays include:

Green Monday, December 12, 2017

Free Shipping Day December 15, 2017

Note that November and December are essential months for you, and shoppers.

 Top 10 Shopping Times & Top 5 Slowest Shopping Times

*Source: ShopperTrack

How to Prepare for the Holidays

Now that you know why it’s important to plan for the holiday season, let’s move on to how to prepare yourself, and your business. You must first create a holiday marketing plan, and there are a few components that go into a well-organized plan of attack.

Before you set out to execute your marketing campaign, you need to plan a few crucial parts. Here’s what you should accomplish to stay ahead of the market, and ready for the holiday splurge:

Plan

-Choose which holidays you want to capitalize on

First, you’ll need to narrow your focus, and wisely choose the best holiday that your business would be most competitive, and successful at. As previously noted, the last two months of the quarter are especially busy. Deciding to participate in all of the holidays in this window would be absolute chaos.

Strategically, make a wise business decision.

-Develop a Promotional Calendar

After choosing a holiday, start organizing things. The holiday season is extremely busy, so staying organized will only make your efforts that much easier, and can ensure your marketing success.

A promotional calendar enables you to visualize, and plan out the necessary steps you need to take to carry out your campaign. Your promotional calendar should include information such as:

• When you start/stop ads on promotions
• Days and times you will deploy emails
• Days and times you will update your site

-Product Research

Knowing the specifics, and potential of the products you sell is essential. Doing your homework on the products that you could add to your holiday inventory could rake in major bucks.  Some of your product research should include:

• What products are most appropriate for your store on holidays
• What new items are currently trending
• History of top-selling products

For example, for 2016, top-selling products included:

*Source: Business Insider

• iPads
• Samsung 4K TVs
• Drones
• Legos

-Your Shopify Store Must Be Optimized

Your store should be visible, and easily accessible for current, and especially potential customers during the holiday season. There are many stores with a digital presence. And more, and more people are shopping online during this peak time.

Therefore, you will need to be creative in getting exposure for your store. Use keywords that accurately describe what you offer, and make it easy for people to find you.

Let the virtual assistants for Shopify build and optimize store for maximum conversion. 

-Promote Your Store

Facebook Ads- A great way to target your audience with your promotional material in a relaxed, social environment. It takes barely any time to get your ads to go live on Facebook, and there is a bunch of training material available online.

-Instagram influencers

Yes, it’s the social media age, and you should take full advantage of it. Online Consumers love images, and Instagram is most known for its image shares, and uploads. Instagram Influencers are bonafide Instagram users with the most followers who will promote your product for you, reaching millions of people.

-Build Email Lists and Follow Them Up

Your email campaigning is important.  If you have experience in this area, you understand how much planning it takes when preparing your emails. You’ll want to strategically plan your emails in advance, and according to your promotional calendar. If you gain leads via email marketing, be sure to follow up with your potential client.

Click here to schedule a FREE CONSULTATION CALL for Email marketing for your store

Virtual Assistant

Acquiring virtual assistant services allows focussing primarily on the day-to-day operations of running your store. Once your business takes off, and the inquiries start rolling in nonstop, accomplishing everything we previously discussed can become a daunting task. Our Virtual Assistant Services will accomplish the goals you set forth in getting your Shopify store prepared for a major holiday season.

Conclusion

The marketing of your store should be just as important as the launch of your business. Little to no one has built a fruitful business entirely by themselves without the help of even one other person. Marketing your business requires professional assistance. Our virtual assistant services will have you well on your way to financial success. The fourth, and last quarter is a very important time of year for you. The stats don’t lie. More, and more people are shopping via e-commerce, and spending boatloads of money during November, and December especially. Let’s tap into that.

 Click Here to book an appointment