How to Build an E-commerce Brand: Lessons from My Experience

Hey, so this blog will be about how to build an e-commerce brand from my experience. My company, ENER-J, is now launching B2C in India. Right now, we sell in India, but we are a B2B business here, unlike in the UK, where we sell our products directly to customers as well as businesses.

There are some steps and processes which are essential for any business, so this blog will be a great read for anyone who is planning to launch a business.

I think the most important and difficult part of a business is finding a product to sell and its proper sourcing. Always try to buy from the manufacturer itself without a middleman to ensure you get the best prices. While selecting a product, I would recommend choosing something that you are passionate about, for example, raw selvedge denim jeans, block toys for kids, wooden toys, or terrarium tanks.

The reason to choose a product that you are passionate about is that you will be more eager to learn about the product or industry, and it will be fun for you.

Now, always create a brand. Put your emotions, thoughts, vision, and your story in front of the world. Always take decisions that will benefit you in the long term. Your branding will set you apart from your competitors, and in simple terms, a brand is trust.

Then, after sourcing the product, click and record high-quality images and videos of the product. Don’t rely on factory images. Make a folder and save as many images and videos as you can. This will be your marketing material.

Use AI to generate posters and banners for your products, and start by posting on all the social media platforms, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and TikTok, where you can post the posters, banners, and short videos of the product. Show the use cases, lifestyle videos, and images. This will help you connect with your audience.

Don’t try to perfect everything. Just try your best, and you will learn from experience and from what people respond to.

From what I have noticed, products from the same category are similar to each other in terms of quality. Mostly, they will be from the same factory or nearby factories in China. So what makes one brand premium or positioned higher is its images, videos, and branding.

Then create a website. It will be a place where you can position yourself better than others and where you can truly define your brand.

While creating a website, please take your time in choosing the fonts and colours, and try to create a mood board. This process will give you strong clarity about your brand, and you should follow it throughout your business.

Watch YouTube videos on fonts, colours, the branding process, and how to create a mood board. This will improve the branding of your own brand drastically.

After making your website live, list your products on marketplaces, as it will help you build trust, and work on SEO. Make sure that when people Google your product category, your product shows up first. To increase the chances, add variations in listings on your website and marketplaces, and target the keywords on social media. Also, make a list of keywords and target them throughout your channels.

Then run ads on the marketplaces and website. Target a ROAS of 3 in the beginning, but it also depends on the product. Then make content around your products.

At first, you can do all of this by yourself and with the help of AI. Then, once you start to see some results, hire people who are better than you at that task, for example, marketing, SEO, or operations.

I think this is a basic template for starting a business. Then you can invest and focus on where you are getting results, and later focus on investing in areas where your business is struggling.

Create processes, document everything, create systems and SOPs, and focus on refining your process. Whenever you are confused or in doubt, always reach out to people or talk to AI. It will give you perspective.