How to open an online store bags

At all times, bags have been a very popular product, modern society has not changed in this matter. Today, this accessory is purchased for themselves by people of all ages and social status: men, women and children, the elderly and young - all of them can potentially become customers of an online bag store. Of course, this product is not in short supply, it can be bought in many stores and on street layouts. However, the statistics unambiguously indicate an increase in Internet sales. Therefore, if today you start creating and promoting your own online store selling bags, it will be a powerful investment in the future. Having made the decision to create an online bag store, you can count on a positive result for the following reasons:

1. A popular product that is in great demand.
2. This niche is quite large, so there are many opportunities for development.

Analysis of the niche of bags stores

If you decide to create an online shopping bag from scratch, start with a thorough market analysis of this product. Thanks to a detailed, in-depth analysis, you can not only determine who you will have to work with in the same niche, but also draw useful ideas for yourself or pay attention to the negative aspects that will become a warning to you. As mentioned above, the competition in this sector is quite strong - in order for you to choose the optimal business direction, you need to carefully study the specifics of the niche.

One of the first questions that a person or company will face when deciding to open a business selling bags over the Internet: who are my competitors? The answer to this question depends on what territory the online store is targeting:

• Local sales. If today you plan to develop and promote only in your area, your competitors are both online platforms and stationary points of sale. First, find all the points of sale of bags, make a list and carefully study: assortment, number of buyers, target audience, pricing policy, etc. Thanks to this, you can more clearly imagine the scope of work and the direction in which to develop.
• Trade throughout the country. In this case, you should focus on online stores and, possibly, large chain stores / narrowly focused companies . Remember that some sites may be solely focused on bags and briefcases, while others may sell various products, including those from your specialization. Thanks to the analysis of successful online stores, you can learn a lot for yourself: interesting ideas for website design, approaches to the structure, catalog, determine what needs to be done for effective SEO promotion, etc.

As a rule, you can find a fairly large number of sites and points of sale for bags. What criteria should you pay special attention to in order to carry out the analysis as objectively as possible and understand the difference between the niche in which you have to work? The following factors deserve special attention:

• Seasonality.
• Competition.
• Additional products.
• Assortment, etc.

Thanks to a thorough analysis, you will be able to determine the direction of business development that is optimal for yourself and choose (draw) the best solutions for its promotion.

Determining the target audience

In order for the assortment of the online store and the design of the site to be the most attractive for visitors, it is necessary to clearly define the target audience for which business development is planned. When it comes to selling bags, this criterion is extremely important: bags are a product that many people buy, but you need to make an effort to attract attention and inspire confidence among the visitors of your online store.

Naturally, the choice of bags and the preferred website design will differ for different categories of people. For example, if you focus on the female category of buyers, you should fill your catalog with fashionable small handbags, be sure to place various related products and think over the design accordingly. If, however, your target audience will be young people, you should give preference to a modern and sporty style. Young people often want to wear brightly branded clothes - all this will have an impact on the formation of the product range. What should be taken into account when deciding on the target audience of an online store? Key criteria include the following:

• Floor.
• Age.
• Social status.
• Wealth, etc.

Selection of assortment and suppliers

The assortment of your online store should be attractive and interesting for the target audience, then customers will willingly purchase the offered product. What products will be offered in the catalog directly depends on which of the suppliers you will conclude a cooperation agreement with. The modern marketing world offers just a huge selection. Let's dwell on just a few main categories of suppliers and some of the features of cooperation with them:

1. Famous brands. Most of the world-famous companies are ready to work even with novice online stores. Partnerships can be entered into directly with the manufacturer or cooperate with his representative in the region.
2. Chinese manufacturers. The design of many things from China is quite modern - some even consider this country a trendsetter: what is popular in China today will soon be in demand in other regions. In addition, many Chinese factories guarantee high quality products.
3. Wholesale suppliers. The advantage of working with wholesalers is undoubtedly the cost of the goods. Thanks to the wholesale prices, you can make a big mark-up - up to 200%. However, you should be vigilant and carefully check the quality and originality of the product, as counterfeits are often found.
4. Hand-made masters. Craftsmen offer quality goods that look stylish and beautiful. Today, handicrafts are highly valued, they give the impression that a person is the only one in the world who possesses such an item. Therefore, it is worth taking advantage of this opportunity when filling out the catalog of an online store.

To achieve the greatest efficiency in work, you should not dwell on one type of supplier, but conclude agreements with different companies. However, there are exceptions: some online stores may focus exclusively on the sale of branded bags, handmade products, or, working with wholesale suppliers, attract buyers with minimal prices.

Business plan before creating an IM

Before you open an online store of women's bags and related products, you need to think over many nuances, as well as develop an effective strategy for the activities and promotion of your own company. Let's pay attention to a few key aspects that must be present in a good business plan.

Decide on the form of work. Some entrepreneurs prefer to buy goods and store them in their own warehouse. In this case, only after receiving an order from a client, you can immediately send him the goods. Another option for the form of work may be the presence of only a showcase site, on which the buyer can familiarize himself with the assortment of your online store. Having received an order and a prepayment from a client, you already place an order with a supplier who delivers it to the office or directly to the buyer.

Another popular form of work for online stores is dropshipping. With this option, you only have a website, but your staff does not handle ordering. The work takes place through a third-party online store with which an agreement has been concluded: for an agreed percentage of remuneration, you transfer ready-made customers to a third-party company who are interested in the products on your site.

Registration of documents. To officially engage in online trade, you need to issue permits tax documents. When starting a commercial activity, you can stop at an individual entrepreneur, later - perhaps go to an LLC. To clarify the existing forms and nuances of taxation, it is worth getting advice from the local tax administration. In Ukraine, today you can even register online on one of the resources:

• igov.org.ua (Portal of public services);
• minjust.gov.ua (Ministry of Justice of Ukraine).

Competitor analysis. Earlier in the article, we mentioned this. Remember that it is necessary to do an analysis of competitors at the stage of developing a business plan - this will allow you to determine the optimal direction for business development. In the field of selling bags and related products, your competitors may be exclusively online stores (when working for the whole country), or it is worth analyzing mainly off-line points of sale (if you plan to focus on your own region). The screenshot below shows a table that can be taken as a basis when analyzing competitors.

Start-up capital. To open your own online store, you cannot do without start-up capital. The main costs include the following (tentatively): creation and initial advertising of the site - $ 1000-$ 1500, paperwork - $ 100, office and warehouse rent (if necessary) - $ 1000, purchase of goods - $ 1500 -2000.

Creation of an online store selling bags

When a person or a legal entity is thinking about how to open an online store of branded bags, one of the first questions is to create a website. If the business plan is already ready, it's time to start developing a showcase - a site on which trading will take place directly. It is necessary to approach this stage as responsibly and scrupulously as possible - as a rule, an unsuccessfully created site will already be very difficult and expensive to redo, therefore, your task is to do everything as efficiently as possible at this stage.

Today, there are various options for how to create a website for an online store:

• Order a website in a web studio.
• Using a website builder, make it yourself.
• Use a CMS focused on the operation of online stores.
• Find a freelance programmer and partner with him.

Regardless of which of the listed options you personally choose, you must have an extremely clear understanding of the main stages of website development. Even if the entrepreneur will not be directly involved in the creation of the site, he needs to control and accept the work of a specialist. The key stages of website development include the following:

1. Domain name selection.
2. The decision is to use a CMS, a constructor or a self-written site.
3. Defining the style of the site.
4. Choosing the optimal structure for an online store.
5. Filling the site with content.

Domain name

In order for a person to be able to go to the site of your online store, he enters his address in the search box - a domain name. A domain name is a combination of two parts: the name of your site itself and the domain zone. To achieve the most positive results from the promotion and operation of the site, it is worth considering some rules and recommendations:

• The name of the site should reflect the direction of your resource as best as possible - whether it's classic bags, sports or certain brands. It is good that the name of the site is not long and easy to remember - this will contribute to an increase in the number of conversions.
• You should choose a domain zone based on the geography in which you plan to promote your own business. Domain zones can be regional, national or international.

Advantages of a CMS for an online bag store

Although today you can often find online stores operating on self-written sites and constructors, according to numerous users, it is CMS that provides the widest opportunities for filling, managing and promoting a site. More than 1000 online stores have already chosen Okay CMS.

The choice of a site management system for an online store should be approached as carefully and carefully as possible, it depends on this issue how convenient it will be to work with the site, whether it will be attractive and comfortable for visitors, and also whether the site's functionality will allow you to make the necessary settings for effective SEO- promotion. As we have already mentioned, a large number of online store owners have chosen Okay CMS, and there are good reasons for this:

• Simple CMS installation that can be performed even without special education.
• The ability to use various designs, which makes the site as attractive and interesting as possible in the eyes of the target audience.
• Thanks to Okay, you can implement the optimal structure for your online store on your website. In the case of the sale of bags, this is very important, since it is possible to create separate categories of goods: womens, mens, travel, vintage schoolbags, etc.
• Okay CMS provides the widest possible site settings, which allows you to achieve good results in its promotion.

Style selection

A site that does not have its own style is like a picture that is painted in black and white. Of course, the visitor will receive the necessary information, but it is unlikely that it will attract his attention and induce him to place an order. The choice of style is determined by two fundamental factors:

• Target audience.
• Goods being sold.

For example, if the site offers mainly handbags and related products for girls, its design should be more gentle and delicate, as if sports or travel bags were sold in an online store. If your online store has certain bag manufacturers, why not make an effort to develop a style that will overlap with the brand of bags - this will create an atmosphere of reliability and emphasize the originality of the product offered.

The structure of the online store of bags

Thanks to a well-structured site, its visitors will find it much easier to find the product they are interested in, and this helps to increase the average check. To develop a good site structure, it is worth dividing your own assortment into main categories and asking programmers to provide a section for each of the available categories. Depending on the size of your catalog and the direction of the product, there may be a different structure of the site:

1. Men's / women's bags.
2. Baby.
3. Backpacks.
4. Seasonal distribution.
5. Clutches.
6. Cloth or leather, etc.

Be sure to make sure you have easy access to every major category of your site. Those product groups that are most popular or bring you the most revenue should be placed in categories that can be accessed from the main page of the site with just one click. The experience of many online stores shows that sections such as "New items" or "Sale" can even be placed directly on the main page of the site - this has a positive effect on the search results and encourages visitors to take the targeted action, place an order.

Filling and content

Absolutely every site includes a variety of content that is designed to achieve several key objectives. Thanks to properly composed content from the point of view of SEO promotion, you can significantly increase the likelihood of an online store reaching the TOP of search results, which has a positive effect on the number of visits to the site and the profitability of the business.

What should be the content of the site so that you can count on positive results. First of all, remember about uniqueness - if the search engine suspects your site of plagiarism, you will not be able to count on good results. In addition to being unique, the content should be expert and useful for the target audience. If the copywriter relied exclusively on PR and did not provide any useful information in the articles, such a resource can only repel the target audience. There are certain groups of content in online stores that require particularly careful preparation.

1. Product cards. The main task is to provide a potential buyer with all the information he is interested in about this product. Therefore, carefully work out the description of the product, indicate its dimensions, characteristics, price and photos.
2. Texts. For an online store to be effective, each of its pages must be filled with text. How to determine the size of the article for a specific page of the site? See how much text your competitors have written on similar pages. Be sure to make sure that each article on the site is unique and SEO-optimized (it has keywords and matches the SEO parameters) - this is a necessary condition for successful promotion.
3. Images. Which photo will be optimal for your online store is determined by the purpose of the page. For example, the photos will differ depending on whether the site offers retail or wholesale, what is the target audience of the site and the price segment of the product. Be that as it may, images in online stores should always be: high-quality, unique and informative.

Choice of delivery and payment methods

Regardless of what product the client will order from you: a bag, knapsack, suitcase, belts or belt, it should be convenient for him to receive his product. If the online store sells throughout the country, you should not be limited only to self-pickup and courier delivery in the city or region. For the convenience of shoppers, most online stores work with national postal services. On the "Delivery" page, you must indicate which of the postal services you work with and briefly write down the terms of each of them - this will give the buyer the opportunity to choose the most convenient delivery method. An example of filling out this page is shown in the screenshot below.

As a rule, the delivery information page contains the payment options for the item. It is recommended to offer customers several payment options to choose from - this will significantly increase conversion. In online sales, the most commonly used payment methods are the following:

1. Cash to the courier upon delivery.
2. Transfer to a bank card.
3. C.O.D.

Promotion and promotion

Even the highest quality website and the most competitive prices will fail to bring customers to your business. If the website of the online store is not visited by visitors from the target audience, it will not bring the owners the desired revenue. Therefore, even at the stage of creating a website and developing a strategy for your own business, you need to plan how you will promote it on the Internet and attract buyers.

It is worth deciding that it is possible to achieve the most positive results thanks to an integrated approach to website promotion. It would be a mistake to choose one or several directions of promotion, and ignore the rest. There are a lot of options on how to attract a large number of visitors to the site today, here are just a few of them:

1. SEO promotion.
2. Contextual, banner, targeted advertising.
3. Advertising from bloggers.
4. Own blog.
5. New chips.

SEO promotion can be called the most complex option for working with a website. The SEO specialist works comprehensively on various components of the Internet resource - this allows you to make the site of the highest quality, "correct" from the point of view of search engines and attractive to visitors. Although it will take some investment to launch an SEO and it will bring results after some time (from 2 months to 6 months), in the long term, the cost of a client from an SEO is significantly lower in comparison with other methods of promotion.

Contextual and banner advertising, of course, is quite expensive - the price for a transition tends to increase, and besides, the advertising budget can be clicked by bots. The advantage of such advertising is that you can count on quick results: immediately after the launch, the advertisement starts working. Targeted advertising deserves special attention - promotion on Facebook and Instagram can start with a minimum budget of $ 5 and, according to statistics, it brings excellent results.

Today, quite a few people trust bloggers and are guided by their opinion. You can partner with fashion bloggers to recommend your online store. You can also attract new customers with your own blog. On your blog, you can post articles about new products, types of bags, advice on what a particular model is suitable for.

Of the new promotion chips, it is especially worth noting its own YouTube channel. Today people really enjoy watching short videos. You can shoot video reviews of new products, information about manufacturing companies, etc. Thanks to this approach, you can not only attract visitors, but also gain their trust.

findings

To make your online bag shop effective and in demand among buyers, you should carefully approach its creation and promotion. From the entire list of stages, several key steps can be distinguished:

1. Niche and competitor analysis.
2. Drawing up a business plan.
3. Working with assortment and suppliers.
4. Creation and content of the site.
5. Online store promotion.

Thanks to a careful approach, it is quite possible to create an online bag shop that will bring steady profits. And the carefully designed Okay CMS will be an excellent help in this work!