Welcome to YourMarketingPodcast. This is Series One – How to Start a Successful eCommerce Business in Less than 30 Days. In this step-by-step guide, you will learn how to quickly launch an eCommerce store and start seeing those sales roll in! And here’s your host…Ishani DePillo.

Ishani: Hey, guys, we are so close to the end and yet have so much to go over still. Starting an eCommerce store is definitely for the strong-willed and uber-focused. But don’t lose heart, keep chugging along, we are going to get there. 

Today’s podcast goes over Operations – from package design to customer service options to shipping methods – we’ll take a deep dive into the necessary steps you need to take to have your store running at an optimal level.

There is so much more to running an eCommerce business than just throwing a product onto a website. You have to think about the Operations. How will you get your products into the hands of buyers? Who’s going to be picking and packaging your items? Where are you going to ship from? Who will handle customer service inquiries? Initiating returns?

Those are all solid questions, and you need to have the answers lined up before you start selling your product.

So let’s start with the first one – Shipping. How are you going to get your product out to the customer? There are a couple of common shipping options for eCommerce stores:

Dropship. If you’re a reseller and shipping your product directly from the manufacturer, the manufacturer or supplier will likely have options where they handle the whole process of sending it out to the customer on your behalf. This is called dropship. How it works is an order comes into your website, you pass that order to the supplier who then ships the order to the customer.The main advantage of dropship is that you get to keep  low overhead costs, since you don’t need to purchase the inventory yourself, and store it in a warehouse, hire people to pick, pack and ship your products etc. but the margins can be small. You will have less control over the shipping process and you’re at the mercy of the supplier to get items out on time and delivered well. You also need to look into integrations to automate the process of passing the customer order to the supplier so you are not doing it manually. There are a lot of prepackaged options available depending on your platform but you should do your research beforehand.With dropship, it’s unlikely that you will be able to customize the packaging to your brand, unless they have what’s called private labeling or white-labeling options. So brand awareness might be lower when you use dropship method.Ok going back to other Shipping options… you could use a 3PL (also known as a “third-party logistic warehouse provider”), where your items are shipped from the manufacturer directly to a 3PL Warehouse to store and ship out of. Basically 3PL will handle your business’s distribution and fulfillment services. Always, do your research on the fees associated with this type of warehouse before you sign up. Fees can vary based on your product because bulky items will require a larger storage area and therefore cost more. Some companies we’ve heard positive things about are Whiplash and ShipBob.What’s great about 3LPs is that you can typically hold inventory in multiple fulfillment locations like one on the West and East Coast, so you lower your transit time to the customer and save money on shipping costs.Renting space and starting your own warehouse is another option. But OMG this is going to be a HUGE undertaking and not recommended for businesses owners who are just starting out because the overhead costs can get pretty expensive. Think: warehouse rent, software costs, employee wages, equipment purchasing and/or rentals, etc. It’s a hefty list and we don’t recommend it for eCommerce beginners.The last option we will cover today is what most small eCommerce business owners will start off with. Fulf