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JOHN RAMPTON

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Entrepreneur and Connector

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OCTOBER 03, 2014

Regardless of recessions or great depressions, it remains certain that there’s

always room for businesses built by innovators willing to continue dreaming.

While various industries and markets decline overtime, others rise to take

their place. Commerce will always be necessary in some form or another as

long as humankind exists and has a hunger for anything.

As entrepreneurs, we are driven to continuously create, innovate and sell; and

as technology continues to help shape our behavior online, consumers are

leaning towards e-commerce as their preferred way to buy. In fact, almost 70

percent   of participants in a UPS commerce study indicate that they preferred

shopping online. That's a major clue to the direction of business online.

There’s no guaranteed 1-2-3 formula but, despite growing competition and

consumer sophistication, startups can gain a competitive edge and build

successful businesses. Applying certain ingredients and attitudes will make

your startup journey worthwhile, with a good chance of success.

Go the extra mile to realize mobile's potential

Simply developing a mobile app for showcasing your startup’s products is

not the sum total of a successful mobile strategy. While mobile commerce

is   booming , with greater usage penetration globally and devices becoming

a native part of our daily lives, the average consumer won’t use an app

simply because it exists. There has to be some motivation, whether it’s via

entertainment value or usefulness.

Strive to make the mobile experience, whether on websites or apps, an

extension of the culture you’re promoting with your brand and its

usefulness. Therefore, you need to be in tune with customer behavior and

what makes them laugh, smile, share and eventually buy. Simply put, it must

be more than a storefront experience they can get anywhere.

One powerful example of capturing the heart of the consumer is Warby

Parker’s online glasses home try-on feature. The tool gives buyers a chance

to upload their photo and attach various glasses styles to their picture to

achieve the best look and fit. It also allows the user to share the photos with

their choices via social media to get their friends’ feedback; without going to

a store. This is the kind of interactivity that gets customers using and

promoting your startup in one swoop while building loyalty through a fun

experience.

Integrating a similar experience in your app will set you miles ahead.

Related: Does Your Startup Have a Strategy?

Establish working systems from Day One

"Organize around business functions, not people. Build systems within each

business function. Let systems run the business and people run the systems.

People come and go but the systems remain constant." -Michael Gerber, E-

Myth Revisited.

Focus on building a structured system that defines how each department of

your startup -- marketing, finance, HR, tech, etc. --  will be run at optimum

output. Remember, you are not your business and the most lucrative

companies sold are the ones that can operate out of a box. This creates an

internal culture of accountability and direction for achieving more and frees

up your time as the business grows.

To make these systems workable and sensible to your employees and

potential investors, you also need the right tools to handle your daily

activities. Whether it’s using Google Apps for Work, a simple project

management app like Trello, Buffer for social media or Vend for your point-

of-sale transactions, software helps systems make more sense and offer

greater impact.

Vend particularly stands out here for the e-commerce startup based on retail.

They’ve built a complete service facilitating the shortest time to launch a

complete business through their POS Software, an integrated CRM, APIs to

connect with other popular services, inventory management and customized

loyalty programs. It's a powerful, integrated solution affordable for the

average retail startup.

Your low budget, high impact marketing strategy

There are dozens of ways to market your startup and you probably won’t

run out of ideas. The key to marketing your startup successfully, however,

relies heavily on your ability to tell stories that your target audience

will relate to. You could spend a ton on advertising or run a well maintained

blog, but nobody will care about what you say unless it evokes an emotional

response, aligns with how the consumer envisions and expresses their own

style or is a product whose value is amplified by peer participation.

Here are four strategies you can rely on that will offer measurable and

substantial returns:

1. Collaboration and strategic partnerships. Align your startup with

companies that already have significant clout and reach. Look for

opportunities with brands that complement your product offering that would

provide unique value for your customers as well as theirs.

2. Growth hacks and sharing incentives. Make sharing an integral part of

what makes the buying experience fun, rewarding, meaningful and exciting

for consumers. It’s a strategy that works for many successful businesses like

DropBox and Treehouse that offer free usage of their premium course work

to capture the attention and buy-in from users.

3. Build relationships with influencers. As a startup, you’re going to be

itching to pitch your business and ideas but this shouldn’t be your attitude.

Instead, build real relationships with people you regard as influential in your

industry. They can give your business a push through endorsements,

introductions to key decision makers, resources or a publication in a high

profile magazine.

The surest way to be ignored by the media, customers or investors is a self-

centered attitude towards marketing your business. The most best route to

being promoting is being someone they trust and regard as a friend.

4. Put your content on steroids. Assess what your competition is creating and

how they’re performing with an app like Buzzsumo. Pay attention to the

content that performs well, then go a step further to produce something

better. Oftentimes, there are gaps in content and opportunities for

delivering something your competitors missed or are too lazy to perfect.

Spending the time to create useful, entertaining and link-worthy content

increases the chances of your startup being discovered and shared.

Related: The 7 Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make When Launching an

Ecommerce Startup

Ecommerce and brick-and-mortar belong together

Don’t let the success of Amazon fool you. There’s still room and necessity

for the traditional brick-and-mortar setup. Delivering a unique experience for

the walk-in buyer just may be the edge you need to remain under the radar

from direct competition from the ecommerce giants and carve a lucrative

space in a smaller niche.

Foursquare, for example, has proven that ecommerce converges with brick

and mortar. They enable users to discover the right locations for whatever

they may need while they’re up and about through the city or countryside,

while also facilitating payments at restaurants. Foursquare’s vision is to

create an automated tour guide to the world where users are proactively

notified of store sales, nearby restaurants and other useful information for the

user. Some of these features and refinements in their app produced a 60

percent increase in interactionsand increased engagement at retailers. They’re

converging the digital world with the physical. That should be your

approach.

In addition, the in-store experience has great potential for creating an

atmosphere that is unique to your startup’s style. That will be difficult for

others to copy because it’s yours and it’s authentic.

Launching the next big startup is within reach but requires a structured and

well planned approach. A strategy combining the reach and native use of

mobile technologies, while satisfying the consumers’ need for meaningful

experiences, will set you off on the right track and increase your chances of

the elusive startup success.