Ultimate Launch Strategy For Ecommerce From Scratch

Updated on November 2, 2022 in Ecommerce by Nishant Shrimali

Being prepared and creating a plan means making sure, we are avoiding the most common roadblocks. In addition to that, a good launch strategy for eCommerce also helps attract sales pretty early as well.

This is a blueprint. Hence, no matter what product you choose to sell, physical or digital, you can use the following strategy for a successful launch.

Without taking any more time, let us get started.

Pre-launch Preparation for eCommerce

The first stage of the launch strategy for eCommerce is the preparation part. 

Choosing the right product

Having a good product drastically reduces the efforts and effectively increases growth. As a good practice, it is always recommended to get choose products that you have experience and knowledge about.

And to give you a reason, running an eCommerce or any business for that matter requires a deep understanding to differentiate what is good and what is mediocre.

You have to give a lot of your time and if you don’t have an interest in the product, market, or community, chances are you will lose the zeal within the first few months.

Now, that disclaimer is shared, let us focus on three questions that’ll help you choose the right product.

• Do I have a good understanding of the product/problem/audience?
• Who is the group of people that are most likely to buy products from me?
• How can I ensure consistent quality and supply of the product?

The questions will help you get answers about yourself, your target audience, and your supply chain.

Note that this is the planning stage, and you should collect a lot of data and work on it to create a plan accordingly.

Build marketing strategy

Once you plan out your product, budget, and supply chain, it’s time to build a marketing strategy.

One of the best ways to get started is to pen down:

• What problem are you trying to solve for your customers?
• What makes you different from your competitors?
• How do you want your audience to remember your brand if it was a person?

Answering these three questions will help you with the branding and the brand message. And once you have THAT in place, it’s easier to figure out, what should be the online experience of your eCommerce and marketing should look like.

Launch strategy for eCommerce requires a good understanding of your audience.

• What are their pain points?
• What platform they are most active on?
• How will you attract them and make them buy your product?

From the colors you choose to the content you would be publishing for your audience. Everything must align with what your audience is looking for.

Building an audience

We have to understand that today, gaining the attention of your customers is probably the hardest part of marketing. They are regularly bombarded with a lot of ads, content brands, and products.

And when that’s the case, the first thing that you should start focusing on is building an audience. Maybe even before you pinpoint for products you are going to sell.

One of the best examples here is how Jose Zuniga (@teachingmensfashion), now founder of brands like ESNTLS, SANTA LUCIA, hē, and MANSCAPED.

But before he launched all these amazing brands, he was (and still is) a content creator and influencer on Youtube and social media. He started creating content in 2013, specifically in the men’s lifestyle genre.

After becoming a popular influencer and having an audience, when he launched his brand one by one, he already had a group of audience who were willing to give it a shot.

Now, not everyone can invest years in building a huge audience before launching the product. Understandable. But it is still wise to start at least 2-3 months prior.

Depending on what you are trying to sell and what platform you choose start putting out content that helps and attract people to follow and engage with you. This will be helpful in making your launch strategy for eCommerce successful.

Testing the beta product

If you successfully create an audience, this step could become much easier. This is a stage, where before launching your products to everyone, you test them with a small group audience.

In case you don’t have an audience, it is advised to test the product beyond your known group to learn more about the product.

The beta testing will allow you to learn about the product and get feedback on the scope of the improvements before actually getting started.

Plan your inventory and profit

Once the product is ready, it is time to get into the math mode and plan out the business part of eCommerce. At every stage of the launch strategy for eCommerce, you must have a budget.

Sourcing, shipping, inventory, marketing, and return.

Calculate your profit margins, the initial investment it would require, and the inventory that you will have to stock for the season/launch.

It is important that if you are dealing with a physical product, you have a set number of stocks. Find the right balance between overstocking and scarcity.

The goal is to reach as many people as possible and ensure no leftover stock is in the inventory.

Ecommerce launch period

We are now in the second stage of the launch strategy for eCommerce. The time when we will be launching our eCommerce and products.

Start building hype

We are talking about a week before the products are launched in front of your customers. It’s time to start building hype around your eCommerce, around your products and tell people, that something huge is coming their way.

At this you stage, you can send your audience to your website, let them learn about the product, and help them set a reminder.

In addition to just setting up a reminder, you can integrate referral marketing into hype events as well.

Who you are, what are you selling, and how badly your customer wants it?

All these factors will contribute toward a successful referral program in the launch strategy for eCommerce.

But when bringing visitors to your eCommerce site, it is a good idea to direct them towards an action. Making them refer your friend can be a great way to engage them, as well as reach a wider audience.

Launch marketing campaign

It’s time to boost your marketing campaign. In order to have a successful launch strategy for eCommerce, you need to make sure you are reaching out to your customer.

Either in the form of ads, your social media content or through the emails you collected during the hype event.

When the products go live, push on the marketing (as per your budget) and reach as many people as possible. The initial traffic and sales also work as future proof to attract more sales.

That is why a reliable launch strategy for eCommerce is so necessary.

Collect data & reviews

When your launch strategy eCommerce is the play, a good practice would be to focus on the collection of data as well.

Note that you must allow customers for guest checkout, but giving them an option to signup is really important. This gives you an opportunity to learn more about the customer directly through them.

You can learn more about increasing the eCommerce user signup in our recent guide.

Along with that, once the purchase has been made the next important step is to request feedback and reviews from your customers.

Respond to your customers

During this stage of the launch strategy for eCommerce, there will be questions from the side of your customer. Queries that are needed to be resolved as soon as possible.

Here, customer support will play a critical role. That is why make sure you are responding to each query and building trust with your customers.

Using live chat support is highly recommendable to deliver a memorable customer experience.

Post-launch assessment

This is the final stage of the launch strategy for eCommerce which plays a critical role in preparing for the future of eCommerce.

Analyze the data

The next stage of the launch strategy for eCommerce is to assess its success. In terms of sales, new signup, average order value, and other eCommerce KPIs help learn about your progress.

At the same time, it is important that you also focus on the data about your customers. The location that brought in the most traffic, the source of traffic, conversion rate, a page with the highest engagement, demographics of your audience, and more.

Share the success

After creating a successful launch strategy for eCommerce and executing it successfully, it’s time to celebrate. How? Actually, share the success with your audience. Thanking them and sharing the lunch was successful builds the engagement.

This also allows people to know that other people bought from you, helping you gain social proof. All this is done to ensure that even after the sale, the customer and your audience stay in contact with the brand, making every product launch successful in the future.

Bonus Read

Preparing a launch strategy for eCommerce requires a lot of brainstorming, preparation, and execution. Planning all this makes sure that we stay on our timeline, use our resources effectively, and actually track the success from day one.

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