How to have a successful eCommerce?

Nowadays in business, the battle is between the fastest and the slowest, and the Internet is the key to being faster. Here are 14 keys to achieving a successful eCommerce.

Dear reader, you've likely watched the last 14 years slip away like water, yet now that we're in 2014, it's more crucial than ever to understand that we're already in the 21st century, and businesses are no longer bound by the rules of the past century. Being a large company today is no longer a guarantee of anything. Remember that once the dinosaurs ruled the Earth, and due to a radical change they couldn't adapt to, they became extinct. Nowadays in business, the battle is between the fastest and the slowest, and the Internet is the key to being faster. According to AMIPCI, since 2003 eCommerce in Mexico and Latin America has doubled in size every two years, and this trend will continue to rise worldwide. A few days ago, I had a conversation with Isaúl Gómez, the creator of Shopeando, an eCommerce platform so successful that it has garnered tremendous attention in Silicon Valley by managing to deliver "unbranded" but high-quality products directly from factories in China to consumers. Here are 14 key points for having a successful eCommerce, as told by Isaúl.

• 1.- Test your product. Acknowledge when your product is not good or not accepted by the market. "The faster you make mistakes, the better." It's more important to have your product or service in the hands of your consumer than to seek perfection.
• 2.- Allocate a budget for Digital Marketing. There are many online advertising options such as Google AdWords, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. You have to try all possible options and see which ones work and which ones don't.
• 3.- Don't just sell a product or service; offer a shopping experience. Make navigation as easy as possible, offer attractive and valuable content, provide multiple payment methods, don't offer fake discounts. People are not foolish, and they don't like to be deceived. Customers are increasingly informed.
• 4.- Strengthen the credibility of your site. Provide a physical address, appear in newspapers, publish the phone number, have a presence on social media, provide personalized attention.
• 5.- You need to have something that others are not doing. It's no longer enough to just have a website. Choose a niche, be different. Don't copy Amazon or the big players.
• 6.- Offer free shipping; this is one of the most important hooks for selling online.
• 7.- Listen to your customers, understand them. In an eCommerce business, people cannot see or touch your products, so you need to know why they bought, why they didn't buy, or if they would buy again.
• 8.- We need to set aside our ego. Sometimes what we do is not right; it's vital to listen to our customers and understand how they think, how we can make their lives easier, what they're looking for, and how to communicate with them.
• 9.- Build a team. Don't try to do everything alone or all at once. This is like soccer; it's useless to be the best forward if you don't have a supporting team.
• 10.- Stay updated; you always need to improve and quickly adopt upcoming technologies.
• 11.- Don't expect overnight success. Success comes gradually; the result begins to show in the medium term.
• 12.- Have very clear intangible goals, as well as generating wealth. For example, strive to excel in customer service or have the most innovative products.
• 13.- Aim to compete globally. Whether you like it or not, businesses are already globalized, even if you don't seek to sell to the world, your competitors will.
• 14.- Analyze your metrics and improve. Today, with tools like Google Analytics, Crazy Egg, and Optimizely, you can understand what's happening with your eCommerce and how to improve it.

Selling online has helped many people amass huge fortunes. Whether your company has an eCommerce or you plan to create one, it's essential to understand that the rules of business on the internet are different from traditional business rules.