Can a small company a foothold in the market without being Amazon ecommerce or none of the major industry? The answer is yes: an SME can be done with your niche market, with consumers and with their share of benefits of e-commerce pie. Just play your cards right.

Obviously, the big players in this market have it much easier. For them there are many more facilities thanks to its muscle. They can negotiate directly with distribution firms, for example, for not only prices but also improvements in the speed at which products reach the consumer or customization mode shipments. Being a large company guarantees virtually appearing in the media and make everyone talk about the things they sell, how they do or good qualities of service.

But do not lose hope: the e-commerce also allows other players play.

We must find a particular niche

Success is a matter of niches itself. The first rule for success is to never forget one of the economic rules that were born in the heat of the network, known as economy long tail . In short, suggesting this idea is that theInternet has made the niches become much smaller. Outside the network, businesses had to bet huge amounts of reaching people to survive. That does not happen on the Internet: you can sell only Jane Austen brooches and live it. The cause of this change is that the network has removed the physical boundaries and has made consumers are global.

A small online store should have this in mind. It will cost a lot to position in bookselling having to compete with Amazon and will be difficult to break into the electronic competing with Redcoon prices. But if you bet on something concrete and specific it is easier to find a hole. And not only that: the websites that succeed online are those who have decided to jump to discuss a particular topic and powerfully specialize in it.

Looking for a particular market need

Therefore, it is best to find a particular market need. What consumers really need and do not be so easy to find? Having no internet and online stores that only printed cards (which make them especially attractive, because that was what really missing), stores that sell only joke articles or shops that serve only oranges.

We must find what makes them different

There are many shops and internet brands enough, how draw attention in addition to betting on specialization? You need to have something that makes that little story is unique. And the range of things you can do only at an online store is very broad: you can bet on a packaging that singles the presence in the market, have a very specific and strange product or tell a special story. If what sells is sewing material because Grandma had a haberdashery, that’s the story that will make the online store is different from the others.

Thinking about copying what makes them different from large ecommerce is not the best. They continue to play with more style and more successful in this field and also get the smallest shop only be seen as a copy and also much meaner.

Social networks can help

Make no mistake: social networks alone do not will convert a small online store into an empire. Think that Facebook or Twitter can make sold millions of products is too naive. They are good for that, but to help position the brand and its products. Although it is a small business, you have to be ambitious and focus on social media strategy with the same rigor that would make a great company. Taking care what you say, establish guidelines update and opportunities is key to help the victory.

It is also very important not to forget the potential that may have to have a corporate blog or upload videos and tutorials to networks such as YouTube to publicize the brand and, above all, position themselves as experts in a particular subject.

Know your customer and personalized treat him

Large ecommerce have great technological tools to know their customers, but in the end all that is colder and distant than what can be personalized treatment royal. A small online store is like the small neighborhood shop online, often have regular customers with their dependents are just familiar.

Small ecommerce should turn that into an advantage in their favor, as did the small neighborhood stores in the past. As they know their customers – and know very well – can include personal and human factor in its relations with them. Moreover, since the volume of purchases and sales is lower, they can devote more time to activities that require the work of a real person and not a machine, such as shares curator .