People love having products that are a representation of their interests, opinions, and personality. It is for this reason that the market for personalized products remains so popular and profitable.
From customize mugs When creating wall art, the amount of items that can be offered seems endless. What’s more, getting started is increasingly accessible to everyone – with business models like print-on-demand, you don’t even need to invest in merchandise to get started.
Creating an ecommerce of personalized products is an ideal business idea to start with little money today. But creating a profitable ecommerce that generates high and constant income every month requires work and dedication.
We can divide the process of creating an e-commerce of personalized products in 4 stages. These are: market research, brand creation, store creation and development of a marketing strategy.
Market research
Every successful ecommerce starts with extensive and in-depth market research. The information obtained through the market study is what will serve as the basis and starting point for the development of everything that implies the creation and promotion of a personalized product store.
The purpose of this stage is to have a complete understanding of the market, the competition and the target audience.
Choose a niche
Having a defined niche is having a clear objective to aim for. Wanting to point to several directions, different types of audience, does not increase the chances of hitting one.
In contrast, especially in e-commerce, wanting to reach multiple audiences affects a store’s positioning, causing it to reach none at all.
This happens because not all niches handle a similar dynamic: they do not express themselves the same, they do not surf the internet in the same way, they do not consume the same content or they do not use the same social networks.
Choosing a niche, or even a micro-niche, is the most effective way to build a brand that speaks directly to the audience and that people can relate to.
But how do you choose a niche if you have a lot of ideas in mind?
- Make a list of the niches that interest you. Make sure they are niches that you are passionate about or that you really want to learn about
- Investigate what is the trend of these niches
- Know what are the keywords in each niche and how many searches monthly they have
- Find out what is the level of competitiveness and profitability of each niche
- Know what the growth of each niche has been in recent years and which one is the expectation for the future
Once you already have a more comprehensive knowledge of each niche, you can choose which one is the most ideal for you.
Know your competition
Knowing the competition is vital for your ecommerce to excel. The information obtained in this part of the market research process is very important for the design of products and the development of marketing strategies.
To get the information you need, you must answer the following questions:
- Who is the competition?
- What are the most influential brands within the niche?
- What products do you offer?
- Why do people buy them?
- What means do you use to promote your brand?
- What are the strategies they use?
- How much do you charge for your products?
Know your target audience
Knowing your target audience is what will allow you to know what products they are interested in buying. Know what their needs, interests and opinions are in order to create designs that connect with them.
Knowing your audience also means being able to communicate with them more effectively and personally. When it comes to personalized products, people buy when they feel identified with what is offered.
So how do you know your target audience?
- Know the demographics of your audience
- Find out what their interests, behaviors, hobbies, beliefs and frustrations
- What motivates them to buy?
- What are the social networks that you use the most?
- What type of content do they prefer to consume?
Based on this information you can create your buyer people, which are a representation of the target audience used in marketing strategies to humanize all the people who are part of the audience and better understand how they are, act, think, feel and make decisions.
Create your brand
In the second stage of creating your own personalized product ecommerce, it is time to use all the information acquired in the first stage to create an original brand that stands out from the competition.
Choose a name
It is likely that when starting a new project, choosing the name to put it is one of the things that takes the longest. There is no hard and fast rule on how to choose the perfect name, but the recommendations are that they have some of these characteristics:
- Easy to remember
- Difficult to imitate or confuse
- Easy to pronounce
- Concise
- Unique and attractive
Define your brand identity
The identity of your brand are all those visual elements with which it will be identified. This includes colors, shapes, fonts, and designs.
The brand identity also includes the mission and the message to be transmitted. This will also help develop a communication strategy that is consistent with the brand identity.
In short, identity is the personality of the brand. A personable personality that people can relate to is what will make your brand memorable.
Create your custom designs
Once you have chosen your niche, know your audience and have defined your brand, it is time to create the designs with which you will personalize the products.
This is the time to unleash creativity and start developing the ideas that will be embodied in the products.
In the creation of personalized products there are no limits, they can be personalized with: texts, illustrations, photographs and logos with various colors and printing techniques.
If you don’t know what types of designs to make that people might like, start by creating designs that you like and ask your friends or family for input.
In these cases, the print on demand It offers a great advantage and that is that you can create multiple designs and publish the customized products in your store to test their performance without risks.
Create your online store
To create an ecommerce there are multiple options, such as several content management platforms with which you can open your store in a few steps and without the need for programming skills.
Some of these are Shopify – probably the most popular option today – BigCommerce, Prestashop and WooCommerce, which is a WordPress plugin.
These platforms offer templates with which you can give your store a modern and professional look with just a few clicks. Some templates are free while others are premium with prices in a fairly wide range.
If you have the ability to design and web programming, it is possible to create your own store with an original design. If you don’t have these skills, but you have the necessary budget, you can hire the services of a designer and programmer to do it for you.
Customize your products
Now that you have your designs and your ecommerce, you must create and add the personalized products that you will sell to your store.
For this there are multiple routes you can take: you can use the services of a company specialized in the creation of personalized products. You could also purchase the necessary equipment for the customization of different types of products, although this would require a considerable investment.
Finally, the most convenient option available today is to have a print-on-demand service provider, also known as print on demand or POD.
Choose your provider print on demand
Choosing the right supplier is crucial because the quality of your brand and products will be the quality of the work and products that the supplier offers.
There are several excellent quality print-on-demand provider options with which you can start customizing your products and adding them to your store in no time.
However, with so many options available it can be difficult to choose, but there are some important things to consider before making a decision.
What to take into account when choosing a provider?
- Variety and quality of the products they offer
- Price of the products
- If you charge a monthly subscription
- What’s included in your print-on-demand service
- Destinations you ship to
- Price of shipments
- Customer care and service options offered
- That they have compatible integration with your ecommerce platform
You should know that some providers will charge a flat monthly fee and others even a commission per sale, but this is not the case with all providers.
Before choosing, you should calculate how these costs could affect your profit margin.
Create a marketing strategy
Your ecommerce of personalized products is ready. You already have a professional online store and a product catalog with attractive designs, but you need to promote the store to reach the target audience.
With the information you have on the market, the competition and your audience, you can create an effective marketing strategy to position your brand and start generating sales.
These are some marketing techniques used to promote an ecommerce:
Social networks
It is important for ecommerce to be present in the networks that its audience uses the most. Social networks are an effective means to promote and have direct contact with the target audience.
A strong and strategic presence on social media can be the best form of promotion for an online store of personalized products.
Advertising campaigns
Although some stores want to rely only on organic traffic, ad campaigns are a necessary tool for them to promote their brand and products.
However, that does not mean that paying for advertising guarantees increasing the visibility and sales of an ecommerce. Not if it’s not done right.
To advertise quality and creative, you have to use information from market research to create targeted ads that reach the right audience.
Email marketing
Email is one of the most underrated media in marketing; However, a proven fact is that emails have a higher conversion rate than social media and organic searches.
Email marketing can help you retain your audience and sell more. One way to incorporate it into your strategy is by creating welcome messages; submit entertaining or informative content; send discounts or promotions; or inform your list about new products.
Copywriting
Copywriting is not a promotional technique per se, but it is an indispensable persuasive writing technique when describing products, creating content for social media, email, and advertisements.
It’s about the art of captivating and selling with text. It is a tool that makes the difference between the text that informs and the text that sells.