How to Transition from Crowdfunding to eCommerce

After running a successful crowdfunding campaign, the next question that comes up is… now what? For many, the next challenge can be launching and scaling your own successful eCommerce store.

This article breakdown how to transfer your crowdfunding success into a growing online store. From sales channels to marketing, find out how to start your transition today. Plus, explore how Easyship can help you turn shipping from a hassle to your new store’s competitive edge.

How to transition from crowdfunding to eCommerce?

In order for this transition to be seamless and as successful as your campaign, you need to take a few steps.

Stay in touch and organize your backers:

Your backers are the reason you are here. They contributed to your success in big time. That is why they are the VIPs of your client list. But your relationship with them doesn’t end here. You can organize them according to into contact lists on the basis of where they are concentrated to and whether they would recommend you to friends and family.

But you should also stay in touch with them by telling them about your progress making them a part of your success. Periodic promotional emails sent to them will also help you. If you had promised them rewards during your campaign, then this is a perfect time to deliver the promise and mark it as completed on your end.

Get your website running:

If you already did not have an online presence during your campaign, then you should get ones as soon as possible. Pay attention to the SEO aspect so that you start your online ranking process. If you already have an online presence, then get it upgraded to give a head start before launching an eCommerce store. In fact, this would make it easier to transition from crowdfunding to online sales.

Choose an eCommerce sales channel:

This is probably the biggest decision you will have to take for your transition to an eCommerce business. So it is time to ask you the most important question. How to choose an eCommerce sales channel? The answer is both simple and complicated. Let’s evaluate.

Which Sales Channel?

There are many very good and competitive options available in the market to pick from. They are all so effective in their own way that this decision can be very difficult. But if you are aware of your needs and can estimate what you might need in the long term, you can take a good decision.

The budget that you set aside for this expansion also plays a significant role. Sales channels can be broken down into two broad categories, each with their own specific benefits and disadvantages:

eCommere Platforms

eCommerce platforms allow you to build and customize your own eCommerce website, however you will be completely responsible for your store’s traffic and can take considerable financial investment. Still cheaper than a brick and mortar store, this is the online version of a physical store for a small business. Some of the most popular market leaders Easyship integrates with include:

• Bigcommerce
• Shopify
• Magento
• Squarespace
• Wix

eCommerce Marketplace

eCommerce marketplaces can connect your products to millions of potential customers and usually come with low listing fees. However, you may be unable to customize your shopfront and product descriptions in the way you desire, plus you can experience high levels of competition. Key examples include:

• eBay
• Amazon
• Etsy
• Lazada

If you compare them, they all give you competitive rates and features. But they all have their individuality. So you should know your target market, the payment methods you want to use, how much control you want for the store, customer service channels and whether you want easy market penetration or prefer other features over it.

A strategy that can be effective when launching is to offer your products on a marketplace to take advantage of low listing fees to start generating sales. Then, once your store starts growing, you can look at investing in developing a dedicated online store through a eCommere platform.

How Do You Market Your Store?

Having a good strategy for pre-launching of the store is a must. You should do research to know as to how your target audience will respond to which medium of marketing and promotion. You should work accordingly and reach out to your target market.

Since you have been promoting your products in crowdfunding, it’s not something that you will have to do from scratch. You can also keep your backers in the loop and tell them about each and every step of the launch through your campaign page, so they feel connected. You should use all the social media channels, print media and advertising on television, email marketing and anything that will promote your store.

Shipping and Order Fulfillment

While crowdfunding shipping problems may have been an additional headache for your original campaign, shipping and order fulfillment is a very important part of running an eCommerce store. You should decide about order fulfillment and shipping for your store.

There are many shipping companies that will give you services throughout the world and will suit your business plan. Shipping companies like Easyship, provide hybrid shipping solutions throughout the world making it simple, easy and affordable.

Related post: 6 Shipping Tips For Your Campaign After Raising Money

Integrating Easyship with your chosen eCommerce platform or marketplace in a few clicks, allows you to instantly leverage powerful shipping tools. Supercharge the growth of your new online store and effortless create a delivery experience your customers love. Key features that can help your store scale include:

• Global Fulfillment: Leverage our global warehouse locations and easily scale your fulfillment capabilities, all without increasing overhead costs for your online business.
• Tax and Duty Calculator: Effortlessly work out all your extra international shipping cost and let Easyship make sure there are no surprises at customs
• Free Shipping Policy Generator: Instantly create a shipping policy that increases sales and customers love
• Free Shipping Rate Calculator: Compare prenegotiated rates from over 250 top couriers worldwide. Explore exclusive discounted prices, with up to 91% off.

Tropicfeel Success Story

There are many successful startups that started their journey from crowdfunding and now have become notable eCommerce stores. Checkout this quick case study and how they transitioned to selling worldwide with Easyship:

Tropicfeel: This sustainable travel footwear and accessories brand sells versatile sneakers. After a successful crowdfunding campaign that found backers from 138 countries, they shifted their crowdfunding campaign fulfillment to Easyship for their second campaign. Easyship helped Tropicfeel reduce shipping costs by 20% and transition from crowdfunding to eCommerce.

Conclusion

You can consider an eCommerce store as the next step of the crowdfunding campaign. The whole purpose of the crowdfunding campaign is to ultimately sell online. But doing it timely and effectively is the key to success. If you delay it or don’t consider important factors then you might lose the advantages of a successful crowdfunding campaign. So a timely and wise decision and the step that is required.