A case study that explains how you can manage your E-Commerce business while having zero cost of marketing.
The best zero cost marketing tools can be WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram.
Key Note #1: Case Study
10 Lakh plus monthly sales — 4 months
1000 plus the retailer’s customer base
Average Order Value — 5,000 plus
Cost of Marketing — Zero
Do you want to start a business like this as well? Let’s understand how this can be done.
Key Note #2: E-Commerce Business — Steps
- Understand Customer:
How does he buy his goods?
The first customer in this business is the retailer. The retailer used to place orders only through phone or WhatsApp. So, you can take advantage of this and use only WhatsApp to place orders.
- Where Customer Spends Time:
Understand where your customer (i.e retailer) spends his time.
In this case, the retailer was spending all his time on Facebook and Instagram to sell his products to his customers. The retailer was also doing his product marketing on these websites because his customer was on these websites only.
So, you can also make an account on Facebook and Instagram and find these retailers and send them messages.
- Gain Confidence of Customer:
You should gain the confidence of your customer (retailer). You should clear with him, that you are selling your product only on wholesale and not to the end customer. By doing this, the retailer will get confidence in your business and start enquiring about your designs.
- WhatsApp Broadcast List:
The next step is to make a broadcast list, which is one of the features of WhatsApp. This helps in sending messages to everyone on your list without creating any groups. If anyone replies, then it comes to you individually, not in any group.
So, you can create a broadcast list and send designs to everyone on regular and fixed days. Sending it regularly and on fixed days is very important. So, they can wait for that particular day and time to see your designs.
- Simplify Process:
You can simplify the process by:
Sharing Maximum Information With The Customer
Price Code/Design Code: On every photo, do share a price code and design code. Then, give them the knowledge of how to understand it, to every new customer. So, they don’t keep enquiring about the price and design from you every time.
Then, when they place an order, they will send only the design code to you. This way, there is no confusion in the delivery of the order. This will make sure that you never send the wrong order.
By not sending the wrong order, the benefit is that you will save costs and your customer will not get frustrated.
By applying these simple steps — lots of your time and energy will get saved and you will build your customer’s trust.
- Payments:
You can give your customer multiple payment options like:
Paytm
Bank Transfer
If there is an international customer, then give him the option of Western Union Money Transfer.
The customer can place the order and you can tell him the total cost, including the shipping charges. The customer can send the payment and then you can send the goods to him.
As soon as the goods are sent from your end, you can send the courier details to your customer along with the tracking number or link.
To make this process very effective, you have to educate your customers on how this works. This should be done so that your customer and you can work according to each other’s style of working.
By doing this, you can serve more people in less time and increase your sales.
So, you can understand that just by using WhatsApp and other social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, you can start your wholesale business in jewelry or with any other product.
It’s possible that in 4 months, you can do the business of Rs. 10 lakhs a month. With dedication, you can also do this.
Apply this case study and implement these learnings to expand your business.