How To List Your Products For E-commerce

A Guide To List Your Product From Start To Finish

E-commerce is all the rage. Everyone likes the convenience of shopping online and having goods delivered to them wherever they are. The expansion of more affordable internet services in Africa means more people are looking to purchase goods on popular e-commerce sites. If you want to start a business, listing your product on e-commerce sites is a great way to check the viability of a product or customer niche. I will show you how you can list your product from start to finish.

Research The Platform

The platform you pick could determine the price you list your goods at, as well as the images and product descriptions that will be written for the item.

• Research how much your product sells on average on the platform. 
• The size of the images that you will need to use on the platform.
• The fees and commissions that will be paid for each sale.
• Marketing strategies that are used to market the product to the general market.

Once you understand these fundamentals you will be able to price the item to get more sales on this platform. You will be able to edit your images to suit the e-commerce platform, and by understanding the marketing strategies used by the platform you will know how to word your product descriptions to be seen by a large number of people and also where you could market your products outside the marketing provided by the e-commerce site.

Create Images For Listing

The images used on a product listing for e-commerce need to show:

• The product in its packaging
• Product out of its packaging
• Product in use.

The images need to be clear and on a white background. It also needs to be sensitive to how it will be viewed by the buyers. Does the e-commerce platform target more users on their phones or mobile devices? e.g Jumia or does it market to laptop desktop users like Amazon. Create your images with an understanding of where they will be viewed. If you need help editing pictures for e-commerce you can use a freelancer who specializes in images for e-commerce.

Create Product Description For Listing

Your product description is what buyers read to get an understanding of what your product is and is not. In your product description list;

• Name of your product including brand and volume
• What ingredients or materials are used to make the product.
• How the product is used.
• How to store or care for your product.

E-commerce sites will have a minimum amount of words required for your product description, keep that in mind while creating product descriptions. They will also have words or terms that are not allowed on their platform, I found that out the hard way while trying to sell bath bombs on Jumia and they barred me from using the word "bomb". Look at other product listings on the platform and determine the tone that you should use for your product description. If you need a pro to help you perfect your product description use this link. 

Create A Seller Profile

This is a requirement for most e-commerce stores. They will need you to create a seller account and seller profile detailing who you are and what you intend to sell on their platform. They will also ask you to list other legal required documents like your ID, tax documents, phone number, and address that will not be visible to buyers. All these are requirements for setting up a link to your items and a store profile designated just for you. Stay on brand by creating a cohesive brand identity such as logo design, brand colors, banners, etc.

List Your Product

Listing your product is the final step of selling your product on an e-commerce site. 

• Upload the images per requirements.
• Insert Product listings.

Some platforms will ask you to add more information while listing your product such as delivery options, and the condition of the product stating if it's new or used. Fill out all the fields and double-check for typos before publishing the listing. 

Look it over one last time and remember that, this is how your customers will see your product. Some platforms also have a preview option, where you can see what it will look like before publishing. Preview it, be really critical of everything you see and make improvements where needed.

Publish Listing

This is the call to action button for most e-commerce stores. Publish button allows for your product to go live on a platform. Some platforms require additional approvals for their corporate back-end team, but once it is approved it will go live on the website without notice. Only Publish the listing if you are sure it is as you would like it to appear to the public. Otherwise, save the draft until the changes can be made.

Once you publish, let go and let it live its best life on the internet. Check on the listing insights once a week to see how the customers are interacting with it. Depending on the reaction you can change the images used and tweak the product listing to increase more sale.

Do you have any products listed on e-commerce sites? Comment below and share with our community of African founders and freelancers.

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