Running an online business of any kind requires a lot of trial and error. It doesn’t matter if you’re operating a dropshipping provider for custom jewellery or a massive online enterprise selling tiny home kits people can build in their backyards. You have to have the systems in place to scale when necessary.
Scaling doesn’t necessarily mean during the holidays like Black Friday. You never know when a quick post to TikTok or Pinterest could result in massive visitation to your website or blog. Having the systems prepared and ready to respond to that upsurge in traffic ensures you capture as much revenue and new opportunities as possible.
Here are some of the better tips your online business can use for sustainable growth as you scale.
Develop a Plan
Always begin the discussion of scalability by identifying a plan of action. You don’t want to be left in the cold when an influencer happens to mention your online pet brand.
While identifying your target audience and knowing where they live the most online helps to build scalability, you also want a solid foundation under your feet for accepting new customers caught up in the surge.
For this to happen, you need to consider if all parts of your operation are working effectively. This should include:
- Your ecommerce platform
- Payment processors
- Hosting and domain name
- Shipping and fulfillment
- Human assets (freelancers, volunteers, staff members, etc.)
- Store translations (if expanding into new markets)
Most importantly, you need an “expansion plan” that covers everything from how your hosting will change for the new traffic to where you’ll find a social media manager to pick up the slack in brand demand.
Have a Fund Ready to Go
Now that you have an expansion plan, you need the financial resources to back it up. Business growth has a lot to do with available resources. You cannot scale without a “nest egg” or “rainy day fund” covering the expansion cost.
In some cases, online business owners will bootstrap the funds needed. This is paying for additional resources out of your own pocket.
While that may work, it can also lead to some unfortunate outcomes if your personal finances fall through.
A better strategy is to set aside a tiny percentage of all sales into a “scaling fund” that you can dip into whenever a surge occurs to cover costs like added inventory or additional freelancers.
Monitor Your Business Analytics
When a business scales, it is the best time to check out your data analytics. All of a sudden, you’ll have a ton of new information about your customer’s behaviours, preferences, and buying patterns.
That data can be used to streamline conversion rates and overall performance. Now you’ll know if that newly added feature on a product is a good idea or not.
Study your metrics like conversion rate, click-through rate, product performance, user reviews, and lifetime cost per acquisition.
Automate Everything You Can
One of the best reasons to run an online business versus a physical shop is the unending automation. They empower your operations by taking routine, mundane tasks and turning them into simple processes running in the background
The goal of automation for small businesses is to maximise resource allocation. Instead of assigning a single person to run your accounting, you take advantage of tools like our WooCommerce for Odoo plugin, which does all the bookkeeping in the background.
Automation saves you time, money, and effort. It allows you to scan through millions of datasets in an instant or take a single post and generate it over all other forms of social media.
When you scale, these automations scale alongside your business, offering a streamlined customer experience and backend support for everyone involved.
Build Buzz on Social Media
Scaling an online business and going viral on social media kind of go hand in hand. While you don’t need one to do the other, you should celebrate your recent success when you can.
Social media platforms are powerful tools for capitalising on the newfound interest in your ecommerce brand, online storefront, or digital products. Ride that wave and drive up buzz about your business so that when the scaling levels off, you’ve established yourself at a new operational baseline.
Test and Retest Your Order Fulfillment Strategy
This tip may not apply to you if you are running a digital product or service-based company.
Scaling will place a ton of new stress on your online business infrastructure. You always need to know your order fulfillment system is highly operational.
From time to time, send out a “test” order through your system to ensure it is operating correctly. Everything from receiving an automated email about shipping tracking to the included materials inside a package needs to be verified.
That way, when you scale, you have peace of mind that your system is fully operational to handle the added demand.
Final Thoughts
When an ecommerce brand or other online business scales, it can be a little scary. There are a lot of moving parts involved to ensure the systems you have in place are working optimally.
The goal of any good business is to be able to leave it alone for a little while and have it work perfectly in your absence. That same philosophy should apply to your online business as you grow, even when you least expect it.
Our Odoo for WooCommerce plugin is a fundamental tool to add to your scalability. This will synchronise your accounting, taxes, and customer details so they are managed correctly, no matter how quickly you scale. In addition, you’ll experience benefits like:
- Synchronised product categories and details.
- Point of sale enhancements.
- Seamless exporting products to Odoo online.
- Business processes optimisation.
- Streamlined order functions for imported orders.
- Enhanced connection between WordPress WooCommerce website and Odoo.
- Real-time data integration.
Download this highly efficient plugin and bring the power of automation to your business scalability!
FAQs
How do I scale my online store?
Sustainable growth comes from having all your systems in place and then expanding through social media, online marketing, PPC ads, blog posts, video content, and other outreach strategies.
How long does it take to scale a business?
This will drastically depend on the niche market you are in and if you have any outreach systems in place. A viral TikTok post could result in massive scalability overnight, or it can take you years to grow. It all comes down to the luck of the draw.
What is the easiest business to scale?
Any online business with low overhead costs, high demand, and plenty of automation will scale much easier compared to other business forms. This could include digital products, online tutoring, dropshipping, and similar models.
