{"id":27826,"date":"2022-04-21T14:52:17","date_gmt":"2022-04-21T14:52:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/intranet-old.colart.com\/en\/?post_type=cgt&p=27826"},"modified":"2022-04-22T12:42:57","modified_gmt":"2022-04-22T12:42:57","slug":"setting-up-an-on-line-shop","status":"publish","type":"cgt","link":"https:\/\/intranet-old.colart.com\/en\/cgt\/setting-up-an-on-line-shop\/","title":{"rendered":"Setting up an online shop"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Since the first day I moved to London I dreamed to open a business selling artisan Italian food. Lack of resources and interest in a different career path had always stopped me from doing that. However during 2020 lock-down I had the time and the motivation to explore this opportunity.<\/p><\/p>\n

I casually learned about Dropshipping<\/span><\/em> (an order fulfillment method that does not require a business to keep products in stock) and realised that setting up an e-commerce using that system would have allowed me to pursue that dream.\u00a0So after talking with a friend, we decided\u00a0 to progress together with this idea and explore the opportunity to make it happen.<\/p>\n

First we had to find some suitable producers (small, artisan and trustworthy) willing to collaborate with us. My network of Sicilian connections combined with our good presentation and negotiation skills made this part of the job very easy. We developed T&C and all the contracts needed to protect the business and make sure it was compliant.<\/p>\n

Once agreed with suppliers payment terms, shipping method and ways or working, we focused on creating the products portfolio. We analysed the market, identifying competitors and bench-marking their offer; then based on this analysis and on our strengths, we defined the pricing position and the product categories that made our offer.<\/p>\n

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Then we\u00a0moved to the brand creation. We chose the name, Eat Amore<\/strong>, designed the logo (thanks to our basic knowledge of Photoshop), and <\/em>via GoDaddy <\/em>we registered the domain eatamore.co.uk<\/strong> and the business email address.<\/p>\n

At this point we were ready to build the website. To do so we used Shopify<\/em>, a platform that allows to set up an online store at low cost and with no coding needed. This was the task that took us the longest. We had to create content for over 100 products (images, products description, list of ingredients, etc), plus recipes, articles, blogs, tasting guides and any sort of materials to engage with our target audience and build a distinctive brand image. We developed internally majority of our images using an amateur photo shooting box and a platform called Canva<\/em> for editing (occasionally we relied on free stock images websites such as Unsplash<\/em> and Pexels)<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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Once the website was ready, the next step was to create a communication plan. We decided to use the social media platforms to pursue different strategies and developed the content accordingly.\u00a0We used:<\/p>\n