Being a small online retailer comes with a lot of challenges, but that doesn't mean it's impossible to create a successful e-commerce business it just means you need a strategy that can compete with your bigger competitors.

So how do you turn your online store into a huge success?

Online branding.

How you brand your company is the first thing your customers will notice, so it's especially important for smaller online retailers to make sure their branding is effective and consistent.

A customer's first impression is determined by your branding.

A consistent brand message sets you apart from an increasingly saturated market where the barriers to entry are continuously falling.

Your brand should reflect the values and priorities of the customers you want and turn away the customers you don't want.

A great brand is hard to build but easy to squander, so make sure that all your business efforts are aligned to your branding strategy.

Marketing.

No matter how great your product or service is, you'll get nowhere without good marketing.

Marketing is the lifeblood of your business. It's easy to measure return on investment (ROI), making your marketing strategy one of the safest investments you can make in your business.

Fulfillment.

Of course, fulfillment is very closely tied to customer satisfaction, which is not always easy to get right when you're still a growing brand. This is especially difficult for small online sellers as compared with bigger retailers.

If operationally you’re having a hard time meeting these expectations, you end up eroding your customers' goodwill and reducing the chance of repeat purchases, which means you have to pay those customer acquisition costs all over again.

Shipping costs.

Shipping is usually one of the top marginal costs of running an e-commerce business and many brands are put into a position where they lose money on shipping.

Streamlining shipping processes frees up working capital to reinvest into initiatives that will move the needle for your business.

Shipping actually helps you close a sale and becomes a part of the marketing budget rather than a cost center for a subset of customers.

The most important thing to remember, however, is that all four of these components need to work together.

Since the workflows of these business areas are intertwined in e-commerce, it’s impossible to achieve success in one area without paying close attention to the others.