How to Start an E-commerce Business

About this episode

In this round-table episode of The eCom Show, host Shan A Salam sits down with tech entrepreneurs Arjun Paul, Kenney Jacob, and Felix Josemon to examine the practical realities of launching and scaling an ecommerce business. The discussion begins with validation, stressing that aspiring founders should test demand manually via direct sales on WhatsApp, Instagram, or simple spreadsheets before building elaborate websites or incorporating formal company structures. The panel evaluates ecommerce infrastructure, contrasting self-hosted setups that require technical maintenance with hosted platforms such as Shopify and lightweight alternatives like Store.link. Arjun shares how his early experience managing hundreds of WhatsApp customer groups led to founding Zoko. He outlines essential startup principles, including the priority of customer retention over acquisition, resolving co-founder equity splits with a definitive decision-maker, and assembling lean core teams. Finally, the founders share strategies for hiring through technical communities and assessing candidate resilience.

Key takeaways

1. 1Validate product demand manually through WhatsApp, Instagram, or spreadsheets before spending capital on website development or company registration.
2. 2Avoid unnecessary legal incorporation and compliance burdens until business revenue crosses mandatory thresholds like the 20 lakh rupee GST limit.
3. 3Choose hosted ecommerce platforms such as Shopify over self-hosted setups like WooCommerce to eliminate server management overhead and downtime risks.
4. 4Prioritise customer retention over new acquisition, ensuring your churn flattens before spending money on marketing.
5. 5Split equity almost equally among co-founders while assigning a slight majority to the CEO to prevent operational deadlocks.
6. 6Hire team members who have demonstrated resilience through competitive sports or previous entrepreneurial experiments.

Chapters

1. 00:00Introduction
2. 05:13Starting an E-commerce Store
3. 08:28Selling with WhatsApp Catalog
4. 13:37What’s Next After WhatsApp?
5. 18:30Instagram and WhatsApp for E-commerce
6. 23:08Dealing with Server Downtime
7. 28:30Business and Company Insights
8. 35:26Focus and Customer Retention
9. 46:14After Arjun Paul’s Viral Post
10. 50:00Building the Zoko.io Team & Co-Founder Insights
11. 59:22Felix's Hiring Approach
12. 1:02:20Kenny's Hiring Approach
13. 1:05:41Hiring from the Community & Conclusion