Do you plan to start an online store but do not dare because of the investment that this may entail? Would you love to create your store and not know how to do it? Do you want to start making money on the Internet on your own and feel like working hard on it? Still don’t know how to create an online store?
Although the article’s title may seem a bit exaggerated to make an online store, you will only need a small financial investment, and above all, a significant investment in the form of time. I wanted to convey that it is possible to create an e-commerce business without the need for a significant financial investment.
For example, you can use a platform like Wix eCommerce that allows you to create and manage an online store quickly and cheaply, providing you with all the tools you may need to grow your business and start selling online.
You can create a virtual store without the need for computer skills. Wholesalers or dropshipping providers can directly ship their products to your customers.
You can search enough information to learn the basics of online marketing, and companies like PayPal make it very easy to implement an effective payment system. So, what’s the excuse to learn how to set up the online store you want?
I will tell you how to start an online store in 10 steps, very briefly and above, so that you can know what would be essential to start selling from your online store.
1. Think about the name, domain, and logo of your online store
I put the essential part at the beginning to encourage the staff. It is vital to select a perfect domain for an online store. To make your online store impressive to people, create a logo for your store. You may consider e-commerce icons in your logo design.
The name, the domain, and the logo must be easy to remember, and they need to be as short as possible and possibly descriptive.
In terms of the domain, if it also contains any of our keywords, it will help us position ourselves in SEO. Also, try to make it a .com, or a .es, .jp, .cn, .tw, etc.
2. Select a good hosting company
It is the only acquisition you will have to pay to create your online store, so do not be stingy and look for a company that offers you quality hosting and guarantees.
The speed of your store is critical, both for users and for search engine positioning. A slow page makes your users tired of waiting and abandoning the page. You should even pay more in Adwords for having a slow pace!
Choose a hosting company that guarantees you a good connection speed and enough space for your online store. Having a good hosting service, you will also avoid unnecessary server crashes, and you will be able to have your store available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. We recommend Hostinger for your first store because it is the cheapest hosting with the best quality. You have hosting from only $0.99 per month with a free domain included and other very cheap options if you need more resources.
If you like to simplify your life, you can also use a virtual store service like Shopify. It is an all-in-one tool that provides you with all the necessary tools to start your business, including hosting integrations. With the leading payment gateways, thousands of free templates, and a web builder, it allows you to create your online store in less than 24 hours, and you can concentrate on selling and attracting customers.
3. Choose a guaranteed Dropshipper
Some time ago, we already explained how the dropshipping method works. Our wholesaler or distributor sends directly the products that our customers have bought in our online store to their home address.
The Dropshipper wholesaler will take care of shipping the product without any brand logo, adding your invoice to the package if you want.
In this way, we avoid investing in the stock of products in sending orders to the customer, or worrying about logistics. The dropshipping company will consider all these services for you.
Logically, the margins will not be as large as if we bought the products first. Getting the first customer, testing the product, and seeing how everything works may be the ideal solution for entrepreneurs who cannot invest in a large number of products to open an e-commerce business.
There are many wholesalers and Dropshippers. Make sure you choose one of the guarantees. Do some testing before selling directly to your customers, and have one more selected if you have to change.
4. Use a good CMS for e-commerce
As we mentioned in the hosting section, if you want to sell without worrying about a technical problem, it is best to use a website builder like Shopify, especially if you are starting. But if you dare to set up an independent website, you need a CMS or a content management system.
Currently, there are many completely free and completely reliable CMS for eCommerce.
In addition, as they are free to code tools and known by many professionals, there are a lot of companies and freelancers who, for a small price, can tweak or expand those functionalities that you cannot do on your own.
I think CMS would be WordPress, Magento, Oscommerce, Virtuemart (Joomla), Zencart, Opencart, Digistore, or Drupal eCommerce. When choosing the hosting, keep in mind that it will be automatic and straightforward.
The most straightforward alternative would be a service like Shopify or Wix. They are very intuitive platforms that you can use without prior technical experience and without anyone’s help to set up an online store.
5. Customize the products of your online store
All products should be displayed in a short time. It is essential to customize all the texts of the store, expand the product description with information about its use, describe details that cannot be shown with images, and allow the user to imagine the product without seeing it differently.
In the long run, the only products that will be positioned correctly in google and other search engines will be those you have modified. Potential buyers will appreciate not finding the exact text they will see in other stores. In other words, be original and give free rein to your imagination.
Images are another element that influences the purchase decision. So to improve the user experience, make the photos good quality and show details of the products.
6. Add all possible payment methods for your online store
If you can, provide as many payment methods as possible in your online store. Suppose you can offer 4, better than 3. People still do not trust buying online and only order from stores that offer the cash-on-delivery method. Others always use a credit card since they understand that there will be a company behind it, and some use a bank transfer since it may be more convenient for them.
Paypal puts a payment gateway that will allow us to charge our customers by card. Its “installation” is straightforward, and the only cost it will have for us will be the commission (relatively high) that Paypal will charge us for each transaction made. It is a perfect way of offering this much-requested form of payment in the world of eCommerce.
7. Create a blog that accompanies the store
As I explained in the mini SEO guide for online stores, don’t make descriptions long for our online store. It is essential to create a blog to attract some traffic to the store in these cases.
Although it is advisable to create a blog to talk about our company and everything that covers it, it helps us promote our products in some way, directly or indirectly.
Little by little, you will position yourself for the topics covered in the articles, bringing you quality traffic. So creating a blog is essential when creating an online store. If you do not have time or are not good at writing, you can always use a platform like Fiverr to hire writers to write the articles for you and even the product descriptions and all the content of your website.
8. Regulate legal situation
Legally you can’t sell products unless you do it as a freelancer or company. In addition, in most cases, creating an SL is recommended, primarily due to the issue of civil liability.
Starting a Limited company is a process that, although we can carry out ourselves, we will likely decide to leave it in the hands of an organization.
Make all the papers in order, take out insurance, and comply with all current laws before starting your adventure; a delicate or economic sanction for not acting could make your company disappear.
9. Create advertising campaigns
We can publicize our online store online through advertising campaigns but above all in a scaled way. Using the free analysis tools correctly, we will know exactly which campaigns give us benefits and which do not work, rectify quickly, and avoid unnecessary losses.
Thus, we will be able to obtain benefits quickly and reduce the investment to “what we are earning each month” so that minus the small initial investment, the rest of the advertising could pay for itself. The ability of each one to achieve these benefits can make a difference in the future.
To start advertising on the Internet, you can use Google search results advertising using Adwords.
10. Work online marketing
Now it’s the time to expand the number of sales through marketing.
Create an online marketing strategy: Make special offers, prepare a social media strategy, organize contests, follow up with your customers, write press releases. Do everything possible to improve your online presence, make your brand known, position your products on google and sell online.
The ideal time is to start with marketing at the beginning of creating an online store, do not wait because otherwise, the customers will arrive.
Shopify has abandoned cart recovery functionality, which allows you to recover lost sales by automatically sending an email reminding the customer of the product or item they haven’t finished purchasing. It also allows you to sell through social networks such as Facebook Google Shopping, which helps you reach the users of these channels and get more sales for your store.
I have ignored some fundamental issues in creating any business, such as conducting a preliminary market study, the viability of the project, creating the business model with a business model canvas, or documenting all the steps. But now I have focused on eCommerce businesses and online stores, I have preferred to simplify.
Following these tips, you have realized how to create an online store, and if you have already decided to create your online store, you have to click on the following link: Create your online store now.
