When the pandemic hit the world, many brick-and-mortar stores across the world were shut down, and the concept of e-commerce businesses gained wide popularity. In fact, several businesses had to choose between shutting down for good or branching out, and the ones that chose to build an online store have been successful. And, since then, e-commerce businesses haven’t stopped blooming.
So, if you have ever wanted to launch your online store, ‘now’ is the time to begin creating one.
However, creating an online store and setting it up for success is not child’s play. Many SMB (Small and Mid-sized business) owners avoid building e-commerce websites for their businesses thinking they are not tech-savvy or do not have big budget or enough time for these endeavors.
Well, with the advancing technological trends and innovative site-building tools coming up, almost everyone can create a good-looking and fully functional online store in no time, on a small budget, and without any web development skills.
So, whether you are upgrading your current online store or are developing a strategy for building your online store, here are the 7 crucial steps you need to follow:
- Examine The ecommerce Market to Find Your Value in It
The initial step of starting an e-commerce or any business is to begin your own investigation of the sector in which you are interested in and identify if there is a need for the products/services you are planning to offer in the market.
Amidst the rising competition in the e-commerce industry, one way to make your business stand out in the crowd is to choose a specialty that cannot be found anywhere else.
2. Develop Your Business Plan and Set Your Budget
Just like any other business, your e-commerce business should start with an exhaustive business plan summarizing all its objectives and the roadmap for reaching them. So, before you actualize your ideas, develop a game plan, and do not forget to tackle your e-commerce business’s technical aspects. Also, you’d want to set the budget for your e-commerce business before breaking the ice, therefore, consider the complete cost of creating an e-commerce store including a web hosting service, domain name registration, and hiring a web designer to build a website or choosing an e-commerce site-building solution.
In the former option, you might have to invest a lot of money, whereas, in the latter, you can cut down your costs to a minimum with an e-commerce website builder. Bluehost offers a variety of services with its e-commerce website builder, which can help you build a high-performing, interactive and appealing online store.
3. Pick a Perfect Business Name
Now that your business has found a place in the market and you know how much it is going to cost you to begin, you will want to come up with a relevant and perfect name for your business. This step would also include choosing a domain name you are going to register, which is very crucial as an appropriate name strengthens your website’s credibility and helps build your brand’s identity.
Advice corner: Pick a business name that is easy to remember and has a connection with the services or products you are selling or the emotion they should ideally evoke.
4. Choose Stable, Secure, and Scalable Web Hosting
If you have already decided to build an online store with a reliable e-commerce platform, you can consider skipping this step as web hosting is a part of most of the platforms’ all-in-one solution. If not, your next task should be to find a stable, secure and scalable web hosting and select a plan.
You can leverage the advantage of choosing from a broad range of web hosting plans depending on your business’s requirements and size. One of the widely preferred hosting types for building ecommerce websites is WooCommerce hosting. Bluehost offers several lucrative services along with the hosting plan, such as free domain for 1 year, easy to use intuitive website builder, free SSL certificate, CDN and caching, 24/7 customer support.
5. Create an E-commerce Store
For creating an e-commerce store, it is highly recommended to go for open-source solutions like WooCommerce. If you sign up for WooCommerce hosting, Bluehost will automatically install the plugin on your website.
Next, by following the instructions on your screen, you can easily configure the settings of your WooCommerce store. Once you have completed setting up WooCommerce, you can add products/services to your store, customize your theme and install essential plugins, track your e-commerce sales using Google Analytics and get insights for growth.
6. Create An Uncomplicated Yet Appealing User Experience
Upon visiting your ecommerce store for the first time, the visitors will form an impression of your website in less than a minute. And, at that moment, it is crucial to capture their attention with a clear and captivating design of your e-commerce store.
A few things you can take care of for creating a user-friendly e-commerce store are:
- Choose easy-to-read fonts and good-looking graphics
- Ensure that your website is simple to navigate and allows your customers to swiftly reach to the pages they want to, such as ‘Products/Services’, ‘About us’, and ‘Contact us’ sections
- Create a sense of consistency in your store, making it more user-centric, building trust in your brand and winning loyal customers in the long run
7. Do Not Forget About SEO And Mastering the Marketing Tools
Now that your e-commerce store is online and ready to start selling, it is time for the finishing touches. The first thing you would want to do is – make your e-commerce store SEO-friendly, meaning more individuals will visit your online store, resulting in increased traffic and the chance of selling your products or services to more people. You can easily do this by outsourcing managed SEO services. In addition to the SEO-friendliness, it is vital to look for research tools, social media integration tools, content marketing tools, customer relationship management tools and more. By creating a perfect mix of all these marketing tools and adding a pinch of creative thinking, you can easily create a successful SMB marketing strategy which will certainly help you win in the market.
Fuel Your Ecommerce Business Idea Today
Creating an e-commerce store is a surefire way for an SMB to be successful, especially in the market where competition is high. However, it is not a stroke of luck that will set your business for overnight success. In contrast, you will have to work your way by following a step-by-step approach and devising the strategies thoughtfully, and success will come to you. It doesn’t really matter if you are not a veteran webmaster, if you are short on time or are working on a small budget – you can still create an online store and earn significant profit margins. The most important thing is to simply start out and take small steps into the e-commerce market’s wondrous world.
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