E-commerce (Electronic Commerce) is the best platform to sell your product and services online. It’s easier to have an online store than ever before.
But, it’s hard to get success in eCommerce Business.
You have to follow a sequence of steps to guarantee your success.
The main problem that store owners face is – they don’t know about the process needed to start an online store.
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Do you want to start your own eCommerce store, but don’t know how to start?
With this post, we’d like to share some key points that help you to establish an eCommerce store.
Choose Your Business Name
Of course, the first thing you have to do is choose your business or brand name. That should be fabulous, unique and an attention grabber.
Make sure that your brand name resembles the product category that you want your customers to identify. Once you’ve chosen the name, register your business.
To start your eCommerce store legally in the US, you have to register your business as one of the following:
- LLC (Limited Liability Company)
- Cooperative
- Sole proprietorship
- Corporation
- Partnership
Get Your Domain Name and Web Space to Host
In order to start an online business, it’s essential to get a license/ approvals from governing bodies. The domain name is an important part of your business. But, what is the domain name?
It is the complete address of your website on the internet. It is best if your business name and store name are the same, in case, it’s not available, choose a domain name that’s easy to remember and match your business.
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Most of the eCommerce business owners use “.com” as domain name extension. But, there are many other TLDs (Top-Level Domains) that are available like .net or .org.
To get a domain name for your eCommerce business you can go for domain providers like name.com, GoDaddy, etc.
Selecting a Product
With the internet, you can sell anything.
But, finding the best product to sell is the biggest hurdle that the store owner faces. Though the business is run online, you can choose products like digital, electronic and much more.
While choosing a product, you have to identify the customer’s demand. The below link helps you out in finding a product. Just click on it.
Choose the right eCommerce Platform
Don’t spend too much on technology; in fact, there are lots of eCommerce platforms and shopping carts available at low cost.
A ready-made solution is the best choice. Some of the eCommerce development platforms that fit all your requirements are Magneto, Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce and more.
Key Features:
- Plug-ins/ Extensions/ Add-ons
- SEO-friendly
- Supports Payment Gateways
- Easy to customize
Personally, I recommend Shopify as a platform to create an online store. It is easy to use, manage, full customization, less expensive and trustworthy platform for beginners.
How To Start the eCommerce Store with Shopify?
Setting up a Payment Gateway
Since the eCommerce store can’t accept payments online, store owner needs a payment gateway to accept money through credit and debit cards.
Payment Gateway is the best and easy way to transfer money from a customer’s account to the merchant’s account.
The use of a hosted eCommerce solution is the best choice; it allows payment gateway integration with the store.
There are too many options available like PayPal, Braintree, SagePay, Authorize.net, Amazon Payment and more.
But, make sure your payment gateway processes transaction fastly, securely and provide multiple payment options.
SEO & Marketing
Once you’ve launched your store online, you will need a strategy to attract customers. To drive traffic to your store, use SEO, social media, banner ads, pay-per-click advertising and blogs, and emails.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO), the process to rank your website top and get a lot of traffic without spending too much. With the help of some tools like SEMRush, Google Analytics, etc. you can monitor the visits and analyze the keywords for which other merchants are ranking. You will get an idea about which page of your site brings traffic and whether people are interested in your products.
- Social media is another important aspect of eCommerce marketing. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest is the smartest option to drive more traffic and convert that traffic into profitable sales. Also, on Facebook, you can replicate your store allowing users to buy directly from it.
Shipping & Fulfillment
The real challenge that stores owners face, is deciding on a strategy to charge their customers for shipping products.
There are several ways suggested below:
- Free Shipping
- Charge Real-Time Carrier-Calculated Rates
- Charge Full Rates
Make sure you have enough goods with you in order to fulfill the customer’s requirements. Just order fulfillment is not enough, make sure that goods are best and must reach on time.
Read More: Best Advertising Strategies for Online Shops
For beginners, a third-party logistics provider is the right option.
You need not have your own warehouse or physical store or physical goods; a 3PL provides everything efficiently at a low cost. With the help of providers like Amazon, Printer Partner and many more you can start business small, but, scale it whenever required.
They’ll provide everything you need to start a business without any investment.
If you find it difficult, let us help you out. You can contact us at +1 (845) 418-5206 or Skype ‘Metizsoft’.
Post Launch
One of the most important things is your customer feedback.
It’ll help you to improve the functionality of your store and encourages other people to buy. Use email marketing to remind your customers about offers, discounts, new arrival, etc.
Offer gifts or lucky coupon as a complementary to attract new or existing customers.
Surprising a customer is a great tactic to hold customers’ lifetime.
Epilogue
Building an eCommerce business on your own is not an easy task. There’s a lot of work and research and investment you have to do.
However, nothing is impossible. Hopefully, this article may help you to build a profitable eCommerce business at zero investment.
If you have any queries regarding the platform or payment gateway or anything you have in your mind, please contact us at sales@metizsoft.com.
Metizsoft is a leading eCommerce web & Mobile App development company and we are Certified Shopify Experts engaged in providing reliable Shopify Store setup. We are more than happy to help you to create your own online store.