Do you plan to create an online store but do not know how to start? Do you want to start making money online?
Today it is possible to sell products through the Internet to the whole world. And dropshippers (shipping companies) can send their products to your customers.
The 9 steps to create an online store (ecommerce)
1. Choose the name and domain of your online store
This is one of the most attractive parts of every project. The choice of a good domain is essential in an ecommerce.
Both the name and the domain must be able to remember and write, they must be as short as possible and, if possible, descriptive.
In the case of the domain, if it also contains any of our keywords, it will help us to position ourselves in the search engines by those terms. Try to make it a .com, or an .ie if you only sell to Ireland.
2. Choose a good hosting company
Find a company that offers a quality hosting and guarantee.
The speed of your online store is key, both for users and for search engine positioning. A slow page causes its users to get tired of waiting and leave the page, while Google, for example, penalizes pages that take more than X seconds to load by sending them to the bottom of the search results.
Make sure that your hosting company guarantees enough space for your online store and a good connection speed. By hiring a good hosting service you will also avoid unnecessary server drops and you can have your store available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
There are many hosting companies. Eblana can advice you. We can host your website on our servers or hire you and configure the server of the company that you like.
3. Choose a guarantee Dropshipper (shipping company)
It is that our wholesaler or distributor, send the products that our customers have bought in our online store to your home.
The dropshipper will send the product without any distinctive of your company, adding to the package your own invoice if you wish.
The client will be satisfied in this way. and we avoid having to invest in the stock of products, or worry about logistics. The dropshipping company will take care of all this.
The benefits will not be as great as if we bought the products first, but to start an e-commerce business is one of the best solutions. And you do not need to invest a lot of money.
There are many lists of wholesalers and dropshippers. Make sure you choose one of guarantees, perform some test before selling to your customers, and have one more selected in case you have to change.
4. Use a good CMS for e-commerce
At present there are many reliable CMS. All them are designed to a greater or lesser extent so that they can be maintained by people without too much technical knowledge.
It is logical that the development of ecommerce is not easy. That’s what Eblana is for. But you can keep your ecommerce in a fast and simple way.
You can choose from many CMS like Magento, Woocommerce for WordPress, Shopify, Prestashop, Opencart, etc. We work all technologies. Depending on your needs we will help you choose the best CMS for your business.
5. Customize your products
In the long run the only products that will be positioned in Google will be those that you have modified. Users will appreciate not finding the same text on all products. Expand the information with product details, photos, methods of use. Use imagination.
6. Add all possible payment methods
Need to to offer the greatest possible payment methods in your online store. There are still people who do not trust online shopping, and only place orders with stores that offer the Cash on Delivery method, since they will only pay upon receiving the package. Others always use the card because they understand that there will be a company behind and some use a bank transfer because it is more convenient for them.
To receive payments with cards you need a payment gateway. There are several options: contract the service with your bank, use Paypal, Stripe, etc.
Depending on your business it will be better to use one or the other. Check with your bank branch and the Eblana team. We will tell you to choose the software that best suits you.
7. Create a blog inside your ecommerce
Must to create a blog to attract more traffic to the store.
It is always advisable to create a blog that talks about our sector and everything that surrounds it, and that also helps us to promote our products in some way, directly or indirectly.
Little by little you will be positioning yourself for the topics covered in the articles and this will bring you quality traffic willing to buy your products.
8. Regulate your legal situation
Legally, you can not sell products unless you are self-employed or as a company. Consult more information is these links and make sure you have all your documentation in order.
https://www.revenue.ie/en/starting-a-business/index.aspx
https://www.irishtimes.com/business/innovation/step-by-step-to-starting-your-own-business-1.3582112
On the other hand, if you ask for information on your website, for example, telephone numbers, shipping address, customer names, etc. You will need to be up to date with the GDPR law.
9. Create a digital marketing plan
The first thing you should do is prepare your website so that it starts positioning in search engines like Google. This initial SEO work is of vital importance.
Besides, you must perform a continuous SEO. This second part of SEO work is to provide content to your website, your social networks, change the code of your website to get more sales, etc.
As a complement to SEO, there is the possibility of working something from SEM, that is, advertising. Thanks to online advertising, we can publicize our online store economically but above all in an escalated manner.
To start advertising on the internet, I would recommend using advertising on Google search results through Adwords, perhaps Facebook Ads and LinkedIn Ads, depending on your type of business.
Consult with the Eblana team so that we can make a digital marketing plan adapted to your business. Maybe this plan can take you with the knowledge we give you, or we can take it from the offices of Eblana in Naas, Co. Kildare (Ireland), if the plan is more complex.
Contact us for more information.
