The sad start of the Covid-19 pandemic has led to travel locks and travel restrictions being introduced around the world to contain the spread of the disease. As a result, many people around the world have become less mobile and it has become difficult to make physical purchases to meet their needs. It follows that many eCommerce website has been created to capitalize on this growing trend. Hence, the recent growth of the e-commerce business has far outstripped the growth of the traditional business.
Thus, online shopping became popular around the world during the prevailing pandemic, and it is expected to grow even after the pandemic is over.
In fact, many of these traditional businesses, even the more established ones, are forced to take their businesses online to survive.
Holding e-retail accounting with 14.1% retail sales globally, eCommerce websites is growing rapidly even with global economic uncertainty. Additionally, according to Statista, these numbers will grow and will reach approximately 22% till 2023.
The success of e-commerce was so significant that many have started selling online using social media platforms.
But the more adventurous people are looking to go more broadly into e-commerce rather than just using a social media platform. But first, to start an e-commerce business, you need to create an e-commerce website first.
Fortunately, there is a structured process for building an e-commerce website. While a website builder usually takes on such a task, having some relevant knowledge can also assist you in creating a website for your online business.
Once you start your online store, you will notice an increase in your customer base and sales growth. These two factors are interrelated, and the higher your eCommerce website performance, the more customers will tend to buy from you over and over again.
Unless you are an eCommerce website developer, you can easily create eCommerce websites as per your business requirements. Otherwise, keep on reading to know the steps on creating the eCommerce website perfectly.
How to Create eCommerce Websites Perfectly
Table of Contents
Decide on a Product Niche for Your Store
When you search the internet, you can come across a variety of e-commerce website that sells a wide variety of products. There are many similar websites selling a specific line of products or services, such as apparel, pet accessories, fashion apparel, footwear, or travel packages.
In addition, there are many other eCommerce websites that sell many different products such as smartphones, cameras, home appliances, household items, sports and health products, lamps, laptops, books, etc. something like a hypermarket where you can find almost anything.
It is important to start by deciding on the niche or type of service you want to sell or provide on your eCommerce website. When making a decision, you need to find out the customer demand for certain products that are relevant to your niche, or for certain in-demand services that please you.
Remember that shoppers generally choose to buy products or receive services from a direct supplier, whether online or offline. A direct supplier usually provides easy payment methods, faster shipping and quicker replacements for wrong or defective items.
Choose Your Business Model
As a potential eCommerce entrepreneur, you must first select the business model that best suits your needs and budget. You can sell your products exclusively on your online store, or on marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, etc. If you choose the latter, you do not need to build your own website.
All you have to do is register for an account, list your products on the marketplace, and start selling. You can also sell your products across all platforms at the same time.
Choose a Domain Name for Your eCommerce website
If you have decided that your business model is an online e-commerce store, and you have chosen a niche and range of products to sell or the type of service you want to provide, then you need to buy a domain name on any web host from web development companies. Make sure the domain link is “HTTPS” to keep your data safe on the network.
It is advisable to choose a domain name that is closely related to the niche of the product or service that you have chosen. For example, if you decide to only sell pet accessories, get a domain like petaccessories.com or petaccessories.net, whichever is available.
A domain name is also considered the name of your company and should be easy for your target audience to remember. Hosting a domain is easy to do with the help desk of the hosting company.
Choose an eCommerce Platform
There are many eCommerce platforms currently on the internet such as BigCommerce, Shopify, Wix, Woocommerce, 3dcart, Volusion, Magento, Squarespace, Weebly, and more. Some come with a free plan, and some come with a free trial, but for a limited period. Choose the one that best suits your budget and requirements.
Also, you need to ensure that the platform you choose is optimized for use with mobile phones to take advantage of the accelerated growth in smartphone use around the world. An eCommerce platform can easily help you build your eCommerce website in a couple of easy steps.
Create Your Online Store
Your eCommerce website is your online store and needs a matching theme to represent your brand. You must configure it correctly to ensure that your potential customers have a good browsing experience in terms of fast loading speed, ease of navigation, user-friendliness, etc.
Your website must contain accurate information about your products or services. Quality images, good descriptions and prices, and options to allow customers to leave reviews and ratings. All of this should be included on your product page for potential customers to view so they make informed purchases and in no way induce them to buy. You must make your website and its web pages attractive,
In addition, you need to include on your website pages of “About Us”, “Return Policy”, “Contact”, “Privacy Policy”, “Shipping Information”, “Terms of Service”, and “Frequently Asked Questions” (FAQ). This is very important in order to gain the trust of your customers when they are confident that they will share their money in exchange for your product.
Set Up a Payment Gateway
Once you post your product listing on your website, you can start thinking about how you will make money from those products. In other words, what payment methods are you going to accept?
Keep in mind that the payment methods available on the business website can determine whether your customers will buy from you or not. An online store with multiple payment methods such as PayPal, Stripe, and credit card payments is far more attractive than one that only accepts bank transfers.
Most eCommerce website builders make it easy for you to decide how you want to receive money from your customers. The most popular way to add payments to your online store includes:
- Using payment gateway packages: These versatile software solutions connect your online store’s shopping cart to the card processing network of your choice.
- Using payment gateways and merchant accounts: In this case, you work with a specific bank that manages and accepts payments for you. You can then send money to your bank account when making a sale.
- Credit Card Payment Processing: Here you can use a simplified process that integrates with your existing in-store checkout. For example, Shopify offers its own payment gateway for this. This way, customers don’t have to leave your site when they want to check.
Protect Your Website by Installing an SSL Certificate
Having an SSL certificate for your website can provide added peace of mind to your customers. A secure socket level certificate encrypts data moving between your client and your site to make your site more secure. Most eCommerce platforms will come with a free SSL certificate included with their plans. However, you need to add this if you are not getting it for free from your provider.
Look at other things that can make your customers feel more secure, such as:
- Security certifications and badges you can add to your site
- GDPR in the terms
- A secure verification process that includes things like visa verified
The more comfortable your customers are in sharing their personal information with you, the more likely you are to make money from sales.
Once your safety and taxes are hidden, you are ready to test and preview your website. Take some time to review each page in this step. You can even check the checkout process this way. You don’t need to actually ship the item, but you can check the process.
Publish and Advertise the eCommerce Store
Okay, you are almost ready to start selling now. You had to add your products to your eCommerce website, create a theme that makes your business stand out, and organize your customization delivery.
If you are confident that your website is safe and tax-ready, you can review your online store. This is a feature that eCommerce website builders give you to make sure everything works perfectly before you start living.
As soon as you publish, it remains only to promote your online store. You can do:
- Blogging and Content Marketing
- Get Backlinks and Work with Other Companies
- Use Online Advertising
- Try Social Media
- Build an Email List
eCommerce website – Concluding Remarks
Whatever promotion or selling strategy you use to sell your products, it is imperative to set up analytics systems so you can measure your success. Keeping track of your online store’s performance when it comes to everything from page clicks to bounce rates will ensure that you’re growing in the right direction all the time.
Look at metrics like:
- How long do people spend on your website?
- How many subscribers do you get?
- Bounce rate and how often people leave your site
- Number of visitors from different devices
- How many people visit your website from social media?
- Conversion rate and profit margins
- Number of regular customers
- Top Selling and Top Selling Items
When you learn more about the product and pages that your customers love the most, you can improve and update your website to meet the requirements of your target audience.
We hope that you like this article. If there is anything that you need to ask then fill in the comment section below. The answer to every query will be given. Suggestions are also welcome!!
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