How to open a first online store?
You have made your mind – ‘I’m opening an online store’, but you are not sure how properly prepare yourself to enter the e-commerce world and open a first online store? We decided to make it easier for you and prepared a few important indicators that are worth considering.
How to open a first online store?
1. Do market research
You have certainly noticed that there are more and more online stores on the market, so to achieve desirable success, you have to take actions that will help you stand out from the rest. First, focus on the competition, you can take several factors into the consideration: price, store design, product presentation, promotions and marketing.
2. Name your store and buy domain
After making a decision about the industry, it’s time to choose the name for your online store. The name is a very significant aspect it should refer to the type of business and products you offer. Remember it should be catchy so clients could easily recall your brand in the future.
Have you already chosen a logo for your brand? If so, now it’s a time to buy the domain. Don’t hesitate with this step as there are a number of people who looking to buy a domain and can overtake your name. Make sure the internet address will have the same name as your store name.
3. Choose the best e-commerce software and open an online store
Choosing an effective software will determine the success of your first online store, so take a moment to do careful research and choose the best solution. The market is full of e-commerce platforms on which you can create your online store. Most of the platforms have a free trial period and access to the admin panel. This will help you to check the solution before purchasing it.
The Offerer software you can try for 14 days for free without any obligations
Why Offerer software? First of all, the admin panel is extremely simple and intuitive to use, if you are not a programmer it’s great solution for you. In addition, there is a hint system that will help with the navigation through the platform.
When choosing a proper software, be sure to choose the one that will enable you to integrate with various systems such as payment gateways, couriers, warehouses etc. This will make much easier for you to manage your online store.
4. Create an attractive graphic design
Graphics is very often a deal breaker. Make sure your website is user-friendly and transparent. Take a chance and implement unique and special ideas. Remember about all graphics elements: colors, menus, access to promotions, leading products should look desirable for clients so it will convince them to purchase.
If you are not sure about your design skills, you can always rely on professionals. You can order individual graphic design or use the store template creator available in the subscription price. This will allow in a simple way to manage your first online store.
5. Add statistics system
While considering the constant development of your online store remember to add a tool that will allow accessing to the most crucial statistics about your website traffic. A free and very popular option is Google Analytics, this tool allows to determine which online campaigns bring the biggest traffic and conversation, the worse performing pages, what people click on the most, what people search on your website, visitors location, abandoned carts.
6. Prepare “about us” page
One of the most crucial factors is preparing a good about us page.
About us page usually includes information about your company but also possibilities that you offer for example the type and cost of delivery, accepted payment methods, returns, complaints policy. This type of information is very important to show on your website, it gives transparency to the clients, which builds trust. Your website should include Terms and Conditions and Private Policy ( preparation of those documents should be overlooked by law professionals).
7. Enter products and choose unique descriptions
After fulfilling the above steps you can start your sale at any moment, hence focus on this two steps:
- You can add the goods manually by configuring them in anyway.
- Integration with wholesalers: with a few clicks you can add products database to your online store. Thanks to this function, within 10-15 minutes, more than ten thousands of items can appear in your online store.
A very important factor to focus on is a product description. Avoid Double Content and do not copy descriptions directly from the producers. The first content is valuable and copied one will be considered by Google as useless. If you want to take good care of your store’s SEO, beware of duplicating text.
8. Make a few tests of your online store
Before launching your website, make a few tests to be sure that it works correctly.
To ensure that it is perfectly adjusted, check:
- Prepare tests of store operations, which eliminate the occurrence of possible technical errors (e.g the appearance of blank pages);
- Usability testing– examine whether the store is intuitive enough;
- Browser compatibility testing– responsiveness – with Offerer, all available templates are adapted to mobile devices.
9. Promote your brand
Your online store with rich graphics and content works without the smallest complaint? Great, but still not enough to exist on the market. Successful Promotion Campaigns in the online world can be introduced as advertisements or good and effective SEO. One of the most serious and worth considering is Google AdWords ( Google Ads)– sponsored links and so-called Adsense, which consist in matching the content of ads to the content of the page currently being viewed. In this case, the cost will accrue based on the number of clicks.
The most effective “natural” and long-term method to promote the online store is positioning. What is referred to as positioning? In this way, we determine the process of systematically growing in the ranking of search results by key phrases at Google.
Summary
We hope that this article will help you to start your own online store. Remember to start from market research, name your store and buy the domain. Next chose e-commerce software, that will meet your expectations. Also, pay attention to your shop design. If you are not sure about your design skills, you can always count on professionals- order individual projects. While adding products use unique descriptions, and lastly promote your store.