Regardless of how old or large your business is, having a digital presence is now essential. In particular, being able to sell products and services online is an opportunity to grow your business and reach new customers. Thus, this is why having an ecommerce platform is so important, especially if your business is small or operates in a niche market.
Now, let’s take a look at what is required to build an ecommerce website from scratch and start generating money from your online sales.
Online Selling in 5 Easy Steps
Selling products online is not a complex task and can be accomplished in just 5 steps. On the other hand, building an e-commerce can be a challenging task if the digital world is new to you.
Let’s now learn more about these 5 steps.
1. Find an Appealing Domain Name
Even though you already have a website, you want your e-commerce platform to be easy to find. Also, remember that a domain typically costs between $10 to $30 per year. So, having more than one website should not be a problem.
If you do not know what a domain name is, think of it as your digital address. The easier to remember, the better. Specifically, finding the right domain name is crucial to your brand, and consequently to your success. Your domain name should be short, easy to write and remember, and contain words related to your business and what you expect to sell. These requirements are essential for any business’s SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategy.
Take also into account that some of the ecommerce platforms you are about to learn about allow you to pick a domain name for free, if you decide to adopt them to build your ecommerce website.
2. Select the Best E-Commerce Platform for Your Needs
An ecommerce platform allows you to build your ecommerce website according to your needs straightforwardly and with no or little code involved. There are several options available online to choose from, but they can be boiled down to 4 types. Let’s take a look at the top ones for each of them.
Dedicated e-commerce platforms
Dedicated e-commerce platforms are non-free solutions that allow you to launch an e-commerce website effortlessly. They come with features aimed at building a complete e-commerce website easily, allowing you to enable powerful built-in features with a bunch of clicks. To use them, you usually have to pay a monthly fee of about $30, but they typically offer a free trial period where you can test them out.
The top dedicated e-commerce platforms include:
Free e-commerce platforms
These e-commerce platforms allow you to build your digital marketplace for free. On the other hand, they generally come with some limitations, which can be removed only after paying a fee.
The top dedicated e-commerce platforms include:
E-commerce plugins
You might already have a working website, such as a WordPress website. In this case, you can easily integrate e-commerce features by adopting one of the following e-commerce plugins:
General website builders with ecommerce features
The most popular website builders for non-developers largely come with e-commerce features. Again, if your website was built with one of these platforms, you can buy the e-commerce plan and start taking advantage of all the e-commerce features you will have access to.
The top general website builders offering e-commerce features include:
3. Build Your E-Commerce Website
Now, all you need to do is build your e-commerce website. This step changes based on which e-commerce platform or solution you choose. E-commerce plugins might require you to write some lines of code to be integrated into your existing website. On the contrary, the other solutions should allow you to build your e-commerce without any code involved. At the same time, being in contact with web developers will make everything faster and more effective.
4. Populate Your Digital Marketplace
Think of the products displayed in your digital marketplace as your store window. Simply placing your products there with no effort would not be effective. Your product information must be detailed and engaging. Particularly, take time to produce high-quality photos and videos for each of the products you are selling. Your products must be eye-catching!
Also, text descriptions should be exhaustive, accurate, and not too long. Similarly, giving your users the possibility to customize your products will be a great plus. Then, do not forget to highlight the average delivery time, price, discount, and how many products are available. This information is crucial and should be outstanding and easy to find.
5. Advertise Your New Business
You now have an e-commerce website, and you are ready to sell online your products. The only remaining step is to let everyone know about your new digital business. Paid ads, email marketing, and a blog where to advertise your products will be useful tools for this step. If this scares you, hire one or more digital marketing experts. Finally, while promoting your website remember to be convincing, but not too spammy.
Also, let users know about your story and why you decided to embark on this adventure. After all, selling is also about selling a story, and you want your new online customers to buy products from you to support you.
Conclusion
Your business might be a small or brick-and-mortar business. Either way, you should consider starting to take advantage of the digital world. Specifically, here we looked at how easy it is to start selling online. In detail, we learned how to build your e-commerce website from scratch with a 5-step approach, and understood the most valuable lessons for generating money through it.
Thanks for reading! We hope that you found this article helpful.
