eCommerce Website Guide: How to Create and Launch Store Website

Posted by admin Apr 30, 2020

It makes everything reachable conveniently. This new trend has given birth to a lot of eCommerce websites or online stores. It makes the eCommerce industry thriving. And, yes, it is not slowing down anytime soon. 

So, if you have an established industry, or are thinking of creating an online store, then investing in the eCommerce website is a profitable deal.

And, the next important thing here is that you need to have an eCommerce website to make it happen. Or, precisely, to set the profit margins. Those who are new to all may find it a complicated task. But, it is not daunting anymore!!

As per the recent statistics, there are almost 24 million eCommerce websites all around the world. And, daily more and more websites are developing. It is seen that until 2021, the growth will reach $4.5 trillion in sales.

(Source: Nasdaq).

Specifically, 2017 has noticed a 2.3 trillion-dollar business in the e-commerce sector. Unquestionably, it will grow more in the future. 2021 will notice a growth of 4.88 trillion dollars.

From the above statistics, it is clear that the growth of eCommerce sectors is higher and faster than the existing businesses. Its success rate is so influencing that even the established businesses are preferring online selling. So, we can say that for the eCommerce sector, it is important to have an eCommerce website. 

Furthermore, creating an eCommerce website has more advantages for the retail business. Find out below:

• Massive competitive benefit as it makes availability 24X7 to make customers satisfied.
• Grows the customer base and establishes its base in new markets as your business is not restricted to the geographic location.
• The online shops enable businesses to track the buyers’ behaviors to know the customers better.

Follow the Below Tips and Build Your eCommerce Website From Scratch

This article has revealed how you can create an online store from the beginning easily. So, without any further ado, let’s get started!!

Choose the Right Platform First

The first thing first, before creating an eCommerce website, you need to figure out which platform to use. Choose the platform that you think can fit as per your business needs or the objectives. We recommend you to start from scratch because modifying the website in between does not provide the best results.

The best platform should have everything to start the online store. From the website builder features to the end to end fulfillment, custom shipping rules, accepting the commission-free payments, it has everything your online store has. It should have the ability to add promo codes, coupons, and, also allow the customers to make accounts to improve their loyalty. The check-out process has to be simple and easy with shipping details and saved billing.

After picking the right platform, here comes the time to work on winning the target audience and establish the customer base. That requires you to check out this comprehensive guide to build and launch the online store. Set up the eCommerce website and assure the long term scalable success.

Outline What You Want to Sell

While looking at the internet, you must have come across several eCommerce websites selling different products. Some online stores are there that sell some specific line of services or products, like fashion items, garments, and travel plans. More eCommerce websites are there that sell other items, such as, books, household appliances, mobile phones, laptops, sports goods, home theatres, handy cams, etc. Generally, the online store is similar to the departmental store that sells all the necessities in one roof only. 

At the same time, it is critical to know what services or the products you want to sell from your eCommerce website. So, you should analyze thoroughly what is trendy or what most of the customers like to see or buy more- you need to check out the local demand.

Nowadays, customers like to buy every product online, but it does not mean that the local vendors do not exist. What exactly we meant is that the probability of purchasing online is more, comparatively. The online services assure easier payment method, faster deliveries, and the replacements if required on defective or wrong shipments.

Establish the Business Model Before

For the eCommerce business owners, it is important that they should establish the business model before, according to their needs. Make your mind whether you want to sell the products from the online store or you want to sell on the marketplace, such as eBay, Amazon, and Flipkart. The best part, you can leverage both of these platforms to get more beneficial results.

Also, securing the business model before starting the eCommerce line, you can know how much it will take/budget, and, also, the effort and time it takes to fulfill.

Want to Create an eCommerce Website, Contact Us Now!

Get a Domain Name and Web Hosting

The next essential here is to have the domain name and web hosting before publishing the online store or make it live. Generally, the domain name is the website address; it is the place where the user types in the browser to open the desired website, such as awebstar.com or google.com. 

On the other hand, web hosting is the place where the website lives on the internet. We can say that it is your website house. All the websites have web hosting on the internet.

Keep in mind that the business name or the website name has to be the reflection of your brand; it has to be your identity. It does not have to be complicated or very simple- keep it so that every visitor can remember it. The companies that have less financial resources prefer to have a shared domain. Though, it makes it easier for visitors to get in contact with the vendors or buyers. The dedicated domain name will make your website recognized in the search engine optimization.

Keep the Designing Professional

Only thinking to have a viable online business is not going to work, you have to work on the designing aspect of your eCommerce website. The online store has to look professional and must appeal to the target audience. The website should have the correct Call to Action (CTA) to convert the visitors whenever they visit your eCommerce website. You can blur the lines of functionality and design when creating the online store. 

Design is definitely important; an engaging eCommerce website design drives more organic sales. But, do not let it outshine the selling products. The visitors are smarter and clever now, they do not sustain on the website that does not attract them- they leave the website merely in three to five seconds.

It, only, means that your website should be simple and minimal. Make it clear to the audience what you are selling instead of making it tough for them to find the required products. Do not overload your website with the imagery, call-to-action-buttons, and categories, otherwise the website speed gets slower. 

Pick the design template that shows your services and products effectively. Also, while choosing the design template, assure that the navigation menu is clear and simple. Do not enable the shoppers to scroll here and there to get the information they want to have. 

Set Up the eCommerce Website

After considering all that, you should set up the eCommerce website functionality. Below are the elements that enable the sellers to sell the products online. For setting up the eCommerce website, you need to integrate these necessities:

• Products
• Online shipping rules
• Choose payment gateways

Let’s’ have a look at each one by one:

Products

For adding the products, you have to secure every product you want to sell. The product section should be on the dashboard itself. Make it easy for them to find the products easily. Give a full description of the products-name, price, description, etc. has to be there. For more convenience of visitors, you can add product videos and images.

Online Shipping Rules

The next thing is that you have to manage the shipping rules. Find out the regions you are likely to ship the products and how much cost all this process will take. 

Maybe you only want to sell to the customers of Singapore and the US. So, what you have to do is to add the new region and make it visible for the visitors to find you easily. 

There has to be a lot of flexibility to the shipping rates. For instance; you can provide free shipping to the visitors who spend some specific amount of money on the orders. Below we have mentioned some of the tips that you need to consider for online shipping. 

• Research your competitors and unleash the great insights about what can work and what cannot.
• It is better to make the shipping policies simple so as not to let the confusion occur.
• In the last, provide several shipping options as per the different shipping carriers or speed. Delivering the product easily and quickly is as important as the amount they are paying for shipping.

Secure the Best Payment Gateways

While selling, you have to accept the payments. Yes, it is essential to run the business successfully. But, make sure that you are following the right and easy ways to collect the payments. Generally, the eCommerce platform advises you about the best payment gateways. 

If we consider BigCommerce, then we can see that it supports almost 60 different payment gateways, digital wallet options, and features one-click. After going through all the options, you will get to know how it is going to influence the bottom line. Choose that payment method that can boost your business.

Before closing the deal of getting the payment gateways, consider the below questions about every payment solution:

• Is there any monthly and/or transaction fee?
• Does it include any setup fee?
• Are there penalty fees? If so, what triggers them?
• What about transfer delays?
• Is there a least balance requirement?
• When I need help or support who do I contact? How do I contact them? What hours are they available?

The eCommerce platform such as BigCommerce enables minimal possible rates. Like; the rate given to the BigCommerce customers using PayPal by Braintree has fewer rates. 

** For every website that sells data online; assure that the connection is secured by Secured Security Layer (SSL). The SSL certificate holds the website security and establishes the trust of every customer. Google advises having the SSL certificate for each website.

Get the Analytics to Estimate the Success Rate

Benchmarks and data are surely required to build the business successfully. For that, you need to analyze the platform in-store analytics first. At least, the eCommerce platform has to fulfill the below basic measures, such as: 

• Unique visitors
• Conversion rate
• Most popular products
• The average revenue per customer

In addition, the platform options such as, in-store websites can offer you with the notable insights into what the customers are looking for. It is better to use Google Analytics for online businesses to assure the safety of your business website. From here, you will understand what is happening inside and outside of your online store. Check out below how Google Analytics helps you to get insights to enhance and boost the business:

• Understand the target audience
• Track from where the visitors are coming, where they go, and where they leave
• Track how the shoppers engage with your online store, and
• how they annotate your efforts.

What else- you can tag the essential events or activities to the timeline, such as, integrating the new products or the sales. It enables you to check the effect they have on your eCommerce website. Generally, analytics is the main element that allows you to act faster instead of wasting time in assuming business and customers.

Chose the Shipping Partner

When you have started selling your brand’s products online from the eCommerce website, you can ship them to the customers with the courier services as well. There are many eCommerce logistics aggregator services that you can choose. These services encompass several courier agency options to ship the product with minimal available shipping charges. You might experience maximum profitable results in your store.

After creating the eCommerce website, it is imperative that you should follow the best tips to launch it.

Tips to Launch the eCommerce Website

You must have understood now that creating an eCommerce website offers owners the flexibility and growing reasons. The next thing after creating the website is launching, that also has to be done critically. Though, it is not a complicated task, but, before launching the online store, it is necessary that you should look after the below tips to make the overall experience seamless:

Fulfill the Requirement

The online stores fail as they are more product-oriented, not customer-oriented. Several businesses have fabulous product ideas and they prefer to have to market the products after the launch. Nevertheless, you need to get an idea of what is more demanded in the market. and accordingly, they build a solution to fulfill that requirement. 

Even your best product idea can give you a place in the market, but your business will be more thriving if you will grasp its need first. So, keeping that in mind, we have curated some points following which you can know the needs:

• Find query-based websites and forums to discover real-world problems and then visit.
• Google Keyword Planner and SEMRush tools should be used to know who is searching more frequently.
• Use social media and trade shows to interact with the experts and users to understand more business opportunities.

Estimate the Idea

When you have an idea of what can fulfill your requirements, then all you have to estimate the further aspects. It includes market trends, market potential, product criteria, competition, etc. 

In the case of market potential, the tools can be used for searching the best ideas. They reveal which posts have got a maximum amount of comments and shares. You can get to know that this might be the burning topic in the market. If you are sure, then, you have to be optimistic. In addition, find out how the products are created, priced, marketed, shipped, and delivered. The more you analyze, the better your chances are of thriving.

Spend Some Time on the Website

Before launching any website, it is a must that you should create it first. We have mentioned all the tips that you need to follow to build the website. Despite selling the products, you must know that your online store is your brand representation. Your website has to be easily navigable, simple, clean, and fast so that you should not experience the bounce rate. 

For those, who are just starting, have to keep their eCommerce website simple. We recommend you to not launch the website in the beta version before the official launch. Initially, you need to attract visitors, convert them, know their reviews, etc.

As the business owner, your prime focus must be on making the customer base solid. So, find out the ways to enhance the customer experience on your handle and make it customer-friendly.

Make Valuable Copy

If your eCommerce website is one of the critical factors of eCommerce success, then making a copy of it is essential. And, the best way is the online content that you can link for the benefits of your product and influence the visitors to buy the products from you.

The copy has to be engaging that not only gets the attention of your visitors but, is, informative at the same time. The users must get its crucial points quickly. Making a valuable copy highly depends on headline writing. It is not the one thing that visitors check when they are on your page, but, it is the only thing that they notice. 

It is seen that almost 80% of the visitors check out the headline on the page, and only 20% read something extra on the page. So, it means that you have to start with the headline. Then, only you can centralize your attention checking out the problem, finding out the solution, and making the urgency sense.

Leverage Onsite and Offsite SEO

Similar to creating the brick and mortar store, you have to discover the means to market the eCommerce store. Search engine optimization is the only way out. Assure to build only the unique product details of all the products. Size or color variations incorporate this.

The more relevant, or unique content you add on your online store, you more likely your queries are shown up. Despite the content, you have to strategize the plans to make the internal links for your online store. Many ways are there to create the backlinks, from testimonials to guest posting, PR outreach, and internal links. Notwithstanding the method, be cautious about the advantages of SEO linking.

Make Checkout Simple

Typically, you must desire to offer the best customer experience after creating the website. It is especially significant for paying and checking out. Below, there are some tips that you should consider for improving the checkout process:

• Ensure your online store is desktop and mobile-friendly.
• Do not mandate the customer accounts; this has to be optional.
• The default options have to be the cheapest one.
• Allow the visitors to fill in the less information and make it auto-fill.
• The essential information should get saved if it is needed many times.
• Include the common payment options only.

Hire Us to Launch to Your eCommerce Website!

Concluding Remarks

Building an eCommerce store like a pro is not a daunting task. You can get one in some minutes only. And launching it is also not a big deal.

Certainly, it takes more time to upload images, add your products, write product descriptions, and all that you need to have a successful online business. By using the best eCommerce website builder, you have an effective and productive online store.

The given guide shows the instructions that you need to follow to create and launch your website. What more exciting is that- you do not need to be technical expertise or code to execute the process.

Be smart, play wisely, and shine!!

If you have any doubt related, then, ask us in the comment section below. We hope our article is beneficial for you. Do share your views with us!!

Thanks for reading!!