by Martin 5 years ago 
With the Internet continuing to threaten high-street businesses across the globe, it’s no surprise that the growth of online business is much higher compared to conventional business. For example, it has been predicted that there will be over 2 billion global digital buyers this year alone. In fact, the success of e-commerce business has made such an impact that even well-established businesses have started shifting their entire business models online. However, creating an effective e-commerce website from the outset is critical to being successful online. And, there is a definite process of creating one to sell products online effectively. So, here’s how to build an e-commerce website from scratch.
Choose Your Online Business Model
As a business owner, you get to choose what products you want to sell on your website. You could choose to sell all of your products on your website or sell certain ones via Amazon or eBay. Alternatively, you could choose to sell your entire catalogue on all platforms. For instance, you may set up a Shopify store, and utilize a Shopify SEO agency to help drive business toward this particular store, but also advertise that you sell through Amazon and eBay as well so that you do not neglect any customers who feel happier buying through these platforms. Promoting your actual site can help get the right traffic, but you need to think about having an extended reach. Most importantly, you need to find out where your ideal target market is and what platforms they use the most. This is especially important because consumers normally prefer to buy from a local business, whether they are online or offline.
Decide What Products You’re Going to Sell
Whilst online, you may have seen that there are tons of e-commerce websites that sell a wide variety of items. Certain websites sell particular lines of items such as just clothing whereas others have a broad range such as mobile phones, tablets and laptops. From the outset, it’s important to choose what products you would like to sell online. But, it’s equally as important to consider what the demand is for these products.
You will need a warehouse to keep these items stored, ready to be shipped as soon as an order comes through. Just because you don’t have a physical store, doesn’t mean you don’t need a commercial premises to house your products. This will come in handy as well when you expand your business, but you can’t do that until you have a secure and clean place to ensure your items are well cared for before ending up in their intended location – your customer’s homes. You will need to go searching for the right property and you will need to look at security services, as well as hiring commercial cleaning services in Charlotte, NC (or wherever your warehouse is), so that you have people keeping everything in order and safe. Nothing can make things worse for you than products that are not functioning properly due to neglect.
Choose a Domain Name
Once you have designed your online business model and chosen what products you want to sell on your website, you need to choose a domain name (your website’s address). You have got a few options here – you can opt for .com domains, .org domains, or .net domains. Your domain name serves as your online identity and plays a crucial role in helping buyers recognize and remember you on the web. Some businesses also choose to get a shared domain because of financial restrictions. Sharing a domain can sometimes make it easy to reach your prospective customers. However, sharing a domain can make search engine optimization very difficult, and this is a crucial aspect of being found organically. A local business will always deliver faster, have simpler payment terms and an easier returns policy.
Design The Store
Your e-commerce website needs to be designed in such a way that resonates with your brand. The basic principles of retail merchandising will apply to an online store as well. For instance, you need to know which products to highlight and also be aware of how you want your customers to scroll across your site. Offering a “Did you want to add this to your order?” will yield similar results to placing small accessories near the till of a physical store. People don’t realise they want it until you offer it. Your website also needs to contain details about your business and products as well as being easy to navigate. Remember, if users find it hard to use your website, then it is highly unlikely that they will stay on your website. Furthermore, you will probably lose sales to one of your competitors. Product descriptions, images, pricing, and reviews must also be included (reviews are especially important for building trust with prospective customers).
Set Up a Payment Gateway
When selling products online, you will need a payment system in place that enables customers to process their transactions securely, which is where a payment gateway comes into the picture. A payment gateway encrypts and authorizes card payments that are made on a website. If a transaction attempt is flagged as illegitimate that the payment gateway will reject it. There are many payment account provider companies similar to EPD (Easy Pay Direct) that might be available for providing an efficient payment gateway platform for customers to use to make payments safely and securely.
Install An SSL Certificate
All e-commerce websites obtain and transfer data about customers and therefore, must be protected by an SSL certificate (Secured Security Layer). This certificate will keep your website secure at all times and help build trust among your current and prospective customers. In fact, it’s not just e-commerce websites that should have SSL certificates; Google now recommends that all websites should have them.
Choose a Shipping Partner
Once everything has been set up, and you’re ready to sell products via your website, you need to choose a shipping partner to work with. When choosing a partner, it’s important to do your research, look at reviews but most importantly choose one that specialises in e-commerce logistics.