How To Create An Online Store and Be Successful

8 min read

Starting an online store can be a great time investment for any ecommerce entrepreneur. A vast majority of U.S. consumers, as much as 76% of adults, shop online. Knowing how to make an online store can connect business owners and entrepreneurs with millions of potential customers. But getting started can seem complicated if you have no experience building a website. Thankfully, knowing how to make a store online is a bit simpler than building an entire website from scratch.

Want to learn more? Follow this basic guide on how to start an online store.

How Do You Create an Online Store? Getting Started

What to Sell

Before you worry about how to make a successful online store, you need to figure out what to sell. If you already have an existing business, this step is taken care of. But if you’re building an online store for a new business, you should conduct a bit of research.

In many cases, the best items to sell are niche products with high demand but limited market competition. These could be items that are newly trending. Or, you can sell items that cater to a specific hobby or niche community. It’s even better if the hobby is something you are passionate about.

Target Audience

Along with figuring out what to sell, you must know who you are selling to. What demographics will be interested in the products you decide to sell? And what are the best methods to reach them? For instance, younger audiences are more likely to see Instagram marketing content than Facebook marketing content.

Business Plan

No matter what kind of business you’re running, having a business plan is an essential step. Once you have the idea for your business in place, it’s time to construct a thorough business plan. This should include a marketing strategy, a budget, and inventory and supply chain needs. You can also use this time to think about your store or website name, as well as branding opportunities.

How to Build Online Store: Creating Your Website

Once the framework of your business is in place, there’s only one thing left to do: build your online store. Here is everything you should know about how to create an online store and set yourself up for success.

Choose an Ecommerce Platform

Your ecommerce platform will be your best resource when it comes to setting up the infrastructure of your online store. Ecommerce platforms like Ecwid make it easy by providing you with the tools and guidance you need to build your store. If you have no experience building a website, your ecommerce platform will be invaluable. Moreover, platforms like Ecwid offer an extremely streamlined, user-friendly interface to allow for excellent customization of your web store.

But choosing the right ecommerce platform is a big deal beyond the initial setup phase. Your ecommerce platform will be your central hub for just about everything once the store is up and running. For this reason, you should take some time to research the benefits and capabilities of each ecommerce platform.

The most important factor to consider is, of course, your store’s needs. And how well does the ecommerce platform handle all of your needs? For instance, if you rely on quality images for your product listings, you should look into your ecommerce platform’s tools for creating product listings. Frictionless checkout and payment and customer service are other factors that most online store owners should consider.

Flexibility is another key factor to consider when choosing an ecommerce platform. The setup phase is important to getting your business off the ground. But, once it is off the ground, growth will be very important. As your business grows, you will likely need to implement new features for your online store. A flexible ecommerce platform will allow you to make important changes on the fly to keep up with new demands and a growing business.

Add Products

Once all of the framework is in place, it’s time to start putting the pieces into place. Adding product listings to your website is an important initial step in this process. In a practical sense, you need product listings so that customers can see your inventory and make purchases. But your product listings are also an important marketing tool. Attractive product listings with convenient, frictionless purchasing options can help you convert views into purchases.

Exactly what’s included in your product listings will vary somewhat depending on what you sell. However, some features are consistent for all products. High-quality product images, product details or descriptions, and price listings are the most important. For instance, if you sell clothing items, key details to include are clothing materials, available colors, and available sizes. Knowing which details to provide in your product listings may require research in some cases. Your goal when creating product listings should be to make it as easy as possible for customers to purchase items.

Set Up Store Features (Payment, Shopping Cart, Etc.)

To fully optimize your online store, you will need to add a range of additional features. A few examples of features to consider include multiple payment options (Apple Pay, PayPal, etc.), shopping cart features, and automated emails. All of these customer-facing features are designed to facilitate a better user experience. But you can (and should) also consider adding extensions that help you grow and manage your business.

Store management software can help with things like inventory management, merchandising and marketing strategies, and customer support.

How to Make a Free Online Store With Ecwid

Creating an online store requires some work and research. But with platforms like Ecwid, accessing all of the tools to create a successful ecommerce business is easier than ever. If you are looking to start building your online store today, Ecwid has everything you need.

Ecwid’s ecommerce platform is free to use and grants ecommerce entrepreneurs access to an incredible range of tools for building a successful business. So it’s not just the most affordable option for building an online store. Ecwid’s ecommerce platform is also one of the most thorough platforms for anyone looking to start an online business.

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Feb 1, 2023

About the author

Max has been working in the ecommerce industry for the last six years helping brands to establish and level-up content marketing and SEO. Despite that, he has experience with entrepreneurship. He is a fiction writer in his free time.