E-commerce increases by 23% each year. With this kind of number, you’d expect every business to hop online.
Surprisingly, nearly half of US small businesses still don’t have a website. Building ecommerce websites are easier than ever. The availability of tools and platforms help business owners get online in minutes.
If you’re looking to join the ranks of the modern and savvy, you’ve come to the right place.
Keep reading to discover how to build a successful website.
Pre-Website Checklist
Before building an e-commerce website, you must first lay the foundation. Answering some basic questions will help you decide the direction to take your site. They will set the framework that you will continue to pull from over the life of your business.
- Is there an audience for my product?
- What is the niche of my product?
- What do I hope to accomplish/what is my mission statement?
Is there an audience for my product?
This is the most important question and will save you hours of headaches. Having a product does not guarantee sales. You don’t want to spend lots of money on the production of your idea just to find out it doesn’t provide any value.
A great way to test an idea is to do a Google Trends search on related keywords. This will tell you how often it was searched for in the last months. Also, search popular message boards like Quora and Reddit to see if anyone has expressed a need.
What is the niche of my product?
‘Find your niche’ has been a popular saying for the last few years for a reason. In a saturated e-commerce world, finding a niche will be the difference maker. It narrows your field of focus to help you meet the needs of a specific audience.
A few of the most profitable niches are fitness, relationships, and wealth building.
What is your mission statement?
You can also read this as: What value are you bringing people? What do you hope to accomplish with your brand? A good mission statement defines what the company’s values are and what it does for its customers.
Knowing the ‘why’ of your business will inform your choices right down to the colors of your website.
Choose a Domain Name and Web Host
Once you have your foundation set it’s time to start building. The first step to build your site is to purchase a domain name.
Choose a name that gives customers an idea of what you offer. A simple and short name will increase the chances your customers will remember it.
Come up with a list of keywords related to your business and a list of descriptive verbs and adjectives. Pair the two to create something unique.
A domain name is an address to your website and a web host is where you keep your files. Think of it as a storefront: the address helps customers find you, the building is where you keep your goods.
There are several services that offer domain name and hosting combos. Providers like GoDaddy and Bluehost offer packages for as little as $10 a year.
You can also register your domain name with a separate service from your host. This gives you more freedom if you ever need to move your site to another host.
A “dot-com” ending is the most popular you’ll find on the internet. This makes it more memorable. It can also be helpful to register as “dot-net” and “dot-info”, to increase your chances of being found.
If you are not very tech-savvy, choose a web host that requires less technical skill.
The best web hosting services offer great backup multi-domain hosting. Customer support and consistent uptime are must-have features for any service.
Choose a Platform
The platform you choose will greatly depend on your needs for the site. Small sites with basic functions have fewer requirements than larger sites.
Go with a beginner-friendly option if you have limited funds and programming knowledge. Site builders like Wix, Shopify, and WordPress are fully functional sites that don’t require a developer.
Shopify and Wix are one-stop-shop platforms. This means that you can get your domain name, hosting, and website all in one place. WordPress is a free option that still requires you purchase a domain name and hosting. WP Engine is a service that offers domain hosting for WordPress sites.
These platforms offer free and premium themes to customize your site. The plugin Woocommerce is a free add-on for WordPress sites. Most WordPress themes also work with Woocommerce.
If are a business owner with limited time and/or skill, hiring a developer is your best option. You can spend hundreds of hours trying to customize a site for your needs.
Sites like WordPress and Shopify are great platforms that you can hire a developer to help you with. This can greatly reduce the price and time investment of building a site from scratch.
The right web design company will customize platforms like Magento, WordPress, and Shopify to your business. You can pay $500 and up, but what you get in exchange is the expertise of the developer.
You can also hire a developer to manage site plug-ins and ensure proper integration of themes.
What to Look for in a Developer
Choosing the wrong developer can hold up your site and your revenues. A website should be built with search engine optimization and user experience in mind.
Before hiring, decide exactly what it is you need to be done. A detailed view of your needs will help you sort through hundreds of candidates.
A front-end developer works on the part of the website that customers will see. These are also called web designers.
They are graphic artists that create the look of your site and the icons and assets needed. After that, they use coding to implement it into the site to make it functional.
The front-end developer might also implement a design, like a theme, even if they didn’t create it. Their coding language typically includes HTML and CSS.
A back-end developer works with on functionality of a website. They handle everything to do with the speed and coding of the site. Their coding languages typically include Python, PHP, and Java.
A full-stack developer is a person who can do front- and back-end work. They are able to design and code a website from scratch.
Their work is not as specialized as the other two but it can decrease the number of people you have to hire. Hiring fewer people for one project can save money.
A good developer should have a great portfolio of clients you can contact for references.
Anyone you bring on the team should have values and a personality that fits your business culture.
Get Paid
A payment gateway is a money highway to your bank account. It allows you to accept credit cards, monthly billing options, mobile payments and more through your site.
Popular gateways include Paypal, Stripe, and Intuit by Quickbooks.
Setting up a payment gateway can be an involved process. Many require a secure website, privacy policy, vendors license, and more.
Check out the requirements of your desired provider at the beginning of the process. This’ll cut down on progress-killing mistakes.
Build Your Traffic
Gone are the days of a 99 percent click-through email marketing rate. The availability of content makes a strategy necessary for the aspiring business owner.
Search Engine Optimization is a set of strategies to improve search engine ranking.
You want to incorporate SEO strategies throughout your website. Using keywords in the titles and descriptions of your products increases site discoverability. This is easier to do in the beginning than going back and changing everything.
Another SEO strategy is to build backlinks. The more links you have on other sites that lead back to your site, the higher you rank in search engines. You can build links by offering to guest post on other sites.
Consider adding a blog to your site. Quality content attracts more traffic to your site and products. Tools like Google Trends and Ubersuggest highlight popular search terms in your industry.
You may also consider starting a YouTube channel to garner interest in your product.
Building Ecommerce Websites
Successfully building ecommerce websites require time and patience. Platforms like Wix, Shopify, and WordPress make it easier for beginners to jump right in. You can have a site up in a few hours.
Hiring a developer removes the guesswork so you can focus on the business. Do your due diligence.
This will include contacting site owners they have worked with in the past. Doing so will help you avoid costly hiring mistakes.
You don’t have to wait for your website to be completely finished to go live. A live website establishes your business as real to potential vendors and customers.
After you set up products, shipping, and payment you are ready to start earning revenue. Build your site’s popularity by implementing SEO strategies and tools.
No strategy is complete without a clear brand. Click here to discover methods to identify and build a successful brand.
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