How to Build Your Own Online Store: A Step-by-Step Guide

How to Build Your Own Online Store

Running an e-commerce website is one of the best opportunities you have to widen your company's reach. There are several ways to build an online store, so the first thing to work out is which solution is the most practical and the most effective for your business.

Creating an online store brings a world of advantages: more visitors searching for products or services on the web, a stronger competitive edge and much tighter control over your marketing campaigns, among others. It also opens the door to new markets, since you can reach new customers anywhere in the world. On top of that, it does not demand the huge upfront investment a traditional bricks-and-mortar shop does. For all these reasons, and plenty of others you will discover for yourself, it is worth putting one of the following approaches into practice.

How to build your online store:

To launch and grow a successful commercial venture, you first need an honest analysis of where you stand today. That is how we determine which type of online business suits you best and how you can get the most out of it. The first thing to pin down before you build an online store is the type of products or services you want to offer.

If you are working from an existing business, for example if you want to extend a bricks-and-mortar retail store into e-commerce, there are two main options: open a new website as the online version of your physical location (with its own name and its own web address), or add a virtual store to your company's existing website (as an extension of it).

If you plan to use your online store to sell products or services that have nothing to do with the business you currently own, you need to decide between two paths: build a separate website with its own name and its own web address (which makes it clear the site has no connection to your offline business), or go with something simpler and rent space on another existing website whose main line of business is the one you want to move your online store into. You can, of course, set up affiliate agreements with other companies so you benefit from the added value those sites bring. Once that first analysis is done, we can move on to a detailed look at each option:

Online stores built as a brand new project:

Running an e-commerce website is one of the best opportunities you have to widen your company's reach. There are several ways to build an online store, so the first thing to work out is which solution is the most practical and the most effective for your business.

Creating an online store brings a world of advantages: more visitors searching for products or services on the web, a stronger competitive edge and much tighter control over your marketing campaigns, among others. It also opens the door to new markets, since you can reach new customers anywhere in the world. On top of that, it does not demand the huge upfront investment a traditional bricks-and-mortar shop does. For all these reasons, and plenty of others you will discover for yourself, it is worth putting one of the following approaches into practice.

How to build your online store:

In this case, the first thing to do is hire a team of web professionals who will guide you through each stage.

You have three main options:

1) Use ready-made templates offered by companies that design and build online stores to your requirements, letting you choose among many design options, turnaround times and price points. These companies also provide advice at every stage so you can develop a website that comes as close as possible to your business goals. If that option appeals to you, it is important to know which features your e-commerce site needs in order to become a reference point for customers:

2) This type of store can be developed by modifying an existing template or by building a template specific to your business. With this option, you will need to take the following factors into account:

– The design of the online store;

– Technical aspects of the platform you want to build it on (you can create your site with a CMS such as WordPress or Magento)

– Payment and delivery methods: which payment and delivery options will you offer? What are the costs and the benefits attached to each one?

3) Build a website from scratch: before you start the production phase of the online store, we recommend a first analysis of what web designers can actually deliver. To do that, shortlist several providers of these services and try out their examples (the ones they showcase on their own websites, for instance). Alongside that process, make sure you have a clear picture of your company's needs and expectations in this area, so the web designer can focus on exactly those points.

Once you have chosen the solution best suited to your business, it is time to roll the project out step by step with the provider you selected. The process breaks down into three parts: building a first prototype, developing the design, and building the store itself.

Throughout this period, while each party contributes its share, it is important that you stay informed of every stage at every phase of the build, so that changes can be made where needed to reach the standard you are after.

When developing any type of online store (standalone or built on top of an existing website), you need to keep a few key elements in mind:

– The design has to reflect your company's strengths and values while being attractive enough to make customers want to buy.

– Every product should be sorted into categories and subcategories based on attributes such as colour, size or finish. Products can also be grouped by customer type (B2C), which is very useful if you plan to offer different classes of products or services.

Do you have access to white-background photos of the products you want to sell? Note that CyberPerformance offers a product photography service for businesses, shot on a white background.

If you are planning to sell several types of products in your online store, it is important to define a classification system for each of them before development begins: it will make browsing your site faster and easier for the customer.

– Make sure every product image has a maximum resolution high enough to be displayed in detail on different screen types (desktop, tablet, mobile).

– The design must be clean and easy to read.

– An online store should also let customers leave reviews after buying certain products or services

– It is important to offer delivery methods suited to the regions where your customers live.

Once you have settled all these content-related aspects, it is time to define how users will interact with your website: which payment options do they have, for example? What happens once they have placed an order?

You should also create a loyalty program so returning visitors turn into loyal customers. Running promotions periodically is a good way to keep their interest alive. Just as important, though, is quality customer service, with agents who can answer questions and resolve any potential issue quickly.

Whoever builds your online store needs a solid understanding of your company's needs and expectations. One good way to communicate those expectations clearly is to draft a detailed requirements document.

4) Build an online store from a template: this option is ideal for entrepreneurs who have a smaller budget and cannot wait 6 months for their e-commerce website to be produced, but who still want a professional-looking commercial site without too much hassle. What you need to do is look for templates that include every feature you want on your page (availability calendars, payment methods, and so on). Keep in mind, though, that if you choose this option as the starting point for your website, your customization options are more limited, and you will have to rebuild your site completely in order to make deep changes.

5) Build an online store on a ready-made e-commerce platform: these are systems that bundle security tools, shopping carts and other features that form the foundation of an online store. One of the leading platforms in this space is Shopify, which lets users without much technical knowledge create their store by filling in forms and selecting the features they need (inventory management, for example). Keep in mind, though, that while it is very easy to use, working on a platform like this can limit how you modify your website at a later date, because there may be restrictions on the changes you are allowed to make. These platforms also supply their own themes (looks) for your website.

– Check the navigation system of every online store template you like, so you catch the errors or issues that could show up later as people browse the site. Think about how easily visitors will move through your pages and how long it will take them to find what they are looking for.

– Pay attention to where each link leads, as well as where it sits on the page. Try different browsers (Firefox or Chrome, for instance) to see whether every link works properly in each one. If possible, use a single monitor for these tests to avoid the outside interference that can creep in during browsing sessions across different devices (a mobile phone, for example).

– Try adding the page content, such as text and images. That will help you check how much room is left for that content on each page, whether it is well organized or not, whether it can be edited easily, and so on.

– Make sure your online store can adapt its layout to the device being used (desktop, phone, tablet). Responsive design matters enormously today, because roughly 60% of website traffic comes from mobile devices.

– The colours you choose deserve careful attention too, because they have to reflect what you are aiming for and capture your visitors' attention.

– Some search engines cannot read images and text properly, so you need to make sure everything is visible and easy to read and understand.

– Another important factor with websites is accessibility, because they have to be usable by everyone (people with vision impairments, for instance). That means every website must follow certain rules, such as setting up appropriate links (if the relevant information cannot be found on the page a link sits on, that link should not be there) or using plain language free of jargon. Remember that many online stores do not offer this kind of consideration – their pages are only reachable through Google searches and the like.

8) Make your first sale

Finally, you will need to feed your full product catalogue to a service such as Google Shopping so your products get indexed by Google. These services have specific requirements that oblige merchants to state shipping costs, keep inventory up to date, provide weights and so on. Working with a provider like CyberPerformance can help you see your way through it, with a turnkey service for building your online store.

If you follow these 8 simple steps before you build your online store, you should have no trouble finding success once it is live. Good luck! [END OF ARTICLE]

If you are looking for more information, have a look at our other articles. The end of the article contains a list of related articles that may interest you. This article covers how to create your online business and win new customers for it. It sets out the steps to follow to build a website that can be the key to your company's success.