How To Start Your Own Online Store: A Step By Step Guide

How To Start Your Own Online Store: A Step By Step Guide

Setting up an eCommerce venture is not a luxury nowadays. It is a necessity for many individuals and businesses. E-commerce is a tough journey to embark on without the appropriate knowledge. Therefore, it is an important step to grab important tops before you jump out to establish your online store. This write-up explains how to start an online store with the minimum possible investment.  

Understanding eCommerce Models

The first part of your research should include the types of business models. There are eight main types of online store models. These models are necessary to plan a business’s finances and unique methods of work. The models most common in today’s eCommerce market are: 

  • Dropshipping
  • Manufacturing 
  • Markers 
  • Digital products
  • Direct to consumer 
  • Subscription
  • Print-on-demand 
  • Wholesale 

Find The Right Products To Be Sold

There is a lot to sell, but not everything will sell. Only the goods that cater to customers’ needs and those in the customers’ good books sell. Therefore, it is necessary to check out the trending products. You may conduct research for that purpose. Certain tools help in the discovery of trending products.

  • Prepare a list of the products that you like. 
  • Check out their demand in the market and on eCommerce platforms like Amazon, Flipkart, and others. 
  • Note the pricing of those products and also your competitors selling them. 
  • Shortlist the products you want to sell.

Find The Product Source

After the shortlisting of the products, the next brainstorming is about the source. It depends on many factors. For example, starting from scratch and selling already manufactured products. In all cases, forming the business and registering it are essential for smooth business operation and financial transactions. In the former case, you need to find a manufacturer who understands you. In the latter case, you need a reliable supplier. Besides reliable suppliers, you need to open a bank account and have reliable banking for your transactions. These are key points to remember:

  • What is your budget for product sourcing?
  • How can you minimize your budget? 
  • How to find the best quality products? 
  • What would be the timelines for manufacturing and supply? 

Calculate The Pricing

Pricing Strategy

The pricing of a product or a service greatly impacts the ROI. Not only is it responsible for direct profit, but it also has many other impacts. Also, this ROI is affected even by the smallest investment.

  • Estimate the investment you would like to make. 
  • Estimate the ROI (return on investment) you would expect. 
  • Similarly, estimate the selling price and the marketing price. 
  • You can predict some prices as your expected profit 

Get The Right eCommerce Platform

Brainstorming here is a real struggle. You need to find out the eCommerce platform best suited for your needs. Choosing the right eCommerce partners can be tedious and tricky. This is not going to be easy until you can ensure these criteria:: 

  • Ease of using the platform. The features of the platform must be easy to use for both you and your customers. 
  • Additional costs like domain registration and getting a suitable domain extension, hosting fee, upgrades, and benefits.
  • Its compatibility with the customers’ needs and ability to serve customer support. Ensure the resolution of queries in the minimum time possible. 

Free Themes To Design

Designing a good website is extremely important as it forms a direct impression on the visitors. Isn’t it?

Well, this expense ranges from $600 – $1000. It can also go beyond just adding other elements. So, look for free themes that look good to your visitors.

You can also take help from a Shopify web developer to help you with the best themes and designs and for development.

  • Decide the look and feel you want to impart through the mood boards. Remember, your mood board settings can play a vital role in giving you positive vibes. 
  • Which pages do you need to set up? 
  • Decide the number of pages and their functionalities. Customize it to ease the different operations such as navigation and others. 

Use Of Technology

Today, almost every business needs ample use of technology. Not only does it keep it updated, but it is necessary for the services delivery in an advanced manner. This applies to communication in case your client or customer is at a remote location.

Grasshopper is one such tool that offers great communication through a virtual phone number. However, Grasshopper is limited to phone calls. There is no access to advanced features like video meetings and screen sharing.  Therefore, you can try various Grasshopper alternatives.

  • Virtual phone systems are an important gift of technology for enhancing customer support quality. 
  • This system ensures a quick resolution of customer issues in no time. This is being used nationally and internationally. 
  • This system also offers custom greetings to the customers and forwards calls to the responsible department.

Select The Best Payment Gateway

Apart from the ease of website functionality, offering secured payment/checkout is also necessary. It offers a sense of security and ease of digital payment.  Here are some factors that you should consider while choosing the payment gateway for your website: 

  • Make a list of the payment gateways you would like to allow. 
  • Check whether or not the selected payment gateway has all the features you need
  • Evaluate the shortlisted gateways on the basis of maintenance fees, ease, support, and commission. 
  • Finalize the payment gateway after going through all the criteria. 

Find A Reliable Shipping Partner 

Besides considering the crucial factors for budget, the delivery of your goods and shipping charges are also important. They also add to the planning budget and finances. The points you should consider while choosing a shipping partner are: 

  • Choose the shipping option you would like to go with. For example, you consider fast delivery, one-day delivery, and other options. 
  • Choose the shipping partners and check the serviceability at the pin codes where you want to sell. 
  • Estimate all the costs like business investment, profit, and selling price of goods.
  • You are good to go now.  

Conclusion 

Online selling comes with ease of revenue, provided that the associated route and choices are selected wisely. In this write-up, we had a tour of some important steps necessary to establish an online store. However, this can vary per your requirements, as eCommerce is a vast umbrella to several online business tactics and models. Stay in touch with us for more information.

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