These days, everyone can sell their products and services online. From retail stores to DIY crafters, ecommerce sites make it possible to sell merchandise online to a wide audience. As wonderful as your products may be, it takes a great ecommerce site to make your business a success. If people don’t enjoy the shopping experience, they won’t have a problem shopping with someone else.
Luckily, it doesn’t have to cost thousands of dollars to build a successful ecommerce site. With the right team and the right vision, you can create an online storefront that grows your business. Here are a few tips for getting started.
Research Your Product
You probably already have a product in mind, but take some time to do your research. You want to make sure that your product is viable. Do you have an audience? Can you compete on pricing? How will your product stand out?
Set Your Pricing
Pricing is a big decision. If you price your product too low, you won’t make a profit. If you price your product too high, you won’t get enough customers. To determine the best price for your product, consider the following criteria:
- Cost of materials
- Web hosting services
- Taxes and shipping
- Credit card/PayPal fees
- Marketing and accounting costs
- What your competitors are charging
Set Shipping Costs
How do you plan on delivering your products to customers? Many small business owners plan on passing the cost of shipping onto the customer, but be careful in doing this. Shipping has a big impact on whether a customer purchases your product or not. To make your shipping costs attractive, here are a few things you can do:
- Offer free shipping with a minimum purchase
- Offer free shipping, but raise your prices slightly to cover the cost
- Offer a flat shipping fee
Select a Hosting Company
You have two options when setting up an commerce site. You can use a marketplace that already exists, such as Amazon, or build your own. If you choose the latter, there are many ecommerce website hosting options that allow you to work on your same site. This makes it easy to list your products, set your prices and add a shopping cart without having to manage anything separate.
Choose a Domain Name
Pick a domain and brand name, if you don’t have one already. Think about words and phrases that describe your products, and be careful not to use anything that has been copyrighted by other businesses.
Build Your eCommerce Site
Magna Technology will build you an ecommerce site from the ground up. We will work together to add product images, descriptive web copy and more. Here are some of the pages we recommend creating for ecommerce sites:
- Home Page to feature weekly specials and deals
- About Us Page that describes who you are
- Contact Page where customers can reach you
- Blog Page that shares updates and industry news
Set Up a Merchant Account
Another important step is setting up a merchant account that allows you to receive payment from your customers. Through this account, you can receive credit card payments, PayPal and more.
Get Your SSL Certificate
Be sure to install an SSL certificate. Customers need to know that they are safe when shopping on your site. An SSL certificate encrypts all sensitive information from customers, including contact information and credit card numbers.
Once you are set up, you can start selling and watch your business grow! To learn more about setting up an ecommerce site for your business, contact Magna Technology today.
