In today's digital age, opening an online store for your business or personal brand is essential to reach a wider audience and establish an online presence. Opening a virtual store can seem like a daunting and complex task, but with the right guidance and tools, it can be a simple and rewarding experience.
Whether you are looking to open an online store that will sell a few individual products or whether you intend to open a website selling dozens or hundreds of products, there are several essential steps you must take to get started on the right foot. In this guide, we will guide you through the process of opening an online store, from choosing a domain name and hosting server to actually designing and launching your website.
With the help of these tips, you will be on your way to opening a professional and effective sales website that will present your brand and connect you to your target audience.
Stage 1: Opening an online store - preparing a business strategy
Preparing a business strategy is a critical step in the process of opening an online store . It is essential that you have a clear understanding of your goals, target audience and digital competition before you even start the process of opening an online store. This strategy should serve as the foundation for your website and guide every decision you make from design to content.
One of the main reasons why a business strategy is essential is that it helps you define your goals and objectives. You need to identify what you want to achieve with your website, whether it's to increase traffic, increase sales or increase brand awareness. By setting clear goals, you can open an online store that is tailored to your specific needs and meets the needs of your target audience.
Another critical element of a business strategy is identifying your target audience. You need to know who your ideal customers are and what they are looking for on the site.
By understanding the needs of your target audience, you can open a store tailored to their needs and preferences. This will help you attract and retain visitors and increase the likelihood of conversions. A business strategy also helps you identify your competitors and how to differentiate yourself from them. You need to research your competitors' websites and identify what they do well and what you can improve. This will help you answer the question of how to open an online store that stands out from the competition and provides a unique value proposition to your target audience.
Additionally, a business strategy helps you create a plan on how to promote your website and increase traffic. You need to identify the most effective channels and tactics to reach your target audience and drive traffic to your website. This may include SEO, PPC advertising, social media marketing or email marketing.
Finally, a business strategy helps you define your brand identity and messaging. Your website should reflect your brand's values, personality and tone. By clearly understanding the brand yours, you can open an online store that is consistent with your other marketing channels and strengthens the brand identity.
Many people think that it will be enough to throw a few products in categories and then the site will work on its own and bring them regular income - it really doesn't work that way! It is important to conduct market research and digital competitor research in order to once again understand the target audience and their online behavior.
You need to think about how to open an online store while thinking deeply about availability and inventory management. For example: if part of the inventory is not with you but with other companies, with whom you cooperate, you must check that this is indeed possible in a smooth and fluid manner. After you have business feasibility and thinking has been done both in terms of the market situation and in terms of the competitors, you need to go to the next step...
Site owners meeting on business strategy
Stage 2: building branding - before opening an online store
Building and defining your branding is essential before opening an online store. Your branding is the face of your business and the way you communicate with your customers. It encompasses everything from your logo, color scheme, messaging to your product offering and customer service. Defining your branding will ensure that your store stands out in the crowded digital market and resonates with your target audience.
One of the key benefits of building and defining your branding is that it helps you create a unique identity that sets you apart from the competition. In today's digital age, it is absolutely essential to differentiate yourself from other stores by offering a unique value proposition for your target audience. By building a strong brand identity, you can establish trust with your customers and create a loyal following.
Another important aspect of branding is that it helps you convey your values and personality to customers. Your branding should reflect the values and mission of your business. The branding will connect you to your target audience on a deeper level to create an emotional connection that drives loyalty and repeat customers.
Defining the branding creates consistency in all marketing channels, consistency is the key to building a strong brand and ensuring that the messages, visuals and written messages are consistent in all channels will strengthen the brand identity based on a recognized presence in the market.
Some important things to do in terms of building a brand:
Choosing a name - choose a catchy name that will not confuse the target audience with other brand names or with competitors, a name that will be easy to register in both Hebrew and English and note that you should make sure that you can find a free website address (domain) under this name, because it is recommended that the website address Be consistent with the site name.
Creating a logo - Creating a branded logo is an important step in establishing a strong visual identity for your website. A well-designed logo can help you create a professional and cohesive look and feel that expresses your brand's values and personality.
Website colors and branding - choosing the right colors for your website branding is a crucial aspect of building a strong visual identity. Colors can have a significant impact on how your brand is perceived and can help convey your values and personality to your audience.
? A Shop tip:
It is recommended already at this stage to look for references of websites that you like, that you have connected with in terms of functionality and design. Through them you can understand what you want to bring and transmit with your brand. It is not about copying but about taking inspiration and learning.
Stage 3: Choosing a platform to open the online store
Now you have to choose a platform with which you want to work. There are many options online, some better and some less so, but the question you need to ask yourself is "What is the right platform for me?"
When the thing you need to consider is the technological capabilities of the platform according to your needs, does the platform give you an end-to-end solution or is a third-party service required such as a designer, project manager, developer, QA person, etc.? Is it possible to operate and manage the site on an ongoing basis in a simple and convenient way, such as: uploading and adding products, defining promotions, adding and changing banners, information sheets, etc.?
The issue of "the day after" the website goes live must be taken into consideration, because the website is a dynamic product and system updates are always required, there may be bugs or ongoing technical support may be required. The question is, is this something you can do yourself or do you prefer to have peace of mind and do you prefer the platform to give you all the solutions within it?
Also, there is the issue of how long will it take to open a store website on this platform? There are platforms that the process of how to build an online store will require more time than others, so you need to think about the level of urgency and speed with which you want to have a website? It is important to take these parameters into consideration. In addition, there is the budget consideration. Here, too, you can see significant differences between the different platforms.
We have brought you here some information about some well-known platforms:
Shopify platform
Shopify is giant e-commerce platform known worldwide. In the Shopify platform, as far as I know, there is no one to turn to in case of a bug or a problem of one kind or another... all connections, implementations, etc. are done independently. Which brings us back to a complex and inconvenient situation to operate.
The cost of a Shopify subscription will be $30 per month. But it will be necessary to use an external provider who knows how to operate the platform if necessary.
TakeApp platform
This is a "do-it-yourself" style platform. How much does it cost to open an online store of this type? You will pay a monthly cost, there is no one-time cost of building the website because you are actually building the website yourself.
You basically get a template when the design and uploading of the various elements and products have to be done inside a company.
Basically you don't get a finished website, you get a quality template and upload designs and products there. The time it takes to get the site live depends on the pace of designing the various elements and uploading them to the template. The cost depends on the volume of sales and the amount of products on the site.
Website on Wix
In case you want to work with Wix, the service of additional providers will be needed: a professional designer and a programmer who understands the platform. This means that you will have additional costs on top of the cost of the platform itself. Wix subscription cost: between $16 to $59 per month.
WordPress platform through a professional website building company
Many people think that if they just download some paid template they will be able to set up a functional website - absolutely not. To open a high-quality online sales site on the WordPress platform, the budget is quite expensive, around NIS 40-50 thousand, when the process will take a good few months. And why? Because you need a company with developers who develop a customized site from scratch.
Lave.live
This is another Ghanaian based platform that actually designs and builds store websites.They offer very simple and minimalistic design to all their stores. After a test we conducted, the prices are a bit expensive compared to what you get.
And there is us:)
oYakoo.store
We undertake to answer you in the best way to the question of how to build an online store and to actually open a functional store website for you, with many features for defining promotions, bundles, coupons. The interface is very friendly and convenient, everything is in multi-languages and multi-currency support, and most importantly - you have all the batteries needed to run your business, you can choose from various themes and customize your store at any moment. No need to buy themes or plugins. All, starting from FREE.
Stage 4: Selection of additional suppliers
It is likely that no matter which platform you choose, you will have to choose different providers to accompany you throughout the entire process or at certain stages. There are platforms that allow you to build the site yourself and that even have ready-made templates, but at the same time, you will most likely need the support of a designer to prepare banners, to adjust the sizes of images for product boxes, and more...
You will most likely also need a copywriter who will add content and marketing messages for you such as slogans for example or marketing content to the home page of the site. For larger projects, a project manager is also usually required to manage the campaign and be in control of the processes carried out from the beginning until it goes live, including design and technical QA tests. There are suppliers that provide a 360 degree solution, which means that you deal with the supplier and pay him and the supplier provides you with a project manager, designer, programmer, QA control and more.
With us on the oYakoo platform, we provide a 360 envelope with a team of designers, developers, copywriters and more so that from your side you can only enjoy the result. Want to receive advice, leave details and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
Stage 5: The characterization process
If you went for a 'do it yourself' platform and you don't have a project manager to accompany you, you will have to characterize the website pages yourself, in accordance with your business strategy.
If you have chosen a supplier that gives you a full package, you will go through an organized briefing with the project manager and he will professionally characterize the site for you. Of course, this does not mean that you should sit idly by and wait. You will have to cooperate and organize materials already in the initial stages such as atmosphere photos, product photos, content and photos for the about page, content for the home page, legal documents such as regulations, return and shipping policy, accessibility statement, etc...
From here on the project moves to the stage that is so important nowadays - website design...
Stage 6: Open an online store with a winning design
According to the characterization you created, the site should be designed by combining the images and materials you organized. Here too, if you have an independent platform, without third-party support, you will have to adjust the images and design them yourself. It should be noted that on independent website building platforms, the design is done while moving and building the website. These are overlapping stages.
On the other hand, if you work with a supplier that fully accompanies you, the design is done separately, in fact the designer first designs the home page in order to determine the design line of the site and after your approval, he continues with the design of the internal pages such as: category pages, product pages, pages Information, contact page and other unique pages depending on the characterization. Now we are advancing to an advanced and decisive stage - the development of the website and the actual implementation of the design.
Stage 7: Website development
After your final approval regarding the website design, it goes to the programmer who builds the website for you according to the design sketches. The development can be fast or take longer depending on the complexity of the various components and features required in the project. It must be remembered that already in the development phase you must close the issue of the shipping company, clearing, inventory management systems and generating invoices so that they can be properly connected to the system during development.
? Please note:
If you do not work with a provider that provides a full package, storage must be purchased separately so that the developer can work on a development environment. Then there is the QA testing phase which goes hand in hand with the development since if corrections are required it is done at the same time.
What do we do in the QA phase?
It must be checked that the site is faithful to the design sketches, that in terms of functionality everything works, a comprehensive review of responsiveness must be carried out, that everything sits correctly and there are no components that sit on top of each other. Sharpness and thoroughness is required here.
Congratulations, you have a ready-made website that can work for you. But wait, there are a few more steps to go through before it goes live...
From here, you have an important role. The products must be uploaded, it is recommended to invest and add several photos, a short description, a longer description if necessary and any relevant information that can provide value to the surfer. Promotions, coupons and promotion banners must be set up on the website in accordance with the website's marketing strategy. Of course, filters must be defined and the products associated accordingly.
A software tester works on an ecommerce site
Stage 8: Preparing the site's infrastructure for organic promotion purposes
It's no secret that in the end it's not enough to have a beautiful and functional website, it needs to be seen in Google's search results. The role of professionals in the field of organic promotion is critical. The infrastructure, the hierarchy, must be prepared. Establish categories and sub-categories, arrange the structure of the top menu and the bottom (dismissal) menu. Here it is recommended to use professional organic promotion experts who will build you a strong infrastructure so that the site will advance in the search results and that surfers will be able to navigate the site comfortably. Also, Google Analytics must be connected to measure performance and activity.
? Please note:
If you had a previous website, an additional process of redirecting the pages that have gained strength in the search results to the new website is required. That's it, now all you have to do is connect the URL you purchased in the earlier steps to the ready-made website.
After the website is up, we recommend that you do another check of the complete purchase process from end to end in order to check that everything is working properly and that the money can enter the account smoothly and quickly :)
The oYakoo platform has existed for over 4 years and provides professional solutions to medium and small businesses, so that they can upgrade the business and know how to open a profitable and converting sales site. Reach them out today to continue the process of building a prosperous website.
Last updated 2024-02-09 UTC