How to start an online store and not die trying

Who has not dreamt, at least once, about starting their own store? Surely you have had this idea several times throughout your life. However, though the idea is bouncing around in your head, you don’t dare because you do not know how to carry it out. Today you will learn how to create the online store you have always dreamt about, step by step. We will guide you through the 5 steps from the original idea to the final creation of the store. After reading this article, you will know how to open your online store and you will be able to get to it and start your first online business . What are you waiting for?

1. Find a profitable niche in the market

The first thing you need to do before creating the store is to find a non-saturated market sector with an acceptable volume of clients. If you do not know what you will be selling, what do you want an online store for? Invest time and even money to carry out some initial research about the different markets that you consider interesting . Not spending enough time can lead to investing money in an idea that will only bring you problems and losses. Better safe than sorry.

2. Choose the right name

What is the goal of your store’s name? Do you want it to be a brand name or do you want to use the domain to facilitate SEO? Choose carefully and think about it twice because once you start selling, changing the domain will mean headaches, losses and loads of problems. A good option is to buy a brand domain and an Exact Match Domain (EMD) , both referring to the product that you want to sell. For example, if you wanted to create a wedding-shoes store, you could use www.weddingshoes24.com as your EMD.

3. Choose the right suppliers and payments methods

Unless you are going to make and ship your products, you will need suppliers . Even if you did everything yourself or in your own company you would always need a transportation company or companies to provide raw materials. It is difficult to “escape” suppliers. On the other hand, the payment method is another thing to take into account before setting up the online store’s website. Are you going to accept Paypal? Are you only going to use virtual POS? Bank transfers? COD? Decide on it and analyse the pros and cons of each method , since some of them will be more appropriate depending on the products you will be selling.

4. Design and programme your website

Your website’s design and programming can be the difference that separates you from the competition, for better or for worse. Every detail counts: the logo you choose, the layout of the products and the follow-up process for clients who make orders. More important than a clean and intuitive design is the fact that the online store is organised . Think carefully about the different categories, sections and the exact order of the store because the easier you make it for clients to buy, the more sales you will have. It is the same as in a physical store, if it is disorganised and difficult to find the products, the clients will not have a pleasant experience. Another important factor to take into account when programming your online store is to install different follow-up and analysis systems such as Google Analytics, the even more detailed Kissmetrics (advanced metrics for online stores), or CrazyEgg (heat maps).

5. Install an Internal Search Engine

A store with thousands of products and tens of categories can be an impossible puzzle for the consumer to solve. Even if the store has less products and categories, the client is not going to spend enough time in your store to find every possible item. How can you make things easier for the potential client? Installing an internal search engine. An internal search engine allows the client to enter what he or she is looking for and find all the related options in less than 5 seconds. Without any hesitation, we recommend Doofinder 30 day free trial for your future online store to show you all the benefits of an internal search engine. You will be surprised. After following these steps, your online store will be ready to go. You can no longer say that you do not know how to create an online store or which steps you have to follow. However, just because of the fact that there are 5 steps, creating an online store is no easy task . Each step requires time and the more you think about them and the more time you put into each of them, the fewer problems you will have and the more favorable results you will see in the end.