If running your own online store has been your ambition for some time, 2022 is your year to start! In recent years, online shopping figures have skyrocketed. If you’re passionate about a particular industry (maybe you’re captivated by the fashion industry or dedicated to fitness), creating products — or even dropshipping them — can be very lucrative.
The good news is that building an online store is becoming a lot easier. There are still challenges for you to overcome, of course, but if you focus on getting a solid foundation in place then you’ll be in a good position to grow a successful business.
In this post, we’re going to set out a few key tips for creating your first ecommerce store. Hopefully you’ll feel even more inspired by the end! Let’s get started.
Decide what to sell and find your stock
What do you plan on selling? If you’re driven by love of a particular niche, you already know where to start: research into that industry will give you a solid idea of what people are already selling (and which items could be worth stocking).
If you’re aiming to sell original products then you’ll face positives and negatives.The main positive is that you’ll be in a position to stand out, while the main negative is that you’ll have so much to organize (with logistics concerning issues ranging from sourcing materials to finalizing production).
If you’d rather not get involved in production, you could always look at the other end of the spectrum. Dropshipping (which has been through a boom period) allows you to sell items that you don’t actually stock, with your involvement being minimal: all you need to do is tack on a profit margin and let a third-party supplier handle shipping and fulfillment.
Choose a strong website builder and host
Once you know what you’re going to sell, you need to think about the website itself and how it’s going to be built. Luckily, there are plenty of website builders to choose from: you just need to find the right one for your store. Shopify is ideal for large online stores, managing high-level admin for you, whereas WooCommerce offers great convenience for smaller stores. Many startups opt for WordPress with WooCommerce because of its great flexibility.
Web hosting is also important. Simply put, your hosting is responsible for storing your website and ensuring that your customers can reach it quickly and reliably. If there’s one area in which you should push your budget, this is it: a well-rounded hosting service such as Cloudways will ensure optimal performance, deliver smooth payment processing, keep your store secure, and do so much more. Read some reviews and make the best call you can.
Optimize your listings for shopper convenience
SEO is so important when it comes to launching your first ecommerce store. With a good SEO strategy in place, you can start to get your store ranking for relevant search terms, helping you to earn vital organic traffic (the kind you don’t need to pay for). The more traffic you get from those search terms, the more sales you’ll earn.
There are many elements that contribute to optimizing your website for search, so this won’t be a short task: in fact, it’s something you’ll need to commit to improving over months (and even years). To begin with, try not to worry about keywords too much, or you’ll end up creating stilted content. Remember that you’re writing for people above all else. Fit keywords in naturally so you can satisfy Google’s algorithms while offering a great user experience.
Stary by ensuring that every product description is unique. Duplicate content can be penalized by Google, after all, but it looks bad regardless. Each description should include the following things at a minimum:
- The name of the item.
- The price.
- Some high-quality photos of the product.
Well-written descriptions will help convert your shoppers into buyers as they’ll have the important information they need to decide. The more information you leave out, the more likely it is that they’ll go elsewhere to get their questions answered — so don’t risk it!
Start your journey as an entrepreneur today by launching your first ecommerce business. Follow these top tips and you’ll be well on your way to growing a successful online store!