Discover the step-by-step guide that turns your e-commerce dreams into a profitable venture.

You muster up the confidence to pursue your idea—only to wind up wondering “Where do I begin?”

To make your life easier, I have put together this guide with step-by-step instructions on how to launch your eCommerce store. Whether you’re creating a business from scratch or taking your brick-and-mortar business online, I will help you get started on the right foot.

Starting an online store in 7 steps:

• What to Sell
• Target Audience
• Decide/Choose Business Name
• Find Domain
• Choose E-commerce Platform
• Connect Payment Providers
• Start Marketing Campaigns

01: What to Sell

The first step in Ecommerce Web Development is deciding on what you are going to sell. There are plenty of businesses launched for many reasons. But, sometimes, you see a need for a specific market, and want to offer your potential customers the products/services that can solve their problems.

Whatever your business goals are, you need to do proper research regarding the products you will sell and the people you are going to sell them to. This can make a big difference in your success.

It is also important to know the changing trends in the market you are entering. To run an Ecommerce business, you must know what your customers need right now and what they will need in the future.

02: Target Audience

One of most important thing to consider when opening an online store is who you’ll be selling to. The closer you are to your product (or audience), the greater your chances of building a successful business.

If you already have a product idea, use that to determine your ideal customer. If not, consider an audience that you’re most familiar with.

• What products do you use on a regular basis?
• What do you value the most about your favorite brands?
• Who in your life are you looking to serve with your products?

As with any business, it helps to find a purpose that will keep you motivated in the long run. By reminding yourself why you’re running your business and for whom, you can better stay on track. To that end, take the time to establish buyer personas. Personas help you get into the mind of your buyer and, in turn, make decisions regarding messaging, your ecommerce marketing design, marketing strategies, and more.

03: Decide/choose Business Name

Consider your competitors first. Don’t fall into cliches or names that are similar to their business. Instead, you should look for names that make you stand out from your competitors.

Here are some tips to name your business:

• Make it concise. It helps for better brand recognition and makes it easy for people to remember.
• The name should be compelling enough to give people a wow feeling or make them think that you are different. A bland name can diminish a brand even if you have great products or services.

04: Find Domain

After you have selected a compelling business name, you should find whether your idea is open and available for you to buy.

To do that, you can use business name/domain name generators like GoDaddy, Namecheap, etc., and find out your ideal domain name.

Suppose the business name you chose is “trends,” and you are looking for the domain name "trends.com" and if it’s not available to buy, you can generate a variety of URLs with the help of these domain name generators.

For example, you will find something like .biz, .solutions, .online, etc. that are available.

After finding the ideal one, purchase it as soon as possible because a perfect URL might be snatched up at the later stages of your Ecommerce Web Development.

05: Choose E-commerce Platform

If you’ve figured out what products to sell and how to source them, then you’re halfway to the finish line.

The next step is to build a site where you’ll list your products. Your site is the face of your brand. It’s where you’ll have the most control over your branding and the overall buyer journey. It’s also where you’ll be accepting payments and handling essential tasks. It can also be an all in one solution that allows you to handle your selling, marketing, payments, logistics and procurement.

So, it’s important to find a reliable eCommerce platform to host your site. At this stage, don’t let the bells and whistles of a platform woo you. Make sure to look under the hood and ask all the necessary questions.

Factors to consider when choosing an eCommerce platform

• Features - No two platforms are the same. Some platforms—like WooCommerce—are like blank canvases but require a developer’s help to set up and maintain. Others—like Wix eCommerce—don’t require former coding experience. Instead, you can pick from existing templates, blocks, and apps to build an online store without fuss.
• Specialty businesses - Do you plan on selling CBD or do you have another niche business idea? Check that your platform has the capabilities to support your line of business.
• Mobile view - Does your website builder optimize for mobile? Will shoppers be able to comfortably browse your store on their phones? Can you accept mobile payments? Considering how mobile commerce has taken the world by storm, it’s especially important for your site to be mobile responsive.
• Scalability - Replat forming can be a pain later on, so you’ll want to find a system that can support your business both now and later. Make sure you’re not being taxed for your success (e.g., having to pay large commission fees as you make more sales).
• Security and reliability - This is too often an afterthought or something that sellers think of only after they’ve fallen victim to a disaster. In reality, security and reliability should always be top of mind. Make sure your eCommerce platform provides public key certification - either SSL or TLS. This will give your site https at the start of its domain and will help build credibility between you and your potential customers.
• SEO - You want your site to rank on Google. In order to do so, you need a strong technical SEO foundation to start with, then tools to optimize your site the way you want to. Wix, for instance, offers the ability to customize your meta tags, URLs, structured data markup, and more.

06: Connect Payment Providers

In order to earn your first dollar from eCommerce, you need to decide how you’ll get paid. It’s always a good idea to offer multiple payment methods. Just think about the last time you walked into a store or restaurant. You likely expected them to accept credit cards, or even Apple Pay. However, on occasion you may walk into a store that only accepts cash—in which case, you’re either in or out of luck.

The same logic applies online, where you can offer payment options like:

• Credit/debit cards
• Digital wallets (like PayPal)
• Bank transfers
• In-person payment (if you have a brick-and-mortar store)
• Buy now, Pay later
• NFT

There are also various payment gateways to choose from. Payment gateways are what ensure a safe, successful transfer of funds. Some gateways may be better than others, depending on your location and business type. Whichever you choose, your provider will need to verify your bank account before you can take home the money that you earn.

07: Start Marketing Campaigns

Your store is now ready to take on sales. It’s time to start shouting it from the rooftops. Drive customers to your online store using a variety of marketing strategies.

Organic marketing tools

• Social media marketing - Create a business page for yourself on social platforms like Facebook and Instagram, choose the social platform where your target market is most likely to be found. Channels like Instagram and TikTok support checkout directly from their platforms.
• Email marketing - Emails are far from dead. In fact, emails grant you direct access to customers who have opted into your communications via your content marketing campaigns. To get started, create a business email address. Then develop an email list by adding a lightbox to your site that encourages sign up, adding signup as an option at checkout, or including a link in your footer. Remember to adhere to privacy regulations and laws in your country of business before sending email marketing materials.
• SEO - Use this digital marketing strategy to optimize your site to rank high on Google’s search results and generate more traffic to your store long with long term brand awareness. Optimize your meta titles and descriptions for each site page, and follow other eCommerce SEO best practices.
• Loyalty program - A loyalty program can help to secure repeat customers and increase your customer lifetime value rates. While they require thoughts and careful planning, plugins like Smile can help to streamline the process. Offer rewards for each order placed, or special actions like sharing your product on social media. Drive more attention while taking good care of your existing customers.

Paid marketing tools

• Facebook and Instagram ads - Facebook and Instagram offer various ad placements, which help you to target certain demographics or interest groups on their respective platforms. Wix lets you create Facebook and Instagram Ads directly from your site dashboard and uses AI to optimize your ads around the clock.
• Google Shopping ads - Google Shopping ads are pay-per-click (PPC) ads that help you to skip to the top of relevant search results. When a customer clicks the ads, they’re either sent directly to your website or a Google checkout page, depending on your settings.