Learning Ecommerce
Selling online has never been more popular or easier than it is right now. And can be a good idea to grow your business, especially outside of your immediate area. Plus, the stats for online shopping continue to grow with each passing year.
But at the same time, creating and managing can be a challenge. How are you going to create your new online store? How are you going to manage the online sales and make sure they are processed correctly and with the speed the custom wants? Who’s going to manage it?
Before you jump head first into creating an online store for your business or hobby, let’s first take a look at what ecommerce is and how you can create an online store that’s set up for success from the start.
What is Ecommerce?
Everyone seems to be selling online these days, and for good reasons. It’s a great way to open up your potential customer base to the entire world. People don’t have to physically step into your store to buy your products.
And, to be honest, that’s where the market is these days. According to Raydiant, over 56 percent of Americans prefer to shop online. And 81 percent of retail shoppers conduct online research before making a purchase, according to Invoca.
In short, ecommerce is the process of selling products online through a website. But the reality is that it’s a bit more complicated than that. You’ll need to select a payment gateway, figure out a process for taking an online order and fulfilling and shipping that order to the customer and so much more.
So let’s learn what creating an online store really entails.
What you need to know before creating an ecommerce website
It might seem easy to create an ecommerce store. After all, the ads you see say it is. But like an iceberg in the sea, there’s more to it than what initially meets the eye.
What you need for a successful ecommerce website
So you want to create an online store. And that’s great! But first there are a few things you need to know about beforehand so that you can create the perfect ecommerce website.
Deciding if an online store is good for your business
An online store might look attractive for your business. But there are potential pitfalls that can sink your business. So think through whether or not selling online is right for your business.
How to Create an Online Store
Actually creating the online store part of your online store is much easier today than it has been in the past. You have so many different options and tools at your disposal that you can use.
You can choose something simple that guides you through the entire process, like Shopify. Or you can use a platform like WordPress and WooCommerce that help you get started but also allow you customize your entire website if you want. And then there’s of course the completely custom option if you really want to build it from scratch.
So let’s dive into how you can create the website portion of your online store.
Exploring Your Options for Creating an Ecommerce Website
When it comes to creating an online store for your business, the good news is that you have a lot of options. And all of the options vary in price, so you will find something that works with your budget. The only trick is figuring out which one is going to work the best for…
Creating a New Online Store for Your Business on a Budget
For the past four weeks we’ve talked all about ecommerce. We’ve learned what it is, what it involves, what it takes to plan an ecommerce website, some of our options for ecommerce and how to track our efforts.Now it’s time to build an online store.
Payment Gateways
How are you going to take payments on your website? How are people going to pay you for your products from your website? You do this through a payment gateway.
Payment gateways allow you to easily take payments online while keeping important information protected. You’ve probably used one in the past week: PayPal. But there’s also Stripe, Braintree and seemingly a million others.
So let’s discuss your options for payment gateways for your online store.
Product Pages
One of the most important pages on your online store is your product page. This is where the moment of decision happens. If the visitor likes what they see and is convinced, they will decide to end their buyer’s journey and become a customer.
So you need to make sure your product pages are top quality. From the images and videos to the sales copy and making sure it looks great and works, there’s a lot that goes into creating a product page that converts.
Let’s discuss how you can make sure that your product pages look amazing so that people will be convinced to buy that product from your store.
Ecommerce and WordPress
When it comes to creating an online store, the perfect option for almost any situation is to use WordPress and the WooCommerce plugin. These two combined to make creating an online store that you truly own and can customize quick and easy.
You’ll be able to easily add in and manage your products. You can track orders from the time you receive them to the time you fulfill the order. And WooCommerce’s library of extensions can help you add amazing functionality to your store, like being able to create shipping labels right in the dashboard, streamlining the checkout process, adding more payment gateway options and so much more.
So let’s talk about using WordPress for your online store.
A look at WooCommerce
If you’ve got a WordPress website and want to turn it into an online store, WooCommerce is probably the first plugin you’re going to come across. So let’s take a look at what it is and why or why not you might want to use it for your website.
A look at Easy Digital Downloads
Are you trying to sell digital products for your online store? Then you might want to look at Easy Digital Downloads. Let’s take a look at what it is and how it might be able to help your business.
Tracking Your Store’s Success
Finally, you need to be using analytics to track your store’s success. After all, if you’re not tracking that data, how do you know if your store is working or not?
The data you can get from using analytics (especially the Enhanced Ecommerce stats in Google Analytics) is priceless. You can see where people are falling off in your funnel. You can see what products are getting the most views versus the most purchases. And that just skims the surface.
And then you can take this data and figure out what you need to change on your website. For example, if you see a noticeable dropoff at the checkout page in your sales funnel, maybe there’s a problem with the checkout page that you need to fix.
So let’s dive in to see how you can set up tracking ecommerce analytics for your online store.
Take that Next Step
Ready to help your business grow with an awesome new website? Or ready to get help managing your current website while you focus on running your business? Now is the time to get started! Click one of the links to the right to get started right now and get the help you need to help your business in this digital age.