So, you’ve found the inspiration and drive to start your own online store especially in such a trying time. Fortunately, this model of commerce is becoming increasingly more relevant. What’s better setting up an e-commerce site has never been easier. Just follow these incredibly simple steps and you will be on your way to becoming an online entrepreneur.
1. Conceive an appropriate business name
Brainstorm ideas considering you’re the products you wish to sell or even your own name. Some techniques to people use for creating business names are:
- Mashups: a technique where one merges 2 words together to create a new one. conveying an easy to grasp meaning such as Netflix (a fusion of internet and flicks another term for movies).
- Using Name generators available through plugins like Shopify.
- Drawing inspiration from foreign languages and Latin.
1b. Register your domain name
When you have artfully created a business name that resonates with you. You should create your domain name quickly. When you do create your domain name, try to steer away from special characters and unnecessary numbers so that users can easily remember your domain name and spread the word about it.
2. Market towards your target clientele
Always consider your target audience while you are conceiving your business. This will guide your marketing plan and lead you to success faster.
Even the packaging of your products is important. Will your potential consumers appreciate a certain aesthetic? And what of the pricing, will it help or hurt your business? On the other hand, will you attempt premium pricing with the risk of potentially offsetting the buyer?
If you already have a social media for your business like Instagram, by using plugins and social media analytics you can learn more about your potential followers. Key information to look out for are their: interests, age group, spending power and patterns. It is also important to know which time zone they are living in so you can better time your posts.
Naturally you must monitor your business’ social media accounts and your e-commerce site, but this can easily be achieved with the aid of a platform like FLATsite where you’re able to manage multiple static sites simultaneously and the relevant plugins.
However, as time goes by you will learn more about your target market you will be better able to define your intended patronage.
3. Create your E-commerce site on FLATsite with Ecwid
Creating an online store may come off as intimidating at first, especially if one lacks the experience in ecommerce. Fret not, even the development of a WordPress site is easy and potentially fun.
The Ecwid plugin allows you to upload photos of products to your e-commerce site, indicate price and description. Afterwards, this plugin can neatly arrange your different goods in product categories to have an organized sales catalog. Additionally, you can personalize the template of your sales catalog and select payment and shipment options for your clients applicable to their region with only a few clicks.
Ecwid plugin is on eof FLATsite’s recommended ecommerce plugin.
4. Design your E-commerce site to appeal to your Target
The design of your site should be consistent with your branding and it should appeal to your patronage. Many cosmetic lines sites distinguish themselves by their theme choice and the language of their product description.
Take this example from the French brand, Yves Rocher. It prides itself in being environmentally conscious and responsible. To illustrate this, teh brand uses a lot of green and brown in their colour scheme – especially in the menu bars.
Diversely, Deciem’s The Ordinary uses a more minimalistic approach indicative of their ‘no nonsense’ approach as they sell products with a concise formulation. Your branding should also echo in the language of your product description. Who are you selling to? An environmentally conscious public interested with the origin of the active components of the products or to skin care geeks slightly interested behind the science of how the ingredients work and operate synergistically with each other.
4b. Always consider mobile sites
Across all age groups users are browsing with their mobile devices more and more. Therefore, it would be wise to have a mobile friendly site. It should also load quickly, as often users are on the move while they browse with their phones. So, it’s vital to keep the attention of your potential client. Pages load faster on static sites as oppose to a dynamic one. So, its recommended that you take this into account before you create your site.
A platform like FLATsite, lets you create your dynamic WP site on its platform, then export the finished site as static. This is by far, the fastest and easiest way to manage and maintain a secure site.
5. Enhance your online presence through SEO
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is vital to maximizing the quantity and quality of traffic to your e-commerce site. Quality in this context means attracting users genuinely interested in the product that your selling.
Static sites are helpful in this regard as the upload speed of static sites are inherently faster and therefore will rank higher in the search engine ranking. This is important so that if clients were to search for certain keywords in their search engine relevant to your business, your e-commerce site will appear earlier in the list.
You can learn more about how static sites optimize SEO here.
