Step-by-Step Guide to Launching an E-Commerce Site

 

Nowadays, I am working on an E-Commerce website. Then I thought why not share my knowledge about the concept of an e-commerce website or online shopping cart with my readers, so I just grab my coffee and start writing. Hopefully, you will enjoy it and post your comments on it.

Before starting how to set up an online shopping cart let me introduce what exactly the e-commerce website is? Let us assume you have a shop and you want to sell your products online or you are a manufacturer like a fashion designer, handicraft designer, jewelry designer but shy to go door to door to sell your products, in these both cases you need an e-commerce website or online shopping cart. The products can be digital products like air tickets, hotel vouchers or physical products like we see the product range in amazon.com, souq.com, ebay.com, snapdeal.com and much more.

Let us start. I will explain essential steps you need to take, but the rules and regulations about licensing or registration of business will vary from country to country so you need to check those carefully. But I can assure if you follow the following steps with full dedication you will definitely establish your ecommerce business easily.

 

First step: Search a name which suits your product and is a bit catchy so people can remember easily like myntra.com, the modern shop.ca, apple.com. The main objective of your business name is to be easily remembered by people.

 

Second step secures your domain name according to your business name and secures your online space which is called hosting. For more information about what is hosting please refer to my previous article Hosting Services for beginners.

 

Third step to get a license, permit or you can say you need to register your company with the government. As I said before this is not a fixed thing, it varies from country to country. But some things are common like you need to get your employees identification number. If you are hiring from another country you need to provide them employment visas, health insurances for employees, opening accounts for employees, and must have office space. According to my thinking, the main difference is the registration fees which you need to pay to the government or taxes. Otherwise the name is different but the process is almost the same. This step also clears your business structure like you want to start our business individual or in partnership extra.

 

Fourth step, a bit technical thing, develop your online store which is also called an e-commerce website. Now this is totally depend upon tour requirement, if you want your website fast then you can use website builders like shopify.com, where you can pay them on monthly basis like you rent a shop in your daily life, But if you want to become boss of your website so that you can make any type of changes or modifications in your website timely, then you must hire a web design company. An upcoming web design company is http://webartrix.com/, which not only develops websites but also does the proper research for digital marketing. You can hire freelancers also but I will recommend going for a company instead of freelancer because to develop this type of website you need a graphic designer, coder, data entry operator, payment integration developer, QC and then for promotions digital marketer means a full team. If you hire all these in the form of freelancers maybe there will be coordination problems among them or the ways of their working can be different which create confusion in your website and delay your work. So go for a company where a full team already works and you can get satisfied work.

 

Fifth step, when your website layout is done, with the features of responsiveness, beautiful and user-friendly. Start entering your products. Make sure the product you want to sell, you must be passionate about that product. Choose the right vendors or dealers so that you can get products on time and price must be right so that you can also get proper margin or cut on every sale. Try to start with local vendors. The most expensive thing in e-commerce websites is shipping of products to try to get some contract basis relationship with courier services. Because all payments will be done online so you must be careful about the payment method you choose. It must be secure as well and must be in with cheap rates. The payment gateways you use are connected with bank accounts and they also take commission while transactions so keep this point in mind while choosing your payment gateway. Try to use the payment gateways which are easily available in your place like cashu.com, authorize.net, paypal.com, knet.com. Along with include other payment methods in a website like cash on delivery, Net Banking or e-wallet.

 

Sixth step, now you are ready with your business licenses and website, to sell your products. Yes, this is the most exciting part of your business where you will start making money. You must start early marketing of your website by making social profiles, word of mouth, submitting your website to online directories related to your product, and getting registered with online manufacturers. You can increase your sales if you allow other sellers to make their own shops on your website and allow them to upload their products as well. You can get a commission from them to sell their products on your website.

Last but not least, you may find it’s a difficult thing at this stage but if you are passionate about your product, have the right team and use the right software or tools, this can be a good option to earn money.