Are you looking to Create an Online Store to grow your business, but you are not an expert in web page design and development? You might think that the process of setting up an online store includes complicated tasks and steps. But in fact, this is not true. You can now open a Professional Online Store easily in a few minutes without the need to learn programming languages or use website designers, but you must know the basics of e-commerce and know how to manage an online store successfully.
What is an online store?
Online Store An e-commerce platform through which products and services can be displayed and sold online with various payment options available to customers who decide to buy from anywhere in the world. Many start-ups and small and medium-sized business owners resort to creating online stores to grow their businesses and expand their customer base in the outer space, and thus increase sales and revenue.
The online store is one of the best e-commerce methods that help entrepreneurs and organizations to run businesses and reach the target audience easily. Therefore, the step of establishing an online store for any business has become of paramount importance in recent years, especially with the increasing number of Internet users globally and the desire of customers to buy through e-commerce platforms instead of traditional stores.
The difference between a website and an online store?
There is a fundamental difference between a website and an online store. Through websites, the user can find the information he wants to know, read the news, socialize with others, view photos and videos, find out the latest catalogs in a particular field, and so on. This means that each website has a specific goal or its audience shares a unique service that sets it apart from others.
As for the online store, it is one of the types of websites that have different characteristics and functions that support electronic shopping and help in the processes of buying and selling and making payments over the Internet without the intervention of human interaction. Simply put, if your goal is to sell products or services online, the best option is to open an online store. If you want to share with your target audience your articles to increase your brand awareness, for example, you can create a regular website.
The importance of creating an online store
The importance of creating an online store for business lies in the massive increase in consumers' demand for online shopping. Statistics indicate that e-retail sales around the world amounted to $4.28 trillion in 2020, and e-commerce revenues are expected to grow to $6.38 trillion in 2024. It is also expected that 95% of e-commerce purchases will be made by 2040. This confirms the success of the online shopping experience all over the world.
In a survey conducted by the American company for financial services and digital payments squareup in cooperation with the market research company Wakefield Research, it was found that 88% of retailers are interested in selling their products and services online, and 66% of retail revenue comes from electronic sales. Consumers also confirm that more than 42% of their monthly retail purchases are made through online shopping.
So, you can incorporate the strategy of creating an online store for your company into your successful marketing plan; Because it is a very effective tool in reaching potential and existing customers at the lowest cost, in addition to its superior ability to achieve a positive return on investment, increase the profit rate, and reach global markets with the least potential.
Advantages of creating an online store for your business
Despite the diversity of digital marketing channels and external virtual markets through which goods and services can be promoted, establishing an online store for your company or business is an important step that should be implemented in order to benefit from its multiple advantages.
Some may ask, why is everyone now heading to create an online store? And why is it necessary to open an online store when the brand can be marketed to larger segments of customers on social media? The secret lies in the benefits of the following online stores:
1. Brand building and development
Often the goal of creating an online store is to build and manage an online brand and strengthen the relationship with the target audience. This differentiates you from your competitors who ignore the strategy of setting up an online store for their business and are interested in other means of marketing. Then e-commerce platforms give you the ability to control their management, update their structure, understand the customer journey and know their needs effortlessly.
There are several factors to consider when building the brand for your online store, including choosing a unique and distinctive name for the store, making sure that the brand logo matches the store design, studying the competitive advantages of the products and services you offer on the online store, and comparing them with competitors' offers.
2. Build customer loyalty
When creating an online store, you can choose a design that highlights your products and enables you to build trust and credibility with your target audience. The more trust your target audience has in your brand, the higher the chances of creating loyal customers that contribute a significant portion of the revenue. Statistics show that 80% of the profits come from loyal customers and the remaining 20% are from regular customers.
The online store provides brand owners with a database for each customer that can be used to build loyal customers. It also includes various marketing methods such as the email marketing tool that contributes to attracting customers again to the store or urging them to complete the purchase if they stop at the stage of choosing and placing the product in your cart without buying it.
3. Target audience data collection
If you put your products on an external marketplace like Amazon, and some customers see them and don't buy them, you won't be able to reach them again. Whereas, if they happen to visit your online store, you have the opportunity to find out their email addresses by encouraging them to sign up for or receive newsletters when purchasing products.
Surprisingly, you can reach your online store visitors again anytime you want with social media marketing and SEM marketing using a retargeting strategy that allows marketers to launch tailored advertising campaigns for customers who previously visited your store. Thus, it generates more sales and attracts new customers.
4. Customer Tracking and Purchasing Journey
It's hard to know how many times a customer visits brick-and-mortar stores before making a purchase, but if you have an online store, you can measure all the results, track each customer, and monitor their movements and journey through the stats and data provided by the online store, allowing valuable insight and evaluations. about purchases, and this helps you bring certain customers back to the store.
The customer’s needs can be expected according to the purchases he made previously, as we find many electronic stores that suggest to a particular customer, products and services related to his interests and purchasing behavior, and often related to what he bought before, as well as knowing the customer ratings and reviews of a particular product.
5. Shopping around the clock
The online store gives shoppers the ability to view products and make purchases without being restricted to a specific time. There are many digital stores that are available around the clock, which makes shopping seamless for customers, and gives them great flexibility, as they do not have to move around in order to buy, and this pushes them to get purchases at any time they want. It also helps the store owner not to lose any customers, besides increasing revenue and profits and achieving competitiveness.
6. Expand your business
Unlike traditional stores that sell their products to the target audience in a specific geographic area, opening an online store helps you expand your business to include reaching customer segments from around the world or a specific country, which contributes to increasing the spread of your brand, expanding your customer base, and growing your sales globally. global, and thus achieve the desired general objectives of the company.
What to know before setting up a store?
It is necessary to think deeply about many important basics about what to know about e-commerce before setting up an online store and how to plan for setting up a successful e-commerce platform that will enable its owner to sell products or services and help him achieve his marketing goals.
First: Planning to create an online store
Before setting up an online store, everything you intend to do should be planned. It is necessary to collect the necessary information and data that may help you in building the store, as well as setting goals, whether they are long, short and medium-term, identifying the target audience very carefully, as well as studying and analyzing other online stores operating in the same business to be aware of competitors and their product offerings and prices.
When setting up an online store, put the appropriate business plan along with the different marketing plans. It's okay to make your plans approximate, and it's possible to make some mistakes at first. This requires you to plan flexible, monitor your strengths and weaknesses, and be prepared to make any adjustments or improvements along the way.
Second: Determine the available resources and assets
As long as you decide to open an online store, be honest with yourself about the resources and assets available. Do not include assets that you do not have on your list, and think about how you can invest the available resources and focus your efforts on them. So, determine the amount of time it takes to build and manage your online store, budget for your business and online platform including start-up costs, maintenance of available assets and shipping products to customers, as well as a budget for digital marketing on social media or email marketing and Google ads .
There are many questions to consider when considering the resources and assets available. Ask yourself if you want employees or partners to help you run your online store or not? What mental and physical skills should your employees have? Where will you keep the products before selling them to your target customers? What direction do you want your business to reach in the future? Have you made growth plans for your online store? How will you face the downturns and what are the ways to overcome the challenges and threats that may threaten your store?
Third: What will you sell in your e-commerce?
The e-commerce market is very competitive. So, you have to identify the products, services, and areas that distinguish you from others, and plan how you can compete between companies and other online markets, especially those that may have the same type of products as your online store. This requires getting to know your competitors and discovering ways in which you can highlight your brand to your target audience before setting up your online store.
And if you haven't decided which products or services to offer on your online store or don't know what you want to sell? You can view Google Trends results and statistics on the top products and services that Internet users search for, or see Etsy's e-commerce trend forecasts. Then identify trends in the market, and make sure your products match what's being sold in the digital marketplace.
Fourth: Define your brand carefully
In the world of e-commerce, your brand must be defined very carefully and accurately, so that it is distinctive and unique and in line with your products or services that you will sell, as many people think that the brand is just the name of the company, but its concept is much more than that. It includes many components such as the company's vision, mission, culture, objectives and core values. And all of this must be expressed in your company's slogan, actions and messages to the target audience.
But how can your brand be more unique? Here, you should think carefully about the reasons that prompted you to start the business and launch your online store. If the only goal of the online store is to collect money only, then be sure that the fate of your experience will be a fiasco and join the list of closed online stores in the future. But if you want a successful store, your goal should be to build a brand with strong and clear goals, core values aligned with your own and helping others through the value your products or services provide to customers.
Fifth: How to ship products to the target audience
Before embarking on e-commerce, he likes to know the basics of shipping for e-stores and ask yourself if you are fully prepared to receive large orders from customers who want to buy your products after creating an online store, do you have enough inventory or are you focusing on limited orders to ship to your customers yourself? Are you looking to cooperate with shipping companies or would you like to hire some people for this task? Are you familiar with inventory management in online stores?
If you have the time to pack and ship the products yourself and transport them to your customers at the appropriate times, this is a great option to serve your audience, but if you have hundreds of orders per week, it is most appropriate to cooperate with a shipping company that has the ability to deliver products to customers in a timely manner, deal with them in the best way and deliver the product without any damage or breakage.
Sixth: Determine your niche and the name of your business
E-commerce is like the real market, in which you must determine your position among your competitors and ensure profitability and revenue growth; Because the position of your store affects many other factors such as sales volume and the chances of your brand spreading in the market. This requires you to know the characteristics of the target audience, carefully define the buyer persona, and understand your customers well.
Before creating an online store, you should choose a bright name for your business. It is important to select an easy name that is meaningful, original, concise and not associated with a specific product or product line. The more these criteria are met in the name of your activity, the more chances it will be remembered and popular among the target audience.
Seventh: Determine the e-commerce website builder
Establishing electronic stores requires familiarity with the most prominent systems that help you create your store, known as (e-commerce website builder), a digital tool or program that allows users to create online stores without the need for web developers or advanced technical skills. All the user needs is to know the basics of creating a professional online store and a good internet connection to launch their store after choosing the right e-commerce builder. Here are the most common ones:
- WordPress with WooCommerce Plugin
- Shopify
- Square Online
- Magento
- Squarespace
- BigCommerce
There are some factors that determine how to choose the right e-commerce platform for you, including the size of the company or business. If you intend to create an online store for a medium-sized project, you can use the WooCommerce plugin provided by the WordPress system. If your company is large, some experts recommend relying on the e-commerce website builder Shopify.
Also, the cost of setting up an online store is one of the factors that help you choose an e-commerce builder, because some of them are expensive and some are cheap. Its features vary, the tools it provides for SEO, etc.
Therefore, it is important to test the ecommerce website builder during the beta period before it is officially launched. For example, create two stores using the free version in two different programs and compare them to choose what works best for you and your business. During this experiment, consider how easy it is to use the e-commerce website builder and are the features it offers sufficient for your business? Can you deal with it and make the appropriate adjustments or not?
Why are so many turning to WooCommerce to create stores?
WooCommerce is a basic online store creation software that can be easily added and installed using WordPress. It is one of the most popular and most popular e-commerce platform builders in the world. With it, you can create a professional online store at minimal cost while maintaining full ownership of your store's content and data.
The advantages of the WooCommerce plugin are numerous, it is very flexible and can be used easily without the need for complex technologies, in addition to being supported by the global community and can be used in e-commerce mixed with content, which enhances the spread of your online store in the outer space, thus increasing your brand awareness.
And don't worry about your store settings, you can adjust it on your own and in the best way, there are templates that are attractive and suitable for your brand, you can install in a few moments. It's not difficult to customize the store pages either, as you can customize it in just a few minutes without hiring any developers. Add to this the possibility to enhance your online store by installing the necessary plugins and extensions for SEO optimization.
How to create a professional online store
Whether you have an actual company and are looking to expand your business online or you are taking your first steps in the e-commerce market, I know that the steps of creating a professional online store are very easy than ever, especially with the availability of content management systems that There are many advantages when creating e-commerce platforms. Now, you can start opening a functional online store with the WooCommerce plugin after creating your WordPress site.
First: Create a WordPress website and choose a domain name
It is necessary to launch a website using the WordPress platform in order to be able to install the WooCommerce plugin. If you do not have a website on this platform, you can start creating it for free now, and you can upgrade your account later by subscribing to the paid versions.
The creation of the online store requires the purchase of a domain name. It is the key to success and the beginning of establishing the brand and increasing its popularity among the target audience and contributes to building trust with customers, especially since the domain name is seen by the customer in the URL when entering the store or while searching on search engines such as Google. It appears to users and customers as follows: www.mywebStore.com
When choosing a domain name, it must be unique, distinct, completely free of ambiguity, and suitable for SEO optimization. When you add a term popular among Internet users to the domain name, it helps to rank the online store in an advanced position on search engines, thus ensuring more Visits to the store. Hence, increased sales and profit growth.
You should check that the domain name you decide to buy is within your budget, and stay away from choosing brand names that may cause legal problems in your country. If you already have a good domain name and don't want to change it, that's fine. You can cancel the agreement with the original provider and transfer the domain name to your chosen e-commerce generator.
Second: Select an appropriate pricing plan
WordPress offers more than one price plan to suit all the needs of entrepreneurs. You can try the free version first, after which you have to select the right pricing plan for your business and your budget. Each plan has its own set of features, and the higher the price plan you get, the more advantages your online store will gain.
In any case, the cost of setting up an online store for your business depends on the size of your business, your growth ambitions, and your desired goals. If the cost includes a high budget for purchasing an advanced price plan, this will reflect positively on the store, especially if your business is large.
To name a few, the WooCommerce plugin in the open source WordPress platform allows you to launch your online store for free. But you will pay some costs to purchase the domain name and hosting service, and you can buy some basic features that the WooCommerce plugin needs to perform better in your online store.
WordPress provides the necessary plugins for creating a professional online store, including free and paid versions. For example, you can get the feature of collecting payments through the free version. Whereas, you can track your store data and view important reports and analytics using the Google Analytics tool included in the paid plan.
Third: Building and securing the online store
At this point, you are concerned with structuring and building your online store before launching it to the target audience. It includes several tasks, the most prominent of which is choosing an attractive design that makes your store stand out from your competitors. And don't worry, you don't have to be an expert in web store design and development, the e-commerce website builder allows users to choose templates or themes in just a few seconds with amazing ease and ease.
Before choosing a template, it is important to understand the features you want in your store and style the store homepage, so that shoppers know your type of business from the first sight of browsing your site, in addition to planning the buyer path very carefully, it is necessary that the path is clear and easy and aims to do more of purchases. This requires optimization of user experience and seamless customer navigation.
Another task that is no less important than choosing a template is to customize the store in terms of images, videos, text size, colors used, social media platforms in your store pages, and others. This can be done in minutes and modified later to your liking.
Next, you start adding the products or services you want to sell to shoppers. The e-store builder provides its users with a comprehensive control panel that enables them to display their products in an interesting, attractive and consistent manner, where the product's image, name, price, weight and classification can be added in a particular category.
And do not ignore the importance of securing the online store and protecting it from cyber attacks that target customer data theft, because securing your store greatly affects your sales, so you can protect the store by purchasing a Secure Sockets Layer certificate that is known for short. Knowing that the WordPress system makes websites and stores more secure and includes many plugins to protect your store from hacking.
Skills needed to create an online store
As long as you decide to launch your business online, there are many skills needed to create an online store in order to be able to compete strongly in the e-commerce market. And don't worry, if you don't have all the skills right now, because after you have an online store for your business, your performance will improve and you will gain more skills over time.
1. Ability to manage and plan
Management and planning are among the most important skills needed to create an online store. As you must be familiar with the basics of strategic planning and the rules of the art of successful management, especially project management in outer space, it may help you to make appropriate decisions, manage risks and overcome potential challenges and threats to the business, in addition to the ability to define the overall goals of your online store And work to achieve them successfully, and thus your business progresses and you can compete with others.
2. The ability to use social networks
With the launch of the online store, you will urgently need to use social networks in order to communicate with friends and family or some specialists in your business or experts who preceded you in your field of work, in order to know the most important information and activities that you may benefit from to develop the online store or to obtain support and encouragement and increase the sales. This calls for acquiring social media skills and how to manage store accounts across these networks.
3. Digital Marketing Basics
The goal of creating an online store is to sell services and products online, and this requires acquiring digital marketing skills. It makes no sense to launch a business in the virtual world without knowing the basics of digital marketing, understanding marketing and sales tactics, and familiarizing yourself with digital marketing strategies and channels, such as content marketing, email marketing, social media marketing, SEO, and SEM marketing.
4. Writing and composing skill
The skills needed to create an online store include the ability to write and author, because content is an essential part of digital marketing, and online businesses need to write content in order to grow sales, have conversations with customers, or increase brand awareness. Therefore, it is necessary to have the skill of creative and marketing writing and know how to craft SEO-friendly content, business communications, etc.
5. Resilience and problem solving
Resilience and problem solving are among the most important skills that entrepreneurs need when creating online stores. It is normal for a business to have some problems from time to time, and this requires you to be more prepared to face difficulties and solve problems before they escalate. Hence, you need to hone the skill of spontaneity and problem solving, by studying any problem you face, analyzing its causes, knowing its aspects, adapting to it, dealing with it with a positive mindset and high morale, and thinking deeply about solutions, alternatives, and strategies that help you overcome it.
6. Driving skills
If you are working on your own in your small online store now, in the future you will need a team to help you. It is likely that you will need to hire human competencies to take on some tasks, especially as your business grows. Therefore, leadership and team management skills must be enjoyed. A successful leader is the one who makes leaders like him and drives the development of the business forward. So, the ability to lead is a skill that must be developed as your online business grows.
7. Effective communication and good negotiation
Communication and negotiation skills you will need to communicate with customers and employees and negotiate with merchants and suppliers as you grow your online business. So, hone your skills in this field by actively listening and being able to adapt to customer patterns and speak confidently with everyone, in addition to developing your negotiating skills such as persuasion, strategic thinking and teamwork. Be sure to develop yourself because these simple skills affect the progress of your business, even if it is online.
8. Time management
Setting up an online store and growing your business takes a long time, and this requires wise and smart time management and organization from the beginning. If you have many tasks that must be performed daily, put them in a list and then identify the most important tasks and set your priorities to start implementing them according to a specific work plan with a timetable, with the need to eliminate the means of distraction, and take advantage of the best productive times to complete the most difficult tasks. It is also important to read up on time management skills to invest in managing your business in the best way possible.
9. Customer service skill
Either way, you will need to serve your customers even if your products or services are perfect. It is possible that you will find a customer who is not satisfied with a product despite its quality. This means that you need to serve and help him so that you do not miss him and keep him. A permanent customer has a multiplier effect on the growth of your business. Therefore, you have to understand your customers well, listen to their complaints and inquiries, respond to their concerns and interact with them through social media and various chat applications, in addition to the importance of providing after-sales services to increase their confidence in your brand.
10. Money management
The art of managing money is one of the most important aspects of managing online businesses, because the financial aspects are the foundation of any business. Therefore, you must be able to manage the finances of the online store whether it is big or small. This calls for strengthening financial culture and developing financial intelligence by reading some books that help you achieve sales goals and increase revenue. It is essential to know the basics of some of the software you will need in managing accounts and creating financial reports such as Quick Books and Xero.
Important tips for creating an online store
Sometimes when starting an online business, e-store owners do not understand where to start their business, what to do to attract shoppers to their products, how to retain consumers and turn them into loyal customers of the brand. If you are among those, do not worry, it is normal at first and your experience will increase over time. Here are some important tips to consider when setting up an online store, especially as it is an effective strategy to increase sales and revenue:
1. Improve UX User Experience
Improving the user experience is critical to any successful online store. If the user experience of your online store is poor, don't wait for any sales growth. If it is smooth and enjoyable, it contributes to the completion of purchases and increases customer satisfaction with your products. Therefore, you have to follow best practices to improve the user experience of your online store.
2. Don't ignore the “About Us” page.
The “About Us” page on your store, helps you define the target audience for your business, clarify your vision, message and what you offer to your customers, and highlight your contact information, such as email, phone numbers, and social media accounts. Therefore, the “About Us” page should be crafted professionally because it increases the chances of customer acquisition and makes shoppers trust your products or services.
3. Partnership with different organizations
Building a brand needs to create a good mental image of the target audience. This requires partnering with other brands and working to expand the partner base as much as possible. Because this increases customer confidence in your brand, and strengthens the mental image of your brand. Therefore, put the list of partners in a prominent position on the home page of the online store for all customers to see as soon as they enter the store.
4. Attractive online store design
An attractive online store design is an essential part of the success of any online business. If you sell high quality and valuable products, your goals will not be achieved if your online store design is poor and unattractive and does not consider the impact of colors on customers. Statistics indicate that 93% of customers consider the visual appearance of the products to be the most important factor, and 85% of buyers consider color to be one of the main factors that drive them to make a purchase decision. Good design often increases the credibility of an online store.
5. Customer reviews and response
Online stores allow shoppers to rate products and put their feedback on them. It is difficult for the customer to meet the owner of the online store, so they leave their comments on the products they buy for the benefit of the seller as well as potential customers. Marketing and sales experts recommend encouraging customers to rate your product after purchase, especially those who are satisfied with your brand. The more positive reviews, the more shoppers trust your products and the more purchases they make. Therefore, reviews should be reviewed and clients responded professionally.
6. Make your store SEO friendly
If your online store is not SEO friendly and not indexed, you will not have any visitors to your store with organic traffic that comes from search engines. So, you should make your online store SEO friendly by crafting SEO friendly content, choosing the perfect keywords that target your actual audience, writing an attractive title, descriptive images and videos, and choosing a unique URL for each page in your store. mail.
7. Online customer service and support
As long as you decide to create an online store for your project, you will need online customer service and support. Many shoppers want to ask questions about a particular service or product before completing the purchase process, and this contributes to enhancing the level of customer satisfaction to the maximum degree possible, and increases the chances of expanding the base of loyal customers. Therefore, you should hire customer service staff or provide this support yourself if requests are limited. And you can take advantage of the live chat tool that helps you with this task around the clock.
8. Add high quality and attractive descriptions
The online store depends on adding product images and descriptions when they are presented to the target audience. Therefore, take good care of placing high-quality images that increase the desire of customers to buy the product. Include products with descriptions that are attractive, eye-catching, search-engine friendly, and appropriate for the product you are selling. It is important to use marketing writing that convinces potential customers of the product and motivates them to buy the products.
9. Make the payment process more smooth
Your online store may have better quality products than your competitors, but you haven't met your sales targets even though shoppers transfer large amounts of merchandise to your shopping cart without completing a purchase. In this case, it may be because you have included a complicated checkout process that causes shoppers to walk out of the store without completing their purchase. Therefore, it is necessary to make the payment process more smooth, so that the purchase is made with simple and easy steps that motivate customers to shop from your store.
10. Make your store safe and reliable
If potential customers find your online store unsafe and easy to hack, they won't risk entering their personal details or bank accounts in the store, which means losing customers and no sales growth. Therefore, it is important to protect shopper data from hacker attacks, make your store secure and reliable by relying on https instead of http, as well as follow best practices when implementing encryption (https) such as using strong security certificates.
You can consult programming and development professionals and e-commerce experts so that you can create a unique and safer online store that helps you maximize your profits and advances your progress. If you wish, you can use programming and development services that include the best programmers and developers in the Arab world, and are offered by the Khamsat platform for entrepreneurs who aspire to build websites and commercial platforms professionally.
FAQ on How to Start an Online Store
Which product category sells most on online?
Things for dress. Surprisingly, the fashion industry leads all others in terms of global sales. Yes, fashion continues to reign supreme in terms of sales despite the market being complicated and having items that may arrive in sizes that differ from shop to store.
How do I sell online for the first time?
Tips For New Online Sellers:
- Make Your Website Secure.
- Develop an SEO Strategy.
- Select the Best Ecommerce Platform.
- Reduce Friction.
- Don't Drive Customers Away.
- Invest in Your Website.
- Live and Breathe Digital.
- Find Your Unique Selling Point.
How do I start a new online store?
Making Your Online Store: 8 Steps
- Create a business strategy after selecting a specialty.
- Choose a domain name.
- Choose an online store builder.
- Create the appearance of your online store.
- Product-wise, expand your internet store.
- Organize shipment.
- Promote your online shop.
- Start up your online shop.
How do I sell my product fast?
- Know Your Crowd.
- Try niche marketing first.
- Create enduring connections with your customers.
- Get an emotional reaction.
- Make the experience more unique.
- making holiday gift guides.
- blogging as a guest.
- Utilize user-generated content again.