Ever since the COVID pandemic hit, eCommerce businesses have been in full swing. According to various reports and statistics, the eCommerce website industry is going to hit the trillion-dollar mark by 2022. So if you’re thinking of starting an online business, now may be the perfect time to do so. Before you start though, you’ll need to equip yourself with the basics of everything that you’ll need to launch a successful online business. Let’s talk about it in detail.
A Niche For Your Brand
Before starting an online business, you need to decide what products you wish to sell. Either you already have a product in mind, in which case you can get started straight away or you can brainstorm what kind of products you’d want to sell. You can look into the recent trends or go through products that always have a significant amount of sales revenue. Once you’ve decided on the niche of your brand, you can move onto the next phase.
A Domain Name For Your Brand
To operate a fully functioning online business, you need to secure a domain name and bring your eCommerce store into existence. Your brand needs an identity to make a mark in the online world, and a domain name is a perfect place to start. You can use GoDaddy to buy a domain name. It’s a widely used platform to purchase domain names.
Which Website Builder To Use?
Now that you’ve decided on your niche and domain name, it’s time to start building your online store. Here’s what you can do: you can either build your eCommerce website yourself or you can hire professional developers to do the work for you. If you’re looking to hire professional developers, Pixarsart can help you with that. We specialize in building eCommerce websites and websites in general for:
- WordPress
- Shopify
- Woocommerce
- Squarespace
- BigCommerce
- Wix
All of these platforms and website builders have great benefits for beginners and small businesses. You need to study all of these platforms carefully and then decide what’s going to work well for you and your brand. But most of these platforms are easy-to-use and you can easily create a website from scratch in a matter of minutes. However, if you want to take your website to the next level, you can avail professional services to give your eCommerce store an edge over the newbies.
Custom Themes For Your eCommerce website
You’ve chosen a platform builder, you can now get started on customizing the design and overall look of your online store. All of the popular website builders have thousands of themes to choose from that cater to almost any industry that you can think of. So as a start-up, you’ll easily find a theme that fits your brand as well. If you want an eCommerce store that is very visually appealing and professional-looking, then it is suggested that you opt for the premium themes to get started. Premium themes cost money, but they’re always worth it in the end.
SEO Optimization and Building A Mobile Responsive Site
SEO is key to building an audience and getting traffic to your site. Traffic to your site and creating a website that makes viewers want to stay on your store for longer will reduce your bounce rate and the bounce rate is a huge factor that is highly favored by the Google algorithm and they would in turn, in turn, promote your store further meaning more traffic hence more sales and return on investment.
Since Mobile Commerce is making waves and is continuing to be the next big thing, it is important to make sure that your eCommerce website is responsive on mobile. Mobile shoppers are on the rise and more than 60% of people are making online purchases from their phones because of the ease and convenience it provides. When your site is mobile, responsive, you will experience a hike in traffic as most of the online shoppers consist of users shopping from mobile.
Integrating Multiple Payment Options
With PayPal and Apple Pay at the forefront of payment methods, there are now multiple payment options that you need to start integrating into your online store. You need to take into consideration all the other payment options that your customers would be using more frequently. Your eCommerce store should not limit payment options. Some eCommerce sites are now even accepting Cryptocurrencies as a viable payment option.
Security Features
There’s no eCommerce store without online transactions. As such, online activities are always subject to external threats and attacks and customers are growing increasingly concerned about their data confidentiality. To truly become a game-changer in the eCommerce world, you need to keep your eCommerce store safe and secure. How can you go about achieving that?
Your eCommerce store should have an SSL certificate and a privacy policy visible and clearly stating that your brand handle’s the customer’s data with care and responsibility.
Conclusion
These are all the features you need to kickstart your online store. With including all of these essential components, you’ll have a successful eCommerce store in next to no time.