Ecommerce For Dummies

By Angus  |  21 Nov 2014 16:00:00

Ecommerce For Dummies

Are you interested in launching an ecommerce website but don’t know where to begin? If so then you’ve come to the right place.

Many merchants, whilst experienced and successful business people are often unsure of the steps involved in opening up an online shop.  

Whilst it’s easy to get confused by industry jargon, the good news is that opening an online store is now both easier and cheaper than ever.

In this post I am going to run through a list of everything you will need to do to get your ecommerce website up, running and primed for success.

1.

Firstly you will need to source a domain name for your new website. Your domain name is your internet address and the key rule when doing this is to keep it relevant to what you are selling.

This doesn’t mean that you need the most generic name possible and realistically these can cost astronomical sums of money. What you should try and ensure though is that your domain name reflects as accurately as possible the search terms your prospective customers type in their browsers.

If you are not sure what the most popular search terms are for your product then a good way to find out is to go to Google Trends and then Explore, which lets you compare the frequency that different words and phrases are searched for.

In terms of acquiring your domain name you will need to find a hosting company to either buy or rent it from. Popular hosting companies include 1&1, 123-reg and Web.com. You will also be able to get your business mailboxes from your hosting company if you wish to have the name of your website as your email address.  

2.

You will then need to choose an ecommerce platform. The first choice is between Software as a Service (SaaS) providers such as Sellr.com, where you pay monthly or annually for the hosting of your website and the use of the website management software, or installable ecommerce software. SaaS is a much better choice if you are new to ecommerce and I will go into the reasons for this in a separate post.

3.
 

Once you have chosen your ecommerce platform you need to configure the “front end” of your website by choosing a suitable template and then adding images, text and products. The process of doing this differs slightly between platforms which is why at Sellr we are always happy to talk our merchants through how to setting up their website.

This is the stage that takes the longest so if you are in a hurry then please enquire about our website design and product upload service.

4.

When you are happy with the layout and appearance of your website you will need to configure the “back end”. At the most basic level this means choosing options for shipping and tax and connecting your site to a payment gateway so that it functions successfully as a shop.

You will need to set up a merchant account with a Payment Service Provider (PSP) to be able to integrate a payment gateway to your website. Whilst some merchant accounts attract a monthly fee, most, including PayPal are free at the entry level and take a small percentage of the value of the transactions they process.

Integrating PayPal with your Sellr website is as simple as informing our software of the email address associated with your PayPal account.

5.

Your ecommerce website is now ready to go live! Simply paste the domain name (URL) you acquired earlier into the relevant field and within a few hours your website will be available to search.