How to Start an online shop - ecommerce system

By Georgina  |  20 Jan 2017 10:00:00

HOW TO START YOUR ONLINE SHOP – ECOMMERCE MADE EASY

By Georgina 19/01/17

As you will already be aware, the ecommerce industry is just a bit massive. Millions are buying online everyday, world wide, so its only natural that you might want a piece of this enormous pie. And why shouldn’t you?

……But your not a web designer or a coding geek I hear you say!

Fear not! There are many options available for those of us who are neither blessed with design abilities or can breathe 1’s and 0’s in our sleep.

Here is my guide for setting up your online store…but made easy:

Market research

Do you have a product in mind that you wish to sell? Or are you planning on discovering the next ‘must have’ item.

Whatever you're planning to sell, make sure you do some market research and look at other stores that sell similar items to what you plan to.  Make no mistake, there will be lots of competition out there…but who doesn’t love a good fair competition? Don’t be put off before you’ve even begun though, as by looking at your competitors you can learn a lot about how you want your business to appear to consumers and how you might market to potential customers. Have a look at website designs you like and make a note of why you like it, then emulate all the good points in to your design.

Choose an ecommerce provider

Nowadays you don’t need a web designer to knit you a gold threaded website with ecommerce functionality. You are more than capable of doing it yourself! There are several companies that provide ecommerce SaaS (which means ‘software as a service’) for small to medium sized businesses (which is what you will most likely be). These are usually a monthly subscription fee affair and can offer different solutions depending on how many products you sell and which features that you might need to run your particular shop.

The market leader right now is Canadian born Shopify which lets you choose a web template and has some great features. A better option in my opinion is UK based Sellr.com. Also a template based option (but they will design you a bespoke site for very a reasonable fee if you prefer). The great thing about Sellr is that it has so many features to enable you to sell online, on your website, on social media, in the Sellr Marketplace, and if you have a bricks and mortar shop, you can use it there too! All your stock levels are easily kept up to date, from the one place. It also has great support, so you never need to feel alone or abandoned like other providers can make you feel.

Market your store..and don’t stop marketing!

So now you have your website, you’ve loaded your products, and the images are looking top notch, you are ready to rock and roll!

It is time to put your marketing hat on! Use social media to shout about yourself, and get to grips with content marketing, blog writing, and of course Google AdWords to get your website into the laps of your customers. Sellr has SEO functionality in built, which makes your life so much easier.

In a nutshell:

1. Find out who your competitors are
2. Use this knowledge to think about which products to sell
3. Choose an ecommerce solution that suits your business size
4. Market market market.
5. Good Luck and don’t give up!