It may not be easy to start an ecommerce business, but now is the time where anyone can setup an online store and start selling their products and services to the masses. Online shopping has seen extensive growth over the years, and Internet users are now more willing than ever to use their credit cards, bank accounts or even bitcoin to make purchases online. In 2019, there was roughly $154.5 billion in ecommerce sales within the United States alone.
Starting an ecommerce business will offer greater affordability, opportunity, and flexibility for first time business owners. There are real costs in starting a brick and mortar business, but it can be alot cheaper and less demanding if you begin by launching a store over the Internet.
You need to do your research and figure out what you will be selling online. Find out everything about the products or services that you want to sell, where you will buy them, how you will get them to the customers, etc. You need to do all of the research and put a plan into place before you even start to build your online store. This is the standard procedure for anyone that is planning to launch a brick and mortar business or a business online.
The next step is to choose your domain name. This is a very important step. Your domain name should closely match your business name. Your domain name could be the brand name of your business or it could be a name that closely describes what your business will be offering to customers online. Do not choose a domain name that contains hyphens, numbers or symbols unless they are a part of your brand name. The domain name needs to be easy to remember.
After you’ve purchased your domain name, then it is time to create your online store. You probably don’t have any coding skills or experience as a web developer, so you will need to setup your new website on an ecommerce platform. An ecommerce platform makes it easy for business owners to setup a store online. They take all of the work out of getting everything setup to begin accepting customers. Most ecommerce platforms will help you create an online store, customize the design, take orders, handle the shipping, manage inventory, offer a shopping cart, provide reports and offer other features to help you manage your business.
Ecommerce Business Costs:
Ecommerce Business Tips:
Shopify
Shopify is the leading ecommerce solution with over 800,000 online stores and over $63 billion worth of online sales. It is definitely the best ecommerce solution for webmasters that want to get their own online store up and running quickly. All of the development for your online store can be done in just a few clicks. The platform is quite flexible and you can easily scale up your store with more products or features. Shopify has an app store where you can find free & paid add-ons for your store.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce is a leading ecommerce platform that offers extreme scalability for large online stores and government agencies. It has more features and sales tools than any of its online competition. BigCommerce offers very unique SEO features and multi-channel integration that can help your online business make it to the next level. This is a great ecommerce solution for businesses that need complex features or those that focus primarily on selling products through other major platforms.
These are two of the best ecommerce platforms for your online store. You can customize your online store, add thousands of products, begin accepting orders, and even look over detailed sales reports. You will need to compete with other businesses that offer similar products. The online marketplace is huge and the competition can be fierce. You definitely need to go with an ecommerce platform that will put you in direct competition with active businesses that are already online. These platforms are ready to help you develop and manage your online store.