Everything you need to know about starting an online store
Do you have a yearning to be your own boss, work from home, and spend more time doing the things you love? If he said yes and has a working knowledge of sales and the Internet, learning how to start an online store might be the opportunity he’s been looking for. Starting an online business is not as difficult as you might think, it is certainly easier than starting a physical location. Also, the initial funds required are much less than they would be with a physical store.
How to start an online store from scratch
In fact, the hardest part of starting an online business is figuring out what you want to sell. You have to investigate how feasible your ideas are and do some research to see if you can make a living from what you will sell. To get started, take a look at these top grossing online store ideas and see if you can tell which one is the best for someone like you:
- start online bookstore
- start online clothing store
- start online shoe store
- Start online fashion store
- Start online store
One could say? It’s actually a trick question because all of those are feasible online store ideas and none of them are; everything depends on you. It depends on your passion for the project, as well as your determination, commitment and drive. While we said learning how to start an online store is easy, we never said it would stay that way over time.
How to start an online store: research and development phase
To get started, you’ll want to establish the price range and some of the consumer buying habits for the niches you’re considering entering. This is important because when you approach suppliers, you’ll want to have some hard numbers in mind about what your margins will be. Subtract your wholesale cost from the price you think you can sell the items for and that number is your margin. Can you sell enough product to multiply that number in one life?
To help cut costs and expand your margins, you might want to consider a company that can provide you with wholesale dropshipping services instead of trying to stock your own inventory and deal with shipping and packaging. You can also sell Private License Rights (PLR) products to make a lot of money selling items online.
You’ll want to do some research at this stage of the game, checking out the Facebook markets to get a better idea of their demographics. Talk to the SEO companies about how they would implement a marketing strategy for your idea and the price of the plans. They shouldn’t charge you for ideas, so even if you don’t hire them, you’ll at least have an idea of what your personal marketing goals should be.
Updating the plan to start an online business
Once you have your marketing goals laid out, physically write out your business plan to incorporate each of these goals as a final strategy. You’ll want to establish phases that address all of the assumption lines that take place during a sales funnel: what are your customers assuming, what is the product you’re offering assuming, and what are your personal fulfillment assumptions. Once you have all of this written down for easy reference, it’s time to start working on your website.
Start of website development for your online store
Whether you take care of your website yourself or go with a professional web designer and developer, the more you take advantage of the tools available to you, the better off you’ll be in the long run. For entrepreneurs, this means doing your homework on domain name registration and web hosting sites. It’s better to get a package where you pay a little more, but get dedicated servers and tools that make it easy to drag and drop templates, track your visitors and sales, and have a secure shopping cart program.
Choose a domain name that is short and catchy, but represents your products. Think of the strongest keyword that your customers will use to find you and try to incorporate it into the URL. If the name is taken, try spelling numbers or similar alternatives. If you have a hosting service, the domain registration should throw up some alternatives that are not taken. On the other hand, if you can afford it, now would be a great time to invest in a web designer, as that will help your SEO and SERP rankings tremendously, not to mention help you with your domain name.
Keep in mind that the website doesn’t need to be flashy, it should have lots of white space, simple fonts and colors, and include pretty images with vibrant descriptions. When all is said and done, you want your customer to walk into your online store and immediately know where to find what they’re looking for. Not counting restricted selections with radio buttons, it should never take your customer more than two or three clicks to get the product they want in their shopping cart; if it takes more time, starting an online business will be closely followed by ending an online business. !
How To Start An Online Store: Choosing The Right Ecommerce Software
You should pay close attention to the ecommerce software you think about. You must provide safe shopping options and talk about the type of items you are selling. If you plan on having a lot of repeat customers and the stakes are high, look for eCommerce software that stores more customer financial information. This will help with marketing strategies as these types of software programs can send automated emails to everyone on your mailing list.
Really take your time here and do your homework. Look up customer reviews and see if there are any businesses that are in your niche using that ecommerce platform; if so, it’s probably a safe bet if you used it too.
Once you’ve chosen an e-commerce platform, set up a merchant account with a bank or financial institution so you can accept credit card payments. Banks cost more, so if you’re just starting out, a great option for starting an online business is PayPal. Regardless of what you choose, we can’t stress enough how important having a secure payment site is for your customers. Display any badge or security certificate right on the checkout page.
Once the website is under development, contact your local Secretary of State Office and follow all laws and requirements for establishing an LLC or Corporation in your area.
the launch party
While the website is being built and all your documents are being archived, you need to create as much buzz as possible around your launch. Apply your indirect marketing strategy here and get some articles that will drive traffic to your site. Offer discount coupon codes and, if possible, deals and promotions through sites like Groupon. The key here is that you want people to wait for your site to be online, not knowing about it after launch.
You must build an email list beforehand and then submit your launch information starting a week before the launch. Learning how to start an online store may have been easy until now, but this is where it starts to get tricky.
How to start an online store that generates money
Of course, with the right information in your hands, starting an online business is not to have be difficult. In fact, there are many programs and courses that make it simple, fun, and easy to learn how to start an online store. Plus, there are all sorts of tips and tricks to help you with the advanced stuff.
To learn more about keeping your online retail store afloat and profitable, click here http://www.petyaedwards.com right now and start making more sales, today.