13 Ways to Check Before Starting an Ecommerce Website

If you dream of being your boss and planning to start your e-commerce services, this blog is for you. With the internet providing a seamless medium to interact with almost all the types of people from different geographic locations and races, the chances for a growing online eCommerce business increase manifolds. This blog will give you some eCommerce business tips on promoting eCommerce business and maintaining an eCommerce website for your company. Any successful eCommerce company has a very good eCommerce website used for taking orders and showcasing your inventory. And websites need maintenance, which we will tell you in this blog.

1. Research your target audience

The target audience is the set of people willing to buy your products and find some value with these products. For example, a teddy bear selling eCommerce site will try to look for married/ unmarried couples, segmenting people who like teddy bears and focusing their ads on them.

Narrowing your target audience helps you increase your lead conversion ratio and save your money on unnecessary ads. It also enables you to get a picture of your audience and plan your future strategies for them.

2. Conduct Market Research

Market research is an effective way to establish what is required by the customers and know the demand volume. As one of the tips for starting an eCommerce business, we suggest you go for market research using interviews, surveys, competitor analysis, and other public sources. Then when you have gathered the data, establish a connection between what you are trying to start and the demand in the market. There is no point in selling something that the people do not want.

3. Registering your Business

To make things more formal and official, you should get your business registered before starting your eCommerce website. This is one of the tips for small eCommerce businesses that you can follow to raise trust in your customers. Moreover, registering is also essential for tax and legal purposes. You need the GST number before starting an eCommerce business in India. Also, depending on the local requirement, you need to get certain permits as per the location. One of the crucial steps here will be to name your brand, your e-commerce website. Keep checking this blog to know more about promoting an eCommerce business, maintaining an eCommerce website, and some feasible eCommerce website tips.

4. Secure your domain name

Apart from registering your business physically, you also need to register them online by buying a domain name matching your registered company name. Although it’s not essential to buy a matching name, it is good to do so since every company has done it so far. Check for the availability of your domain name, and go for the most common .com one if possible. Since it is more common and known by the people around you, it will help you build a sense of trust and authenticity.

5. Choose the right eCommerce builder

After registering your domain name, the next thing is to build the eCommerce website through a good and robust website builder. Usually, you will need some very robust and specific features for your eCommerce websites, such as the customised products page, secure payment feature, customer service page, and other integrations if required. Good marketing can bring your customers to the website, but you will not get any sales if your website is not good enough. Hence think of the right website builder that provides you with the freedom of customisation, easily integrates the third-party software, and provides a seamless payment interface at an affordable price.

6. Build a beautiful & interactive eCommerce website

In this section, you will get some eCommerce website design tips, eCommerce site design tips, and tips for eCommerce website design. After the website builder is finalised with the list of resources to be added, the next thing is to add a good website graphics UI/ UX interface for the customers. Make sure to give this to an experienced designer who can provide you with quality designs so that your customers do not bounce back. Choose a theme and make your website based on that according to the product you would be selling.

7. Configure shipping & payment

You need to work on the backend stuff, including the necessary payment and shipping. Also, remember an interesting fact that more than 60% of the customers abandon their purchase during the checkout option, and hence you need to take this seriously. Avoid playing with the customers at this point and make things smooth and hassle-free. Keep the layouts away from distraction and guarantee privacy and security to the customers to not feel any sense of discomfort during checkout. Multiple payment options will make things easy for the customers, and it will help you in the final conversion. Also, highlight your shipping details at the end.

8. Clear out the Terms & Conditions

T&Cs are important as they protect your eCommerce company from any later unverified claims and acts as a contract between you and the customers. It is important to clear out your terms about the shipping, return, and refunds in this policy to make no bad demands later. Make your personalised T&C page highlighting your business rules and terms. Suppose you are looking for how to market your eCommerce business. In that case, tips for starting an eCommerce business and eCommerce tips for small businesses continue reading.

9. Take good photos & videos of products

Pictures are the best way to lure your customers and build trust in your product. You should take high-quality photos of the products that you are selling and display them wherever possible. They are attention-grabbers, and it can quickly make the customer purchase that without even reading the descriptions. Change the angles, shots and display every good part of the product.

10. Plan launch campaign strategy

When everything is in place, the next work is to plan a robust launch campaign. Apply these ideas for getting a successful launch campaign: PPC advertising, influencer’s help, a press release of the company, giveaways attracting the attention of buyers. You can also set up some discounts/ coupon codes on the first sales.

11. Set up a blog

When your website is ready, the next thing to do is set up an SEO-friendly blog that will help generate organic traffic for your eCommerce site. It is a very affordable way of getting more people to your blog by the organic searches on google. SEO is the optimisation technique that will help you rank your blog up in the index list. There are many attributes to SEO, and you can outsource any company to look after that.

Social media is the key to unlocking a wide range of audiences and brand awareness. Know your goals and pick the best platform according to that to create an effective campaign. Use infographics, images to build your presence.

Launch, track & experiment: When all these things are set, you can eCommerce business with full throttle. Track every campaign and experiment with new tactics to increase brand awareness and conversions.

Conclusion

When people look for how to promote an eCommerce business, the first thing that comes to mind is the digital route involving the website, digital marketing, and more. Your eCommerce website is the company’s face to the customers, and hence it needs to be good and interactive. You can follow the above advice to check your eCommerce website for better lead conversion rates. You can use third-party software like OCredit and others to help you in your business.

Also read:

1) E-Commerce Tools Every Small Business Needs
2) The Rise of Ecommerce over the years
3) E-commerce Business Ideas: What Should You Sell?
4) E-Commerce Customer Service – 10 Best Practices [guide]

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FAQs

Q. Why is an eCommerce website important for business?

Ans. eCommerce website is the face of your company enabling the customers to look and buy your products.

Q. How can I buy an eCommerce website?

Ans. You can buy an eCommerce website from various platforms like WordPress, Godaddy, Wix, and more. First, you need to register a domain name and then choose a host for your website.

Q. Is it economical to outsource SEO experts for the website?

Ans. Yes, it is good to outsource SEO companies and professionals that help you with website search engine optimisation.