Setting up an e-commerce website is one of the best ways to get your products in front of customers. It’s also a great way to sell products without needing any inventory, and it can be done from anywhere in the world.
In this article, I will cover how you can set up your own e-commerce store, including details about content management systems, payment providers, shipping integrations, and more.
I won’t go into detail on every aspect of setting up a website – I’ll leave that for other articles, but if you’re ready to start selling online, this post should have everything you need to know.
Benefits Of An E-Commerce Website
Some benefits of having an e-commerce website are:
- Selling your products without needing any inventory.
- An e-commerce website will allow you to make more money.
- Connect with customers all over the world and grow your business faster.
- A store that’s ready to go in minutes, and open for business within hours.
I can’t tell you how good it feels to finally get your store up and running. Whether it’s an online shop or something else, once your website is complete, you’ll feel like the hard work has paid off. It’s an awesome feeling.
If you sell products and you do not yet have an e-commerce website, I highly recommend that you get one. It’s one of the best investments you will ever make.
E-Commerce is becoming more and more prevalent in today’s society. It is a great way to purchase and sell all types of items from food to clothing.
How To Set Up An E-Commerce Store
Before you begin setting up your e-commerce website, there are a few things that you should consider:
- What kind of payment methods are you going to accept?
- How will you handle shipping? Do you plan on offering free or flat rate shipping? Or can customers choose their own rates?
- Will you be using any third-party software? Or build your own custom e-commerce website?
- How will customers access their information after they complete a purchase?
These are just some of the considerations you need to factor in when setting up an online store. Of course, there are other things to take into account, but these are some major questions you will want to answer.
Accepting Payments
If you want your customers to be able to pay with credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Discover, JCB), you’ll need to set up a payment gateway.
There are three types of gateways:
- On-Site (not recommended for security reasons)
- Hosted (the best choice for most websites)
- Partial (faster than on-site but not as secure)
Nowadays almost all e-commerce sites use a hosted payment gateway. You can easily use a hosted payment gateway on your e-commerce website.
Here are a few popular ways to handle shipping:
- Offer flat rate shipping (e.g., $3 for all orders), and don’t allow customers to choose their own rates. This is my favorite way to do things because it makes the checkout process simple and easy for customers to understand.
- Offer free shipping (or $x off when you ship within x days) in exchange for an email address or newsletter signup. The benefit of this strategy is that you can ask customers to give you their email when they place an order, which can lead to a lot of new customers in the long run.
- Offer free shipping, but don’t ask for an email address when they check out.
Pre-Built E-Commerce Websites
When you think about starting an online e-commerce website you may want to consider an “out of the box” solution. These are pre-built e-commerce websites where typically all you need to do is add your product information, upload your images, and do a little configuration for your merchant or PayPal account to be able to accept online payments.
There are several well-known content management systems (CMS) that you can use to build your e-commerce website: WordPress (the most popular), Shopify (second most popular), and PayPal (another popular and easy to use option).
While there are several companies to choose from for pre-built e-commerce websites, here are a few we recommend:
Woo Commerce (WordPress) – Woo Commerce is a plugin for the popular, open-source WordPress platform. As of now, it’s currently used on more than 1 million websites with over $63 billion in transactions every year. They offer payment solutions like PayPal and Stripe, which can provide your business or organization with faster processing times than other gateways.
Woo Commerce also offers over 1,300 e-commerce extensions, meaning almost anything is possible with your website or store. One downside of Woo Commerce is that it gets a bit complicated for beginners, so you will need to have some basic knowledge of HTML and CSS.
Overall, this is a great choice for people who have experience with WordPress and want to build an online store quickly. If not, however, I would recommend going with a more simplified e-commerce platform.
Learn more about Woo Commerce and WordPress
Shopify – One of the most popular pre-built e-commerce solutions today is Shopify. Shopify uses templates that allow users to set up a professional website in minutes without needing any coding knowledge or design skills.
Shopify has tons of features for all types of businesses: retail stores, clothing boutiques, product resellers, food trucks – even if you’re just starting and don’t have much capital to work with! I will explore why Shopify is such a great option for those who want to start their own business but aren’t sure where to begin.
Shopify is probably one of the easiest e-commerce platforms I have seen. They have a huge selection of templates to choose from and the application itself is quite robust and very easy to use, even for a beginner. They offer a great set of tutorials for building and marketing your website as well. All in all, I would give Shopify a four out of five stars.
PayPal – For many people, starting an online store is a daunting task. It’s not just about creating the website, it’s also about how to process payments. If you are looking for an easy way to start your own e-commerce site and processing payments with PayPal, then this will be useful to you.
We are going to go over some of the benefits of using PayPal when opening up an online store. We’ll also discuss what makes PayPal the best option out there for processing credit card payments for your online business needs.
One of the biggest reasons that people use PayPal is because it’s just so damned easy. You can integrate it into your website in minutes and start taking payments immediately. There are no hassles with setting up merchant accounts or applying for loans to get the money you need to expand your store. You can also manage your expenses and accounts with ease because PayPal is cheap and intuitive.
Another reason that people love to use PayPal for their online stores or marketplaces is that it’s safe. Just think about this for a minute. You’re selling digital products like e-books, but you’re also selling physical products too, like t-shirts or posters. You can use PayPal to handle all of your orders without having to worry about fraud, chargebacks, dealing with money orders, and so on. Not only that, but PayPal automatically insures each transaction for up to $5,000! So you really have nothing at risk when using a service like this. As a merchant, I think that’s very reassuring.
PayPal is easy to use for both consumers and merchants alike. The fees are extremely reasonable when compared with other payment processors out there. You’ll have the ability to accept credit cards through your account too which means you have another option for taking payments over the internet. As a consumer, it also makes shopping online much simpler because you’ll already have a PayPal account and can just use it to pay for products.
Custom E-Commerce Web Design
A custom-built e-commerce web design can meet the specific needs of your business allowing for the ongoing development of new products and services with no problem. The team at Dream Industries’ can build a custom e-commerce web design that will ensure your online store looks professional and effective.
Custom e-commerce web design is becoming an increasingly popular choice for those wishing to have a truly unique website to show off their products. Customization of the site allows you as the business to change it as much as you want to. No limitations mean your business can expand at its own pace, with the design team working on new additions for you when needed. This type of e-commerce web design is ideal for companies that do not have plans to grow exponentially soon but still desire an online presence.
The main reason why businesses choose a custom e-commerce web design is that it is the best choice when you have a particular style in mind. If this sounds like your business, then a custom e-commerce website design might be the right choice for you. For example, say your company sells products with an old English or Art Deco appeal to them, these styles are very distinctive and would be best represented by a custom e-commerce web design.
Having a custom-built e-commerce website gives you several advantages that you may not get with a pre-built solution. Building an e-commerce website from the ground up allows you to tailor the shopping experience so that your website aligns with the way your company actually does business. Based on how your company does business, a custom e-commerce website may be the better way to go.
Features of a Custom E-Commerce Web Design
- Intuitive administrative dashboard for maintaining your online store
- Unlimited products, product categories, and product images
- Secure merchant account integration for accepting online payments
- Search engine friendly URL’s for products and product categories
- Promotional and Discount codes for your online shoppers
- Shipping integration with all major providers (USPS, UPS, FedEx)
- Dynamic XML product feeds for Google Product Search
- Professionally designed and customized shopping cart
Advantages of a Custom E-Commerce Web Design
Custom e-commerce sites are created to match the needs and goals of your business. Many features can be incorporated into a custom-built e-commerce website, here are some things you should know about one before jumping in:
- A custom site is tailored to your company’s needs
- Your site will be more cohesive with all branding elements – You’ll have time to create your website over an extended period of time
- You’ll get the chance to consider different options for designing and developing your site
- A custom site can incorporate features that won’t be available if you use a template. When you build your site from the ground up, it can have specific features that are important to how your company operates.
- Today’s consumers expect a unique brand experience – one created from scratch that is tailored to their needs. A custom e-commerce website will fill that requirement for your end-user.
The world of e-commerce is changing. One of the most important aspects to consider when designing an e-commerce website is customizing it for the needs of your business. Customization can mean anything from adding products, services, and features that are specific to your company to making changes in color schemes or fonts for a more unique look. E-commerce web design should be tailored specifically to meet your needs as well as those of your customers.
In Conclusion
Your E-Commerce website is a vital part of your company’s digital presence. It needs to be just as professional and high quality as the rest of your online marketing, with content that engages customers so they stay on your site longer.
The key to success with any type of business, online or otherwise, is having a great team behind it that has the skills necessary to provide excellent customer service and design beautiful layouts that convert visitors into buyers.
Setting up an e-commerce website can be a time consuming process, especially if you don't have experience with web design or coding.
We provide custom e-commerce design services so that you can focus on selling your products instead of worrying about how to set things up. Just tell us what features and functionality are important to you, and we’ll do all the work. Contact us today or give us a call at (206) 388-3843 to discuss your e-commerce website.
