How to Make an Online Store: A Beginner's Guide

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

If you are in the business of selling goods, then not having an online store is a crime against business. After all, without online representation, your store loses a huge audience. In many cases, a virtual store is the only sales channel and an excellent opportunity to start a business. Now, even with a modest budget, you can make an online store on your own. What you need to remember when creating an online store, read this article.

Despite the fact that small and medium-sized businesses can promote their products on social networks, an online store remains a necessary tool for development. It is in your store that you can demonstrate products in the most favorable light. Conveniently structured catalogs, design corresponding to the subject of goods, and, of course, the possibility of payment - these are functions that are difficult to implement in social groups.

You can make a store on your own if you use proven solutions. What to look for when creating an online marketplace?

Domain

A store starts with a sign, and an online store starts with a domain name. When choosing a name for your store, keep in mind that it should be easy to remember, easy to write and type in the address bar. Too long and incomprehensible names in which users get confused is a very big mistake. In addition, the name should signal that you have a serious business, dispose and inspire confidence. Therefore, when choosing a domain, it is better to invest in good names with extensions that are familiar to most users, and choose those that have proven themselves well.

Home page

Your store's home page is a showcase. At first glance, the visitor needs to understand where he is, what he can buy in this store and why it is worth buying here. This means that the best products and promotions are on the main page. In any store, we see first showcases with the most attractive offers and the best products.

What else should be noticeable when entering the store? Various departments (product catalog), cash register (sections devoted to payment and delivery or purchase rules in general), seller (online consultant or a well-visible search bar).

Catalog

This is the most important section of the entire online store, for which your site is created. And when designing a catalog, you need to responsibly approach the issue of grouping products into categories. If you have a small assortment, then it is easier to do this, but you cannot do without preparation and careful thought.

The buyer needs to understand what products he will find on a particular page in the catalog, immediately after he reads the name of the category. Do not strive to reduce the list of categories and groups: it is better to add one group with a small number of positions than to make it difficult to find the desired product.

Once you've decided on the number of categories, you can choose how you navigate. For location in the header, directories with no more than five groups, a maximum of seven are suitable. Arrange larger directories as a list in the sidebar.

In the catalog itself, do not use more than three sublevels, so as not to confuse buyers.

Each product page

In offline stores, the buyer picks up a thing that he liked and inspects it from all sides. In an online store, you need to create the illusion of being next to the product so that the visitor has no doubts about whether to purchase this item. Specify as much information about the product as possible: in addition to the name, add information about the shelf life, composition and consumer properties, the rules for using things, if they are specific. Customer reviews work well as they provide insight into the use of purchases and build trust in the store.

Take good photos of the goods. You can also cope on your own, especially at first. Pay attention to the lighting, shoot in natural light, but not too bright. Give visitors the opportunity to view the product from different angles and angles, evaluate its dimensions. To do this, put a well-known object next to the product or shoot in the interior. Clickable photos should be of good quality and large size, otherwise what's the point in clicking on them?

Call to action on every product page. Design bright, noticeable buttons to help you make a purchase or go to the desired page. When reminding about discounts and promotions, use the magic word "now".

Search

The search bar should be clearly visible on every page. Don't forget about filters: let your visitors sort the search results by popularity, price, date of receipt, or other parameters relevant to your products.

Basket

The ability to view what is already in the cart should be available from any page. And in the section itself, nothing should distract from the purchase. List of selected products, price, as well as buttons with a call to purchase the product. It's also a good idea to indicate what steps need to be taken before the purchase takes place.

Working conditions

There should be everything related to the conditions for working with users. How can I pay for purchases? How is the delivery organized? How do you return an item? What guarantees do you give?

It is better to put the issue of payment and delivery on separate pages and describe the work schemes in as much detail as possible. If the cost of delivery differs depending on the region or the volume of the order, do not be limited to the general phrase that the price is calculated individually. Create a large table and indicate where and for how much you are willing to ship goods without forcing users to do the job.

When specifying payment methods, if you can transfer funds from a plastic card, mention what security guarantees the payment has.

The ability to purchase without registration is a must, especially if you have a small store or a widespread assortment, otherwise the buyer will go to the place where it is easier to buy the desired item.

Contact Information

In the event that a real store was opened at first, it is imperative to indicate its address, as well as leave those contacts by which you can quickly be contacted. A phone number is needed if the receiver is guaranteed to be picked up: do not force customers to listen to beeps and waste time on calls in vain. Leave the contact form for quick and effective communication. The fewer steps you need to take to contact a store, the better. And if you can write a message directly on the contact page, this is a big plus.

Useful information

Remember the rule of content creation for the site: always give more than is expected of you. Any store should create a reference page. In a clothing or footwear store, such an auxiliary element will be a table of sizes, in a supermarket of goods for repair - tips and articles on the rules for performing work, in a handmade souvenir store - master classes. These are not required pages, but you can rely on them when doing search engine optimization and promoting your store.

Trust the professionals

Usually teams of developers and designers work on the site. Beginners tend to trust professionals, so they think that making a good online store can only be done after contacting an expensive studio. But you can cope with such a task on your own thanks to web designers, which offer a lot of templates for creating sites. The advantages of using them are that you do not have to puzzle over the necessary elements: more often than not, everything is already thought out and taken into account.

One of the more popular website builders, Wix, for example, offers templates that are the best fit for a business in terms of ecommerce stuff. And what kind of design you choose for this content is up to you. The templates are designed as a guide and starting point for building your own unique site. Even on one basis, using a web builder, you can create an unlimited number of ready-made stores that are completely different from each other.

Store management requires constant attention if you want to keep it up to date and update information regularly. If necessary, you can always find detailed guides for each step, sometimes with video instructions. They don't say a word about the code! Everything is clear the first time, even for beginners who have not previously encountered site building.

Due to the large amount of content, creating an online store takes more time than creating a simple business card website. But even with independent work on your online store in your free time, you can manage it in a few days or weeks (depending on the amount of free time). Not every web studio will be able to meet such deadlines, and the result of the work will be of the same high level.

Try it, your business is in your hands.