If you have the wannabe entrepreneur spirit in mind, you may contemplate opening an online store. Web is where the business is nowadays and giants like Amazon are raking in millions through online sales. Owing to tremendous advancements in software and web technologies it is easy to get started with online business. However, it is important that you get the basics clear and prepare well before starting an online venture.
- Platform- There are plenty of tools and platforms for setting up an ecommerce site nowadays. From Drupal to WordPress and site building tools like Dreamweaver- explore the choices. The benefit of CMS tools is that they are Open Source and have great database of plug-ins. You can handle setting up shopping carts and site navigation easily without mastering programming languages. You can also use standalone ecommerce site development tools.
- Necessities- You will need to get a domain name and a web hosting provider. Decide between free and paid hosting services. HostGator and Bluehost are two popular choices here. These web hosting providers also sell private SSL certificates to clients and dedicated IP address. These make the site appear more reliable and professional to the visitors.
- Payment gateways- To ensure your online shop attracts people, payment provisions should be wide. Apart from debit and credit cards, the options for paying through services like PayPal should be there.
- Customization and tests- After setting up the website and pages in it, it is time for customization. Customization is not necessarily limited to aesthetics! You need to check for factors like site rendering in different browsers and mobile devices too.
SEO and Social media- After site design is done, it is important to get the site optimized by deploying right SEO methods. Without these, your site will hardy be visible. It is also important to create social media profiles for your online shop and update them with relevant posts regularly.