The increase in technology has brought with it an increase in the selling of e-commerce. E-commerce refers to the selling of products online and has proven to be very popular, especially since the Covid-19 pandemic.
If you’ve always been interested in having an online store, now’s the time to get started, as people all over the world are just looking for convenience, which is what online stores offer them.
So, whether you’ve dreamed of opening up your own online store, or just like the idea of having one as a side hustle, this article is going to show you how you can build an online e-commerce store with just a few simple steps.
Pick The Right Products To Sell
When deciding on what to sell, you don’t just need to find out what is already selling. You need to find a niche within that.
This is because you are going to be competing with some very popular and well-known online stores, such as Amazon and Etsy, who already sell everything you can think of.
If you are selling products that are already available on those sites, then customers will not automatically go to your website.
Therefore, you’ll need to find products that aren’t being sold by every retailer out there but are still in demand from customers.
You can find niches by using keyword research tools, in order to find out what people are searching for.
For example, you may want to sell gym equipment and find that there are 9500 searches each month for ‘buy dumbbells’, but 2500 a month for ‘buy resistance bands’.
Although there are more people wanting to buy dumbbells, you are going to be competing with several websites that sell dumbbells.
Therefore, resistance bands appear to be more of a niche product, but still have a large number of people interested in buying them.
Source The Stock
Once you’ve decided what it is you’re going to sell, you’ll need to decide how you are going to source it.
One option is to purchase your stock from a supplier and then resell it.
This allows you to view the stock firsthand before selling it, allowing you to investigate the quality of the product, and also build a relationship with the supplier.
However, this does cost money as you are purchasing these products from a supplier, and there’s no guarantee that you’ll make that money back from sales.
You also need somewhere to store this stock, which may cost you money if you have no room in your home.
Alternatively, you can choose to drop-ship your products. This is when you take orders from customers, send them to a supplier, and they deliver it to your customers.
The main advantage of this method is that it is more cost-effective, but you will never get to see the actual products you are selling, and it is a relatively competitive activity.
Choose An E-commerce Platform
Once you’ve decided on the above, you’ll need to choose an e-commerce platform for your customers to have access to your products.
This is a platform that will list your products, accept payments, and controls your business. It can give you a full inventory of your products, as well as help you with marketing.
When selecting a platform, you must ensure that it is easy to use, as websites that are too complicated will deter customers from using it.
You should also select one that allows for customer support 24/7. This can be through email, live chat, or a phone call. You’ll also need to make sure that it supports different languages.
Optimize Your Store For Search Engines
It’s no good having an online store that doesn’t appear on search engines. Therefore, search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial in order to attract online traffic to your website.
You can do this by using keyword research tools which will allow you to see what is being searched for online, and you can implement these keywords in your page titles, headings, and product descriptions.
Blog Blog Blog
You can increase the number of sales your online store receives by blogging regularly about topics that relate to your e-commerce business.
Again, you can perform keyword research here to find what people are searching for. You can then fill your blog posts with rich words that are actively being searched for online.
This will attract your target audience to your website, and will also help you build authority, showing that you are knowledgeable in the niche you have chosen to sell products in.
This makes it more likely that people will buy the products you are selling.
You can do this by including a ‘blog’ tab in your online store or creating a separate blog that links to your online store.
The best ones to start with are Google Ads and Facebook Ads. Google Ads will show adverts for your store alongside search results, and generally work well when you are selling more expensive products.
Facebook Ads, on the other hand, will display an advert to your store based on what people are interested in. Therefore, this attracts customers to your online store, who are already interested in your niche.
While these ads cost money, they are very effective in attracting online traffic to your site, so it may be worth budgeting for this when you are starting out.
Share On Social Media
While you may not have a large following on social media, you can create a snowball effect by posting about your online store on sites such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and even TikTok.
Your followers have other followers, and so on, and word of mouth is a very effective way of attracting customers to your online store.
You can also post about new products, and create little teaser trailers of what it is you are selling.
This can be done on your personal social media account, or you can make a separate one, specifically to help your online store grow.
Instagram also allows you to create a business account, where you can post certain links, and view certain algorithms.
Therefore, it may be worth creating a business Instagram account specifically for your online store, in order to promote the services you are offering.
Final Thoughts
The rise of the use of technology has seen a rise in e-commerce stores.
They are very popular as they allow customers to purchase products from the comfort of their own homes. Even before the Covid pandemic, this was a luxury many people enjoyed.
Starting up an online store has never been more in demand than it is now, as the Covid pandemic saw a large need for it.
Many of the famous brands we know and love today began as just online e-commerce stores, which grew into what they are today.
With patience, drive, and the right strategies, you could build an online e-commerce store today, that can continue to grow, and provide you with an income.
We hope this article has helped you understand how to build an online e-commerce store successfully.
