Sell Anywhere: 7 Best Tips for Building Your First E-commerce Website

Guest post by Jake Rhuede

If you want to delve into e-commerce, you may have a product to sell. And the next that you want to consider would be how you will promote and sell your products.

Luckily, there are now no-code platforms that let you set up an online store. And the best part is that these platforms do not require prior knowledge about web development and programming.

That said, we have listed down seven helpful tips to ensure that you can start an e-commerce business without the hassle:

Choose the Right E-commerce Platform and Host

Picking the right e-commerce platform and hosting is essential if you want to succeed and create a better website. So, do your research, and ask for a free trial to see whether it can work for your product or business.

Also, weigh the features that you want and the features that your e-commerce platform is providing. Do you have to pay for extra, or is it already included in the offering?

Finally, you must pick a platform that allows you to sell on multiple platforms. That way, you can maximize your sales and offer consistency throughout your sales channels.

Your e-commerce platform makes setting up an online shop pretty straightforward. This also includes customization. Hence, you can have an online store in a couple of minutes instead of starting from scratch.

Choose the Best Domain Name

It’s also vital that you choose the right domain name for your e-commerce store.

See to it that the domain name appropriately matches your brand, making it memorable and easy to recall. That way, you won’t lose out repeat customers or new prospects.

It might also help you use a USP for your retail business or a keyword that you’re trying to target with your SEO strategy.

Here are some tips that you need to take note of:

Make sure that your domain name is easy to spell. Having a complicated site name easily confuses many people from searching or even finding your site online.
The name that you pick should be memorable and unique. This allows people to remember your site better.
For a lot of e-commerce stores, you must choose a name that describes your niche. Doing so tells people what your site is all about, and before they can even check out the rest of your site.

Find a Theme

As you probably know, WordPress provides you with a wide variety of e-commerce themes to choose from.

So, if you’ve picked WordPress as your CMS (Content Management System), then you should start browsing its many diverse themes.

Using no-code platforms such as Adalo can be helpful and can be integrated with your overall theme.

Furthermore, you’ll find many free themes out there that will often do the trick. Alternatively, you might want to start checking the more premium ones.

Most of these come with customization features with diverse functionality.

Set Up a Payment Method

Was there a time wherein you wanted to proceed with the checkout process but unable to because your preferred mode of payment isn’t there?

According to several reports, insufficient payment methods are one of the common reasons customers abandon their carts.

As with most online businesses, you need to have various payment options set up for your customers. Provide as many payment systems as you can.

Ideally, your average customer should be able to make payments via debit, credit cards, online wallets, net banking, COD, and so much more.

It also helps you study the local market, learns the most commonly used system, and then add that to your e-commerce site. Although it’s possible that you might not integrate all these payment options, there are a couple of extra ones that you need to have.

Secure Your Website

One should make sure that their connection is secured by an SSL (Secure Security Layer) Certificate.

For one, it verifies the authenticity of your website. Second, it encrypts your customers’ transactions on your e-commerce website. Hence, it ensures that sensitive data like payment details are safe.

An SSL certificate will be responsible for securing your site as you build trust with your customers. These days, Google even recommends that there should be an SSL certificate for every website out there.

Make the Checkout a Breeze

It’s incredibly essential to communicate if there are additional fees like shipping fees early on.

Why? This can easily make or break your sale once products and items have been added to the basket.

In other words, quick and easy checkout is necessary.

You should offer your customers the ability to register their details and set up their account. In the same way, you should also see that a guest check out option is available to shoppers who don’t want to register.

Offer Excellent Customer Service

If a customer encounters an issue on your website and you’re not quick enough to handle it, then they’ll likely end up frustrated and leave.

Poor customer service will sink your business no matter how great your pricing or products are.

Meanwhile, offering award-winning customer service is something that you should strive for.

This is to ensure that they have the best browsing or customer experience every time.

Through the help of modern AI technologies, you can automate and optimize your customer service through chatbots.

Still, there will be times that the customer needs to talk to a real person. So, make sure that you have a well-trained customer team that will offer your customer a superior shopping experience.

Final Thoughts

Launching an e-commerce store is exciting and challenging. It allows you to sell your products to more customers. However, setting up an online store is not an easy feat.

Creating an e-commerce website can be time-consuming, although you can cut it short using no-code web building platforms. And your task does not end once your online store is up and running.

You need to ensure your website’s security, apply search engine optimization, product promotion, customer service, and more. Doing so ensures that you will reap the rewards of having a business that earns even while you sleep.

Jake Rheude is the Director of Marketing at Red Stag Fulfillment, an ecommerce fulfillment warehouse that was born out of ecommerce. He has years of experience in ecommerce and business development. In his free time, Jake enjoys reading about business and sharing his own experience with others.