Building an ecommerce store is now easy due to the availability of numerous functional platforms. Many of these platforms guide you through the process of setting up your first store in under an hour. However, it is also easy for you to miss some vital checkpoints, which if ignored can wreck your online business.
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platforms like BigCommerceand Shopify can help your business get up and running quickly. Some businesses might prefer to use open-source as an ideal platform. In any case, you will need help with the design, development, integrations, and technology for scaling up your business. Identify a reliable Shopify or Magento web development company or an ecommerce website development services company that can help you get your perspectives right and advise you on the correct steps to take.
Here are some points to consider while setting up your ecommerce store.
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Getting ecommerce business ready
Although at first it seems easy to build an ecommerce site, the whole process can be time-consuming and very detail oriented. Even if you have worked hard to meet all the requirements, you would be surprised to find out that you hadn’t budgeted for SEO strategy. So it is important to have a business plan that chalks out a one-year pre-marketing strategy even as you are getting the house in order with the following tasks on hand:
- Purchasing a domain name that will identify your brand.
- Identifying resources to help with order fulfilment and servicing customers.
- Creating a budget specifically for advertising, running and maintaining your ecommerce store.
- Getting the inventory in order.
Fulfilling legal paperwork requirements
Complying with local and regional business rules would require you to complete a series of paperwork and maintaining the required documentation. It would require you to run about getting the new bank account operational, registering with tax authorities, etc. It would make sense to get in touch with an attorney to perform tasks relating to:
- Applying for businesslicenses/registrationsand getting the legal paperwork in order.
- Drawing up supplier selection lists, vendors, delivery partners, etc.
- Drafting legal agreements for vendors and delivery partners.
Setting up the ecommerce platform and site
Some choose an ecommerce platform based on its capabilities; some for its features, cost, ease of use, availability, etc. It is also possible to have your own non-SaaS ecommerce site based on your business need. Whether SaaS or otherwise, it would make business sense to hire an ecommerce development services company to take care of complex technicalities that keep arising during the setting up and initial operation phases. Based on your business requirement, you may seek the help of an ecommerce development agency to:
- Choosing an ecommerce platform and theme based on your business requirement.
- Customizing the frontend and templatefor delivering optimum user experience.
- Creating and adding content that communicates to the target audience.
- Adding products with descriptions that meet user needs/requirements.
- Optimizing the site to support multiple browsers and mobile devices.
Integrating third-party tools
Now that you have an ecommerce platform and a website, a major task would be to make sure that your system has all the required integrations to conduct your business smoothly. Your ecommerce site would need to have some or all of these integrations:
- Payment
- Shipping
- Analytics
- Email and marketing
- CRM
- Accounting
- Social
Launching and marketing your site
Some would deem it feasible to take the site live even before any products are listed. This would serve the SEO strategy and also help in building awareness. It makes sense to phase out your product launch on the site, so that it would help in negotiating with your vendors or building credibility with the target audience. It is also best to have a team in house or an agency to handle tasks relating to:
- Promoting your business before launch
- Testing your store, links, etc.
- Launching your store to a test audience group
- Running a campaign to a sample audience group
- Measuring the metrics
- Extending the store to cover other audience groups as well
The process of setting up an ecommerce store is more streamlined now, but it involves considering scores of parameters, factors, and elements—all of which determine the store’s successful design, development, and smooth functioning. Get in touch with us to fast-track the setting up of your ecommerce store.
