How to start the booming e -commerce business

Do you feel excited about starting to sell your outstanding product creativity? Find a way to earn extra income? Are you ready to solve the problem for a group of people you love?

It is not surprising that online stores are an excellent way to achieve any of these goals. There is a huge opportunity for e -commerce -global online sales in 2020 reached US $ 4.28 trillion -and its popularity increased year by year. In addition, there is no need for physical stores (although you can also have retail stores if you want), so it is more affordable and easier to get started.

But there are many things to consider. How did you start? What foundation do you need to build a store that can last for several years or decades?

This guide will guide you to understand how to carry out e -commerce business, from creating products and design stores to establishing a vigorous company that you can trust. Let us dive into the water.

Select an idea

Your first step is to choose an idea to build your business. There are two ways to solve this problem: starting from the audience

or product concepts.

Your audience is the group of you solving the problem people. They are people who sell their products, write content for them, and start their business around them.

Understanding the audience can help you in three levels:

. Suppose you sell coffee. If your target audience likes to taste a unique sources of high -quality hand -grinding coffee every morning, then you will not compete with a shop provided by a busy parent. They just want to drink some caffeine when they go out. These people are looking for different products and will buy them from stores that meet their specific needs.

It can help you do things as soon as possible.

If you know who you want to create products for, then you can better focus on meeting their needs from the first day.

It can help you focus on value, not to respond to the market.

When you focus on solving problems for specific people, you can stand out, not just price. When the price is your only differentiation factor, it may be a competition, because you must constantly reduce the price to competition.

And, yes, you canStart from the audience before knowing what to sell. You may be a teacher full of enthusiasm for basic education, a veterinarian who loves animals, or a video game enthusiast who plays an active role in the game community. From there -focus on what you know and love!

Then, figure out what they need, you will solve the problem for them. Perhaps primary school students need a more attractive way to learn mathematics. Dogs need healthier foods, and video gamers need better way to interact with other gamers. When the e -commerce business is carried out, the sky is the limit!

You can find the problems to be solved through the following methods:

Send a survey or test to the audience.

Talk to people in trade exhibitions, festivals and social activities.
Talk to other companies in your niche market and ask their customers what difficulties have encountered.
Take time in the forum and social media group used by the audience.
Read the comments of products and books related to your audience to see what people complain.

Once you determine your audience and problems, you can formulate solutions for them.

Starting from a product

, maybe you already have a great product creativity. It is completely okay since it starts! However, you still need to consider your audience.

What does your product do? What problems do it solve? How can it help people? These are all issues that help you determine the target audience.

Once again, as specific as possible. Don’t just say that you are selling to women or business owners. Instead, the mother -in -law mother who focuses on the 25 to 30 years old has a long commute time, or small companies located in the northwest of the Pacific have encountered difficulties in bookkeeping. Remember: focus is good.

Create or purchase your product

Since you know what you want to sell and who you want to sell, you should actually create or purchase your product. There are several different methods, so we will look at the advantages and disadvantages of each method, and some techniques.

Are you full of enthusiasm for woodworking? Sewing? cooking? painting? You can use any of these skills to create a truly unique thing.

Doing this, you can fully control every item in the email. In addition, because no one can create anything like you, your store can be unique.

However, it is important to know that it may be tricky to expand the manual business. The uniqueness that makes your product stand out means that it is difficult to find team members who can design their teams in the same way. And you only have so much time and so many hands!

In other words, handmade production is a good way to develop e -commerce business in the budget!

Manufacturing

Manufacturing is a process of using large -scale production products using machinery and automation. You can outsourcing or purchasing equipment internally.

If you choose outsourcing, it is important to cooperate with the right company. The following questions are raised:

Are they domestic or foreign?

Do they focus on the type of production you need?

Are their customers satisfied with them? Is there a complaint?

Outsourcing manufacturing is an excellent way to create a large number of products. Generally, the more you produce, the higher the efficiency. If you have no professional knowledge, space, budget, or your desire to build your own, this is also very valuable.

However, because many manufacturing companies need the minimum order volume, it is usually necessary to make considerable financial investment in advance Essence You also give up some control of product quality. Delivery on behalf of

When you ship on behalf of you, you act as a middleman between manufacturing companies and your customers. You will find buyers and suppliers of manufacturers and transport products. Then, you get a share from the profit.

Of course, direct sales have both advantages and disadvantages. No need to worry (or pay!) Things such as manufacturing, transportation or inventory. Greatly reduced expenses and troubles. In addition, it is very useful for cash flow. You don’t have to create a lot of products and want people to buy them -you only need to pay to the supplier after someone’s actual purchase.

However, because many companies have exactly the same direct sales of products, it is difficult to stand out and compete fiercely. You have given up a lot of control, because in many cases, you can’t even see the products that fall in front of the customer’s house.

Similarly, this is why it is so important why a good supplier is so important. Make sure people who work with you have a good reputation. You may even want to consider a local supplier that can cooperate with you to deal with packaging and performance. Print on demand

You can put the design on a white label product with a white label by printing on demand. You send artworks to third -party suppliers in a digital manner, and they put them on T -shirts, water bottles, stickers, mobile phone cases and other items. They then printed, packaged and transported your items.

Like the delivery of goods, you can avoid a lot of preliminary costs and troubles through this method. It is an excellent solution for creative staff. However, you did give up a lot of control and profit margins.

Digital creation

Of course, not all products must be entities. You can also sell digital products, from music to e -books, membership qualifications, courses, artworks, etc.

This is a good way to get passive income, because once you create digital products, you have almost no need to maintain any maintenance.

However, no matter which method you choose, it takes time to verify your product is important. Remember the target audience you have determined before? Contact them and ask their thoughts. Let them try your product. Soliciting feedback. Then, make any necessary adjustments. Set your business

Now it is time to build your corporate entity! There are several steps for starting and running, but it is important to note that this process will vary from where you are.

Selecting a name

From the beginning, choosing a name is definitely overwhelmed. You want it to be lingering and unforgettable, described but unique. The best starting point is the famous garbage dump. Sit down with your team members, family members and friends to write down everything you can think of. Then, reduce the range to find the most suitable.

The following are some precautions:

Does it sound professional? Imagine that your company finally appeared on Ferbes or \”Wall Street Journal\”. Does this name sound stupid?

Is it unique? Make sure your competitors have no similar name.

Is it descriptive? Can anyone say your name?

Is it unforgettable? If someone hears your company name, how small will they be inRemember it in a few days?

Then, your audience runs the name. See what kind of emotional connotation it has to see if they are attracted by it.

After selecting the name, continue to buy the relevant domain name — you The URL and address of the online store in the future. If possible, choose a URL ending at .com, which conveys authority and legitimacy. But there are many good choices, such as .co, .store and .design. You may even want to buy multiple versions of domain names to prevent others from buying them. Choose a legal structure

Fill in any applicable document work

Fill in all necessary legal documents to build your business. Similarly, this will be very different due to your country/region. In the United States, this may include applying for EIN and the creation of the company’s articles of association. The best way is to contact legal professionals to help you complete this process.

If you sell certain types of regulatory products, such as CBD, living plants, food or alcoholic You may also need to fill in extra documents. Set a bank account You need the above documents to apply for a commercial bank account. You have an account that is completely separated from any personal account you have, which is important. This is important for accounting and taxation. Create the logo

Now you can create the visual identity of the brand. The logo is one of the most important parts of online business. Many things need to be considered during design, such as:

Color

. Consider cultural meanings and emotions you want to convey. For example, green usually conveys trust, while red is related to excitement.

Simple

. Your logo should be simple enough, even in the smallest application, such as in the corner of a T -shirt. It should also work in full color or black and white.

Unique . From the perspective of law and brand awareThe logo of a company is not very similar.
Style . Do you want to be clean and modern? vintage? bold? What is the most meaningful to your business?
Type. Do you want a text -based logo (called a word)? Or are you prefer to use symbols, letters, or abstract design? Some of the best signs are also these combinations.
meaning. Think about what you want to convey to potential customers. What does your business do and what do you sell?
Although you can design the logo yourself, it is usually best to hire professional graphic designers who can consider all these factors.

Select the e -commerce platform

Now you are ready to continue using your you online shop. But first of all, you need to choose an e -commerce platform that is suitable for your needs. You will need an e -commerce tool that allows you: Have all your content . For some proprietary platforms, you do not really have the content you created. They can decide to close your website without warning. Of course, this may cause you to lose all your hard work and make your business risk!

Extended to any level.

Some platforms are limited to the number of products or SKUs you can have. Others will increase their pricing based on the number of visitors or the size of your website. It is very important to choose a provider that can help you grow!

. Think about how much you can spend, especially at the beginning of you. Many providers also charge additional fees to certain functions, or increase the cost with the development of your store.

Expand your store as you want

. Make sure your e -commerce platform provides all the functions you need, whether it is subscription and member qualifications, wholesale tools or marketing functions.

Establish and manage your own store

. If you are willing, you can hire developers to build and manage your website, but you should be able to change and start yourself. Choose a platform that suits your skill level.

Get the required support when you need

. If you really encounter trouble, make sure you can get high -quality support from your e -commerce platform.

WordPress and Woocommerce meet all the above standards. WOrdPress is the leading website construction platform and is used by 42% of the network. Woocommerce is its online sales plug -in. Both are completely free -just pay for any additional extension you want!

You have all content and can flexibly design any content you can imagine. Although many stores do not need additional extensions, there are many options. Use our expansion market to add any tools you want, from marketing and product customization to customer service and transportation. In addition, Woocommerce can expand with you while simplifying maintenance and supporting you in the process.

Want to know how we superimposed? Compare the Woocommerce with Shopify, Magento, Bigcommerce, Patreon, Etsy, EBAY, and Amazon.

Establish your store

Select the host

Your hosting service provider stores your website file and enable it to view it online. They are the basis of your website, affecting all aspects of safety to speed. Choose one:

It has excellent normal operation time

. The normal operation time is the percentage of the normal operation of your website. The standard is higher than 99%.

Deliven for security

. Your hosting plan should include firewalls, scanning malware, updating software (such as PHP and MySQL) to the latest version, and providing regular backup.

. Comments are the best way to determine whether the provider is hosting the website on its server.

Focus on speed.

Find key factors such as internal cache, SSD server and a large number of resources (such as RAM and bandwidth).

There are 24/7 support

. You don’t know when to help. Make a variety of methods to ensure that your hosting service provider is available in 24/7: telephone, real -time chat, etc.

Provide your company with the right plan

. There are many hosting programs: hosting and non -hosting, sharing and VPS and dedicated. Take time to study each item and determine which one is suitable for your website and technical expertise.

Support workerdpress

. Some hosts provide plans for WordPress optimization. In terms of speed and support, these are excellent choices. However, if you do not choose a plan specific in WordPress, make sure the host you choose has at least WordPress documents and support articles.

If any of them sounds overwhelmed, please check the host we recommend. After a comprehensive review of our team, they provide a good building for your website.

Installing WordPress and Woocommerce

Most hosts include one -button WordPress installation, as simple as it sounds. You can start and run in a few minutes! Check more details about installing wordpress.

After logging in to the new WordPress website, turn to

plugins → add new

and search

woocommerce

. Then, click

Installation → activation

Select a topic The theme is essentially a design template. You can use it directly or customize according to your preference. It affects the layout and design of your website, sometimes or even functions. There are a large number of excellent free and advanced themes on various platforms, including WordPress.org repository and Woocommerce theme library. Some are designed for specific industries and use cases, while others are more common and can be customized according to your needs.

For example,

Block Shop

Theme is light and efficient, has everything you need, and there is no additional bloated. It has a beautiful and clean store layout and customable block (will introduce it in detail later!), So you can create your own design.

But no matter what you choose, make sure it can be used with Woocommerce, has excellent comments, quickly loads, and comes from a trusted source. For more prompts, please check this article about choosing WordPress theme.

Create your page

Homepage

About page

Frequently Asked Questions Page

Contact page [ 123]

The exact page you created will depend on your business, products and audiences.

But how do you actually build and design each page? WordPress editor is a drag -and -drop construct that allows you to place elements (called blocks) in place without using code. Therefore, you can drag the contact form, image, paragraph, title, video, or any other number of other components to your page. Divide them into several columns, customize their color and settings, and create anything you want.

Add product

You can create a variety of products, depending on your store, including:

Simple products. These are simple items without color or size.

able products. These are numbers and will not be transported to customers. They may include e -books, videos or song .

Member qualifications. These are allowed to pay for online content such as paid access courses, videos or guidelines. Adding such products requires expansion procedures.

Subscribe. These are regular payment of subscription boxes and services. They also need to use extensions.

You can click any link above to get more information about adding products of each type to your store. However, no matter which type you add, you need to consider pricing, SKU and inventory issues.

For each product, make sure to add high -quality images from each angle to display your product correctly for the shoppers. And write in -depth product descriptions, covering the benefits of your products and any content that potential customers may consider it, such as size tables, ingredients, age range, etc.

Then, consider any custom you want to make the product page or customer experience. There are only some ideas here:

Provide additional components such as carving, personalization and gift packaging.

is the final customized design product configuration.

The goal here is to make your customer’s product purchase process as simple as possible. Every decision keeps your specific eyes in mindBid the crowd.

Select payment gateway

Payment gateway allows you to securely accept payment on your website. It accepts funds from your client, verify their information, and then transfer the payment to your bank account. As usual, some matters need to be considered when choosing a payment gateway:
What are the costs involved?

Each payment gateway will draw a small part from each payment in exchange for its services. Some need extra costs.

Does it allow customers to stay on the scene or let them leave?

Some gateways allow you to receive payment directly on your site, while other gateways send customers to their own site for payment. Ideally, you should keep them on your website so that the process is as simple as possible.

How fast is the remittance to your bank account?

Does it gather with digital wallets?

Digital wallets, such as Apple Pay or Google Pay, make many customers’ checkout process super fast. They can pay with existing accounts without looking for credit cards.

How easy is it to manage?

Do you have to log in and withdraw from multiple accounts to manage payment, or do everything happen in one place?

A complete list of precautions, please see our payment gateway guide.

Or, if you are looking for simple and powerful things, WooCommerce Payments is a good choice. You can manage all the contents from payment to refund in the WordPress dashboard, and provide payment options such as Apple Pay and credit cards. In addition, let customers stay on your website and use instant deposits.

Set transportation

If you sell physical products, you need to find the best way to hand over the goods to the customer.

First select

The carrier

Then, decide the

transportation method you want to provide for customers

. These are the prices and services they can choose when checkout.

There are many different ways to be availableBuild it. You may provide free delivery to encourage more purchases. You may calculate the freight based on the location, weight and speed. Alternatively, you may charge fixed costs, no matter what the customer’s shopping carts are.

Finally, determine your

to perform the solution and The tools and processes required to deliver the goods. This may include purchasing and printing transport labels, providing tracking information to customers, and packaging your items to ensure their safety.

More information about making correct transportation decisions for your store through our transportation guide.

Although WooCommerce provides various transportation extensions to help all running normally, WooCommerce Shipping simplifies the entire process. Print labels directly from the WordPress dashboard, shipped in China and international scope, and discounts from USPS and DHL.

Set taxes According to your location, you may need to levy sales tax on your product. The amount you charge also depends on the location where your

customer

is located, so things may soon become complicated.

Make sure your store is quickly loaded

If your website is too slow to load, customers will feel frustrated and shop elsewhere. In addition, the slow loading time will have a negative impact on SEO and conversion rate. But how do you let things develop rapidly?

Optimize your image . The image is some of the heaviest elements on the website. Therefore, as much as possible and high -quality minimum size as much as possible. And spend time compressing your media files before uploading.

Use CDN

. Content delivery network (CDN) loads your site files from ultra -high -speed servers around the world. If you have international customers, this will be particularly useful because they will see your website from the server closest to them.

Optimize your code.

Delayed the image.

Only the images that the shopkeeper sees at a given time instead of all the pictures on the page. You can also use Jetpack to open this feature for free.

Update everything

. Regularly update WordPress, theme and plug -in so that they can run smoothly and quickly.

Install the cache plug -in.

The cache enables the browser to store a copy of your website so that when the visitor returns, its loading speed will be faster. There are many great free cache plugins, including WP Super Cache.

For more prompts and instructions, please read ten methods to increase the speed of woocommerce stores.
Protect your store Of course, you also hope that your store is safe, so you don’t have to worry about hacking or other issues. WordPress is a very safe platform and has a high -quality host. You already have a good start. But you can take other measures:
Scan the malware.

If someone installs malware on your website, you need to know immediately. We recommend using Jetpack SCAN to monitor your site regularly. It even includes one -click repair of most problems!

Prevent brute force attack

. When a robot tries to enter your site by guessing thousands of username/passwords per second, brute attacks will occur. But you can use tools such as JetPack to easily stop these.

Pay close attention to website activities.

Use a security password.

Use letters, numbers, and symbols to make your password as complicated as possible.

Update all software.

Regularly update WordPress, theme and plug -in so that all your software has the latest security versions.

Set automatic backup.

In case of any problems, backup can become a life -saving straw. The best solution is automated real -time backup, which can save every order and operation on your website.

Get rid of comment spam

. Set automatic spam filtering instead of manually monitoring spam comments and comments. Akismet and other tools can ensure the safety of your website and visitors.

View the primary steps that we should take to ensure the safety of the storeSudden list to get more prompts. Looking for customers
Now that you have learned how to carry out e -commerce business, then it is time to consider marketing. There are many different marketing strategies, and correct solutions can be traced back to your previous target audience. Where do they spend time? What information can resonate with them? The following are some common and effective online marketing methods:

You usually pay for these types of ads. Choose your specific audience and display your information in front of them in the website or search results they have visited. Simplify the entire process by using Google lists and advertisements to manage your advertisements directly in the WooCommerce dashboard.

Shopping advertisement

. Google Shopping Advertising will list your products in the \”shopping\” label search for Google. These are super intuitive, usually displaying pictures, prices and other information about products. The Google list and advertising expansion program will synchronize all the contents of your store, so the information is always the latest.

Social media marketing.

Posts publishing posts that keep fans and followers maintain interest and participate, or use social media advertising to contact new people. There is a good choice to expand the market to help synchronize your website.

Email marketing. News communication and updates related to sales and new products to existing and potential customers. Alternatively, use automated power to send abandoned shopping cart emails and resume sales. WooCommerce integrated with various email marketing tools, such as AutomateWoo and Mailpoet.
Search engine optimization. By displaying keywords related to your product in the search results, it organically attracts interested shoppers. Here are some important tips to start using SEO.
Content marketing. Published useful content, such as blog articles, guidelines, and videos, showing potential customers what you know what you are talking about. You can then use this content in other marketing work such as advertising, email and social media.
Influential marketing . Use the power of influential people on social media and other platforms. According to their popularity, they may share posts or videos about your products in exchange for fees or free products.
You can also try offline marketing methods, including grassroots marketing, radio advertising, billboards, graphic advertising and directmail.

For in -depth guidelines, tips, and examples, please refer to our marketing blog post library.

Provide excellent customer service

Customer service is the biggest part of obtaining loyal customers. They come back again and again, and even recommend you to their friends and family. They will be your greatest supporter.

Therefore, please do everything possible to satisfy customers:

Keep real and authenticity in your product description and marketing work.

If there is a problem, provide a refund and exchange -it will happen from time to time!

Ask the shoppers through real -time chat, telephone, email and contact form.

Provide prompts, guidelines and instructions to help customers best use your product.

Continuously improve your products and processes according to feedback.

Be careful when transporting the product to ensure that they reach the best state.

Design is interesting packaging that makes customers satisfied. You may also want to attach free samples or handwriting notes.
By rewarding customers’ loyalty through discounts, sales, and even reward points.

The biggest reminder? Remember who you create products and changes you bring to them. If you keep this in mind when you make every decision, then you will be fine.

All elements of successfully opening online stores

Are you ready to start e -commerce business? You now have all the basic knowledge you need to open a store and achieve success. But we also want to go further.

This is why we provide special discounts for Woocommerce Essentials series. It includes carefully selected tools. From the first day to the first day, from product functions to safe and marketing, it can help you. Buying three extension procedures can save 20%, and purchase of five extension procedures can save 25%.

However, whether you decide to use the expansion program to add to your store, or start with a completely free Woocommerce plugin, we will help you. If you encounter any problems on your journey, please contact our support team, check our documents, or read the blog post we wrote for you.

Are you ready for launch? Start using Wookommerce.

Author: