12 ways to create an ecommerce store and make money online
Some experts estimate that ecommerce will cross $ 2 trillion in sales over the next few years - this is the fastest growing and one of the most valuable industries.
When you can shop online, check out seamlessly, and then easily your favorite pair jeans, a good new watch, or even a customized computer is sent directly to your door, You might think that the process is not complicated.
As a digital marketer, I have helped many brands to increase sales through e-commerce. It was supposed to start my own e-commerce site, so I could actually understand the process and what it looks like to launch an online store from scratch.
The tips and tricks given below are what I learned during one year, my sister and I started to launch DermWarehouse, an e-commerce website selling skincare and beauty products. The steps given below will not only ensure you ensure the fastest and most professional way for your site to run and run, it will also set your marketing and SEO for future success, which will increase your bottom line Will go.
One Year SEO Strategy
If you have not ever started an e-commerce store from scratch, it is impossible to understand how much time is and the process is elaborate. While looking at any e-commerce site, you never think about the fact that someone had to craft the material and personally load each and every product. Not only that, before the actual listing process begins, you should be able to list your products online from each manufacturer.
Apart from all the work that actually took place in the making of the site from the experience of my marketing agency, I understood how frustrating this workplace and business model might be that you have worked so hard but do not generate biological traffic. . Therefore, during the creation of our website, one year before the launch of the site, our SEO strategy was quickly closed. We needed this time for development anyway, so why not take maximum advantage of it and kill two birds with one stone.
Below is a list of all the steps that we have taken to launch and successfully create our own ecommerce site:
1. Buy Domain Name.
It is very straightforward. You need a domain name which will completely identify your brand. Do not end this process. Using a site like GoDaddy, you can buy a domain name for less than $ 10.00.
2. Find a web developer.
This is an important component in launching your e-commerce site. If you want to launch your site in a relatively short period of time and professionally, make sure to vet your hiring developer. Get references from other ecommerce websites created by developer. They will get a timeline for how long it will take to launch the site. Make sure they have a graphic design background so that they can crop images that are aligned with your site. Be sure to ask if the developer has the experience of creating a site on your chosen ecommerce platform (see step 4).
Many times, entrepreneurs go ahead without any diligence in relation to research with any developer. To do this you do not do this, because it can put a stop on your website before you actually start. If you want to know more about how much time it takes to launch your e-commerce site, feel free to contact a web design specialist.
3. Receive all the paperwork required for a valid business.
Register your business, obtain a seller's license, and start looking at legal business issues. You should contact a local attorney to help you build your business. While this is an advance cost, it will save you from significant headaches and expenses in the future.
According to Alison Latsky, a lawyer of Eastman & Smith Ltd in Columbus, Ohio, you will first need to be strategic and determined in which you want to be domiciled, then the Secretary of that state Check it out. Taxation or revenues
If you are introducing a corporation, non-profit, limited liability company or professional organization, you must register with the Secretary of your State or appropriate articles of organization. In addition, if you are doing taxable sales, you must obtain the seller's permit or seller's license with the appropriate agency. You will need this before many vendors agree to work with you.
If you are starting a non-profit organization, contact the State Attorney General's Office to know whether you need charitable license and filing. Finally, you will need appropriate organizational documents. Contact your attorney for more information, but it is not a step to be left or to ignore.
4. Select e-commerce and website hosting platform.
To save time and money, select a popular e-commerce platform. I recommend Shopify, WooCommerce or BigCommerce. Most developers are familiar with this, making it easy to integrate plugins, payment processing, etc.
For our Skincare ecommerce site, we decided to use WooCommerce due to its WordPress capabilities. We chose the WP engine for hosting, which costs $ 29.99 per month and provides a fast and secure hosting solution.
5. Find a theme that matches your ecommerce vision.
To save even more time, you can buy a theme from themeforest to find a layout that is similar to the look and you desire from e-commerce perspective. ThemeForest has over 28,000 website templates and themes from $ 2. They are the # 1 marketplace for website templates.
Do not reinforce the wheel. Instead of creating your site from scratch, download a template from ThemeForest or similar site. We learned from experience that the optimization process can be very timely and frustrating. Therefore, if you can find a topic of your choice, you will be able to save yourself a lot of headache.
6. Make your website live.
As soon as you are committed to starting your business, make your site live before listing any of your products. Have your developer create a homepage, "About us" page and a contact page. It does not have to be beautiful, but the work place will be helpful for a number of reasons:
First of all, it will allow you to establish validity while negotiating with vendors. You only have more than one idea. Secondly, when you reach journalists and bloggers, they can see that you have a website and are trustworthy. Third, it will give you a place to link back to your site for all these sources, which, of course, is important for the creation of SEO.
7. A Reporter's Help (HARO)
Help Reporter Out (HARO) is one of the biggest tools for PR and SEO, which any business owner or digital marketer can use. It's free, it generates amazing exposure (if it is executed properly) and it can actually be game changer (again, if it is executed properly).
HARO provides reporters with daily opportunities for sources to secure a strong database and valuable media coverage for upcoming stories. Sign up and use this resource as much as you can to build credibility for your site and to establish media relations.
When it comes to HARO, there are many important components for execution. The first is timeliness. When a reporter presents a question, then they can get hundreds of pitch in response. Each query also has a time limit, so it is important for both reasons to ensure that you respond quickly in the morning, afternoon and evening.
The second main element is easy access to a true industry expert. Fortunately, for DermWarehouse, we were a dermatologist at our disposal all the time. This gave us an advantage over thousands of pitches which deal with entrepreneurship (which we still had to answer, but there was little conversion).
If you spend time and send back two pitches per day for a year's time, then you will get tremendous exposure on some of the most popular sites on the web. This will not only help to increase the performance of your brand, it will also help your SEO too.
8. Pitchbox.
Developing relationships with media contact is very important. This is where the pitchbox comes in. Pitchbox Outreach grunts automate work so that you can focus on what you do best - make real, person-to-person connections with those you want to reach. Pitchbox helps to measure your outreach efforts. It handles all the aspects of the prospecting from email to tracking and workflow management.
The pitchbox sends an initial pitch, if no response, their mother-in-law software will send a follow-up email based on a timed program. You can craft your own email (initial and follow-up) so that the message is still personal looks like.
The pitchbox for startup starts at $ 95 and is a great resource for making high quality connections.We also used this service for seller outreach and for media outreach. It saved us a lot of time. If you are also a mosaic user, you can integrate the sprain into the pitchbox, so that you can filter your search results based on the domain authority.
9. Personal Outreach
Individual relations are very important for both vendors and the media. If you have successfully implemented the SEO strategy, then you definitely understand the value of personal relationships.
Be sure to tell the website something about value. Research is important to journalists and editors, so when you give them ideas for a story, the email is not buried in their inbox or they are deleted.
Let's say your ecommerce store sells "Pete's pasta sauce". Share your expertise through teaching readers and cooking aficionados about your most delicious dishes. Send an editor a sample of your pasta sauce so that it can help explain why your pesto stands out among the competition.
If you are selling only your homemade pasta sauce, you will not work with the seller's relationships, but if you are selling different brands and products, you will work with these vendors. Or at least you should be!
Pick up the phone or meet your representative for coffee. Sellers are those who set up sales and promotions. They can keep you updated on the latest trends of your brand to help increase your sales. They are people who know most about the products you sell, so it is very important to establish a relationship with them. Tell them that you are a team and you want to work with them to achieve success for them. They will appreciate it and will ever think about you whether they have any special deals or promotions, or even a great marketing idea. If you have a relationship with them, then your website is what they want to share these ideas and offers.
10. Get Payment Gateway
Have you ever thought how credit card payments are accepted on e-commerce websites? This is through payment gateways and credit card processors. You are probably familiar with PayPal or Stripe. But if you want to accept credit card, recurring billing and mobile payments, gateways like authorize.net or 2Checkout.com are great options. WooRockets.com provides a great list of "5 Best Payment Gateways" for e-commerce websites. Does it
Approval for payment gateways and credit card processors is not an easy process, so do your research and make sure that you are ready. Before you apply, you have to set up a secure checkout process on your website, create a privacy policy and return policy, find out your shipping and delivery methods, as well as a working customer service phone number and email address. .
All this information must be displayed on your website. Also make sure that a clean credit history, a US driver's license or state ID, an American bank account for that business where money will be deposited, and a federal tax ID. You will need a zero check (or a bank letter with your account information) and it is also a good idea to include a cover letter with your application explaining your business and why you would be successful.
Setting up your payment gateway and credit card processing can take some time. Without a processor experience, you do not want to take any big risks on a business or who are unlikely to succeed, so you have to prove that this is not the case with your business. Do not wait until the last minute to start this process.
11. Google Shopping + Facebook Product List
We have talked a lot about making your SEO presence during the development process, so instead of waiting for the completion of website development and starting your SEO with scratch, you can start your SEO while your The developer is plugged in to your location. Site.
However, there are some things you can not complete unless the site is ready to launch and the products are not all uploaded. When you are in the final phase of development, install your Google Shopping campaign to ensure that users populate their product images while searching for relevant keywords. If you are unfamiliar with Google Shopping, I give step-by-step instructions on 4 easy steps to setting up a Google Shopping campaign through the Merchant Center. "
You can use the same data feed from the Merchant Center and upload it to the Facebook Product List.
12. Locating order packaging and shipping / storage options.
Before launching your website, you need to find out how to store and ship your inventory. You have to determine the storage to arrange with your vendors. The need to answer some questions is as follows:
Are you using drop shipping or will you store all your inventory in the warehouse? Will you use some combination of USPS, UPS, FED or all three for the ship and track package? Which would you ship to your package? What size packaging do you need? Are you going to include any promotional material in your package? Are there any shipping restrictions on any product you are providing (for example, some beauty products can be sent only through the ground)?
Answers to all these questions should you prepare before shipping to any goods. As you can see, launching the ecommerce website is a fairly comprehensive and comprehensive process. After this checklist, you will take appropriate steps to launch your website on time while active with your SEO and marketing.