E-commerce gave rise to a whole new level of selling, companies had the opportunity to sell worldwide and reach millions of customers at once, increasing their sales and reaching new targets.
The likes of eBay, Alibaba, Amazon, Jumia, Konga, etc have shown that with the right e-commerce plan and strategy, you can take on the world and succeed.
Thanks to various digital solutions, the e-commerce business is much easier to setup.
Once you covered all the basics of setting up a business, you have your products and ready to sell, these are the necessary components to start an e-commerce website:
Domain and Hosting
A domain name in simple terms is your website address where Internet users find you in the vast world of the web. Getting a domain name that matches your business or brand name is very important and since the internet has been in existence for a very long time, it’s best you get creative with finding the right address for your customers to find you.
Hosting is the physical location of your website on the Internet, like your warehouse that stores all your website files which are fed to the internet and allows your customers to access your website anywhere in the world.
This is very important as this holds the key to your success online, choosing the right hosting goes a long way and remember, a successful e-commerce site grows, you will need to add new products which means more visitors which means more space and bandwidth (it’s like a road to your store, if blocked, no one can access your store).
Choose the right hosting that lets you grow when needed, customer service is a key factor, you must easily be able to reach them quickly and resolves issues as they will occur.
SSL( Green Padlock of Trust & Security)
SSL is basically an Add-on security for visitors visiting your website. It’s encrypts and authenticates your sensitive information and also of your customers who visit your e-commerce website. Payment platforms request this as a compulsory feature before you can integrate and use their services.
This is now becoming a norm even for corporate websites. Google has now made this a compulsory add-on for websites which also boosts your SEO(Search Engine Optimization) and help you to reach the goal of been seen my millions quickly on the search engine.
E-commerce Platform
An e-commerce platform helps you to get started quickly covering all the basics of an e-commerce website which usually takes months to years to accomplish.
There are several platforms to choose from like the open-source(free) Content Management Systems like WordPress, Joomla, Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, Weebly, etc. to paid ones and even customized e-commerce platform. it all boils down to your business plans and wallet.
Choosing the right platform will determine your business growth level and also speed at which to deploy a new feature to your website, a lot of thought and planning have to be put into this and we can help with that.
E-commerce website built around your chosen platform
Once you have chosen the right e-commerce platform for your business, you need to add the necessary webpages to it. Some of these platforms have a user-friendly interface to allow you to create and manage these pages. A great example is WooCommerce on WordPress. Once you added your products, you’ll need to add a few pages, layout and features like:
- Home page to show new products and special offers
- An ‘About Us’ talking about your business vision and mission
- A ‘Contact Us’ to help your customers get in touch with you
- Online chat feature for easy communication
- A Blog for more information on your products and lifestyle around your product industry.
- The FAQ page for frequent questions.
- Features like links to your social media, Newsletter, google analytics to analyze and understand your website traffic, giving you the information needed to create a strategy to increase sales.
Payment
Payment is a key feature for any e-commerce, you are an online store, visiting customers will like to pay for your products easily and securely. This use to be a problem but thanks to platforms like PayStack, PayU, PayPal, Stripe, etc. the process is much more secure, quick and easy. Some of these payment platforms come free with a charge for every sale you make and others you pay before using them.
They are other options like bank transfer and pay on delivery. Know your customers and you’ll make the right choice for payments of your products.
Delivery
Just like payment, delivery is very important, depending on your business model, you have various options like pay on delivery or pick up in store. you can charge separately for different locations.
It’s good to let your customers know the process and when it will be delivered, some delivery platforms like send.ng come can integrate with your e-commerce platform and give your customers up to date information on delivery.
Information is and will always make your business have an edge over others so always provide as much information as you can.
Product Images
This should actually be the first on the list, you know how you go visiting top brands and fall in love with the products just by looking at their images, this is a key factor for success. Invest in taking professional images of your products if you want to be highly successful,
Videos are also becoming a norm, so don’t leave this out if you can do it. It’s good to provide as much information as you can, giving your customers the necessary push to click that button.
Marketing
After all is said and done, no one will know about you if you don’t do marketing, it’s just that simple, even known top brands are still marketing and that should convince you enough, am sure you have seen google search adverts on websites.
Market your website and products better still set a budget aside for monthly marketing, find the right platform where your customers are and keep refining your marketing strategy to help increase your reach and sales.
Backup & Updates
The web world is always developing, always innovating, looking for better ways to serve you, its visitors. Once you are done with your website, do add it make a habit to update it just like your products, add new features, new social media platforms that your customers are on.
Backups are very important, as much as you have done all you can to secure and protect your website, things do happen like server failure or staff pressing the delete all button, a backup is a must for your website else you start from scratch if anything goes wrong. Schedule backups quarterly or monthly to make sure you have the latest backup.
In conclusion
You are now ready to begin selling online; setting up an e-commerce website is not easy but with the right plan and guidance – it can be simplified. We at WXAlimited do understand and can help you build a professional e-commerce website to help increase your sales.
Do follow us as we will do our best to keep you informed and up to date with new trends in the e-commerce world.
Have we left any keep component out or you need questions answered, please feel free to leave a comment below and if you want to start your e-commerce business, do reach out to us [email protected], we can guide you through the process and get your business up and running, thank you for reading.
