The need to create an ecommerce or online store is growing rapidly. Physical businesses and new ideas of entrepreneurship, get increase your growth and maintain your profitability only when they have an online presence. In fact, their future existence depends on it. That is why at Geekobit we teach you everything you need to create an online store.
What is an ecommerce or online store?
An ecommerce or online store is a website that creates an internet version of your own business. In other words, e-commerce sites are responsible for displaying and selling on the Internet. everything you can find in a physical store or personal venture.
Types of ecommerce
Before creating an ecommerce store, you must understand the types that exist in order to choose the most suitable one according to your ideals and for further analysis. Thus, we have that online businesses can be divided according to two market patterns:
According to the target audience
B2B: In short, these types of stores are dedicated to the exclusive marketing with other companies or businesses. They usually try to sell products or services that can only be purchased by other companies or that are aimed at meeting specific needs. For example: sales of office equipment or for use in health centers.
B2C: In this type of ecommerce, companies sell their services or products directly to their end consumers. It is even one of the most common models, since it can be seen, for example, in stores such as: clothing sales, footwear, etc.
C2C: The consumer-to-consumer trade is present in those who acquire a product and trade it second-hand among other users.
According to the business model
Online store: the online store or ecommerce, basic, is the most common business model on the Internet. It is an online version of a store that usually sells products or services produced by other companies or its own.
Marketplace: these are the stores dedicated to provide a trading space for multitudes of users who can publish their products within the same page to sell and buy. For example, we have the case of amazon, ebay, free market, among others.
Affiliation programs: ecommerce oriented affiliate programs seek to create content where they can promote products from other stores in exchange for a commission for each sale made by those who buy from the sponsored link. Generally, these stores are usually organized into categories for different products and others specialize entirely in one type of item.
Dropshipping: Many people have decided to create an ecommerce store based on dropshipping, in fact, it is one of the models that has been exploited the most in recent years. Basically, it is an online store like any other, but it does not have products in stock. So, when a customer makes a purchase, you are not the one who makes the shipments and does not take care of the management of the purchase.but is carried out directly by the supplier.
Subscription: ecommerce focused on subscription services usually offer niche and non-generalized information. These are stores that sell a "membership"in exchange for information or exclusive products. So, to create a subscription store, value creation, as well as an attractive and user-friendly graphical environment are key.
Steps to set up an ecommerce store
Knowing the types of stores you can create, you can mold your website idea to better adapt it to your ecommerce. Although, in general terms, these types of online businesses have a very similar pattern to each other, the operation, design, templates, concepts and other gadgets you use for the page can change completely to facilitate usability. Let's see what you need:
The proposal
To create an ecommerce store you will need to formalize a proposal. We know that there are hundreds of thousands of online stores on the Internet, but with a good idea that can meet the specific needs of a particular niche, you can create the best business for you. Therefore, everything starts with the proposal or resolution of a problem you want to address. Then, you can try to identify how you can make a difference with what you are trying to offer. That is, do youWhat will make your idea better than others?
Planning
Planning is a consequence of the proposal and this is where the details are finalized. For example: How will the sales be made?Which strategy brings you closer to your target audienceWhat channels are most frequented by your audience? How will you manage product shipments? How will the payment methods be? Which ecommerce is best suited to your needs? and, of course, administrative processes so that the company can sustain itself in the future.
Domain name
Once the planning is done, it's time to create an ecommerce store and launch the different channels and now you need a domain name for your website.
Therefore, in order to choose the right name, the marketing and development experts recommend matching name and domain name. Beyond this, we have seen an increase in click-through rates when the domain alludes to what the person will find in the store when they click on it. For example, for a page about lamps, it could be: exampleoflamps.com.
However, this is not always the case. For this, marketing plans and advertising strategies are also responsible for making the service or product known to your target audience.
Hosting
The hostingas we have discussed in other articlesis a fundamental piece when creating an ecommerce store. There are hundreds of pages that offer free and paid services where you can host your website. However, the quality of the will make the difference between customers wanting to stay and watch your content or backing out and leaving..
All this is because it involves factors such as loading speeds, data protection and data transfer. For this reason, we recommend you to analyze between different hosting sites and to analyze their privacyThe data transfer and whether they are really trustworthy.
Choice of CMS
CMS or also known as content management system is a type of platform that helps you to configure the website according to what you want. Mainly, they make it easy for users to create websites without the need for computer skills.
A CMS saves a lot of time in the creation of your ideal site, content analysis and enhancement tools, such as the Rank MathThey can find the most suitable hosts and even help you with the creation of domain names. Not to mention that their command panel improves the organization of the content system. An example of a CMS can be found with WordPress.
At Geekobit we can solve for you, everything related to the design of your website and the strategies you need to start your project.
Competitive analysis
Analyze own strategies and those created by competitors will open up a better perspective of what may or may not work for your site. of ecommerce. In most cases, any startup should be based on "trial-and-error" testing to boost the site.
So, take note of the strategies used by the sites with the longest track records in the market. Consider how their ads look and what they contain, and even on what platforms they display them, to make your planning work.
Likewise, analyze the strengths and weaknesses of your website and correct on the fly. Some CMSs offer analysis tools with more accurate data to consider in order to improve your conversion strategy every day.
Marketing plan
The marketing plan is one of the most relevant if you want to build a thriving business. It's not just about creating a sales platform and waiting for the public to come by referral, you also need to encourage them to join.
Creating an ecommerce store with good planning will make it easier for you to find channels, advertising methods and ways to innovate in order to make your product a necessity for the final consumer.
Among the most important marketing strategies that have proven to be valid to date is content marketing. It consists of the article creation for a blog for your store that can inform. The goal will be to keep optimized texts to make the public aware of what they can achieve with your products or services by offering value. However, we recommend you to ask an expert to analyze your particular case in order to develop precise strategies.
