Best Tips for Building an Ecommerce Website

Last updated on June 23rd, 2022 at 04:25 am

Learn what steps you’ll need to take to build an eCommerce website from scratch.

Online sellers all over the world are flocking towards eCommerce in recent years, and it’s easy to understand why. A report shows that e-commerce sales surpassed 4.2 trillion U.S. dollars worldwide.

The reality is: creating digital spaces and virtual connections is a key to promoting your business. That’s the case whether you’re creating a small brick-and-mortar store or building an eCommerce website.

But owning an online business isn’t just a great way to generate some extra income. In addition to that, many entrepreneurs are drawn to online businesses because of the freedom they offer: you can work from anywhere, you can make your own schedule, and you’re the boss.

Even if you already have a physical store, introducing e-commerce to the mix can benefit entrepreneurs. Creating an online presence will help you reach a broad range of consumers, give your customers a more convenient way to shop, and, most importantly, skyrocket your sales which, in turn, will increase your bottom line.

In this guide for newcomers, we’ll lead you through the process of creating an eCommerce website.

What you need before building your online store

Creating an eCommerce site can be easier than you imagine. There is a range of eCommerce solutions that do the heavy lifting for you, but you still need to define exactly what your goals are and what will work better for your business. By doing extensive research, you can get a clear idea about what to do to grow and evolve your business in the years to come.

Below are a few important components you’ll need to have in place when starting your online business. First, the technical components:

1. A domain name

A domain name is the address of your website. Here are some guidelines to help you choose the best domain for you:

• Keep it simple. Short and simple domains are easier to remember and type which helps people navigate directly to your store.
• Abbreviate long business name. It’s okay to use alternatives if your business name is too long and complex.
• Choose a keyword-rich domain name. Use domain names that are relevant to the content you publish. It helps first-timers recognize what the website is about.
• Domain endings. The most popular domain ending is .com, but you can choose more specific endings. Google Domains offers a variety of endings, from .agency to .bar. That can help tell the world more about your business and what type of service you offer.

2. Web hosting

Before you launch your online business, you need to select the place where your data will be stored. That’s where a web host comes in.

When you start a real business you need a location to set up, store, and sell your items. The same rules apply to the digital world when creating an online business.

When you build an eCommerce website, you have content (files, illustrations, photos, HTML code) that your website consists of. This content needs a place to live. Without an online home, your files would just sit on your computer and no one would ever see them. A hosting provider will provide a place on a webserver to store all of your files and are responsible for delivering the files of your website as soon as a browser reads the request that was sent by the site visitor to see your website.

3. A website builder

Selecting a website platform is an important step in getting online. There are a ton of various options you can choose from, so you’ll need to identify the builder with the perfect combination of features for your niche at a cost that meets your budget.

Below are a few to consider:

1. Mailchimp. Mailchimp is more than just a website builder – it provides email services, marketing assistance, and automation tools that help you manage your marketing campaigns while growing your business. The great thing about Mailchimp is you can easily have everything all in one place.
2. Woocommerce. Woocommerce is a popular eCommerce plugin that offers the best features required to build a stunning web store.
3. Shopify. If you’re about selling and creating a website store with all bells and whistles, Shopify will help you.
4. Magento. Magento is an eCommerce platform that offers powerful marketing, search engine optimization, and catalog-management tools.

Later in this blog post, we’ll take a closer look at some important aspects to consider as you’re building eCommerce websites.

Step 1: Determine a site’s purpose

Think about the goal of your website. For instance, if one of your core goals is to nudge customers to click on the Buy now button, how will your website accomplish that? Will you be adding explainer videos to give a clear picture of your products?

The more specific you can be, the easier you’ll create your website.

Step 2: Create a map of your site

A site map is a hierarchical listing of a website’s pages. Beyond that, site maps also include details regarding the page intent, content, and functionality for each page. It helps you visualize the interconnections of your pages in a way that will make sense for your customers and search engines.

Following this brief guide will help ensure your site mapping process yields the most efficient results on behalf of your website:

1. First, you need to identify your goals. Think about the information you want to convey to your visitors and what actions you want them to take on your site. How will your site help people meet their wants and needs? Once the goal setting is complete, the next step is to consider your site’s architecture.
2. Website architecture defines the way you structure a website to ensure you meet your business goals while delivering a seamless customer experience. Imagine oneself in the situation or circumstances of your customer to understand what they want and make their shopping journey convenient.
3. Now you can start your website creation process! There are several ways to go about creating this document out, from diagrams to visual mapping tools.

Step 3: Choose your web design that matches your brand

Brand identity is what shapes your website users’ initial impressions of your business or organization. A beautiful and consistent design can help increase user interest and drive web traffic.

AI-powered design tools like Creative Assistance collect colors, typography, images, logos from your site and transform them into designs that are unique to you and your brand.

It’s not know-how anymore that embedding videos on your website will bring some real unmatched value to you and your audience. From enhancing the customer experience – in our visual-driven culture, people do prefer viewing to reading – to bringing SEO benefits to your site.

From explainer videos to presentations, you can create it all with the help of unique features right within Movavi online video editing software. It is for any creator, at any level, looking to make visually stunning content.

Step 4: Strengthen your site’s protection level.

The growing number of Internet users has allowed businesses to achieve many things – they can reach new audiences, promote products, and drive more sales. But as more people use this digital marketplace, and more sensitive data is stored, shared and accessed –  the techniques and sophistication of cyber-attacks have also grown.

Thus, think of how to protect your site from malicious attacks by hackers and other online criminals.

Step 5: Test your website

Launching the web store is a bit like making soup. You have a lot of ingredients that should come together, and before you’re done with all, you sample it, to make extra sure you have everything right.

Below is a checklist that provides a starting point for who testing a website before publishing:

1. Review website content and check all links
2. Check out this list of the best web hosting providers and choose the best fit for you.
3. Test your site on mobile devices screens and tablets
4. Check the following:

• Title
• Descriptions
• Content headers
• Images ALT tags

Don’t forget to protect your site from malicious attacks by hackers and other online criminals.

If everything looks great, go ahead – publish it!