How to Start Selling Goods and Services Online
How frequently do you shop online?
If you’re like most people, you’re no stranger to online shopping. Each year the number of online shoppers climbs higher and higher, and we don’t see that trend declining any time soon. According to Statista, “Retail e-commerce sales worldwide are forecast to more than double between 2018 and 2023, surpassing 6.5 trillion U.S. dollars in 2023.”
Those statistics make starting an e-commerce website pretty appealing, don’t they? And if you need any extra motivation, think about how nice it’ll be to be your own boss, make your own hours, and be able to work from anywhere in the world.
Starting an e-commerce website
How do you start planning for your online business and creating your e-commerce site?
Before we discuss the elements every e-commerce site should have, let’s talk about getting your other ducks in a row. In order to build the best e-commerce website you can, you’ll need to consider:
- Your ideal customer.
- Your products or services. – whether you’re selling handmade crafts, digital courses, or specialized industrial tools.
- Your differentiator, or what sets you apart from the competition and makes people choose you over them.
- Sourcing your products.
- Inventory.
- Shipping.
- What you’ll name your business and online store (hint: it should match your domain name for consistent branding.)
Once you’ve spent some time on those items, you can get down to business creating a website to sell your goods and services so you don’t miss your piece of the e-commerce sales pie.
First impressions matter
Have you ever landed on a website to browse and do some shopping only to scan it and think, “This doesn’t look legitimate,” and then exited the site? What gave you the impression that the website wasn’t genuine or could be a scam?
Typos and bad grammar, no product descriptions or photos, a lack of contact information, an unsecure website connection, and cluttered design are all reasons we’ve heard for people leaving a website without making a purchase.
Elements every e-commerce website needs
When someone lands on your website, they shouldn’t be driven away by any of the reasons we mentioned above. You want to inspire trust in your site visitors and help them through your marketing funnel so they’ll become customers.
What elements does your e-commerce website need to inspire confidence in your site visitors?
- Security
- The threat of having your personal and financial
information exposed or hacked is real. With
SSL, a secure connection is established between your site visitor and your
website. That means any information passed from their end to yours (like
billing details) is encrypted and kept safe from prying eyes.
- The threat of having your personal and financial
- Cluttered design
- Websites are visual things and humans are visual
creatures. You can try creating your own website with code, or make life a
little easier on yourself by using a
website builder. - Domain.com’s
WebsiteBuilder offers specific themes already optimized for e-commerce and
you can drag and drop elements within these themes to customize your site.
- Websites are visual things and humans are visual
- Product photos and product information
- Again, humans are visual creatures. You need
clear photos that accurately represent your products. You also need a clear
description of what you’re selling. If not, you risk people not purchasing or
purchasing, being disappointed, and leaving bad reviews for your new online
store. - Here are some
tips on how to photograph the products for your e-commerce store.
- Again, humans are visual creatures. You need
- Typos and bad grammar
- If your online site is full of typos and errant
punctuation, you run the risk of someone thinking it’s a fake site that’s set up to
phish for your personal or financial information. - There are many free online tools, like Grammarly, that can help you perfect the
spelling and grammar for the writing and copy on your e-commerce website.
- If your online site is full of typos and errant
- Contact Information
- We know you’re doing your best. Even so,
mistakes can happen. On the off chance that there’s an error in an order, your
customers will want to know how to contact you. Make sure that information is
apparent and available from the moment you launch your site.
- We know you’re doing your best. Even so,
From a consumer perspective, your e-commerce site needs these things. Without them, you’re doing yourself and your online business a disservice.
Are you ready to start building your online store?
Check out Domain.com’s Website Builder today!
With WebsiteBuilder, you don’t just get highly-customizable templates. With our business plan you’ll receive dedicated e-commerce features in your builder like:
- E-commerce shopping cart
- Sell your products across web and mobile
devices.
- Sell your products across web and mobile
- Inventory management
- Track your inventory and stock.
- Payment processing
- Choose from Stripe or PayPal.
- Coupon codes
- You’ll have the ability to offer coupon codes to
your visitors and customers to drive more sales.
- You’ll have the ability to offer coupon codes to
So what are you waiting for? Get your domain name and start your online store today!