Setting up an online store might seem overwhelming at first, but with the right steps, it can be both exciting and profitable. Whether you’re new to starting an online store or have some business experience, an ecommerce store can help you connect with more customers and grow your brand.
In this guide, we’ll tell you how to get started—from selecting an ecommerce platform to designing your site and launching your first product. Follow these steps, and you’ll be well on your way to building a successful online store.
One of the biggest challenges you’ll face as an ecommerce entrepreneur is finding profitable products to sell. While understanding your audience can spark some product ideas, there’s still a lot more effort that goes into identifying truly profitable items. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to find winning products to sell, whether you’re dropshipping, manufacturing, or reselling.
To find profitable items to sell:
Note: This post is focused on helping you start an online store. If you’re looking to learn more about branding, writing a business plan, choosing products, or finding a manufacturer, check out our complete guide to starting a business .
Your target audience is the group your marketing zeroes in on. When starting an online store, knowing who your ideal customers are is essential. It makes finding new customers smoother and draws in buyers who are ready to shop, boosting conversion rates and driving more sales.
You can define your audience by size or specific traits, depending on what you’re offering. But as a new ecommerce entrepreneur, focus on these three categories for a start:
Think about who’s buying your product. What’s their deal? How old are they? Put all that together into a buyer persona and add it to your business plan. It’ll be handy when you’re writing website copy or planning marketing campaigns.
Even if you don’t have a product yet, you can still identify a target market and create something just for them.
During your journey to start an online store, one of the key choices you’ll make is deciding which platform to use. An ecommerce platform is your gateway to creating and launching your store, processing sales, and managing orders.
As you think about building a website to sell products , envision your ecommerce platform as the hub of your business. It manages everything from inventory to marketing, equipping you with all the tools needed to sell online and support your customers.
When choosing an ecommerce platform for your online store website, consider these key features:
You’ll also want to consider your current and future needs when choosing your ecommerce software. Some platforms might be perfect for your initial setup, but others like Shopify can offer more advanced features to support your business as it grows.
You’ve gone through all the fun stages of building an online store: choosing a name, designing your ecommerce site, selecting products, and writing descriptions. But before you go live, there’s one more step—making your business legal.
It might not be the most thrilling task, but setting up a legal entity is essential. It safeguards your personal assets if something goes wrong. Plus, it can help you:
Popular business structures for new entrepreneurs include:
A common trait among successful online stores is a brand that connects with customers. Good branding makes your store memorable and keeps people coming back. Before you start designing, focus on building a strong brand identity and creating assets for your marketing.
Here are some key branding elements to consider:
Start by defining what your brand stands for. What’s your purpose? What makes you unique? And, what promise are you making to your customers? These decisions will influence everything else, from colors to logos.
Choose a name that truly represents your brand. It could be anything—from your own name to a fun, made-up word, or something that clearly describes what you offer. If you’re struggling to come up with ideas, tools like Shopify’s AI name generator can help you brainstorm unique options.
Your logo is a key element that will represent your brand across various platforms. Whether you design it yourself or hire a designer , ensure it aligns with your brand’s mission, values, and tone to create a cohesive image.
Clean, sharp photos are essential for making a great first impression. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need expensive gear to take high-quality images. With just a smartphone and some creativity, you can produce stunning visuals for your website..
Now it’s time to start building your ecommerce site. Take the following steps to ensure you’ve checked off every item on your ecommerce checklist before you launch.
In Shopify, go to the “Add a product” section. This is where you’ll enter all the content, images, and details about your product.
Writing product titles and descriptions Your product title should clearly state what the item is. It’s the first thing customers see while browsing, helping them quickly identify what they’re looking for. Keep it brief. Use the product description or options like size and color to share more details.
Product descriptions are meant to both explain and sell. Here are some tips:
Most ecommerce platforms let you add visual content to showcase your products better. This can include photos, GIFs, videos, or even 3D models.
Presentation matters. You want customers to picture themselves owning your product. Show them how it looks in use or on display. Here are a few tips to keep in mind:
Depending on your business model, you might need to keep track of, store, and manage inventory. This doesn’t apply to dropshipping or print-on-demand stores, though. When setting up your online store, you can use tools from your ecommerce platform or third-party apps to make it easier.
Here are some terms you’ll see in your store’s admin:
Adding product options When your product comes in various versions, like different sizes or colors, you don’t need to create a separate listing for each one. Instead, group them as variants under a single product. Each variant can have its own image, price, inventory tracking, and specific settings.
You can even get more detailed with your options. For instance, you might offer multiple colors that also come in various sizes.
Your ecommerce platform provides various fields on the product page builder to help keep your catalog in order. For instance, on Shopify, you’ll find:
Creating collections lets you curate products based on specific audiences, themes, or categories. Organizing your items this way makes it easier to feature them by season or event, like showcasing winter coats before the cold hits. You can also apply changes to an entire collection, such as putting all your summer wear on sale.
Collections are key for navigation, often appearing in the main menu or top navigation of an online store. For example, a clothing store might organize collections by bestsellers, clothing type (like jackets), or specific customer groups (like kids).
In your online store’s shipping section, you’ll input information that will enable automatic calculation of shipping rates and generate the correct labels for each order. Deciding on the specific shipping costs and the options you’ll provide to customers will be covered later in this tutorial.
When selling online, several factors can impact how you set your prices. Consider things like shipping fees, material costs, overhead expenses, and the value of your time. But most importantly, think about how customers perceive your products’ quality.
You can always adjust your pricing as you gather insights after launching. You might find customers are willing to pay more, or discover new ways to cut expenses and boost each order’s value.
Don’t forget, most businesses that sell products or services need to collect taxes on every sale. Make sure you’ve configured your tax settings correctly.
To make your products easier to find on search engines like Google, it’s important to use SEO best practices when writing your page title, description, and URL.
If you know what keywords your ideal customers are typing in to find products like yours, you can weave those into these fields to boost your chances of showing up in search results.
Besides product pages, there are a few other must-have pages that every online store needs. These pages help establish trust, share your brand’s story, answer common questions, and guide customers on how to reach you. Key pages include:
An About page lets you introduce your brand and build trust with new customers. This is where you can share your story—maybe with a video, some images of your process, or links to any press coverage or awards. Let people know who you are and what makes your business unique.
The Contact page is where customers go when they need help or have questions. Include a physical address, phone number, email, contact form, and customer support hours. You might also consider adding live chat options to make getting in touch even easier.
Policy pages are essential for any online business. They give customers a clear understanding of how you operate and what they can expect from you. These pages also protect your business if disputes arise. Important policy pages include:
Tip: Just as you did for your product pages, customize the SEO details for these pages. Think about the URL, the title, and how you want each page to show up in search results.
With your products and content ready, it’s time to focus on your store’s design. You’ll want to tailor the look and feel to match your brand perfectly.
Start by picking a theme—a design template that acts as the foundation for your online store. Most ecommerce platforms offer a variety of themes. For example, Shopify’s Theme Store features both free and premium options, each with different styles and capabilities.
When choosing a theme , keep these tips in mind:
Designing your homepage
When planning your homepage design, think about the specific goals you want to achieve and how they fit your business:
Allbirds is a great example of effective design. Its uncluttered homepage emphasizes large lifestyle photos and effectively directs visitors to the brand’s main product.
Your online store will have three main types of navigation:
Don’t overwhelm visitors with too many choices. Instead, prioritize the most important actions you want them to take, keeping the focus on shopping.
Colors and fonts are essential to your brand’s look and feel, and they should be carefully considered when building your online store.
Even if you’re not a designer, you can still create a cohesive and appealing design with these tips:
For example, a homepage might use calming colors, easy-to-read fonts, and a logo that’s subtly integrated into the design, creating a cohesive and welcoming online space.
Customizing your online store’s checkout involves tweaking settings, messages, and other details that shape the customer experience and enable you to accept payments online. Most ecommerce platforms offer options such as:
For example, Ban.do ’s website offers guests the option to check out as a guest, sign in, or create an account before finalizing their purchase:
Set your shipping options
Shipping is often one of the more complicated aspects of running an online store. You need to consider packaging costs, carrier rates, shipping destinations, product weights, and your potential profit margins.
Depending on your business needs, choose a shipping strategy or combine a few options, such as:
Within your platform’s shipping settings, set up shipping zones (where you ship and available delivery methods) and conditional rates (e.g., bundling goods or handling oversized items).
For example, Momofuku’s site encourages customers to spend a bit more to hit the free shipping threshold:
If you’re selling goods or services, you’ll likely need to collect taxes for the government whenever someone orders from your store. There are exceptions, such as digital goods in some regions or small businesses under specific revenue thresholds.
If taxes apply to you, adjust your online store’s admin settings accordingly. Set taxes by region if necessary, depending on where you do business. If you’re unsure about taxes, consult an accountant or tax professional.
Now it’s time to figure out how your store will handle payments and how you’ll receive your earnings. With countless payment gateways available, including ones built into platforms like Shopify, you can save on transaction fees and keep more of your profits.
Once you’ve picked a gateway, here’s what comes next:
There are a few more steps to ensure your store looks polished and is ready to welcome customers. These include:
Buying a domain is like claiming your space on the web. That’s why it’s called a “web address.”
A custom domain gives you a personalized URL, replacing the default one generated when you named your store. Go to your store’s settings to link the domain you purchased earlier, or grab one directly from your ecommerce platform.
Besides your main online store, you can tap into other sales channels to expand your reach. Not every channel will suit your business, but here are a few worth considering:
With automation, you can set up email sequences that guide customers through their journey—from signing up to making a purchase and tracking their orders. This boosts efficiency and cuts down on customer support tasks.
You’re finally set to go live! Most ecommerce platforms will have you flip a switch or remove password protection so everyone can access your site.
Is it flawless? Maybe not, but you’ve handled the essential steps to get your store ready for business. Launching now allows you to gather feedback in real-time and adjust your design, settings, and messaging as needed.
Here’s what to focus on next to grow your ecommerce business:
Treat this like a “soft launch” for your business. Use real transactions and beta testers (like friends or family) to check your checkout process and navigation. Once everything’s running smoothly, it’s time to share your launch with the world.
Marketing varies for every business, but it’s essential to lay a solid foundation to maximize your efforts as you drive traffic to your store. Let’s explore some key marketing elements for online businesses.
Social media marketing combines sharing content to build an audience and running paid ads on social platforms. Here’s how to make the most of social media for your online business:
Many potential customers turn to Google or other search engines when they’re shopping online. Whether they’re searching for something they heard about or comparing products, SEO helps your store appear in their search results.
Effective SEO can bring organic traffic to your online business. Here are some SEO tips:
For example, if you sell crafts, write blog posts or create videos on related topics to capture search traffic.
Monitoring your store’s traffic and sales across all your marketing channels is essential. Analytics help you understand what’s working and what’s not, allowing you to focus your efforts on the strategies that offer the best return on investment for your online business.
Now that you’ve got the basics down, it’s time to take action! Whether you’re selling handmade crafts , custom merch , or digital downloads , your online shop can offer it all. Your ecommerce journey is just beginning, and it will evolve as you grow. To build a successful store, focus on connecting with your target audience and offering the products and messaging they’re eager to find.
To get your online shop going, start with a brand and something to sell. Next, create your store on an ecommerce platform. Add custom designs, products, and important pages to your site. Once everything is set, launch your shop and begin marketing to bring in customers.
You can run an online store without holding inventory by picking the right business model. Options like dropshipping or print on demand mean a third party takes care of the shipping. You just focus on sales, marketing, and handling customer service.
Yes, you can start an online store with no money by signing up for a free trial with most ecommerce platforms. However, keep in mind that you might need to spend a little on basic plans after the trial ends.
The cost of starting an online store depends on several factors. At a minimum, you’ll need around $20 for basic web hosting and an ecommerce plan. You’ll also have to consider transaction fees that can add up with each sale. Beyond that, there are marketing expenses like paid ads, as well as overhead costs like internet, utilities, and rent if you need storage or office space.
Running a profitable online store requires a few essentials. You’ll need a device like a laptop or smartphone, internet access, an ecommerce platform, and some startup cash to cover web services and fees. As your store grows, you might also need to stock inventory, buy packaging materials, find storage space, handle order fulfillment, and budget for services like ads or professional help.
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