How to Create an Online Store?

A Step-By-Step Guide for Beginners

2020 is likely to go down as the year when businesses went online, a massive shift as the COVID-19 pandemic has brought the world to a halt. Whether you are a mega-business, medium-size company, or even a small local store, almost non could escape from this “new normal”.

Source: Google Trends—”online store”

But as more and more businesses start to take their spot in the online space, they are also fueling the already rising competition. And that’s the power of marketing pages. It is the advertising branch of your business, to knock on people’s curiosity, attract them, and convert visitors into customers. (Click here to read more about marketing pages)

In this guide, I will be talking about creating an online store using one of the available tools. Also, some tips to leverage your online store functions to boost your sales.

CONSIDERATIONS WHEN CHOOSING AN ONLINE STORE PLATFORM

Before jumping straight into creating an online store, it would be useful to spend some time thinking about the following items. These factors could potentially affect which online building platforms you might end up choosing.

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Another population: WooCommerce. It is an eCommerce solution powered by WordPress, meaning you will need to purchase a web hosting plan in order to build a WordPress website and operate WooCommerce. Not only that, but you might also need to pay to unlock premium features and install additional plugins in order to utilize WooCommerce. And if you don’t have much experience or knowledge on how to build and operate a WordPress website, WooCommerce might not be an ideal option for someone who is new to creating online stores.

Considering all different factors—not much technical expertise; able to seek help when needed; and the ability to quickly build and start the eCommerce site—I would recommend Website.com for the following reasons:

HOW TO CREATE AN ONLINE STORE?

Choose an eCommerce template

While you can certainly choose to build a website from scratch, based on my personal experience, using a template gave me a better idea of what a “good online store website” should look like. And from there on, I can start customizing to fit my brand. 

The first step to take is to get to Website.com’s eCommerce website template page and select a template that suits you.

Next, once the platform finishes loading and you can now see your chosen template on the website builder, click on the Store icon button and select Go to Store Manager to start managing your online store.

If by chance you’ve selected a non-eCommerce template, or you’ve first built a website and now you want to add an online store, go back to the store icon button and click +Create Store Now. A brand new eCommerce web page will appear, all you need to do is to follow the steps mentioned above to get to the Store Manager interface.

Add and manage products

You can add and edit product details under Products Catalog.

Say you want to group certain products, maybe you want to apply the same discount on multiple products. You can simply first group the products together as collections under the “Collections” tab and apply the discount to specific Collections.

Click +Add Products to add products and input product details to your collection. You will also find the same button under the Collections tab.

 When you’re ready, remember to press Done.

You can also add products to an existing collection or create a new collection when editing details of a specific product.

Product Ribbons are small tags shown at the corner of each product, usually used as additional promotion of certain products.

CAN COUPONS HELP YOUR BUSINESS?

In marketing, coupons are a promotional tool, usually in the form of a document or electronic ticket used to redeem for a discount when purchasing goods or services. It is a great way to boost your sales and help to further promote your business. In fact, almost 90% of U.S. customers said to have used coupons when purchasing online. U.S. customers even spent as much as a total of 13 million hours a week just to search for online coupon codes. (I mean, who doesn’t love getting discounts!)

Some other advantages include:

• Attract new customers
• Increase awareness of your products
• Increase chances for repeated sales
• Enhance customer loyalty
• Promote a new product line

To activate the coupon function, go to the Coupon tab in the Store Manager and click +Add New Coupon.

This is where you can edit the details such as customizing your coupon code, type, discount value, etc.

Once activated, your customers will be able to use the coupons when buying from your online store by entering the coupon code in the “Discount Code” area.

Promoting Your Coupons

Now that you’ve set up a coupon code, it will be useless if no one can see it. There are numerous methods, for instance:

• Social media posts (you will need to have social media accounts)
• Email marketing (you need to set up an email subscription)
• Coupon platforms (these are external websites/mobile applications)
• Marketing page 

Another simple one, which required near to no effort, is to have your coupon code shown directly on your eCommerce web page. For stance, right above your online store.

(If you’re not on the online store web page) Click the PAGE button and select the page with the Store Icon.

Select the text element (at the very top) and click Edit Text.

You are free to type whatever suits you, but the general rule of thumb is to never only provide your coupon code and nothing else. Provide details—What is the discount about? Under what condition can you use the coupon? Coupon Code? 

Example:

And whenever you’ve set a new coupon,  always remember to change your code promotion, particularly the coupon code (“GET10OFF”).

Click here to know more about Website.com’s website builder platform, how to add and edit elements to customize your eCommerce website.

WHAT ARE ABANDONED CARTS AND WHY IT IS IMPORTANT?

Business Standard and Business Advance plans only

What are abandoned carts? It appears when potential customers leave the checkout page before completing the entire process. According to Baymard Institute, the average shopping cart abandonment rate was near 70% globally. Forrester Research even predicts that companies could lose up to USD $18 billion annually due to abandoned carts.

This is definitely bad for all businesses. But there’s a way to try and retrieve these potential lost sales—abandoned cart emails.

Through Website.com’s online store manager, business owners will be able to track down all these abandoned orders. Open Store Manager, All Orders, and click on the Abandoned tab.

All the incomplete orders will be listed here. Select the orders and click Send Recovery Cart Email to re-engage with potential customers.

Once the email is sent, the system will automatically update the email delivery status.

Sample of the recovery email:

Not all customers actually thought about abandoning their orders, some might just have clicked the wrong button and closed the tab/browser by accident! Moosend did a study and found out that of all the abandoned cart emails that they have sent out, 45% of them were read, 21% managed to get people back to the checkout page, and 10.7% had successfully been retrieved.

Therefore it is always good to look out for any abandoned carts since there’s always a chance that you could successfully retrieve them. You just never know!