If you are looking to start an online shop then you will need an ecommerce site. This is where you add products to your website that people can purchase. There is a massive range in ecommerce sites available from pay per month rentals to top agencies charging in excess of 7000pounds for the creation. When starting out it can be a bit confusing as to which to go for.
It is always a very sensible option to start small. This is something that many people have learnt the hard way. If you are starting an online shop, you really have no idea what the next year will entail. You have looked to the traffic stats and think you know the conversion rate and the market, but the bottom line is stats change and the Google keyword tool is not always that accurate giving a month by month view.
There are many options for a pay per month online shop. These are probably the best option for a beginner since they require very little commitment and can be stopped within a month’s notice. They are also easy to create and add products with ongoing support. Prices range from 10pounds per month to 60pounds per month according to the requirements you may have.
If you are looking for an upgrade of your shop then it is a good idea to pay for an experienced company to include all the functionality you may need. Stock control, ebay integration, weekly specials, sales, discount codes, promotion area are all some of the additional functionality you may want with your website. Once you have some experience in the lay out of your shop you may require a your categories to be a certain way, certain information on your product pages or promotions on the home page.
The bottom line with an online shop is you need to ensure you make the products the client is looking for in front of them quickly and easily. If they get lost in a complex navigation you will end up with a low conversion rate and a lot of excess stock.
Don’t be fooled that creating an online shop is easy. You still need to decide on the product range, find the right suppliers, storage of products, decide on the best packaging solution and postage options. If you have had little or no experience then all of these need substantial research and trial an error to find the right options. Also even though once an online site is up and running and receiving traffic it can as it were run on autopilot, you still have the updating and addition of products that is rather time consuming. If the suppliers don’t have photos of their products, this is another area you need to look in to. The only thing potential buyers have to go on in the photos, so they need to be professional to sell the products.
But don’t worry too much about the individual steps, just take it one step at a time and before you know it you have created your very own online shop!