This post was originally published on May 23, 2019, and was updated on Jan 13. 2022
Over the past few years, people have grown more comfortable shopping from their couches, which means there’s never been a better time to start an online store or add ecommerce functionality to your website. It’s never been easier for small businesses to get into the ecommerce game, either.
There are over 2.14 billion active people shopping online globally — 49% of whom do so more now than they did pre-COVID-19.
And Forbes reports that online spending grew “$183 billion over the past year, with Americans on track to spend $1 trillion online (a record amount) in 2022.”
If you’re an ecommerce noob, however, you may need help selecting the right products and platforms to sell online, learning how to build and launch your ecommerce site, finding your target customers, and closing the deal. We’ve gathered all the information and tools you’ll need to easily launch your online store and list your products on all marketplaces, both quickly and effectively.
How to start an online store
In this post, we’ll walk you through the entire process — from product ideation to planning, launching, and promoting your online store.
- Research and concept-test your products
- Know where to find products to sell
- Understand how much it costs to sell via an online store
- Create categories for your ecommerce products
- Set up ecommerce payments and checkout
- Develop your shipping and fulfillment strategy
- Integrate social shopping channels
- Prepare your ecommerce store for online marketing
- Launch your first ecommerce store
- Find new ecommerce customers
- Create a customer service strategy
Related: Ecommerce trends 2021: Which predictions came true and what can we learn for 2022
1. Research and concept-test your products
Before launching an online store, conduct market and product research to ensure you’re utilizing a viable business strategy.
Test your product concept with friends and family
Selling a unique product that stands out from all the rest is important. But how do you know if people actually need or want to buy it? Here’s what to ask when gathering insights from people you know:
- Do they love your idea? If so, find out what features would be most appealing to them?
- Is there anything about your product idea they would change?
- Ask about their ideal customer experience. What services would make it shine?
- Would they be willing to pay full price for your product? What do they think it’s actually worth?
- Have they bought similar products elsewhere? What did they like or dislike about both the product and buying experience?
Gathering this level of feedback is an excellent way to refine your product before selling it online.
You can conduct casual research by speaking with friends and family in person to gather qualitative insights, or by setting up a quick online survey.
SurveyMonkey has a monthly subscription service that you can use to survey friends and family, along with visitors to your website, to better understand who would or is buying your products right now. Google Docs enables you to set up survey forms, as well.
Research your competition
Once you have positive product feedback, research your competition and gain market insight online.
Start by searching for and visiting popular product review sites, where you can find lists of top products for specific categories, compiled by experts.
Read what the experts like about those top products and visit the product websites to see how they’re featured and sold.
Likewise, go on social media to see what people are saying about those brands. Do people complain about their products online, or do most of their customers sing their praises? This exercise will give you an idea of how much brand loyalty the product has. Also, see if those brands respond to customer questions and complaints, and list what the common issues might be.
Subscribing to your competitors’ email lists is another effective way to analyze how your competitors are talking to your target audience. Make note of their pricing and promotional strategies, which we’ll detail later in this post.
Find your niche
The best product ideas are often born from hobbies and passions, where you discover an opportunity in a niche that no one is serving.
Search for keywords or phrases that your target market will likely use to find your niche product or service, and note if the market is saturated.
If that is the case, it could cost you extra money and time to stand out in an already crowded marketplace. Sometimes, it’s better to start small in an underserved market. Here are some great tips on “niching down” your product ideas.
Define your target customers
Without a properly defined target market, your sales and promotional efforts will suffer. There are a couple of things to consider as you classify your target audience.
Identify key demographics
Start by gathering statistical data related to your audience: age, gender, marital status, education level, household income, and geographic location.
If you’re selling a business-related product, you might also want to profile your customers’ professional details, like the types of jobs they do and which markets they serve.
Your local census bureau might share some of this information for free online. You can also search a competitor site on Alexa to find target audience information similar to the customers you’re targeting.
Gather customer psychographics
It’s also important to learn your prospective customers’ lifestyle, goals, interests, and hobbies. Understanding these qualities helps you effectively target your products to their needs.
Again, an online survey tool can be helpful in gathering this data, along with free market research from organizations like eMarketer, Comscore, Pew Research, Nielsen IQ, and Think With Google Research Tools.
Finally, map out consumer buying behaviors and key influences.Do your customers research on mobile or desktop? Do their friends’ recommendations on social media sway their purchase decisions?
Look at how your target consumers interact across all possible sales channels and touchpoints, including mobile apps, messaging platforms, and email.
The more you learn about what makes your audience unique and ideal, the more targeted and effective your content will be. That’s why we’ve developed a practical guide to defining customer profiles and personas for your reading pleasure.
2. Know where to find products for your online store
Before you launch your online store, you need to know which products you’re going to sell, and how you’re going to source and physically store them. There are many options for first-time ecommerce entrepreneurs.
Sell existing inventory online
If you own a retail brick-and-mortar store, you can use it as a place to store inventory until your ecommerce business grows.
Use dropshipping to start without inventory
Many first-time ecommerce entrepreneurs start their careers with no physical inventory. Through a process called dropshipping, you can act as a wholesaler of products that you curate on your site, then purchase directly from the manufacturer to ship to your customers.
Here’s everything you need to know about dropshipping to get started.
Create and ship your unique products on-demand
If you currently sell crafts, custom t-shirts, or artwork on sites like Etsy, consider driving those customers to your own site after your first sale. Include a business card or coupon in their parcel that promotes your site’s URL, and offers a discount on their next purchase.
That way, you keep one hundred percent of the future profits from repeat buyers. It also enables you to build a stronger relationship with those customers.
The beauty of these businesses is that you only need to create and ship what you sell in advance. Be sure to indicate how long a customer can expect to wait for the product, though, before they make their purchase decision.
Here’s a helpful small business guide to selling your crafts online.
Offer a monthly subscription service
Another way to manage your product inventory as a new ecommerce business is to sell a subscription-based service. You only need to store and ship the units you’ve already sold in advance each month or quarter — depending on your business development model.
This post will answer your questions on how to set up subscription services.
A note on unit economics
Ensure that whatever products you choose to sell will be profitable for your business, and evaluate your unit economics, meaning your direct costs versus the revenue you’ll generate on a per-unit basis. If the costs per unit are too high or the profit margins are too thin, then start with products that have a higher profit margin.
3. Understand how much it costs to start an online store
It doesn’t have to cost you a fortune to launch your first ecommerce website. However, there are some key elements that you’ll need to work into your budget before launching.
Starting an online store on a limited budget
At a minimum, you need to launch your online store using a hosting platform, custom domain name, unique site design, and compelling brand copy and imagery.
There are also consumer privacy and protection measures, legal, and sales tax requirements that you’ll have to pay for as well (more on this later).
How much you spend on these items depends on your budget and your comfort level with doing some of the work yourself.
Select and purchase a domain and business name
When choosing your ecommerce business name, consider something that is short, memorable, and marketable. Our company name generator can also help you find the right name for your ecommerce store.
The cost for a domain name can range anywhere from $2 to $20, but there can be hidden costs. Review this guide for more details on what to include in your budget.
You might also consider using .shop or .store for general ecommerce, or get more specific with .jewelry, .clothing, .coffee and more.
You can try out various options using the search box below:
Invest in a hosting and design template platform
Most platforms that host your website will also offer a variety of design templates that you can access for free or for a monthly fee.
A templated ecommerce website package comes in one quick install. It typically includes a website template/theme, product pages, shopping cart, payment processing feature, and hosting for your site.
Pick a theme for your online store
Do your research to find the right platform with the design options to suit your online store’s own set of styles (at the right price point) to get started. Most offer free templates as well as paid options. The cost for paid theme prices can range from $0 to a few hundred dollars a month.
