How to Plan an eCommerce Website

Building and Planning an eCommerce website (online business) are two different things. The proper plan for an eCommerce website is important to know and understand for success in this area. This article will help you build an exceptional eCommerce website that can be profitable over time.

Content

1: SELLING ITEMS

The first and foremost thing is to determine what you will sell. You should sell what you are most interested in. if you will choose something that is not of your interest, then you won’t be able to run your business passionately.

On the contrary, people also prefer trendy products in the market due to the high demand by customers. You can also research the shopping habits of your target audience. 

Whatever the case, your store needs to be designed after proper product and market research to understand better selling costs and profit percentages. You need to be sure about the products you will sell based on their selling rate, customer choice, and overall market competition.

2: Ecommerce Business Model

There are several business models for eCommerce, and a business owner has to choose the model very carefully. The two basic models are B2B and B2C – Business to Business and Business to Customer. Your business may fall into one of these categories, but you need to be clear about the category where your eCommerce business falls.

B2B is a model within businesses. It is a model where businesses sell their products to other businesses. It means that a manufacturing company or factory delivers the items to the businesses as a wholesaler or producer. No customers are dealing with any business.

Another type of business model is B2C, where the businesses deliver the product to the customers. A B2B website works directly with the customers, and customers purchase things from the website by following the proper checkout procedure.

3: KNOWING YOUR AUDIENCE

Another important part of an eCommerce business is knowing your audience to design a better business plan. Knowing your audience and their preferences will allow you to serve them and earn profit easily.

Everything from website design to content, visuals to font size, and user experience must be perfectly tailored to your customers’ requirements. The overall information about your potential customers should be in your hands to plan the website accordingly.

4: CHOOSE A GOOD BUSINESS NAME

A good brand name is considered one of the most powerful tools for eCommerce business. You need to choose a unique name that goes well with your business, and you can distinguish yourself well from others. It is not a good idea to choose a name similar to or near the name of your competitors.

 Do not go for wordy brand names. Keep it simple and crisp. One-word businesses are more suitable, like Google, Amazon, Apple, etc. the shorter terms are easy to remember.

Moreover, if your name is not good, it may lead to failure. If people don’t get attracted to the brand name, especially for the online stores, they won’t prefer to buy anything.

5: GET A DOMAIN NAME

After finalizing the brand name and other formalities, you must purchase a domain name and find a URL for your website. Registering for the domain name is an important step. Do not wait for the launch of your products because you may not get your desired domain name at the end.

6: DETERMINE YOUR BRAND

If you want your business name to be famous and known well, you must choose a good logo, bright font, a perfect outlook, personalized and attractive website design to attract more people.

To make people know you, you must carefully narrate and share your story with your audience. The actual reason behind starting a brand is that it can get you lots of traffic too. If you personalize your brand, people will start trusting you easily.

Your content needs to be engaging. Your brand voice needs to be unique and stand out in the crowd to let people attract you.

7: FINDING THE eCOMMERCE PLATFORM

There are several options to choose from when it comes to choosing an eCommerce platform like Magento, WooCommerce, Shopify, etc. there are certain benefits and disadvantages of all the platforms. You need to take care of the following things before landing on any specific eCommerce platform:

  • The design should be device friendly. People should be able to use your website on mobile, tablets or desktops, etc.
  • All the tasks like editing, adding material, or keeping inventory track should be simple.
  • It should be easy to add promotional or sales prices for the products.
  • The CMS should help you in keeping your website updated.
  • The shopping cart should be customizable, so you can easily customize it per your product needs.
  • The checkout process should be short and simple.
  • The website should accept all sorts of payments like credit cards, debit cards, PayPal, COD, etc.

8: PLANNING FOR CONTENT

To better represent your brand, you need to update the refreshing content to stay updated in the potential market. It is better to have a proper strategy for the content of your website. The content can also include your brand’s story and the description of other products.

For planning the strategy, you need to know your audience well. If you know your audience, you can easily answer their questions and fulfill their needs using better words. You can also answer the inquiries which are unanswered by your competitors.

9: SEO

The best products, excellent customer service, and amazing content do not guarantee the customers. The only thing which matters in the case of traffic is SEO. The traffic depends on the relevance of the overall content and your choice of words. The basic rules of SEO are:

  • Use the common terminologies which people use if they talk about certain products.
  • Search keywords for a specific jargon
  • Hire an SEO expert

10: FINALISE THE PRODUCT CATEGORIES

Online marketplaces are loved by customers if appropriately organized. You are more likely to get customers if your website is properly organized. If your website is poorly designed, you may easily lose your customers. Some people are looking for a specific thing and cannot check the entire store for such items. Therefore, it is important to properly categorize the things as per their major type to help people find the products.

The products need to be classified for men, women, girls, children, professionals, etc., so people can get to their desired category without wasting time. There should be clear signs to move from one category to another for the ease of customers.

11: CAPTURING THE PHOTOS

Clicking photos is also part of an eCommerce plan and the marketing plan. You will lose customers if you have terrific products but your photography is not good. People get attracted to what they see on the screen. People would prefer to buy from you if your photos are clear and visible.

The vibrancy and focus should be perfect so you get professional photographs. The photos can be further edited to enhance their quality and to make them more appealing using Photoshop etc.

 A customer cannot hold the product in hand in online shopping, so you should try your best to give them an excellent online shopping experience by uploading clear images.

12: FIND THE SHIPPING SOFTWARE

The choice of software can make or break your business. You should do proper research about shipping software for an effective business plan. You will get the perfect results if you have chosen the right shipping software. Your shipping software needs to be customer-friendly, so everyone can get their orders quickly. There are two widely used shipping software:

  • SHIPPO has a lot of practical features. It provides tracking information for the users and helps you properly receive the orders. Famous brands use Shippo, and most customers like their shopping method.
  • SHIPSTATION is another web-based shipping software that allows you to quickly set and print many labels. It is also mobile-friendly software to help both sellers and buyers.

CONCLUSION

Establishing your own eCommerce business is, at the same time, fascinating and demanding. Within a short time, you will imbibe a lot about selecting a product, measuring its applicability, identifying the process of producing it, organizing an eCommerce website, and highlighting and asking new customers a hefty amount for it. Although the process seems quite exhaustive, it yields fruitful results. The best advice for attaining success in this process eventually is to take a start.

Related Articles:

Latest Resources

>