As more and more eCommerce businesses are flourishing, retailers are starting to consider it a prudent business proposition. The beauty of an online business lies in the fact that the internet will never cease to provide a global audience full of potential customers. Although the heart of any eCommerce business has been always a retail business, being technologically proficient can complement your online business.
Some of the initial steps for an eCommerce startup are:
- Buying a domain name
- Selecting a platform
- Getting your website developed and designed
- Hosting your site
Domain Name
This step does not involve much of an effort. You can go to any of the website like name.com , enom.com etc. and buy a domain name paying through several online payment modes. But before purchasing one you should consult a SEO specialist. It’s a very important step as when consumers would think of your website they will think of it by name.
Ensure these points before you select a domain name:
Select a unique domain name which would represent your brand yet should not be close to a very popular site.
Choose the domain extensions carefully. ‘.com’ is the most popular domain
Make it short and easy. It should not involve a considerable attention in typing or remembering it.
Platform Selection
One of the most crucial steps of starting an online business is to select the platform. That would be over your table, which you will be selling your products and services.
Selection of platform depends on your affordability and your bandwidth in terms of technical skills. You have to be clear about whether you can hire and maintain a dedicated team of technically proficient people like designers, developers, search optimization specialist, webmaster etc. If you yourself have a moderate knowledge of what all these people know then you wouldn’t require to maintain such a team. So, your selection of platform would depend on these criteria. If you are a big company with a chain of retail stores, capable of maintaining a dedicated team of technical people you should go for a hosted solution like Magento, Prestashop etc. The skills of the technical team will be highly required to make up updates in the site as well as in the future. This means a recurring a cost of keeping employees and maintaining a technical team. On the contrary if you are a mid-sized company with limited funds you should go for a SaaS based eCommerce platform like Shopify, Volusion etc. As your initial investment will be less and it will be a subscription based. If you select a hosted solution your store maintenance would be completely be taken care of by the vendor.
Website Design and Development
This is where skills in technology come in handy. It is however not an absolute necessity for you being a merchant to have technological skills. It will just give you an added advantage if you have some knowledge in programming, eCommerce platforms and designing. You will always have the option of maintaining a dedicated team of technical people. So you will have to get a theme designed for your store or you can also purchase a theme from places like themeforest.net , templatemonster.com etc. But completely buying out a theme would cost you a lot, and if you don’t, some time later you might see some other eCommerce store having that desired theme. Then comes the development of your store. If you decide to do it yourself, you should always bear it in mind that your credibility will be at stake, as in if your store become complicated and difficult to navigate or has broken links you will endanger trust with your customers.
Hosting
Question of hosting comes in if you decide to go for a hosted solution, else for a SaaS based it will be a complete responsibility of the vendor. In case you select a hosted solution like Magento you will have to select a hosting company that would suit your needs.
You have to make sure of the following:
- Tech Specs / Limitations
- Tech Support
- Hardware
- Reputation
- Email Features
- Control Panel / User Interface
- Scalability / Room To Grow
After selecting and buying/renting a server space you will have to install your eCommerce platform and then implement the design and do other configuration modifications, that will require quite a bit of technical skills.
