You’ve had an idea brewing in your head for a while now to sell products online. To do this, you need to create a website and deal with other “computer-y”, financial, and logistical things that you have no idea how to do.

After reading this step-by-step guide, you’ll look at the process of creating an online store with a whole new perspective.

In this article, we’ll cover the following aspects:

Step 1 – Research the market

Make sure there’s a demand for the products or services you plan to sell. Don’t wait until the end of your online store creation project to realize that there’s actually no market for your offer.
The internet provides you with unparalleled tools to extract information about potential customers, competitors, suppliers, etc.

Step 2 – Research Keywords

This is the step that will most significantly impact the success or failure of your web project.
Type the phrases you think your potential customers would use into Google.
Look at the number of pages indexed by Google to see if the term is very competitive or not.
Pay attention to the related terms that Google suggests at the bottom of the results page for ideas on other keywords.
You can also use the Google Keyword Tool to check interest in topics related to the business you want to launch online.
In the example below, we entered the terms “roses” and “tulips,” and the system showed us hundreds of terms searched on Google, as well as the competition among Google AdWords advertisers.

Step 3 – Benchmark

Check out what your competitors are doing and note the best practices, trying to surpass them.
Better yet, look for best practices in specific aspects that you’d like to have in your online store, regardless of the industry.
Don’t just copy them. Try to differentiate yourself as much as possible, offering options that justify why customers should choose you over your competitors.

Step 4 – Choose a Winning Domain

For those unfamiliar, a domain name is the term that identifies your website on the web.
Examples: google.com or rtp.pt.
Resist the temptation to use your company name, unless it contains keywords related to your activity.

Tips:

  • How NOT to do it: Don’t put things like SilvaSilva.com in your domain name; leave that to your competitors.
  • How to do it: If you sell books, for example, include that word in the domain. Something like rare-books.com, best-book.com, or cheap-books.com.
  • If the expression you want for your domain is already registered, try using variations by adding or removing hyphens, for example.

Step 5 – Register Your Domain

Domain names must be registered. The entity that registers domains is called a Registrar.
We won’t recommend specific operators here, as a simple Google search will solve that. Personally, I’ve preferred to deal with American registrars, due to the price and simplicity of the processes.
Given the low cost involved (around €8.00/year per domain), consider acquiring related TLD (Top Level Domain) domains to block access to competitors when your business flourishes. For example, if you registered a domain with the “.com” TLD, consider whether there are advantages to registering the same name with the “.net” or “.org” TLD.

Step 6 – Decide How You’re Going to Ship Your Products

A deficient or expensive delivery system for your goods can doom your online project to failure, even if delays, losses, or damage to products are not directly your responsibility.
In addition to prices, compare delivery times, complaint handling methods, and customer service quality.
Research the carrier’s reputation online. Check for comments or complaints that might alert you, avoiding handing over a crucial part of your project’s quality to an incompetent carrier.
Pay a lot of attention to this aspect.

Step 7 – Choose the Technology for Your Online Store

An online store is basically software that acts as an interface between your website and the infrastructure that allows customers to choose products, review their choices, make necessary modifications, and proceed to payment.
There are several companies, like PWM, that offer ready-made platforms, requiring little more than inserting your products, choosing the carrier, and selecting the payment method.
In addition to considering the cost of the solution, you should ensure that there are resources for automatic calculation of shipping costs and applicable taxes. You should also opt for systems that allow you to run promotions, discounts, and other forms of customer loyalty programs.

Step 8 – Choose a Hosting Company

Here are some aspects to consider when choosing hosting for your website:

  • Disk space limit
  • Monthly traffic limit
  • Email accounts
  • Autoresponders
  • Website statistics
  • Database
  • Customer support
  • Price
  • Cost: be prepared to pay a monthly or annual fee for the service. If you opt for hosting that provides the e-commerce platform itself, they will probably charge you a monthly fee. If you’re only going to use the hosting to install your own e-commerce tool, you’ll probably only pay an annual fee.
  • Check if the chosen shopping cart system and hosting company are compatible.
  • Since security is a critical success factor for online stores, make sure the hosting allows for the SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption system.

Step 9 – Prepare Your Product Information

At this stage, it can be helpful to organize your data in an Excel spreadsheet. The columns to create should be:

  • a) Categories and subcategories. Example: Beverages > Waters
  • b) Product options. Example: Colors and Sizes
  • c) Article reference number
  • d) Product description
  • e) Product image
  • f) Product price
  • g) Shipping cost calculation
  • h) Tax calculation

Remember that your online store can only be successful if you provide abundant and high-quality information to allow visitors to easily choose their products.
Separately describe the features, advantages, and benefits of each product. If possible, include multiple photos from different angles.
If you have a lot of information about the products (which is great), check if your online store has a way to present it using tabs.

Step 10 – Create a Commercial Bank Account

To manage online financial transactions, you need two things:

  1. Create a bank account to move the financial flows of your business;
  2. Create a “payment gateway” and register your bank account with it.

Step 11 – Open a PayPal Account

You can opt for a small business solution by adding a PayPal shopping cart, without worrying about more complex e-commerce systems. However, if you want a robust and professional store, the account created on PayPal will be used to configure your “payment gateway.”
In either case, you’ll be able to accept online payments by credit card or other means.
The account is free, and PayPal has quality support and documentation to assist you.

Abra uma conta Paypal para as lojas online

Step 12 – Create Your E-commerce Site

Decide which pages you want to have on your site. Name the navigation links according to the main categories you’ll have.
If your online store is large, separate the institutional menu (About Us, Contact, Location…) from the product menu. If it’s not very large, you can create a hybrid menu.
Here are some suggestions:

  • Home
  • Category 1
  • Category 2
  • Category 3
  • Category 4
  • Category 5
  • Category 6
  • About Us
  • FAQ
  • Glossary
  • Contact
  • Site Map
    You can get more ideas for your online store at: [Link to a website with tips on creating an online store]

Other aspects to consider:

  • Design a consistent design, with the same navigation structure on all pages, and keep it light (i.e., leave castle-like or Star Wars designs to your competitors…).
  • The Home page should include a summary of the products you offer on your site.
  • Remember to include text on your pages. Search engines devalue pages with only images or animations in their rankings.
  • Include easy-to-fill-out forms on all pages to facilitate interaction with your visitors.
  • Include a page with the general terms and conditions of online sales, indicating refund policies, shipping, warranties, complaint handling, etc.

Step 13 – Test Your Site

After uploading the content to the server, carefully check your website, testing at least the following parameters:

  • Correct functioning of links
  • Compatibility with various browsers
  • Screen resolution
  • HTML/XHTML validation
  • Form functionality
  • Website loading time

Step 14 – Promote Your Site

You won’t make sales if you don’t actively promote your site.
One of the most important aspects for your site to be indexed and well-ranked by search engines is content. The more and better your content, the more easily your pages will appear ahead of your competitors in search engine results.
Another way to get good rankings and increase visibility is to participate in forums, blogs, and social networks related to your site’s topic.
If you have the time and some skill, consider writing articles to publish on or off your site.
A consistently effective, albeit paid, method is to create online advertising campaigns. Google AdWords is the most popular system worldwide, and with quite affordable prices. If you’re not familiar with the system or don’t have the time, consider hiring specialist companies, such as PWM, as in addition to making your ads effective from the start, the money you’ll save on campaigns will more than compensate for the fees you’ll have to pay them.

Step 15 – Quality Control

Test your online store diligently. Establish a routine of regular tests, both by your team and by people outside the organization.
Remember that this is a system with many processes running, and the slightest failure will very likely lead your visitor to abandon the purchase.
Ask friends or family to try to detect weaknesses in the way products are presented, possible omissions of information, or problems in the checkout process.

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