There are a lot of different steps to creating a high-quality ecommerce website that will drive sales for your business. To make navigating this article easier, here’s a quick overview of what we’re going to cover. That way, if you want to jump to a specific step in the process, all you have to do is click on the appropriate step and you can start reading from there.
Picking the Right Ecommerce Platform
Setting Up Your Ecommerce Website
Selecting a Template that Will Sell
Creating Effective Product Pages
Adding Features to Your Site
Optimizing Your Ecommerce Website
Picking the Right Ecommerce Platform
To really succeed at ecommerce, you need to pick the right ecommerce platform. Okay, so if you’re really handy with coding and have all the time in the world, I suppose you could create your own ecommerce solution, but that’s probably not what you’re looking for.
So, before you create your ecommerce website, you need to pick an ecommerce platform.
The good news is, there are a lot of ecommerce platforms out there. The bad news is, lots of options can make it hard to figure out which platform is right for your needs. If you’ve already started looking into your options, you’ve probably seen firsthand how many different features you have to choose from.
Even in a blog post like this, comparing and thoroughly evaluating every ecommerce option out there would be overwhelming and frankly not very helpful. So, in this article, I’m going to focus on 3 of the most popular ecommerce platforms: SHOPIFY, ECOMMERCE PLATFORMS: PRICING, ECOMMERCE PLATFORMS: PLUG-INS
However, since I’m well aware that these “Big 4” aren’t the only options out there, we’ll take a look at how these ecommerce platforms measure up in 4 areas that matter to you as a potential customer: pricing, ease of use, templates, plug-ins and customer support. That way, even if a platform we don’t discuss catches your eye, you’ll have a good framework to evaluate them.
1. ECOMMERCE PLATFORMS: PRICING
If you’re like me, when it comes to picking an ecommerce platform, the first thing you think is, “How much is this going to cost me?” After all, many ecommerce businesses take a little while to start producing meaningful profit and it can be a bit scary to spend a lot of money on an ecommerce platform with no assurance of revenue.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at the relative prices of these platforms:
2. SHOPIFY
Shopify makes setup incredibly easy. It has a very straightforward dashboard for adding products, customizing your site design and more. If you happen to be switching from another platform to Shopify, Shopify has a slick import option as well.
After your store is set up, Shopify also makes it easy to add additional products, including titles, descriptions, price and several other handy fields. Regardless of what you are specifically trying to do, Shopify has handy tips all over the place, making it the most user friendly platform on this list, in my opinion.
3. ECOMMERCE PLATFORMS: EASE OF USE
If you’re new to ecommerce, ease of use is probably a big priority. Features are great, but all the features and customizability in the world won’t mean much if you don’t have the knowledge and expertise to use them.
Fortunately, all 3
of the ecommerce platforms we are discussing in this article are fairly easy to use and they all come with a setup wizard that will walk you through the process of setting up your store. However, creating your first store isn’t the only ease of use factor to consider.
Once your store is set up, there’s a lot to stay on top of or optimize. How an ecommerce platform manages your inventory and the design functionality options it offers all play a role in how easy a platform is to use in the long run.
4. ECOMMERCE PLATFORMS: PLUG-INS
Another factor to consider when picking an ecommerce platform is the plug-in options they offer. While it would be nice if every ecommerce platform offered every possible app and add-on you could need, different businesses need different plug-ins, so most platforms don’t make every plug-in part of their standard package.
The good news is, even you’re not a developer, plug-ins give you the ability to customize the functionality of your store.
Some plug-ins give you options like a “free shipping” bar or coupon pop-ups that help improve your user experience (and their odds of making a purchase). Others give you additional options on the back-end of your store, like checking to see if your pages are optimized for search engines.
Setting Up Your Ecommerce Website
Once you’ve picked a platform, getting set up is pretty easy. The account creation process is fairly straightforward and you’ll usually be asked to give your name, the name of your business, your business address and billing information, among other things.
After you’ve created your account, you’ll be taken to the platform’s storefront builder, which typically looks something like this:
