Tips for Taking your Business Online with eCommerce

If you’re launching an innovative product, or you already have an amazing service, the ability to get your items seen online by a huge audience could do wonders for your brand. An eCommerce store can send more traffic to your brick and mortar store, and even give you a new source of revenue if you can offer shipping and handling solutions too. If your product is inspiring enough, you might find that it even becomes a global phenomenon, giving you the chance to expand your sales even further and grow your business up to 7 figures a year.

Of course, in order to become successful online, the first thing you need to do is figure out how you can take your business into the eCommerce world. Doing this can be quite a challenge for some people – particularly if you have no experience building and running a website. However, the good news is that a process that once required a great deal of investment and coding is now simpler than ever before.

Here, we’ll look at a few tips that will help you to take your eCommerce product online in no time.

1. Get a Domain and CMS

The first thing you need to do when launching your business online, is get a domain. Deciding on a great and memorable domain name should make it easier to grab the attention of your target audience, and there are plenty of host locations out there where you can purchase your domain. Remember to purchase a hosting solution for your website at the same time to make running your online business as easy as possible.

Once you’ve chosen the perfect domain name, you’ll need to think about integrating a CMS into your website. This takes much of the difficult coding out of launching an online business. WordPress is one of the most popular options today for companies who want to run secure and modern-looking websites.

2. Install the Right Plugins

If you do choose to run with WordPress for the foundation of your website, then plugins could help you to get the most out of your experience. These simple solutions allow you to build the perfect site from scratch, complete with a checkout for your online store, a blog and many more fantastic things for your customers. You can even get plugins that make it easier for your customers to contact you too. Just make sure that you don’t go too over the top with your plugin choices. Running too many different plugins at once can make your website look cluttered, and it also increases the risk that you’ll end up suffering from a sudden website breakdown. Try to stick to the plugins that matter, such as caching options that speed up your website, and the Yoast plugin for SEO.

3. Get your Shopping Cart Sorted

If you’re looking to enhance your online business with an eCommerce website, then a shopping cart app will help to make sure that your customers can simply serve themselves. There are plenty of shopping cart solutions to choose from, and it’s a good idea to check out the reviews and testimonials for each one before you make a decision. This will help you to avoid choosing an app that doesn’t work exactly as planned.

A good tip is to select an app that allows you to take multiple forms of payments, including PayPal, Stripe, and visa or credit card. You should also look for a solution that keeps you informed about postage and shipping too, so you know exactly what’s going on within your store at any given time. Remember, one of the biggest things that first-time sellers forget about when they’re selling online is shipping. If you’re planning on delivering your products to your customers, then you’ll need to factor in the cost of shipping the item to their door. If you forget about this idea when you’re managing your website, you could find that you end up losing most of your profits on the price of sending your products out to your customers.

4. Keep your Website Running Quickly and Securely

Remember, todays customers want to feel as secure as possible when they’re buying from online sites. Although most customers are more confident about shopping online today than they used to be, they’ll still leave your website and shop with a competitor if they’re concerned that you’re not going to deliver the service that they expect. Start with your hosting provider – what plan are you on and is it what your website need to deliver a fast secure service for your customers? Do a web hosting comparison to assess which service provider is right for your business.

Another good way to ensure that you don’t instantly lose the interest of your customers is to download a caching plugin that will allow your pages to load faster. This will help to make sure that your customers feel as though they can trust you when they click onto a product page and see the items loading immediately. Of course, you’ll also need to take steps to ensure that any information your customers give you is kept as secure as possible. There are plenty of security solutions out there that can help you to put your customer’s mind at rest. For instance, obtaining an SSL certificate is a good first step, and it’s great for SEO.

5. Stay Updated

Finally, no matter which CMS and which plugins you choose to use to keep your eCommerce business running smoothly, it’s important to ensure that you’re frequently updating your systems. Most of the time, updates for websites and plugins are designed to patch up the gaps in security that were found in previous versions. This means that if you fail to update on time, you could end up opening your website up to a ton of potential vulnerabilities.

Building and launching a successful 7 figure eCommerce business website is nowhere near as complicated as it once was. However, that doesn’t mean that it’s a set it and forget it approach to business. While there are plenty of solutions out there that can make it easier for companies to get online, it’s important to make sure that you keep on top of your online presence if you want to stay ahead of your competitors and keep your consumers as happy as possible.