You may have a great idea or enjoy the prospect of selling stuff online. Today, setting up an eCommerce store doesn’t have to be too hard. Many tools are available to make the process easier than ever before. However, there are still some things you need to be aware of.

You must work to make money with an online store, and this is a major challenge. But here are some suggestions, from using the right platform to providing an easy checkout.

Using AI to Set Up an eCommerce Store

Of course, you have heard of AI. Just a couple of years ago, you would have had to hire web developers, artists, and photographers. But today, AI can be a massive help. There is no substitute for human intellect for most things. But when starting out, you can save time and money with AI tools. Common examples include branding and logo development, writing product descriptions, and even using an AI Chatbot for website customer service handling.

Research eCommerce Platforms

So, where do you start? You can use many online platforms to build a blog, website, and store. You need all the help you can get since 20% of eCommerce stores fail within the first year, with 50% not reaching the five-year mark. Here are some of the best platforms:

• Wix offers all the integrated tools you need for blogging, selling, and social media.
• Square Online is a robust tool for selling products online and offline.
• Squarespace offers tools for building a website with no experience.
• Shopify is the leading platform form for starting a dropshipping business.
• WordPress is an easy beginner platform for learning the basics.

These tools are so advanced that you no longer need to be a web developer to set them up. Many tools focus on the user experience, such as WYSIWYG editors, SEO guides, and one-click plugins. However, most advanced features come at an extra cost.

Pick Your Products Wisely

Selling things online is challenging. You must understand what you sell, to whom, and even why. Niche products offer an easier way, but you must understand the consumer to sell to them. Additionally, timing is critical when trying to sell things online. Jumping on a trend is often cited as an easy way to make money online. But a trend is almost always fizzled out before you have time to take advantage of it. Customer research, with trends and data analysis, is vital.

Attach the Store to a Blog

Like a real-world store, you must get customers “through the door.” In the online world, this means website traffic. But traffic doesn’t always mean sales. You must funnel users to make a purchase; this is known as inbound traffic, which comes from paid and unpaid sources. So, how do you get traffic to buy? When customers are informed about products and services, they are more likely to buy. You can guide customers to these from blog posts attached to the store.

Create High-Quality Content

The best way to take advantage of traffic is with high-quality and engaging content. Blog posts relevant to the item you are selling offer a powerful way to engage with the audience and increase the chances of a sale. So, how do you do this? There are some rules about creating content. Users love short paragraphs, statistics, and reliable sources. However, you must also include SEO best practices, tons of images, and informative video content.

Use Lots of Images and Videos

As mentioned, images and videos will help your blog posts. They offer visual insight into a product or service, which helps customers understand what they are buying. However, this should also apply to your online store. Amazon states that product pages with high-quality images and videos are much more likely to sell on their platform. Photography is expensive, but you can buy a lightbox, studio lights, and a good-quality DSLR camera pretty cheap these days.

Learn CMS to Set Up an eCommerce Store

Content management systems (CMS) make creating an online store, blog, or website more accessible. CMS apps such as WordPress allow you to manage your business idea from blog posts to SEO, and you can learn how these work in a few days.

Do I need a CMS for an eCommerce website?

The short answer is no. You do not need CMS. However, CMS will make it much easier to create and manage content without having to resort to expensive external services.

Which CMS platform is best for eCommerce?

The range of eCommerce platforms is massive, and there is no best one to use. However, many are competitive, such as WooCommerce, Wix, and Squarespace.

Which eCommerce platform is best for beginners?

There are many eCommerce platforms, and most are user-friendly. Some of the easiest include WordPress, Wix, and Squarespace.

Which is the easiest CMS to use?

It all depends on what you are looking for. However, the best examples of easy-to-use eCommerce platforms are WooCommerce, Shopify, and WordPress.

What CMS to use in 2024?

Squarespace is the most popular CMS. It offers all the necessary tools and can be installed on your server. It provides an integrated site builder, blogging services, and hosting.

Choose a Relevant Theme

Choosing a relevant theme might not sound important, but doing so can make a huge difference. Consider selling supplements such as vitamins and minerals. These are associated with health and the medical sector. The colors alone are essential. You would expect clean whites and greens for a site like this. Additionally, not all themes are equal. Some come with limited features that can harm the overall function of your site and even your ranking.

Optimize the Website for Speed

The theme mentioned above can impact your site negatively. All websites need optimization, whether image compression, minified code, or mobile responsiveness. Speed optimization is more critical today than before because search engines, such as Google, prioritize sites that provide a better user experience. If you neglect speed optimization, then you run the risk of losing search engine ranking places or a harder time ranking in SERPs at all.

Pay Attention to Website Security

Security might be the last thing on your mind when starting a new online store. But it is critical. With so many hacks and fraudulent online activities, security should be high on your list when setting up a new site. So, what does this mean on your end? Your site should have SSL, denoted by an HTTPS prefix instead of HTTP. SSL is more secure and encrypted. It will also help people think about data handling, payment security, and AI fraud checks.

Offer Multiple Ways to Pay

Gone are the days when people just entered credit card details and went on their way. Sure, you could operate your site with this payment option alone, but you would alienate a vast number of customers who could otherwise buy stuff using alternative methods. Popular ways to pay online include PayPal, Google Pay, and Apple Pay. You could also partner with credit systems such as Klarna to help customers pay for expensive items more affordably.

Make Checkout as Easy as Possible

A convoluted checkout process is among the most cited reasons for shopping cart abandonment. Abandonment rates sit at between 60% and 80%. Customers want the process to be easy when buying something online. Here are some valuable suggestions:

• Use well-known payment gateways such as Stripe and PayPal.
• Add a real-time shopping basket sidebar so customers know what they are buying.
• Make the process easier and more secure with a guest checkout system.
• Ensure any added taxes are shown and included with the total.
• Include any shipping fees in the customer bill and make them explicit.

Even today, many big-name brands have poorly optimized checkout systems for online purchases. Streamlining yours will ensure customers don’t abandon their carts and follow through with a purchase, helping keep your online business afloat.

Test as You Set Up an eCommerce Store

Think of the process of building your site as something like cooking. You start with ingredients and combine them into something extraordinary, always tasting as you go. However, unlike cooking, you have an advantage—you can remove the ingredients from the recipe! Always test your changes before updating your live site. Even a few seconds of reduced loading speed can result in massive sales losses! If something doesn’t work, pull it and devise an alternative.

You can use AI tools to help you set up an eCommerce store. Branding and content Chatbots are great examples. Learning to use CMS platforms is a massive advantage and makes the process easier. But remember to test any changes before committing to them on a live site.

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