The easiest way to start an online store – and indubitably the most effective as well – is to hire a professional web design and development company to help you out. Of course, you do need to make sure that you are asking help from the right company to start with. It's preferable that you work with a company with specialized skills and relevant experience in building an e-commerce website for businesses like yours.
Domain Name
Names always matter. In this case, it would be ideal if you are able to use your current company name as the domain name for your online store. You need to make sure as well that you reserve the right to have first option of re-purchasing the rights to using the domain name once your contract expires.
Web Hosting
You also need to make sure that your online store has a good 'home' in cyberspace. It's truly like finding a home you'll live in. Don't buy something with too much web space to offer because that's like living in a mansion when there are only the two of you – and you're not home much either. When searching for an ideal web hosting package, just make sure to consider the following factors.
- Sufficient disk space to handle the current needs of your website
- Sufficient bandwidth to handle the expected average number of visitors your website wil receive each month
- An easy-to-use FTP for adding, removing, and managing pages of your website
- Unlimited number of personalized emails for your website
- Content management system – one that's easy to use as well and especially when you would like to use your website as a blog, too
Those are the basics to consider, but be sure to speak with a professional web designer or developer about any additional tools or features your online store may need.
Design
People are constantly told not to judge books by its covers, but publishers would be the first to tell you that covers matter a lot. Many people still buy books for the sake of its covers alone. They're willing to give it the benefit of the doubt even if they don't know anything about the author or the story. Expect the same reaction from Internet users. They typically prefer to visit and browse websites that are attractive to look at and make them feel at home at the same time.
However, a pretty layout for your website has to be functional at well. It's for this reason that DIY web designs are rarely completely effective for online store. The design of your website always affects their overall experience so you need to be careful about choosing the design elements for your online store. Here are some points to consider when it comes to the design of your online store.
- Does the overall color scheme make it harder or easier for people to read your website's content?
- Will the design cause your website to load more slowly than usual?
- Is it responsive to the needs of mobile users? Does it scale automatically to fit the screen sizes and other limitations for web browsers of tablets or smartphones?
Shopping Cart Software
Naturally, one of the essential parts of putting up an online store is to make sure that your customers have a convenient time shopping on the Web. There are all kinds of shopping cart software programs available today, but not all of them would be suitable to your needs. Not all of them will be easy to install or operate either.
When choosing a shopping cart software program, you need to make sure that it allows for as many items as possible for every checkout or transaction. Find out if it requires people to register an account before checkout and choose the one suitable for your website. Some shopping cart software programs also allow easy configuration for sales, discounts, and inclusions of additional fees and taxes.
Payment Options
Lastly, a convenient and effective online store is one that offers as many payment options as possible. Aside from credit card payments, your website should also accept other modes of payments such as money transfers, direct charges to bank accounts, PayPal, and maybe even COD as well.
Finally, remember to have your web designer or developer install an appropriate and powerful antimalware program to keep your customers and website protected from hackers and anyone else attempting unauthorized access of your information.
