Start Selling: Build Your Own Simple Online Store for Free

Understanding Ecommerce Store Idea

Online Shop refers to the buying and selling of goods and services over the internet, and it has become an integral part of modern business. In order to succeed in the e-commerce world, it's important to understand the different aspects that make it work. This includes having a strong understanding of online marketing, customer relationship management, supply chain management, and digital payment systems.

Understanding the various e-commerce platforms and technologies available is essential for businesses looking to establish and grow their online presence. Furthermore, staying up to date on e-commerce trends and consumer behavior is crucial for businesses to remain competitive in the online marketplace. Overall, having a deep understanding of e-commerce is vital for businesses to thrive in the digital economy and reach a wider customer base. 

For deeper insights, consulting ecommerce professionals is recommended to navigate the online business landscape effectively.

Setting Up Your Online Store

 Setting up your online store can be a rewarding venture, but it requires careful planning and execution. First, you'll need to choose an e-commerce platform that suits your needs and budget. Next, you'll need to source and organize your products, ensuring clear and attractive product photography and descriptions. You'll also need to determine shipping and payment options, as well as a strategy for customer service and returns.

You'll want to create a strong brand identity and design a user-friendly website that reflects your brand. Once your store is set up, be prepared to market it through social media, email campaigns, and possibly paid advertising. It's also important to continuously evaluate and adjust your store based on customer feedback and sales data. Setting up your online store requires dedication, but with the right approach, it can lead to a successful and profitable business. 

Marketing Your Online Store

 Marketing your online store is crucial for attracting new customers and driving sales. There are several effective strategies to promote your store and increase brand awareness. First, utilize social media platforms to engage with your audience and showcase your products. Through strategic posts and targeted advertising (you need to first determine the targeted audience), you can reach potential customers and encourage them to visit your online store.

SEO for E-commerce

SEO for E-commerce is crucial for online businesses looking to increase their visibility and drive organic traffic to their websites. With the increasing competition in the e-commerce industry, optimizing for search engines is essential for standing out among competitors and attracting potential customers. Implementing SEO strategies such as keyword research, optimizing product descriptions, improving site speed, and building quality backlinks can help e-commerce websites improve their search engine rankings and ultimately boost sales.

Creating high-quality, relevant content and utilizing meta tags and descriptions can also have a positive impact on SEO performance. Additionally, optimizing for mobile devices and enhancing user experience can further improve a website's search engine visibility. By focusing on SEO for e-commerce, businesses can improve their online presence, attract more customers, and ultimately drive more conversions and revenue. 

Why is it worth selling on your own website

Selling on your own website is worth it for several reasons. First, it allows you to have full control over your brand and customer experience. You can design the website to reflect your branding and create a seamless shopping experience for your customers. Additionally, selling on your own website means you don't have to compete with other sellers or deal with third-party fees and commissions.

You can set your own prices and keep all of the profits from your sales. Having your own website also gives you the ability to collect customer data, which can help you tailor your marketing strategies and improve your products or services. Furthermore, having a dedicated website can help you build credibility and trust with your customers, as it shows that you are a legitimate and professional business. 

Choose e-commerce platforms simple online store 

Sales platforms such as Etsy give you a quick start. Using them does not generate high costs. Listing items is usually free. The serious disadvantage of this solution is that the editing possibilities are very limited. You cannot change the color or remove the logo of the website on which you sell. You will also not connect your own domain.

E-commerce platforms

E-commerce platforms like Shopify and Ecwid are more flexible. They enable comprehensive service of the online store. The users gain access to, among other things, advanced order management and payment processing options. However, these types of tools may prove too complicated for beginners. 

Store on your own website

This is the most flexible solution. It allows full control over the functioning of the store - both its appearance and functionality. 

Creating a website with an e-commerce store

When it comes to creating a website, we have several options. The most obvious seems to be the commissioning of work to a specialized company. Thanks to this, we are sure that our website will look and function professionally. However, the price is quite high.

Another solution is to code the page yourself. Then the cost of creating it is zero. However, the process is long and difficult. It requires a lot of free time and experience.

You can also create an online store with the help of a website builder such as WebWave. In the case of our tool, the use of all the functions is free. You can use one of the templates or create a shop page from scratch. 

Hosting and domain

Hosting is a service that stores website data on a server. Its costs vary. They depend, among other things, on the size of the website and the traffic it generates. If you decide on the Premium Package in WebWave, you won't pay anything for hosting. The cost of the Package is $10 net per month. The .com registration is free for a year. After 12 months you pay $25 annually. 

SSL certificate

An SSL certificate is a protocol that protects your data when connecting to a website. It used to be mainly used to secure payments. Now, Google treats pages that don't have it as unsecured. Therefore, without it, it is difficult to gain the trust of website users. Over 80% of users give up their purchase if the store's website is not secured with an SSL certificate. If you create a website with WebWave, you get an SSL certificate for free.

Backup copies for simple online store

Making changes to the website is always risky. Therefore, you should take care of backups. Thanks to them, in case of any problems, you can restore the operation of the website by providing its previous version.

You can find many backup programs and plug-ins on the Internet. Some of them are free, others have to be paid for. You can back up websites created in WebWave at any time and for free. Just click on the floppy disk symbol in the upper right corner of the website builder. Moreover, backups are made automatically from time to time.

Simple online store photo galleries

Product photos are one of the most important elements of an online store. It is important that they are original. Copying photos negatively affects the position of the website in search engines and the trust of users. It can also infringe on copyright. 

No online store can do without product descriptions or media asset management stsrems. The rate for their creation depends on the length of the description, the degree of complexity and its originality.

Product Positioning

Search engine optimization is activities that aim to place a website high on the list of search engine results. This is a very broad concept that covers many aspects of creating a website - from writing good texts, through taking care of the high quality of its code, to acquiring external links.

Positioning is one of the most important factors influencing the visibility of a website on the Internet. In the case of an online store, high position in search results affects profits.

SEO costs by specialist companies vary. They depend, among other things, on the scope of work, page size and competition (the greater the competition in a given market segment, the more expensive website positioning).

When creating a store in WebWave, you can use a free SEO analyzer. This is a tool that will help you position your website yourself. Step by step, it will guide you through the entire process and suggest what changes you should make on the website so that it can position itself as well as possible.

Marketing

Marketing of an online store is a very broad issue. It includes display campaigns, social media activities, business cards, blogging, loyalty programs and much more.

Online store marketing costs can vary greatly. The biggest players can afford campaigns worth many millions. Fortunately, in the case of a smaller scale of operations, the costs are not so high. You can even do marketing for free. 

Warehousing

Most stores do not have their own storage space. Most the products are delivered from the manufacturer's or intermediaries' warehouses. In this case, you as the owner of the store do not incur any storage costs. You just need to add a commission. Its amount is negotiable and depends on many factors, including the size of the order or delivery options.

Shipping handling

Warehousing is just one of the services that you can outsource. Many online store owners decide to purchase a shipping service or a courier service. Its prices vary widely and depend on the number of orders or difficulties in their execution (for example, in the case of large and heavy items). It is best to contact the companies offering this type of service directly to determine the rates.

Updates and upgrades

If you outsource your website creation to a third party, you have to pay for each upgrade and modification. Prices vary widely and depend on the scope of work. For this reason, it is good to have access to the CMS panel. Then you can make simple changes yourself. You will have to outsource larger modernization works.

If you create a website with a store in the website builder, you can make any changes yourself. You will not have to pay additional costs.

Conclusion on simple online store

Creating a professional online store is not an easy task. However, it is worth the effort. The market is growing rapidly and the number of potential customer increases. Selling online can be a really lucrative business.

If you want to reduce the costs of running a store, you can use the WebWave. Creating a website in WebWave yourself does not cost anything. Similarly, an SSL certificate. Maintaining it with the Premium Package is only $10 per month. Hosting is included in this price. You won't pay anything for the domain for the first year. So it is probably the cheapest option to create and run an online store.