Building an Online Store
Building an online store, what’s involved? Hopefully you already know that you don’t have to be a web design expert. In addition, once your site is up and running, you can handle all your transactions through PayPal. What was once considered a daunting task has today become much easier. Building an e-store store could very well be the ticket you need.
Before we begin our discussions of building an online store, let’s talk about the basics of E-commerce (Electronic Commerce).
What is E-Commerce? ( Building an Online Store )
E-commerce may be defined as any business or commercial transaction (the buying or selling of products and or services) which is conducted via an online environment.
It is our online stock and bond transactions, our downloads/purchases of “soft merchandise” (software, graphics, music, documents, etc) and our retail sales/Internet shopping. It is also the business transaction between companies (B2B - Business to Business as opposed to Business to Customer).
E-commerce allows for an efficient, convenient way of doing business. It is a way of doing business that is no longer constrained by time (store hours) or location. E-commerce has truly become a local as well as global way of doing business. As the boundaries between the traditional brick and mortar and E-commerce businesses blur, more and more businesses are rushing to establish their presence online. Today almost every business conducts some form of E-commerce and the numbers are increasing every day.
A properly executed online business/strategy tends to be streamlined and more cost effective than your traditional brick and mortar operations.
Creating a successful E-commerce business is by no means easy. However if you are to compete in tomorrow’s marketplace it is an important concept to understand.
Things to keep in mind when building an online store:
• Website design and planning. Your site must be well structured and easy to navigate.
• How you will get traffic to your website (customers).
• How you will obtain repeat traffic. (Your customers love your site and they return often)
• Transactional logistics – Processing orders, accepting payments and potential returns.
• How you plan to differentiate your business from others. (Marketing, Brand Awareness)
• Which
Suppliers will you use – Are they reliable, any Going concern
issues?
• Pricing – How will you price, are you a premium or discount product/service.
• Customer service – How will you handle customer inquiries? Email, forums, call center? Remember customer service is paramount.
Now this list is in no way all inclusive but it should give you something to think about. It is meant to highlight the importance of planning up front when building an online store.
Before we go any further let’s remember, building an online store is not a get quick rich scheme. Yes, you can make lots of money online however it does not happen overnight. With the proper research planning and execution, you can make good money by building an online store, it just takes time.
Building an Online store - what you need to get started:
1. A domain name
2. A PHP/MySQL enabled Web server
3. Wordpress
4. Payment Processor ( such as PayPal or Google Checkout)
5. Delivery and Fulfillment services (dropshipping facility) (If applicable)
Building an Online Store using Wordpress:
After registering the domain name for your online store and obtaining a subscription for a hosting plan that includes Wordpress installation, proceed as follows:
Step 1: Building an Online Store - Install Wordpress software:
1. Login to cPanel of your hosting account
2. Find the “Fantastico” option in the “Software” section
3. Click on the “Fantastico” icon to see the Wordpress link
4. Click on Wordpress link to install Wordpress files on your hosting account
• Enter the admin user name
• Enter password for the admin login
5. In the ‘Base Configuration’ section,
• Enter email address for the admin
• You don’t have to fill in the other boxes (Admin nick name, description and Site name)
• Click on the “install Wordpress” button
• You’ll notice a screen displaying the ‘access URL’ hyperlink and the path of the installation directory
• Write down the path and Click on “Finish Installation” button
After installation is complete, you should receive your admin information, such as the username, password and admin URL for the Wordpress installation
• Copy your URL, paste it into the web-browser to get to the admin login
Once completed, you will now need to download themes for your website.
Step 2: Building an Online Store - Installing a theme for Wordpress:
Go to the Wordpress.org website and look for a suitable theme for your website. Wordpress has a ton of e-commerce themes (paid and free) that can be used for designing - building an online store. Select your theme (free or paid) and Click on “Download” button located near the theme. Download the theme to your computer by proceeding as follows:
1. Go to the Wordpress admin login page of your website
2. Enter your username and password
3. After logging in successfully, you’ll notice an admin dashboard
4. Go to the Appearance menu in the left-side panel of the dashboard
5. Click on the “Add new theme” button
If you have downloaded an E-commerce theme for your website, browse for the zip file (ecommerce theme) and upload it by clicking on upload button. Click on the ‘Install Now’ button. After your theme has installed successfully, click on “Activate” button.
Step 3: Building an Online Store - Install the ecommerce plug-in for Wordpress:
You must to have a PayPal account or Google Checkout account in order to use the payment processing facility.
1. Go to the admin dashboard in your Wordpress admin
2. On the left hand side, you will find a plug-in menu. Click on the “Add new plug-in” button.
3. In the search box, enter “ecommerce”. You should see different ecommerce plug-ins available for Wordpress.
4. Select the plug-in of your choice and click on the “Install” button present adjacent to it.
5. Next, you should notice a page containing the information about the plug-in. You should see an “Install now” button. Click on it to start the installation.
Once the plug-in is successfully installed you should see a window containing installation related information.
6. Click on the “Activate Plugin “option.
7. Once the plug-in is activated you should notice a page titled “Manage Plugins”
8. On this page, look for the dropdown box on the left hand side panel under the option “Products”
9. Go to the “Settings” option
• Select the Country
• Select the type of currency you would like use
• You can keep the default settings for other options on the page Language, Target Markets, Add to Cart, Product name and other options. If need be, you can also change them.
• Click on the “Update” button
10. Navigate to “Payment options” on the menu present on the top section of the page
11. Under the Gateway options, navigate to “General Settings” option
12. Therein, you can select a PayPal option or payment gateway from the list
13. After selecting a suitable payment gateway, click on the “Update” button
14. Go to “Select the default payment gateway to configure” section
15. Choose PayPal from the dropdown list
16. Click on the “Update” button in the section
17. A payment gateway configuration page is loaded. On the Payment gateway configuration page enter your PayPal username. Don’t change any other default settings.
18. Finally, Click on the Update” button
Excellent, it’s now time to add products to your online store.
Building an Online Store - Adding Products:
1. Click on the “Presentation” section on the top menu.
2. Click on the product page settings option, and select the product group that you would like to display on the product page by default. Select “Show all products” options from the drop down list.
3. Click on the “Update” option
4. Go to “Product” option on the left hand side panel. Under the “Product Details” section, enter the product’s details such as Product name, Price and short description. Assign a category to the product.
5. Add an image reference to the product in the “Product Image” section. If you have an image on your computer to use, browse to its location on your disk.
6. Click on the ”Add Product” button
7. To view the products added, click on “Products” button present on the left hand side panel of Dashboard.
8. Click on the “Title” on the Dashboard to see your E-commerce website.
Building an Online Store - Shopping Cart Plug-in for Word Press:
There are several shopping cart plug-ins for Wordpress such as FatFreeCart, eShop, DPD-Cart, Ecwid Cart etc… You have to download the plug-in to your computer before installing it on your website. You then need to log into your Wordpress admin account and upload the Shopping cart plug-in. Once this is done just proceed as follows:
1. Go to your Dashboard.
2. Click on the “Plug-in” option
3. Click on “add new plug-in” button
4. Browse for the plug-in zip file
5. To upload the cart plug-in, click on the “Upload” button
6. Now click on the “Install” button
7. After the plug-in has been successfully installed, click on the “Activate” button
We are all done with building an online store. Your E-commerce website is now ready to go. Let’s start selling products through your online store today.
If there are any articles that you would like to see with regards to building an online store drop me an email using the contact me page.
