The e-commerce industry has become the fastest growing and shows no signs of stopping. For any entrepreneurial hopeful who has dreamed of becoming a small business owner but has never had the capital required for startups, launching an e-commerce website is a smart solution. With the right know-how and retail business tools, launching an e-commerce website has never been easier.
Choose an e-commerce and website hosting platform.
Popular e-commerce platforms such as Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce help you save time and money on your e-commerce store. Due to the popularity of these platforms, developers are familiar with them and are able to easily integrate plugins and payment processing systems. As a first-time e-commerce entrepreneur, it’s helpful to use an e-commerce platform that’s user intuitive, provides customizable plugins and templates, and that features a website builder.
Find a theme that matches your e-commerce vision.
You don’t have to be a web designer to build a quality e-commerce store from scratch. You can buy a themed template with a layout that provides the e-commerce perspective you want to create. Websites like ThemeForest feature thousands of website templates and themes that save you time and headache when designing your e-commerce store.
Set up a shopping cart with wish-list functionality.
A standard feature on e-commerce stores is a shopping cart that saves customers’ items until they are ready to go through the purchasing process. It’s also a good idea to include a wish list functionality in your e-commerce store. This allows your customers to save items in the lead up to gift-giving occasions, helps them avoid impulse purchases, and allows them to save possible future purchases that they wish to research. Giving customers the ability to use your website as a wish list purchase destination is a great way to increase your conversion rate of potential purchases to final sales.
Peer to Peer Messaging Services
The best way to perform large-scale customer outreach that results in valuable real-time conversation is to send personalized SMS and text messages via a P2P platform. Pearly’s p2p texting technology features survey and query tools that allow you the sender to ask important questions to their contact list in order to improve conversions. The simple to use interface allows you to upload the phone numbers on your leads list and then works as an autodialer to send bulk P2P text messages.
A P2P texting platform can engage enhancement for nonprofits seeking donors for fundraising as well as political campaigns trying to reach voter files with political texts. The built-in analytics feature will show how the response rate for P2P texting increases user engagement so you can achieve the conversions you need.
Set up a payment gateway.
Your e-commerce store needs a way to accept credit card payments. Payment options like Apple Pay and PayPal are common. To accept credit cards, recurring billing, and mobile payments you’ll need to get approved for a payment gateway and credit card processor. Small business owners are responsible for keeping their customer data secure according to federal law and FCC compliance standards. You’ll need to create a Privacy Policy and Return Policy, determine your shipping and delivery process, and have a customer service landline or cell phone number or email address.
A small business that runs both an online and offline store can benefit from a POS system that helps them manage sales data and inventory reports. QuickBooks POS is a Point of Sale and accounting software that lets you manage both of your stores on one QuickBooks desktop. NitroSell’s QuickBooks software is an effective way to handle inventory management, sync customer information, and direct integration of POS data and product listings. POS software from QuickBooks is a powerful tool for managing your cash drawer, vendors, and inventory.
Creating your e-commerce website takes motivation, time, and a bit of hard work. Using the right tools for a retail business like P2P services and QuickBooks accounting software will help you launch a successful e-commerce website that sees long-term growth.
