Firstly there are many different approaches to starting an E-commerce store. Each approach is not weighted the same.
Some are better than others, some are more expensive, one approach might work better for some people, another approach will work better for the rest.
The description of this approach will be the easiest, the most reliable and the most powerful.
Why would you want to look at any other approaches – I wouldn’t know.
It, however, not the cheapest. But then you don’t want to waste your time clowning around – like the text to come will explain.
In a nutshell, the approach here is to use an existing shopping cart software like BigCommerce ( Read Bigcommerce Review). This doesn’t mean I’m limiting this only to BigCommerce. Not at all. You can use a number of popular software out there. Shopify, Volusion – They’re all good. There aren’t all that many, though.
The approach that I’ll not be talking about are ones that will make you want to punch your monitor in a bout of anger. Such approaches include; getting an Ecommerce store created by a website programmer from scratch, using free or open source software or adding a shopping cart to CMS/Blogging platforms like WordPress.
Which E-Commerce Platform Is The Best for Online Store
Why Not Use These Other Approaches?
Well like I said, you’ll get angry. Pissed off actually. You’ll go through so much pain of “trying” to get the stupid thing to work, but to no avail.
Trust me – I’ve been there.
What I mean is that I’ve used open source software such as Magento to create an Ecommerce store. I really gave it a good go. But there were just too many bugs. There were performance issues. I spent more time fixing problems than selling products.
You don’t want to be in this situation. I’m sure you would rather want to start selling your products as soon as possible.
Using BigCommerce to Build Your Ecommerce Store
There is an obvious reason why I love BigCommerce so much. There is a reason why I love others such as Shopify and Volusion as well.
It’s quality software. It’s software that works. It’s software that will take you a few hours or a few days to upload all your products and to start selling.
The performance is brilliant, it’s bug-free and the three mentioned companies focus more on marketing than anything else. They understand, just like you should as well, that marketing is what it’s all about. That and selling of course.
I presume that you already have a product to sell. I hope that it is of great quality. I hope that you currently sell that product on eBay, and you know the demand for it, the margins you can make, and you already have a little bit of a customer base.
Super. Now you are ready to get your Ecommerce game on. Now, rest assured I tell you no lies when I say you don’t need to be technical minded at all when using software such as BigCommerce.
In fact, I’ll argue that if you are technical minded, you don’t have the right mindset to be running an Ecommerce store. Technical minded people usually worry about just that – the technical side instead of the selling side. (The making money side)
If you know how to follow a few simple processes you should be sweet. That’s all you need. Really. BigCommerce has a massive knowledge that has a process for just about everything. They have guided videos as well.
The Steps Involved in Starting a Store
So it’s either BigCommerce, Shopify or Volusion. All are quality. All will do the trick as you like.
You simply need to follow the links on their site and sign yourself up. Follow the simple process they have, and hey presto, you’ll have your store.
Next will be to add your products. Add one product at a time first, and then once you’re comfortable, use their mass import product feature.
This should all occur error free. No bugs along the way to annoy you with this process.
You’ve signed up, you’ve added your products… What next? Marketing of course. You’ll want to get your products out there, get it in front of your target market – Start selling.
Of course, there is a whole bunch of stuff to learn when it comes to selling online. I’ll cover that in posts to come.
Common Problems You Might Face Along The Way
I can only speak from experience here, and I really do hope you hear me out and not follow the same path I did. My problem (and I’m sure the thing that many others before me, and no doubt after me) was that I’d deal with the entire website on my own.
I thought that I needed to do it all. From creating my own logo to fixing bugs, to marketing, to customer service. All me.
Why is this wrong? Unless you are very skilled in all the areas mentioned above, it’s best you delegate, and leverage from the professionals to produce you quality work.
Need a logo created? Read this post about Creating A Logo For Your Ecommerce Store. Need to fix a bug in the software – Hire someone on oDesk to lend you a hand.
Need to create a well-structured Marketing campaign – Again, use someone who has done it before.
I wasted a lot of time with all this stuff when I should’ve been selling instead. I do not wish the same for you.
Looking for more, consider reading these detailed guides
How to start a successful online Store
Epic Guide to start an online business
All the three guides mentioned above are the detailed guides and will provide you further information regarding the subject. We truly hope this article will give you a clear idea of starting your own eCommerce store without having much technical knowledge.