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For those of you who are still beginners, maybe you can try creating an online shop website in the following way. In the current internet era, everyone can easily create a website for various purposes.
The main goal in creating a website is to improve communication skills, both to introduce yourself and to share your passion with the world. With a website, it means you have your own "home" and you can freely create in it.
In fact, websites can be used to open online stores and introduce merchandise. On the website, you can manage it according to your wishes. For example, creating promotional campaigns, introducing various products or services for sale, and developing a website for your business needs.
Preparation Before Creating an Online Store Website
There are several things you need to prepare and do first before starting to create an online shop website:
- You have to know the product you want to sell.
To find inspiration, please read our article about the best-selling online sales.
- See market opportunities to sell products or services online.
Don't let it happen that after you create an online shop, there is no demand for your products and services.
- Research similar online shop websites to look for inspiration.
From here, you can determine what kind of website design will attract lots of visitors. Look for inspiration for examples of e-commerce websites so that your online shop website looks cool.
- Looking for the best domain name, web hosting service and platform.
To create an online shop website, of course you have to prepare everything at this point. For example, looking for good hosting for ecommerce, a unique domain name, and so on. We will explain more later.
- Promotional strategies and media to introduce your website.
You also have to prepare this from the start. The point is so that you can estimate the budget that must be allocated. Generally, the most effective way is to implement a digital marketing strategy.
What are the benefits of opening an Online Store Website?
How to create an online shop website would not be highly recommended if it did not provide benefits for a business. In general, there are at least five advantages of creating an online shop website that you can experience.
1. Increase sales
If all this time your business is still offline, then the number of potential customers is limited. Meanwhile, if you create an online shop, the number of potential customers is almost unlimited.
With the internet, you can connect with people from remote areas and abroad. The wider your reach, the greater your opportunity to increase sales, right?
2. More efficient in terms of time and costs
If you run an offline shop in a shophouse or kiosk owned by someone else, then of course you will be charged a rental fee.
There are also other costs such as maintenance costs, water, electricity and cleaning fees which, if added up, will reach millions of rupiah. If you open an online shop website, these types of costs can be cut quite significantly, so your profit margin can be greater.
3. Connect with the right target consumers
If you have an offline shop, then the means of advertising are nothing more than banners, banners or brochures. However, if you open an online shop, it will be easier for you to advertise your products via Facebook Ads or Instagram Ads.
By using these two services, you can directly target ads to people who are likely to be interested in your product. In this way, the possibility of purchasing becomes even greater.
How to Create an Online Store Website
How to create an online shop website is not difficult, you know. You can also apply several ways to create an online shop website below for free. So, for those of you who are just starting an online business, you can still have a website without having to spend a lot of money.
How to create an easy free online shop website? Here are the steps on how to create an online shop website that need to be implemented:
1. Determine the goal of creating a free website
So that you can be on target when creating a website, the first way to create an online shop website is to decide what you need it for. Because, this will affect the type of online service you will use later.
Usually, there are four main functions of a website: as a blog, as an online shop, as a personal online portfolio, and as a company online portfolio.
So, which one do you want to achieve? If it is for business purposes, then the aim of creating your website is as an online shop.
2. Determine the appropriate online platform service
The next way to create an online shop website is that you just have to choose an online platform that can help you create a suitable website for free.
Currently, there are many choices of online platforms for creating free websites. For example, if you want to create a blog, then the suitable services are Medium.com or Blogspot.com. Or if you want to create an online company portfolio, you can use WordPress.com.
3. Learn the Features Available to Free Users
It's also called free, of course the features that can be used are limited. The first feature that is definitely limited is the domain name. If you have to buy a domain name yourself, the price starts from 100 thousand rupiah to billions of rupiah, depending on the price of the name.
So, if you create a free website, you have to be willing to use the domain name of the platform you are using. Make sure the name of the website or domain you use can be read and remembered easily. Avoid using website names that are difficult and confusing to users.
The second feature that is limited is the amount of content that can be included. However, you don't need to worry about this, because the amount of storage for free users is usually sufficient.
Learn more about the features available to free users and decide which service is best for your current business needs.
4. Start creating a website
Finally! Let's create a website! The way to create an online shop website is also very simple, and relatively similar for all platforms.
- First, open the desired online platform and register yourself.
- Second, choose a suitable website template. Later you can change this template at a later time, so there's no need to be afraid!
- Third, enter the domain name and other data for creating a website. Make sure you choose only free products throughout this stage.
5. Create the Pages the Website Needs
Websites consist of various pages, so create the website pages needed for your online store. There are many pages that your online shop website needs to have, including:
a. Home Page
The home page is the front page of your website. This page should briefly explain your business goals. Apart from that, the home page should also provide other information that you consider important for customers to know.
b. About Us Page
An “about us” page provides an overview of the business, the team within the company, its vision or mission statement, and any other identifying information you want to share with customers.
Make sure to place this page in a strategic and easily accessible place so people can click on it and read more about your business in depth.
c. Contact Page
This page tells customers the best way to contact your business. Starting from your telephone number, email address, and physical location of your business. Apart from that, you can also enter the company's operating hours on this page.
d. Privacy Policy Page
Although customers may rarely visit this page, it is important to include it if you want to collect any customer information in the daily operations of your business.
e. Terms and Conditions page
Similar to a privacy policy page, this page basically outlines the agreement between you and your customers regarding how your business and/or website operates.
f. Product Page
This type of page explains what products you sell. Product pages can help customers understand the product and can offer them the opportunity to purchase the item directly through the website.
Or maybe, you can integrate this product page into your online shop on the marketplace or social media, such as WhatsApp.
g. Pricing Page
Pricing pages within websites are popular among businesses selling services. This page explains the company's various service level offerings and their prices.
You can add a link to the pricing page in the top-level navigation bar of the website.
h. Menu Page
If you operate a restaurant or your business is in the culinary sector, you need to create a menu page. Make sure to include pictures of the food and drinks you sell as clearly as possible so that customers have an idea of the products you sell.
Don't make potential customers confused or doubtful because the images on the menu are unclear and blurry.
i. Services Page
If your business offers more than one type of service, the services page provides a great place to provide a detailed list of these services.
j. Blog Page
Every type of business can have a blog. In most cases, companies start business blogs to help with the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) of their sites.
You can choose whether to add this page to your online store website or not. It all comes back to the type of business you operate.
You don't have to follow the page guide on how to create an online shop website above, but you can also be creative and combine or add one of these types of pages as you wish. However, make sure the pages you add suit your business needs.
Don't use too many pages because this has the potential to make your website slower when accessed by users.
6. Pay attention to the Website User Interface
Another way to create an online shop website that you need to pay attention to is ensuring the user interface. Not only choosing the right design for your online shop website, it is also important for you to pay attention to the user interface.
User interface (UI) is a form of graphic display that is directly related to the user. In short, UI is how a product appears to users.
Make sure your website has the right UI design so that it creates a positive experience for website visitors and generates leads. To create a website with a good UI, you can apply the following tips given by Forbes:
- Use graphics with beautiful and attractive designs, make sure you also use fonts that are easy to read.
- Make sure graphics are compressed and optimized for fast loading. A slow website will affect search engine rankings.
- Research your target audience to see what they want from your website and make it easy for them to achieve it.
- Stay consistent with the appearance of all your website pages. Don't mix different designs as it can get confusing.
- Design an intuitive navigation system that allows users to quickly get to the pages they need.
- Publish easily accessible contact information.
- Incorporate clear calls to action (especially “buy now” buttons).
- Complete with website pages that suit your needs.
7. Add Business Information
The next way to create an online shop website is to start managing your website by adding various information related to your business. For example, by creating a detailed catalog of your products or services, you can also create a blog to fill with content about company updates and other useful information.
Quoted from Business News Daily, make sure each page of your online shop website supports the main goal of the site, has a clear purpose, and includes a call to action.
Place strategic calls to action. CTA buttons tend to perform best when they match the information on the page. For example, “learn more,” “sign up,” “contact us,” or “buy this” calls to action to encourage website visitors to take the desired action.
CTAs are an important component of providing a better user experience. Offering these types of actions can help you direct site visitors in the direction they should go.
Additionally, a site without a strong CTA can ultimately encourage customers to travel elsewhere to find what they need.
You need to add a contact page that contains information about the business, business location, business telephone number, and email address. It is also important to describe your brand on the “About Us” page of the website. That way, customers will know your business better.
If your business doesn't yet have a logo, hire a graphic designer or create your own logo to use on your website, business cards, and social media profiles. This will help customers to identify your company quickly and easily on the web.
8. Create and Publish Content
The next way to create an online shop website is to equip it with various relevant content. So, don't just use the website to provide offers to customers. However, also add various information that is useful for them.
For example, by utilizing the blog feature. You can present written content, in the form of articles about your business, such as tips for using products, how to store them, and other educational information.
Use the right keywords in the written content so that it can help search engines provide a good ranking for your website. Apart from being interesting, you also need to update the content so that it remains relevant to user needs. New, fresh and quality content will also be preferred by search engines.
Uploading content regularly on your blog, adding links to your website, and updating this content can help you signal to search engines that your website is relevant for your chosen keywords.
Therefore, it is important for you to make a plan to publish quality articles or blog posts on your business website. If you want to rank high in search engine results and encourage people to return to your site over and over again, you must keep your website updated with new and relevant content as often as possible.
Apart from static page content and articles, a good form of content to upload on your online shop website is testimonials. Asking for testimonials from customers and then publishing them on a website is also a great way to present blog content.
This could be a choice of fresh, interesting and quality content to publish on your online shop website. However, pay attention to always do a review before actually publishing content on the website. Check the content on different devices and look again at the appearance, whether it is appropriate or not.
To carry out more detailed testing, you may be able to ask family or friends for help to see whether the content review on your online store website meets user expectations.
Feel free to make some improvements before uploading content. Make sure your upload is completely ready before publishing. So, it must be done carefully through a long process.
9. Apply SEO Techniques
If your online shop website is ready, now is the time to manage it well so it can generate sales. So, the next way to create an online shop website is to apply Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques to maximize the website.
Applying the right SEO techniques to your website will help your online shop website rank high and score well on search engines, such as Google.
When your website is easier to find, your website will be more likely to get visitors. So, if you want major search engines to help drive potential customers to your website, you need to implement a strong site-wide SEO strategy.
There are various ways you can use SEO techniques optimally. One way is to choose keywords that best suit the content on the website. Then, you need to add title tags, meta descriptions, and Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) that are relevant to the content and description of your business.
Also supplement website content with relevant internal and external links in strategic places. Internal links are links on website pages that lead to other pages on your website, while external links are other links that lead to popular, high-authority websites outside of your website.
This method can help your content build links so that it will be easier for search engines to index your website.
10. Try Using a Plugin
How to create an online shop website doesn't stop there, you also need to add plugins to the website. Quoted from the Small Business Trends page, plugins can help you add any features to your website. Starting from contact forms, search bars on websites, to sophisticated SEO tools.
If you want your online store website to do more than just display information about your business, then you should install plugins to enhance its functionality.
You can use the plugin feature if you create a website using WordPress. There are various WordPress plugins that you can use, here are some recommendations:
- Yoast SEO Plugin: Optimizes your website for search engines, making it easier for potential customers to find your online shop website online.
- MonsterInsights: Track website traffic and see how people find your website.
- Jetpack: Provides many features and options, such as integration with social media, increased security, and image optimization.
- WPForms: Helps you create special forms on websites, such as contact forms, payment forms, survey forms, and others.
- SeedProd: Lets you create pages for your business website, like beautiful coming soon pages to capture leads while your website is still under development.
However, it is important for you to pay attention that this plugin should not be used excessively or too much on the website. So, only choose the plugins that are needed for your website.
Moreover, this plugin is available in both free and paid forms. In essence, first pay attention to each plugin that you are going to use, OK?
11. Choose the Best Content Management System
The next way to create an online shop website is to choose the best content management system. Content Management System (CMS) or content management system is one of the ways to create an online shop website that is important for you to pay attention to.
A content management system (CMS) is a software application that allows you to create, edit, and publish digital content from a central location.
Using a CMS has an important role because it can help you manage website content more effectively, which can increase your SEO and overall website traffic. A good CMS will help you maintain your site, and the majority of these CMSs don't require a lot of technical knowledge to use.
So, it is quite practical and its function is very efficient. Some CMS that you can use for online shop websites, namely:
a. WordPress
WordPress is the most popular type of CMS. It has extensive active support services and provides many useful plugins to extend the functionality of your website. WordPress is also free and relatively easy to use.
Most website developers are familiar with it so it won't be difficult for you to find an individual or agency who can help you manage your website.
Because it is quite flexible and functional, WordPress can be used by individuals or organizations, such as companies. In fact, it can be used by small business people who are just starting a business.
b. Drupal
Another type of CMS that you can try to use as a way to create an online shop website, namely Drupal, which offers many of the same benefits as WordPress. Starting from flexibility, ease of use, and a large support community.
Drupal is considered a more secure content management system, but this CMS does not have many plugin or theme options.
c. Joomla!
Joomla is the next type of CMS that is most widely used for content management systems on websites. Joomla has better SEO, security and multilingual capabilities than WordPress. However, due to several plugins, WordPress is considered to perform better than Joomla.
d. Squarespace
Squarespace provides monthly or annual subscription services for content management systems on websites. Some of the services Squarespace offers, namely website design, development, software maintenance, metrics, domain names with annual purchase.
Additionally, SSL security, 24/7 support, and unlimited bandwidth, to storage hosting. This is the type of CMS that you can choose if you only have a limited budget, but want to have a website that is attractive in terms of design and can function well.
e. Wix
Wix is very similar to Squarespace, but a little more user friendly. Wix offers a monthly subscription, but not an annual one, and has similar features to Squarespace.
Wix has more design templates than Squarespace to choose from, but once you choose one, you have to stick with it or be forced to completely rebuild the website. Meanwhile, Squarespace allows you to change templates at any time without having to rebuild the entire site.
12. Make sure the website is easy to access
Another important thing that you need to pay attention to when creating an online shop website is ensuring that the website is easy for users to access.
Make sure to create a website that can be easily accessed via any device, such as laptops, tablets, and mobile phones.
So, avoid designing pages for large monitor sizes or pages that use more complex features. Just use a simple, but functional design so that it is optimal for any device your website visitors might use.
Also consider that there may be people with certain disabilities (such as color blindness) who will visit your online store website.
Therefore, plan your website design appropriately so that they can also learn about the products and services you offer. Make sure your website has a page loading time that is not too long. Some people often get impatient while browsing websites due to slow loading times.
This page load time can determine whether users will be willing to purchase a product or service or want to learn more about your company. Therefore, make sure you audit your website performance regularly by checking load times, site speed, correct formatting.
As well as, continuity with text and images to enhance user experience. Perform this test regularly so you can learn and adjust various things on your website so that its performance remains optimal.
Make sure you track how well each element on your website is performing so you can make changes as needed. Additionally, use analytics to see how visitors interact with your website. This information can help you decide what content to keep, change, or delete.
13. Maintenance
So, if you already have a house, what should you do to make your stay more comfortable? Of course, by putting various furniture in it. In creating this online shop website, you must also be prepared to include various content such as writing and photos on your website.
Not only that, you also need to "renovate" the appearance of the website so that it looks more beautiful to the eye. So, create a website management strategy for the long term. You can start by compiling a content list and estimating what website features need to be added in the future.
If you yourself are quite happy with the appearance and content of the website, then don't forget to share it with your friends. Invite them to the website to make it even more festive!
You can carry out promotions via social media to attract more visitors and start making profits from sales in online stores.
Social media like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Pinterest are a great way to increase your audience reach and remind customers about what's going on with your company. Every time you upload new content on your website, promote it via social media so you can attract your audience to visit your business website.
To make it easier, include your content link and website address as clearly as possible. So, the audience can click on it easily and can immediately visit your website as quickly as possible.
How to make your online shop busy with buyers
Tired of creating an online shop website, but it's still not busy? It's a bit of a loss. But don't worry, there are several ways to make your website busier. Just check out the tips and methods here:
1. Website SEO optimization
The first way is to optimize the SEO of your online shop website. With this, the visibility of the website in Google search results can be better. Of course, with this, your website can attract more visitors.
The easy explanation is this. SEO is like a fisherman's net for catching fish. Well, if the net is stronger and the place is good and it is a place with lots of fish, then the results will definitely be a lot.
Very similar to this method. If you can optimize your website's SEO effectively, more visitors will be interested in coming to your website. This is one way to make an online shop website much busier than usual.
2. Promotion on Social Media
Now the role of social media is very important for almost everything. Starting from personal branding to promoting your own merchandise. Including your online shop website, you can promote it on social media.
It's not just marketing, actually. Social media can now also get big traffic to websites. Whether it's Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or other social media, you can use it to increase traffic.
You can use several platforms to attract lots of traffic organically and without having to pay a penny.
3. Place an advertisement
The way to make your online shop website busier is of course by placing advertisements. It seems like there's nothing better than this. Shopee used to burn money at the start by running massive advertisements.
It's not even just online advertising. They also work on advertisements on television to get potential buyers. You can do that, you just need a lot of capital. If you still have limited capital, just advertise online first.
The way to do this is by placing advertisements on Google Ads or Facebook Ads. But don't rush. At the beginning, you have to do market research before using advertising. So profits can be maximized.
If you get the wrong target, it will be a shame for your money that you have made for advertising. You can also use a cheap advertising service first to check to what extent the advertisement can influence your online shop.
4. Use quality product photos
This is actually not a way to make an online shop website busier directly. However, it could be a combination of ways to promote your products on social media.
So like this. When you promote on social media or even use ads, of course there is something you need to show. So, high-quality product photos are the main content that you must have.
When promoting it via social media or advertising, there customers can see directly the products sold on your online shop website. This product photo is also useful so that consumers can know the features, details and quality of the product.
Conclusion
It takes effort and hard work to create your own online store. Fortunately, in this article, you have received information and a general overview of what you need to prepare to get your eCommerce site online from the start.
With an online store, you can build a business empire from small capital, then grow to become an eCommerce site with millions of rupiah in income. Since the eCommerce market never dims and continues to grow, there is a guarantee that your business can be successful in the following years.
Before we end this article, remember that customers are the ‘cogs’ of your business. They are also the ones who determine whether your business can continue running or even go bankrupt. Therefore, serve them like special people.
Build strong relationships with your customers and help them when they experience problems. Don't let go of customers who are loyal to you.
So, when is the best time to create an online store? Now! Do research, and brainstorm various product ideas. Look for tutorials on how to create an online shop. Create an MVP product. Then get your shop online and make your first sale!