How to Open an Online Store?

What is the Online Store?

An online store is a medium of doing business, which is established on the internet. Through this portal, buyers and sellers can buy and sell from each other.

Online stores afford platforms for consumers to pick products, and purchase them. There are many advantages in doing business online in this manner.

For one thing, the internet is a great way to widen the reach of a brand.

For another, it is a very efficient and quick method to buy and sell.

Furthermore, it is a very secure way to do business. eBay and Amazon.com are examples of large online stores.

 

Why should you start an online Store?

The most significant advantage of starting an online store is cost-effectiveness.

  • You can start an online business with minimal startup costs.
  • The second reason is that you can work from anywhere in the world. That means you can also draw in consumers from anywhere in the world.
  • Thirdly, there is no limit to how much you can potentially make.

The success rate is based on product quality rather than the number of hours worked. This gives business owners the added advantage of flexible working hours.

 

Where to start an online store?

You can use existing business platforms to launch the online store of your own.

An example of such a site is, Shopify.com. You register to such a platform and set up your store. You can then proceed to develop content for your brand on the web-page. Then your store is open for business.

Most platforms charge a monthly or annual fee to host an online store.

Here is a list of great Online Store Platforms, and how to get started with them:

Amazon:

You need to first register for an Amazon Seller Account to get started.

You have a choice of two types of accounts:

  • Individual Account
  • Professional Account
  • Individual Account:

The individual account is for small online store owners and it is free.

  • Professional Account

The professional Account is for sizable long term business owners. The Professional Account entails a subscription fee of $39.99 per month.

Advantages:

The pros of selling on Amazon are a more significant audience reach and the fact that Amazon uses the fulfillment model. This means Amazon takes charge of the warehousing and other details for your store.

Disadvantages:

The downside is a high subscription fee and limited communication between seller and buyers.

 

Shopify: 

To start an Online Store on Shopify, one needs to register first with Shopify.com.

Next, one needs a store name and logo.

Then you need to work on the page content of your site.

Finally, you need to set up your payment options.

Advantages:

The benefits of using Shopify are as follows.

Fast and secure hosting, and advanced, user-friendly features.

Custom designed templates to help develop engaging page content.

Disadvantages:

The downside is the high subscription fees.

 

WooCommerce:

To begin, one needs to have WordPress installed.

Next, you can pick a theme for your store from a collection of Themes.

Now, register with WooCommerce.com and install and activate its plugin. You can further use extensions to grow your site.

Advantages:

The chief advantage of using WooCommerce is that it is free.

Secondly, it attracts a wide and varied range of visitors.

Thirdly, it is secure from third party breach.

Disadvantages:

One downside is with plugin malfunction.

Secondly, making changes to your themes after starting on one can be costly.

 

Weebly:

To begin selling on Weebly, you need a registered account on Weebly.com

Determine the name of your store and your preferred domain name.

List your products and services.

Next, select a theme for your store and design your page content for your goods and services.

Set up your payment options.

Finally, publish and begin promoting your site on social media.

Advantages:

Weebly provides a free platform to host your stores.

It also uses user-friendly tools to help design content and layout.

Disadvantages:

Weebly has a weaker marketing strategy compared to other platforms. Which lead to difficulty in attracting customers.

 

Conclusion:

Online platforms are fast and secure portals to start businesses.

They are easy to set up and grow.

They allow great user interfaces and a broad brand reach.

Most sites charge monthly subscriptions to startups.

However, this is a significant investment to make in the long term.

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