How to Start an E-Commerce Website: A Step-by-Step Guide

According to Statista, the U.S.'s e-commerce revenue was anticipated to be $768 billion last year and is projected to reach $1.3 trillion over the next three years. Making an e-commerce website may help you capture a piece of the retail market if you are in that industry. Here are the seven simple stages of building an e-commerce website.

Choose Your Content Management System (CMS)

A content management system (CMS) is the cornerstone of every Website Maintenance. Open-source platforms like WordPress and beginner-friendly all-in-one website builders like Shopify or Squarespace are just a few of the many content management systems available. Which is best for you and your online business will depend on your financial situation, level of expertise, and particular e-commerce requirements.

Create an Account (Or Get Web Hosting)

Unless you pick WordPress or HTML Development, the next step is to establish an account after choosing which CMS to use. Purchase a web hosting package if you want to use WordPress to develop your e-commerce website. The best web hosting providers provide instant domain registration, free SSL certificates, and one-click WordPress installation. As a result, you may connect WordPress to your domain as well as hosting automatically.

Select an E-commerce Theme or Template

A website theme is the first thing you need to think about. Themes are pre-built themes that offer your website a unified appearance and feel. Whether you choose to construct your e-commerce website using WordPress, Shopify, Wix, or another platform, you will have a wide selection of prebuilt templates and themes to pick from on all subscription platforms.

Build out web pages and customize your website

The next step is to start customizing the theme or template you've chosen for your online business. This is where you will build up pages from your homepage to your refunds and return policy page, update your header and footer, and set up your site's navigation.

Create Product Listings

There are never enough product listings in an online shop. The next stage is to construct your product catalog, complete with all of your product listings, once you have set up your website. Make care to classify and organize your listings throughout this process so that you can manage them easily and future site users can discover them.

Create an inventory, a payment gateway, and tax tools

After populating your e-commerce website, you need to take care of a few crucial components, such as setting up a payment processor and integrating inventory and tax tools.

Choose a Payment Gateway

Many online shops choose to use third-party solutions like Stripe or PayPal to make the process of selecting and setting up a payment gateway quicker and more secure. You must make sure that the data is completely secured before transmission if you are sending the client to other websites.

Test and Launch Your E-Commerce Site

You must do a complete site audit before opening your e-commerce site to consumers. The website's buttons and links must all work. The topic must be kept in mind while creating even 404 error web pages.

Check your knowledge of cart addition and payment completion. You may test payment processing on the majority of platforms without actually using your credit card. After a purchase has been completed or denied, make careful to verify that all emails are arriving in the correct inboxes. Check how your website appears and works on mobile devices last but not least. If you can, try to test the website's usability across different web browsers.

FAQ's

What is the price of building an e-commerce website?

You must pay for a domain name, an SSL certificate, e-commerce hosting, payment processing integrations, a shop layout and designs, and any other third-party tools you need to create an e-commerce website.

Which e-commerce platform is the best?

The top e-commerce platforms for 2023 are as follows: Squarespace, Square Online, Ecwid, Shift4Shop, Shopify, Wix, Weebly, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and Big Cartel are some examples of these platforms.

Website builders, are they safe?

Since most website builders provide cutting-edge technology, they are often in the lead when it comes to maintaining the security of their sites. They do this by deploying cutting-edge technology to defend the websites of their clients. As a result, the majority of website development firms provide some of the greatest online security alternatives.