Whether you’re selling physical products, digital goods, or services, starting an online shop requires a multifaceted strategy. You need to choose the right platform, ensure your shop is visible, and convert customers once they arrive. For businesses, having a strong ecommerce presence is more important than ever: global ecommerce sales are expected to reach nearly $7.9 trillion by 2028, representing 22.5% of total retail sales.
Below, we’ll cover what you should know to get started, from building the store to closing sales, as well as tips for conversion, search engine optimization (SEO), payment, and shipping.
What’s in this article?
- What you need to know before starting an online shop
- How to create an online store
- How to design an online store that converts
- What payment and shipping options should you include?
- How Stripe Payments can help
What you need to know before starting an online shop
Before creating an ecommerce presence, you need to lay the groundwork for success. Consider the following before you start:
Audience: Decide who you’re selling to and what gap your product or service fills. Research what your competitors are doing and determine how to set yourself apart, whether through pricing, product variety, or customer experience.
Budget: Consider the costs of goods, domain names, web hosting, platform fees, shipping materials, and marketing. Be realistic about how long it might take to recoup these up-front costs, and plan accordingly.
Legal requirements: From business licenses to taxes, ensure you’re compliant with local regulations. You might also need to think about privacy policies and terms of service for your site, especially if you’re collecting customer data.
Inventory: Create a plan for sourcing products and managing inventory to avoid running out of items.
Fulfillment: Decide how you’ll handle shipping to achieve timely delivery, whether you’re drop-shipping or overseeing it yourself.
Customer experience: Before launching, ensure your shop provides the customer experience you’re aiming for. Think about how you’re going to handle customer service, returns, and feedback.
How to create an online store
Building your online store requires choosing a platform, getting your domain name, and more. Here’s a step-by-step guide to launching your online store:
1. Choose your platform
Platforms such as Shopify, WooCommerce, and Squarespace present different pros and cons. Spend time choosing a platform that fits your business needs, including shipping integrations and payment options. Consider your tech savviness, business scale, and budget in the process.
2. Get a domain name
You need a domain name that’s short, easy to remember, and brand-specific. Many ecommerce platforms can help you purchase one, or you can use domain registrars such as GoDaddy and Namecheap.
3. Design your store
Design your store to be efficient, easy to use, and mobile-friendly. Most ecommerce platforms provide templates or themes to get you started. Customize the layout, color schemes, and images to match your brand’s style.
4. Add your products
Add your products to the store by creating straightforward product pages, uploading high-quality photos, writing compelling descriptions, and setting prices. Insert relevant details such as dimensions, materials, and sizing charts. If you’re offering services rather than physical products, clearly define what’s included.
5. Configure payment and shipping options
Make it easy for your customers to pay. Integrate multiple payment gateways (e.g., with Stripe) or credit card options. You also need to decide how you want to handle shipping, whether through flat-rate, real-time shipping quotes or free shipping above a certain amount. Establish shipping zones, rates, and delivery times.
6. Optimize your site for SEO
Boost visibility by targeting specific keywords and weaving them into unique product descriptions. Prioritize a fast, mobile-responsive experience with a logical hierarchy that keeps every item within three clicks of the homepage. Finally, optimize your media with descriptive alt text and leverage user reviews for organic content.
7. Test your store
Before launching, test everything. Place test orders to ensure the checkout process works smoothly. Check your product pages for typos, broken links, or image-loading issues. Test on different devices to affirm that your store looks good and functions well.
8. Implement analytics and tracking
To keep improving, you need to track your store’s performance. Use tools such as Google Analytics and the analytics dashboard within your platform to monitor traffic, sales, and customer behavior. This data can help you refine your marketing tactics and make better business decisions.
How to design an online store that converts
Once customers find their way to your shop, you need to convince them to make a purchase. Here are some ways to do that:
Categorize your products: Organize site categories intuitively so customers can find what they want with a few clicks. The search bar should be prominent and fully functional so customers can filter products by size, color, price, and more.
Design your store for mobile users: Create a mobile-friendly design. Ensure that your store looks good on all devices and that pages load quickly.
Upload high-quality images: Use crisp, high-resolution photos that show your product from multiple angles. Include zoom options and videos where relevant to build trust and reduce uncertainty.
Write compelling descriptions: Write persuasive product descriptions that focus on benefits rather than just features. Keep your copy short and vivid, and avoid jargon.
Facilitate checkout: Ensure your checkout has minimal steps, simple instructions, and multiple payment options. Avoid asking for unnecessary information, and allow guest checkout for a frictionless experience.
Drive action: Use prominent calls to action (CTAs) with contrasting colors and wording, such as “Add to Cart” and “Buy Now.” Create a sense of urgency with limited-time offers or low-stock indicators.
Build trust: Display trust badges, such as Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates and payment processor logos, customer reviews, and testimonials to build credibility. Include clear return policies and customer support options to increase confidence.
What payment and shipping options should you include?
Providing several payment and shipping options that cater to different preferences improves the user experience and increases your chances of closing a sale. Here’s what you should consider:
Payment options
Customers expect to have a choice between multiple payment methods. Here are a few to focus on:
Credit and debit cards: These are the most widely used payment methods, so integrate them into your checkout process. Platforms such as Stripe make it easy to accept card payments and handle the security side. This helps maintain compliance with regulations such as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS).
Digital wallets: Incorporating digital wallets (e.g., Apple Pay, Google Pay) can speed up your store’s checkout process and increase convenience for mobile shoppers. Stripe allows you to integrate these options effortlessly into your store’s payment flow.
Buy now, pay later (BNPL): Installment plans or BNPL services can increase conversions, particularly for higher-priced items. These options enable customers to spread out their payments and make it easier to commit to larger purchases.
Direct bank transfers: Some customers prefer direct transfers for higher-value items. This option provides additional security for those who don’t want to share card details online.
Shipping options
Shipping can significantly influence conversions. Include options that balance cost, speed, and reliability.
Standard shipping: This should be your baseline option. It should be affordable and provide delivery times that suit most customers. Clearly outline expected delivery times based on location.
Expedited shipping: Faster shipping options, such as two-day or next-day delivery, can capture last-minute or urgent buyers. Ensure the pricing for these options is transparent to avoid cart abandonment.
Free shipping: Free shipping is a great incentive for increasing cart sizes, whether you offer it for all orders or only for orders above a certain threshold. Many customers will add more items to their carts to hit the free shipping threshold.
International shipping: If you plan to sell globally, include international shipping options. Remember that customers are sensitive to high international shipping costs, so consider subsidizing part of the costs to stay competitive.
How Stripe Payments can help
Stripe Payments provides a unified, global payments solution that helps any business—from scaling startups to global enterprises—accept payments online, in person, and around the world.
Stripe Payments can help you:
- Optimize your checkout experience: Create a frictionless customer experience and save thousands of engineering hours with prebuilt payment UIs, access to 125+ payment methods, and Link, a wallet built by Stripe.
- Expand to new markets faster: Reach customers worldwide and reduce the complexity and cost of multicurrency management with cross-border payment options, available in 195 countries across 135+ currencies.
- Unify payments in person and online: Build a unified commerce experience across online and in-person channels to personalize interactions, reward loyalty, and grow revenue.
- Improve payments performance: Increase revenue with a range of customizable, easy-to-configure payment tools, including no-code fraud protection and advanced capabilities to improve authorization rates.
- Move faster with a flexible, reliable platform for growth: Build on a platform designed to scale with you, with 99.999% historical uptime and industry-leading reliability.
Learn more about how Stripe Payments can power your online and in-person payments, or get started today.
The content in this article is for general information and education purposes only and should not be construed as legal or tax advice. Stripe does not warrant or guarantee the accurateness, completeness, adequacy, or currency of the information in the article. You should seek the advice of a competent attorney or accountant licensed to practice in your jurisdiction for advice on your particular situation.