- The document provides guidance for business owners on how to set up an ecommerce store to supplement or replace their brick-and-mortar store. It outlines key steps including determining products to sell online, researching competitors, selecting a domain host and ecommerce platform, uploading product information, and maintaining the online store over time. - Key aspects that are recommended are choosing a hosting provider and ecommerce platform that supports online stores, populating the site with product details, and creating an ongoing maintenance plan to keep the site secure, optimized and meeting customer needs. Using an ecommerce development agency can help efficiently set up and maintain the online store.

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Running a brick and mortar shop is challenging enough; you have to
constantly deal with your customers face to face, check-up on you staff, hire
security to prevent theft, spend on store maintenance, and then if you are hit
by a pandemic like situation you will have to close the doors and withstand
zero sales for a prolonged period of time. Which gives you all the more reasons
to start an ecommerce online store.
If you take your brick-and-mortar business online and just focus on your local
market you can make your business more profitable. Setting up and managing
an online store is cost-effective; reaching your target customers is easy;
running marketing campaigns, accepting payments and managing your
inventory is more effortless than it was for running a physical store.
In this article you will learn how to set up your own ecommerce store and our
suggestions on the top ecommerce platforms and technologies to choose. I will
explain in detail the steps to follow while taking your business online.
How To Start Your eCommerce Business?
We have written this blog assuming that you have a brick-and-mortar store
and are well aware of your target customers. This blog will guide you to take
your business online using industry best practices that many successful
ecommerce store-owners have followed to become successful.

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Determine the Products You Want to Sell Online
If you have a brick and mortar store you are already clear about what you will
be selling online on your ecommerce store. But ecommerce is a vast space
where your competitors will be selling a lot more variations of the products
you are selling. Moreover you have to look into the possibility that selling the
products you want to sell online is a viable option?
For example: if you sell low-cost items, you have to attract customers who will
purchase in bulk so that you can reduce the shipping charges, otherwise it will
become an unprofitable business.

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Another example: if you want to sell ceramic items, which are expensive and
fragile, you will have to find logistic partners who can guarantee secure
shipping of your products without mishandling the items.
Which is why it becomes essential that you determine the products you want
to sell online and ensure that you can fulfil your customers’ orders without fail.
Run a Competitor Research to Know What You're Up
Against
When you have already figured-out the products you will be selling online, the
next step would be to run a thorough competitor analysis and find out ways
they run their online store. Starting from your local businesses to global stores,
you can derive a ton of insights into how they run their online business.
Here are a few pointers to look into when researching your competitors:
What products they are selling online.
Learn about their shipping partners and how they fulfil their
orders.
Payment gateways they employ to accept payments.
Technologies your competitors are using to run their store.
Figure-out their marketing strategies and ways they engage with
their competitors.
Most importantly, find out your unique selling point and how you can
compete in the market to win.

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You may already know how to run a brick-and-mortar store; however, running
an ecommerce store is a completely different business model. Researching
your competitors’ business will guide you into figuring out the right approach
you can follow to make your ecommerce business a success.
Register a Domain and Choose an eCommerce
Development Platform
At this stage you need a hosting provider who can host your website as well as
store and manage your online store data. There are over 300,000 hosting
providers in the world to choose from but there are some hosting services who
are ecommerce friendly.
Here are top 5 ecommerce hosting providers:
Bluehost
GoDaddy
Hosting
DreamHost
SiteGround
Hostinger
InMotion

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Top Factors to consider when choosing your hosting provider
The next step is to hire the right ecommerce development company, who can
guide you to choose the best ecommerce platform for your online store. We
suggest opting for CMS (content management systems) platforms which
enables store owners to create their online store without having any coding
skills, they can use their content management systems to upload product items
and publish their store in 24 hours, literally!

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Here are a few eCommerce platforms to choose from:
Upload and Publish the Products You Want to Sell Online
After selecting the ecommerce development platform for your online store,
you can upload and publish your products with ease using the content
management system.
At this phase you will need to opt for a professional eCommerce development
company who can upload, populate and publish your products to make your
ecommerce site live.
An ecommerce development agency can prepare upload files with all product
details which can be employed to bulk upload products.
Create a maintenance plan for your online store

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Now that your online store is up and running you need to put in place a
maintenance plan to ensure smooth running of the ecommerce store.
eCommerce is an ever evolving industry where you need to keep up with the
changing market trends to thrive and succeed in your business.
A maintenance plan for your online store is to ensure that you stay ahead in
the market and your customers derive a better shopping experience:
The benefits of site maintenance includes:
Update store
security features
to keep it secure
from trespassers
Give your
customers a
better user
experience
Update store UI
and UX to give
your customers a
better shopping
experience.
Make your online
store search
engine friendly

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Top ways to maintain your eCommerce site:
Update CMS version and themes
Update site plugins
Back up your store regularly
Monitor store analytics to find ways to improve
customer experience
Maintain site security
Monitor server performance to prevent server
downtime
Optimize website speed
Update and optimize store contents
Update product SKUs and descriptions
Keep and follow a maintenance schedule

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Wrapping Up!
Setting up an online store is basically the same everywhere in the world. You
have to stock-up your inventory, buy a domain name, choose a hosting
provider, choose an ecommerce platform, upload product details and publish.
To accomplish all the above actions efficiently you should hire an eCommerce
development agency who can set-it-up for you at a fraction of the cost.
If you can do all that as well as manage to sell your products, your ecommerce
store business will take care of its own; you only have to take care of
maintaining the site and implementing marketing strategies to keep your store
going.