Creating an Online Store: Where to Start?

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Steps needed to create a website

Setting business goals, website target audience, the idea.

Customers, exited by the idea to have their own website as soon as possible, very often forget the very beginning and one of the most important foundations of a successful business - you need to have clear goals and know what the target audience is. Only in this way, the very first step of creating a website will be successful, because the website will define and communicate clear goals of your business, highlight your strengths, and all content will be focused on your target audience.

Depending on your business goals, it will be clear what type of website you need - a website, an e-shop or a specific combined solution.

Competitve analysis

In order to make your website even more successful, analyze your biggest competitors: pay attention to their strategy, website layout, range of products or services, strengths, website functionalities used, find their weaknesses.

Knowing all this information, you will be able to choose the best ideas from your competitors, improve them and use them on your website, and also take into account the weak points of your competitors to offer your customers more than others have done.

Domain acquisition and hosting

Once you have an idea and know what services you will provide and/or what you will sell, it will be easy to come up with a domain name, but remember that a good domain name must meet the following requirements:

The domain name must be directly related to your brand name or the products you sell.
Avoid misleading names.
The domain name should be short and easy to remember.
Depending on the localization of your target audience, the domain suffix should be chosen.

After coming up with a domain name, it needs to be checked to make sure it is not taken. After finding the most suitable option, you can purchase a domain and register it. From the minute these steps are completed, you are the official owner of the website domain

Choosing a content management system (CMS).

Choosing a CMS depends on what type of website you need. One of the most popular and commonly used CMS is WordPress. W3Tech 2022 according to data, this content management system is used by 43.2% of all web pages. This means that even 2 out of 5 websites use WordPress.

This CMS is perfect for both representative websites and online stores. WordPress is a very flexible system that you can later manage yourself.

Once a CMS is selected, it is installed and configured, as well as installing and configuring the site's security package, required third-party integrations, and content hosting. But is it worth the rush to upload content?

Texts and pictures

You need to hurry. But to create and collect not to upload it immediately.

First of all, create the website texts. They should be focused on the needs of your business's target audience, highlight your business' strengths, and ideally be designed with SEO in mind.

SEO – tai tinklapio otimizavimas paieškos sistemoms paremtas raktinių žodžių paieška. Jis reikalingas tam, kad puslapis būtų lengviau randamas Google paieškoje. Jei tekstai bus sukurti pagal SEO taisykles, jūsų naujasis tinklapis turės didesnius šansus pasiekti tikslinę auditoriją ir atsirasti aukščiausiose Google paieškos pozicijose.

Then comes the collection of photos. It is recommended to use unique photos - of your products, works, team, etc. If there are still too little photos, you can use public photo galleries.

Free photo galleries: www.pexels.com, www.pixabay.com, www.unsplash.com, etc.

Paid photo galleries: www.shutterstock.com, www.istockphoto.com and others.

Selection of website functionalities

This step will be very easy if you have analyzed your competitors well beforehand. Therefore, it remains to make a list of all the desired functionalities of the website, including the functionalities not used by competitors, the lack of which you noticed during the analysis.

It's best if you divide this list into two parts: required functionalities and additional ones. In this case, it will be possible to launch the website after the necessary functionalities have already been created, and additional functionalities can be implemented while the online activity is already live. But don't forget: additional functionalities are just as important to have an attractive and fully functional website.

Website development (design)

This is the last step that will make your dream of having your own website a reality! Although this is the last step, it is probably the most complicated and knowledge-intensive work.

So - a website design. Where to start here? If we are talking about WordPress, you should start by choosing a theme and adapting it to your business style. Installation of necessary plugins, dev work, modification of functionalities, uploading of text and photos follow in parallel. Although it seems to sound quite simple, depending on the complexity of the website it can take from a few days to a few months.

If you still haven't found a WordPress theme you like and you have enough resources, you can order a unique design created by a website designer. In this case, the web page is created using exactly this design, structure and intended elements.

Creating a website: do it yourself or ask of specialists?

Many representatives of content management systems declare that almost anyone who wants to can create a website. However, is it really that easy to do?

Before making a decision, we recommend that you think about and answer the following questions:

Do you have enough UI/UX knowledge? You may know your customers well and know your target audience, but that doesn't mean that this knowledge is enough to choose the right and user-oriented theme. UI/UX knowledge ensures the interface of the web page with the user and allows him to use it comfortably.

Would you be interested in creating your own website? Remember, it is not only a creative work, but also a technical one. It is normal that some people like this kind of work, others don't. Yes, after doing it by yourself, the satisfaction will be high, but will the work , the search for information, endless educational materials give you the same satisfaction as the result?

Can you invest so much of your time? It all depends on how quickly you want to market your website. If you're in no rush, this might be an option for you, but the fastest and most efficient option is cooperrate with website developers, such as the professionals from our Oxadigit team.

How will you solve unexpected programming errors and perform programming tasks? It doesn't matter what size website is being created, dev work is practically unavoidable. Think about whether you will have enough strength to solve problems with style corrections, integration of payment systems, automatic messages or other functionalities that are particularly important to the customer? Will you be able to analyze theme parameters and ensure smooth operation of the website?

If you hesitated at least once when answering these questions, then this is a sign that you should seek help from specialists. It is also recommended to entrust the creation of a website to specialists if:

A large-scale website is being developed. If your goal is an e-shop with a large number of products, a rich list of functions - contact the professionals. In this case you will spend countless hours at the e-shop yourself, and the result will hardly be as satisfying as you would like it to be.

You want the fastest possible result. The most effective and fastest way to have your own unique website is to entrust it to professionals. When you create it yourself, you will lose a lot of time learning how to do it, while web developers will do their job quickly and efficiently after doing the same steps hundreds of times.

You want the best possible results i.e. the website would work without errors, be attractive to users, adapt to mobile devices, work fast enough, be safe to browse - this is best ensured by professionals.

It is planned to collect user data. Website developers will ensure that all information collected about website users is secure and not leaked to third parties.

We would like to point out that creating a website with the help of specialists still requires business involvement. Spend your time refining the brand, creating a strategy, listing the functionalities of the web page, creating texts, collecting photos, sharing ideas and thus, together with web developers, create a successful web page focused on the target audience immediately. Sharing the work and achieving the goal together, we promise, will generate the happiness and satisfaction no less than creating a website yourself.

Looking for expert help? Contact us - the Oxadigit team: Tel. +37064361161 or by Email info@oxadigit.lt