If you think that creating and growing an eCommerce business will cost you a fortune, perish that thought.
In this blog post, I have shared a few actionable steps for you to not only create your eCommerce website at an affordable cost but also to get sales out of it.
Let’s dive in!
Step 1# Setting up an affordable eCommerce site
#1 WordPress development
The first step towards setting up an eCommerce business is to create a website/online store.
Many people think that they need to spend a fortune to create an eCommerce website. But that’s not the case.
You can definitely create a low-cost eCommerce website without compromising on the features or quality of your site.
How is it possible to create an affordable eCommerce website?
WordPress website development is the answer!
Yes, you can easily save more than 30% of your overall website development cost when you choose WordPress for eCommerce website development.
You may have a few questions like “Is WordPress good for eCommerce website development?”, “Why should I choose WordPress?”, “Can I really create a fully functional eCommerce website using WordPress?”, and so on.
Below are some of the facts related to WordPress website development.
Why WordPress is good?
- WordPress websites are easy to manage.
- WordPress is secured.
- WordPress themes are responsive (mobile-friendly).
- WordPress is scalable.
Below are some of the reasons why WordPress website development is affordable:
- WordPress CMS is available free of cost.
- Most WordPress plugins (such as WooCommerce) are free.
- WordPress themes don’t cost too much.
- WordPress developers are available in abundance.
- WordPress makes redesigning a website easier.
What are you waiting for? Hire a WordPress developer to build your eCommerce store now!
Recommended post: 12 Questions to ask your WordPress developer before you hire him
#2 Shared web hosting
When you are starting out your eCommerce business, you need to make sure that you save your investment wherever you can.
For a startup eCommerce business, shared web hosting is the perfect solution to host the website. You don’t need to pay hundreds of dollars to host your online store.
A shared web hosting can cost you as low as $100 per annum only.
From where you can get an affordable web hosting package?
Well, there are many companies that offer affordable web hosting packages. InterServer & iPage are such examples.
#3 Hire an affordable web developer
Believe it or not, a web developer is very important for your eCommerce business or any online business for that matter. A good web developer or web designer can make your business grow while a bad web developer can break your business.
It is therefore very important to hire a web developer who is reliable and professional so that you can get the best out of your site.
Other than the reliability and professionalism, your website developer should be affordable too.
You need a website builder not only to create your eCommerce website but you will also need the assistance of your website maker for the below services:
- Website redesigning
- Website repair
- Website enhancement
- Website maintenance
You must ensure that your eCommerce web design cost shouldn’t go too high because you will need your investment to spend in other important areas of your business too.
#4 Launch with MVP
To keep your eCommerce business cost in control, you must go for an MVP first.
MVP is the minimum viable product which means that you should launch your website with the minimum or essential features only.
Don’t try to integrate all the advanced features into your website at once.
If you try to add too many advanced features to your site, without even being aware of their necessity, you may end up losing a lot of money into web development.
What’s the solution?
Go for the MVP first and gradually add new features to your website according to the feedback that you will get from your customer and analytic systems.
#5 Take care of essentials
Even when you are spending too low on your eCommerce website development, you should incorporate all the basic features of an eCommerce store into your site.
Below are some of the basic yet essential features that your eCommerce developer should include in your web design package:
- Responsive design
- Email newsletter
- Discount coupon management
- Multiple payment methods
- Quick loading webpages
- Upselling & Cross-selling
- Price filters
- Zoom-in feature for the products
- Social media sharing
Recommended post: 10 Essential ingredients of an eCommerce website package
Step 1# Growing eCommerce Sales
Creating an eCommerce website and growing it by getting online sales are two different things.
In order to grow an eCommerce website, you need to follow a few strategies.
Below are some of the effective strategies that you can follow to grow your eCommerce sales.
#1 Start blogging
Why blogging is good for your eCommerce website?
Blogging can help to grow your eCommerce sales in a number of ways.
First of all, bloggers are considered as the trusted sources of information.
If you blog about products that are relevant to your customers, then they’re more likely to trust you and your brand, which will lead to more sales.
Secondly, when you blog regularly on your eCommerce website, you are likely to achieve higher rankings for the targeted keywords on search engines.
As a result, your website will get more traffic from search engines that can be converted to paying customers.
If you are not sure how you can add a blog to your existing eCommerce store, hire a professional blog developer to do this job for you.
#2 SEO
SEO is one of the best and most effective ways to grow your eCommerce business.
A good SEO strategy will help get your site on the first page of Google and get more people to your website.
Now you may be wondering “How can I do SEO for my eCommerce website?”.
Here are 8 DIY activities that you can do to improve the SEO score of your eCommerce store:
- Optimizing the meta tags of each webpage.
- Optimizing the description of each product by using relevant keywords in the description.
- Optimizing the images by providing alt tags for each product image.
- Blogging regularly on your eCommerce website.
- Optimizing the loading speed of your site.
- Interlinking among web pages.
- Check and fix broken links.
- Integrate Google Webmasters.
Recommended post: 8 DIY SEO activities for your eCommerce website
#3 Participate in social media
Social media marketing is a great way to drive traffic to your eCommerce website. If you can get people to follow you on your social media accounts, then you can encourage them to visit your website and make a purchase.
Social media marketing is a good way to help you boost your brand awareness and increase your eCommerce conversion rate.
Social media marketing is all about creating great content and then making sure that your audience sees it.
What are the best social media platforms to promote an eCommerce website?
In order to drive traffic to your eCommerce website, you can also use Facebook and Instagram Ads to promote your products.
Facebook and Instagram advertising lets you target people based on their demographics and interests, so you can make sure your product is reaching the right people.
#4 Provide incentives to customers
If you’re looking to increase the sales of your eCommerce store, make sure you offer some kind of incentive to your customers.
You can do this by offering discounts, free shipping, bonus gifts, or anything else that will make your user feel like they’re getting something extra.
In other words, there must be a reason for your users or audience to buy products and not from your competitors. This is how you can make more sales from your eCommerce store.
#5 Go for paid ads
If your budget allows, you can also advertise your products and eCommerce store on the search engines like Google.
One of the best ways to get more traffic and sales from your eCommerce website is to run Google Ads. Google Ads is a great way to get in front of your target audience and show them your products.
Google allows you to set a daily budget, so you can spend as much or as little as you want. You can also choose to target or exclude specific demographics, locations, and search terms.
Interested to create your eCommerce store?
Hire a WordPress developer to create an affordable eCommerce website.
But before you hire a WordPress developer, make sure to ask them some of the important questions such as below:
- How much experience do you have in eCommerce web design & development?
- What will be the cost of my eCommerce website?
- Will you use a readymade theme or you will design my eCommerce store from the scratch?
- Will I get ownership of my website?
- How much time it will take for you to complete my website?
- How you will ensure the security of my website?
- Will my website be responsive (mobile-friendly)?
- Will I be able to manage the website backend?
- Will I get support/warranty after my eCommerce website is launched?
- Will my eCommerce website be SEO-friendly?
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