How to Successfully Build an E-commerce Website
It goes by different names – borderless business, cross-border commerce or international online retail. But the crucial thing about it isn’t what it represents, but what it does not. E-commerce is not a luxury or just one strategy among many – it is a necessity.
In 2019, e-commerce trade was accountable for $2.3 trillion in sales. And it is predicted that this will double to $4.5 trillion by 2021. This success of international commerce has led even established business houses to start online selling as a complementary strategy to their efforts.
Global e-commerce is about selling services or products across national borders from a country of origin – usually defined as its incorporating or founding location. Services and products are sold into non-native markets via online marketing and sales.
When you seamlessly checkout or shop online for your favorite pair of shoes, a nice digital watch or even a customized PC you might think that this process is easy. It is everything but that.
This article will explain to you how this process flows, what are its requirements and how you can approach it in a successful manner in order to create your first online e-commerce store.
E-Commerce Store Design
Whether big or small, based in WordPress or in an all-in-one platform, e-commerce store design is a crucial component of any successful e-commerce store. Great design can help you generate leads, while a bad one drives away future sales, tanks existing ones, impacts your brand in a negative way, and slows the progress of your business.
Remember the last time you visited a website from a brand you love. You probably didn’t even look at the design – since the beautiful design is unnoticeable, just like a video game. Bad design causes friction, irritation, and confusion, which ultimately ends up with lost sales and abandoned carts. While a beautiful one promotes the products or services, building them into the stars of the experience, and allows shopping to be a simplified and smooth experience.
A great e-commerce store design applies not only to how a website appears in the eyes of the consumer but also how it does its job and how a consumer travels from page to page, step by step through the entire sale process. A high-quality e-commerce design should merge visual design, conversion strategy, and technical tidbits in order to create a simple user experience.
Dealing with the Paperwork
After building a great website, you must deal with all legal nuances and get all the paperwork in order. First things first, register your business and get a vendor’s License. Contact a lawyer that will look into legal business problems and assist you with the creation of your e-commerce business. Although it is an upfront expense, this will probably save you from a lot of trouble and expense in the future.
Strategize and discover what regulations your e-commerce store needs to abide by – what are the required filings and how does the taxation and revenue process flow?
Don’t forget about the terms and conditions and privacy policy pages. Fortunately, easy-to-use legal binding contract templates can be easily downloaded from the Internet, so you shouldn’t have any trouble on that front.
Register the right articles of organization or incorporation with your nation’s clerks if you’re creating a nonprofit, corporation, limited liability business or professional organization. In addition, if your sales are taxable, you will need to get a Vendor’s license or a Seller’s Permit with the appropriate nation’s agency. Many vendors will require you to complete this process before they start working with you.
Develop a Payment Gateway and a View Cart Button
For any e-commerce store to succeed, it must have numerous payment options available for the consumers. Or you can find tools that set up these functionalities automatically. The consumers must be able to make payments in multiple ways, whether it is via debit card, credit card, net banking, online wallet or cash on delivery.
Now you will need to create a view cart button. You have likely seen this little shopping cart icon somewhere on most e-commerce sites today. This icon, usually found at the top right corner, allows customers to easily look at the items they have already added to the cart. This part is crucial. Why?
Because having such a visible icon at all times increases conversion rates. Shoppers have a smooth experience and can easily decide about purchases. The icon should be something that is easily recognized and stand out amidst the background of a website design. Go for a shopping bag or cart with bright colors that are simple to find. Here you do not wish to confuse people unless you want them to leave your website irritated.
Poorly build e-commerce will create a frustrating user experience that will alienate consumers, harm your online store future success and decrease sales. But by approaching this a smart way, having a great design, dealing with the legal issues and developing simple payment gateways you can rest assured that your e-commerce will have satisfied consumers and a great sales cycle.
