How to Set Up an Online Store
This question used to be meaningless from an IT perspective, but it has become a reality thanks to subscription platforms. All you need to do is register and you’ll have a ready-made online store.
However, let’s be honest, these types of solutions are not something to build a serious business on. They’re good for trying out e-commerce, selling a few items, experimenting with options, or just getting into the topic. Unfortunately, setting up an online store in this way has little to do with real business because an online store on a subscription platform is full of limitations, it’s a closed system with a predetermined list of options, it’s not very flexible and you won’t be able to tailor it perfectly to your needs.
Only an online store built on an open-source platform can meet these demands. Here, instead of setting up an online store, you’re building one, so the question should be “How to Build an Online Store” because that’s what it looks like – building with blocks and customizing/customizing to fit your needs.
If you have some technical experience and are willing to learn, you can build a simple online store yourself. However, if you’re seriously thinking about e-commerce business, you should give up on IT education because if you don’t plan to deal with building online stores every day, the time you’ll spend learning will be wasted, whereas using it for something else, you could earn or save significantly more than if you were to outsource its construction to an IT specialist.
People like to get involved in things they shouldn’t and often businesses suffer because of this. A future online store owner should focus on improving their commercial skills, which will be needed from the very beginning when negotiating with wholesalers about discounts, but also every day when talking to customers. You should also have a clear understanding that advertising is what drives trade; no wonder there’s such an old saying: “Advertising is the driving force of trade.” Even if you had the most beautiful and customized online store, it wouldn’t sell anything without advertising.
You need to remember that internet advertising requires constant attention, and here are two possible solutions: either educate yourself in this field or outsource these tasks. While building an online store, educating yourself in this area would be completely meaningless because you’ll only use this knowledge once, but with internet advertising, it could save you a lot of money every month.
Advertising agencies can charge between a few thousand to several tens of thousands of zlotys per month for running ad campaigns; prices depend on the traffic expectations. You should also be aware that there are companies that will take your money every month by getting you into long-term contracts, essentially not giving you anything other than a monthly bill.
That’s why it’s even more worthwhile to spend your time learning about this topic, and what’s more, it doesn’t require any IT knowledge; just the ability to read and repeat certain patterns, track trends, analyze statistical data.
Instead of focusing on so-called completely insignificant things like how to make the X icon in my store appear in place Y because that would be cooler (: focus on acquiring practical knowledge about search engine positioning and Facebook advertising. Trust me, a customer can smell whether the “Add to Cart” button is green or red and whether the checkbox for accepting the store’s terms of service is in place X or Y; these are completely insignificant things.
Who talks the most about user experience (user experience)?
Specialized companies that make people water from their brains by optimizing online stores under this angle, charging quite a bit of money to do so.
For an online store customer, the most important issues they pay attention to in order of importance are:
1. The lowest possible product price
2. The fastest possible (preferably free) delivery of goods – ideally tomorrow
3. DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO – NOTHING !
5. THEN STUPIDITIES LIKE UX, SUCH AS WHETHER THE ADD TO CART / WRZUĆ DO KOSZYKA ICON SHOULD BE IN PLACE X OR Y, WHETHER PRODUCT GALLERY PICTURES SHOULD PREVIEWS IN THE LEFT OR RIGHT DIRECTION OR MAYBE UP OR DOWN (((((
Of course, I’m exaggerating a bit, but that’s how it is, especially in Poland where there’s such a saying “price makes miracles” – you’ll soon see just how true it is. So go back a few sentences and set the following priorities:
1. Acquiring knowledge about commercial relations/handling negotiations – so you can have competitive prices and a high margin
2. Acquiring knowledge of internet advertising, which will allow you to save a heap of money every month
Only then, when points 1 and 2 are “working” and you have some free time left, can you occupy yourself with optimizing your store under the angle of user experience:
Because even if you had the most ergonomic online store in terms of operation, it wouldn’t help anything if you didn’t have good prices for products.
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