The number of e-commerce sites is increasing rapidly today. Many people prefer to shop online rather than in stores. Primarily, shopping online increased during the Covid-19 period. Therefore, online shopping has become an indispensable part of our lives. According to statistics, e-commerce continued to grow regularly and rapidly after the Covid-19 epidemic.
Global e-commerce has increased by 23 percent, based on the data for 2020. While the number of people using e-commerce sites was around 68 thousand in 2019, this number increased exponentially and exceeded 256 thousand in 2020.
When e-commerce became a big market, many people started investigating this industry. This article showed you ten steps for setting up an e-commerce site.
Why Do You Need to Create an E-Commerce Website?
- The main target of every company is to deliver products to their customers. E-commerce is also important to have these products for the target audience in the digital environment. 40 out of every 100 people shop through e-commerce websites, according to the last statistics.
- Not only are you just a local brand in e-commerce, but you can also obtain many customers in many countries worldwide.
- You get the chance to market multiple products in a place by setting up an e-commerce website. You will not experience any restrictions.
- You can possess very different target audiences on an e-commerce website. On the one hand, you can sell suitable products for homemakers and students at the same time.
- You can be known easily on social media using an e-commerce website.
E-Commerce Sales Statistics
- E-commerce continues to increase globally and locally. We can see examples of this growth in the statistics of various organizations.
- Almost everyone started shopping online, especially with the curfews. If we look at the example of Turkey, we can observe that the e-commerce volume in 2020 increased by 66 percent compared to 2019. Therefore, the e-commerce volume, 136 billion TL, increased to 226 billion 200 million TL.
- According to the latest statistics of Bigcommerce, which is a world-famous e-commerce platform, global e-commerce sales will increase rapidly; on the other hand, they were around 14.1 percent in 2019 and will be about 22 percent in early 2023.
- Currently, 43 percent of people, who want to shop, prefer searching e-commerce websites.
- 5% of the shopping in the first quarter of 2020 was performed on e-commerce websites worldwide. This statistical number infers that the interest in e-commerce after the Covid-19 outbreak has increased. Therefore, E-commerce, which is expanding rapidly, is faced with great interest worldwide.
- Worldwide e-commerce volume was as 279 Billion Dollars in 2017. This number increased to $309 Billion in 2018, $343 Billion in 2019, $374 Billion in 2020, and $407 Billion in 2021. It is estimated that these rates will continue to increase, and e-commerce volume will increase to 476 billion dollars in 2024.
9 Steps to Create an E-Commerce Site
- Determine Your E-Commerce Method
- Determine Your Target Audience and the Products You Will Sell
- Choose Domain and Hosting
- Determine the Infrastructure of the E-commerce Site
- Design Your E-commerce Site
- Upload Product Group to the System
- Make Agreements with Cargo and Logistics Companies
- Get Payment Provider Service
- Connect Your E-Commerce Website to the Company
Setting up an e-commerce site is not that difficult. However, if you want to set up a correct and efficient e-commerce site, you can easily set up your e-commerce site using following the steps below.
Determine Your E-Commerce Method
The first step is determining which method you want to use in e-commerce. There are five different methods of e-commerce. They are;
- Creating an E-Commerce Site
- Dropshipping
- Selling on Online Platforms (such as Etsy and Amazon)
- Opening Stores and Selling in Market Places (like Trendyol)
- Selling with Social Media Networks
- Second-Hand Sales Applications.
First, you should choose which method suits you best. If you plan to ask for help from a company or platform to set up your website, you must choose these companies well. Your website is essential for e-commerce. For this reason, you should consider that the website meets your needs. Then, you need to agree with a good and high-performance company that will allow you to run your business smoothly and offer you every opportunity to succeed in your business.
Determine Your Target Audience and the Products You Will Sell
E-commerce can be performed in more than one area. First, you need to determine which products you will sell. Next, you need to determine your target audience. It will be of great benefit to determine the design of your website and marketing methods regarding your target audience. You need to identify and know your target audience well to have successful market products.
You may need age, gender, city of residence, interests, and educational background to find the ideal audience for your product.
For example, your target audience may be men between the ages of 25-35 who love to read and live in Istanbul. Preparing your website for this target audience will make your commerce more efficient.
Choose Domain and Hosting
The domain will be the digital address of your business. You will contact customers and visitors through the address you have specified. This digital address needs to be catchy and get people’s attention. For this reason, your domain selection is of great importance.
First, you need to do a proper domain search. If you already have a brand, you should do a domain search on that brand. You must first register the domain if you have not yet created your brand.
Make sure it is prestigious and trustworthy when choosing a domain. Especially domains with the “.COM.TR” extension will give customers much more confidence.
Hosting is one of the most important areas of a website. You need to look at the features of the server you receive hosting service, such as RAM, CPU, and SSD Disks for your website to serve quickly and smoothly.
It is essential to get a well-equipped and complete hosting service. Therefore, you should choose your hosting company correctly. If you choose a company simply because it is affordable, significant problems can occur. Hosting service is one of the basic building blocks for a website. For this reason, pay attention to the company you will receive hosting service from is one of the reliable, proven, and well-known companies.
Determine the Infrastructure of the E-commerce Site
Determining your website’s infrastructure is an essential step for setting up e-commerce. You can choose any of the infrastructures, such as WordPress, OpenCart, Woocommerce, Magento, and Wix. However, you need to consider some criteria when deciding which e-commerce infrastructure to choose.
- You should choose an infrastructure that is easy to manage by users.
- Your infrastructure should be suitable for SEO studies
- One of the important criteria for e-commerce websites is security. Your infrastructure must be secure against malware and viruses.
- Infrastructure must be scalable.
Design Your E-commerce Site
Your e-commerce website acts as a display window. You should choose a reliable and understandable theme that will attract the attention of customers and visitors. The appearance, colors, and font size of the site are essential. It is recommended that your website is in clear and plain colors, does not use huge fonts, and does not have a complex structure.
Categories should be organized and accessible. Visitors who enter your website should quickly find any product or service they are looking for. The design of your website should support SEO efforts.
Upload Product Group to the System
After you decide which product to sell, you need to upload products to the system. You must include the information about your products wholly and correctly. It is also very important to use quality and understandable images. Uploading products to your e-commerce site looks like organizing the shelves of your physical store.
You should add products that will attract the attention of your customers and visitors to your site. You may take a long time to upload the products to the system in detail and carefully. For this reason, you can make your work easier by getting a service that will upload the product group to the system.
You can get support from companies that provide XML in product selection and uploading to the site in e-commerce. Most e-commerce sites take the product list in XML format and upload it to the site. Thus, easier product management is possible.
You should pay attention to situations when managing products with XML. One of the most important points is using the same descriptions of the products that come with XML on your e-commerce site. Then, you must write original and useful explanations for all products under your brand.
Make Agreements with Cargo and Logistics Companies
We also pay attention to speed while shopping online. For this reason, it is essential that an e-commerce website that performs sales transactions also provide fast service. Keep your stocks adequately and complete your agreements with the necessary cargo and logistics companies while setting up your e-commerce website.
If you disagree with cargo and logistics companies, your cost and the delivery time of the products you sell will increase. Therefore, you can get negative comments from your customers.
Get Payment Provider Service
Shopping on e-commerce websites is performed with credit/debit cards or EFT/Money Transfer transactions. It is suggested not to prefer options such as cash on delivery. For this reason, your e-commerce website must have a payment provider service.
The payment provider handles any payments or refunds you receive from customers. You can quickly settle payment transactions by getting the service of a reliable payment provider. You can have this service by making the necessary agreements with banks.
Connect Your E-Commerce Website to the Company
Even if you perform business in the digital environment, you must be a taxpayer because you are engaged in a commercial activity. It could be a problem for you if you are not a taxpayer. For this reason, first, you need to open a company yourself. This company can also be a private company. You do not need to possess any physical stores for a company.
First, you can start a business by opening a private company. It is possible to establish a private company via an e-government website. Thus, you will not face administrative penalties while trading on your e-commerce website.
