6 helpful tips for launching your online store

Andrea V • 15 Jun, 2022 • 5 Min. read

Many fear that starting an online store is difficult and technically complicated. But it can be far less complicated than most people think. Today, basically anyone can start an online store quickly and easily.

No matter what your ambitions are, we’re sure the advice below will help you achieve them.

1. A clear and good idea

Before starting an online store, you should have a clear idea of what you plan to sell. Do you have a strong niche where you want to excel, or have you opted for a wide selection under a specific category? Both options can be successful, but you must make the choice early on and think it through.

During this process, you need to map out the following:

• Who are your customers?
• How do they typically shop for products?
• How will they discover your products?

2. Find a good name for your online store

To ensure that customers can easily remember, type and associate your store with the product you sell, your domain name must be carefully chosen. Finding a good name can be challenging, and your brainstorming skills from your school days might be useful. 

Make a list of words that are relevant to the company and website address. To ensure that you haven’t missed any good options, run these words through a thesaurus. You can also test different combinations of the words.

Once you have narrowed down the list to a couple of good and memorable domain names, use a domain provider such as Domain.com, GoDaddy, or .shop to check if the domain name is available. If it’s relevant to your business, securing a domain specific to your country can be beneficial. Choosing an international domain like .com can still be effective for country-specific stores.

3. A solid and well-thought-out business plan

Having a good business idea and plan is essential for success in today’s competitive market. The next step is to conduct thorough research on your business idea. This research should then be written down and concretized into a business plan.

The business plan serves as a structural framework and is a tool to ensure a common understanding of priorities and direction. It offers valuable insight to all stakeholders, highlighting critical aspects that are important for the company you’re about to start.

4. Choose the right e-commerce platform

Choosing the right e-commerce platform is one of the most important decisions you make when starting an online store. Due to the many e-commerce solutions that are available, this process can often feel overwhelming.

We recommend starting by visualizing where you want to be in 3 to 5 years. This helps determine how much money and time you should invest in a platform. Remember that a cheap, simple solution isn’t always the most profitable choice in the long run. If you experience significant growth in a short period of time, you may need to switch to a more scalable platform.

Shopify

You may have heard of Shopify while researching or discussing e-commerce platforms with others. Shopify offers a simple interface and an all-in-one checkout process that anyone can understand.

This is the best platform for people with a product they want to sell online, whether it’s electronics, furniture, jewellery, or even digital goods such as e-books or music. All of these businesses can benefit from Shopify’s supreme solution for selling and processing payments. Also, you don’t need to be a web designer to create a professional website on Shopify.

Shopify is a platform that suits the vast majority of businesses, both small and large. It’s easy to set up an online store, move the store to your own domain, run campaigns, and monitor sales.

5. Make the website user-friendly

Ikke undervurder viktigheten av design, struktur og brukervennlighet i utformingen av en nettbutikk. Skal du lykkes med netthandel er du nødt til å ha et bevisst forhold til design og brukervennlighet i absolutt alt du gjør.

Kundene i dag er vanskeligere å tilfredsstille, og estetikk, universell utforming og struktur blir en viktig del av arbeidet for å skille seg ut i mengden.

For å gjøre opplevelsen av nettbutikken mest mulig intuitiv for kunden bør dette være på plass:

• En god søkefunksjon for å finne informasjon
• Gode og oversiktlige produktsider
• Ulike alternativer til betalingsløsninger og levering
• Bekreftelsesside når kjøpet er fullført

6. Make your online store visible in search engines

The quality of your products won’t help if your customers can’t find your store. 50% of website traffic is generated organically from Google, which shows the importance of ranking high in Google’s organic search results.

Being visible on Google is the key to success for online stores. Fortunately, there are many free online tools that provide detailed reports with tips on how to improve your rankings. When search engine optimization is done correctly, you can build the trust that is necessary for customers to choose you.

Let Journey Agency assist you with your online store

Journey Agency is a performance marketing agency that consists of 50 experienced professionals in Norway and Sweden. We are creative, data-driven, and results-oriented, and we help you grow your business.

Our specialists stay up-to-date with the trends in digital marketing and consumer behaviour. We take an analytical and strategic approach to help our clients achieve digital visibility. We specialize in Shopify and can assist in setting up the online store that ensures your company’s success.

Feel free to contact us for a chat.