When was the last time you went to a mall not just to kill the time but to actually buy the stuff you need? Well, I’ll dare to guess that it’s been a while since your last trip to a mall.
Now, remember the last time you bought something online. Last week? Yesterday? Or maybe you are going to get something right now? The point is shopping is slowly but definitely moving online and there are a lot of reasons for that such as convenience, low prices, a vast selection of goods, and many more. So an online shop seems to be a great idea for your business.
As a matter of fact, opening an online shop has never been easier and pretty much anyone (no matter if they can code or not) can launch one in literally no time.
There is a huge variety of different themes, plugins, and tools that are aimed to help you create a fully functional website at such marketplaces as MasterBundles. Well, one of the most popular e-commerce plugins all over the world is WooCommerce and here are the reasons why this very plugin is the way to go for you:
- It’s completely free;
- It’s secure;
- It’s easy to work with;
- It’s highly customizable;
- It’s convenient for content marketing.
So it seems like this plugin is surely the one you want to use for creating your very first store or updating your already existing one. But how do you build a professional online shop with WooCommerce? Well, here are some basic steps you want to follow.
Choose Your Area
First things first, you have to determine your business area. Though it might sound a little elaborated, this step is actually the easiest one since you probably already know what particular store you would like to open. In fact, it can be literally anything from car details to clothing. At the same time, you might want to start by taking baby steps. In other words, if you are going to open a clothing store, start with selling just clothing items and gradually add new categories such as accessories, makeup, or home décor, so you will not risk a lot of money.
Distinguish and Study Your Target Audience
Once you come up with your niche, it’s time to figure out which particular products you can distribute. For doing so you’ll have to figure out your target audience and study its demands. To be more precise, you have to offer your potential buyers the very stuff they need and want, which is at the same time something your competitors don’t have. For achieving this goal, you have to determine groups and categories of people you are going to sell your goods to as well as to find out their age, sex, and general information about them. Thus, you will be able to offer them exactly what they need.
Getting a Template and Arranging a Hosting Service
As soon as you complete the previous steps, you can finally proceed to the most interesting part, which is picking up a template and actually launching your site. At this very stage, you want to be very careful and attentive because the right web template can literally do miracles. Some themes already come with WooCommerce as well as other useful plugins, some don’t, so you have to make sure that you’ll make the most of the theme you picked up.
At the same time, you will also have to choose between a free and a premium theme. Well, a free template might seem to be very appealing, but, as a rule, it does not come with useful for every online store plugins, so you’ll have to purchase those separately, which can actually cost you more than getting a premium template. Besides, free themes might have a limited license, which means that you cannot use them for commercial projects.
However, finding a decent and what is the most important affordable theme is actually rather easy. Just check out such resources as MasterBundles, where you can find dozens of cool web templates on discounts as well as other special deals.
Certainly, I simply couldn’t leave you without some pretty fancy WooCommerce ready templates:
Price: $59
Storecommerce WordPress Theme For WooCommerce
Price: $59
Price: $25
Price: $25
Plantly Responsive Theme WooCommerce Theme
Price: $94
Pinkmart – AJAX theme for WooCommerce
Price: $19
Buvelo The Best Fashion Store WooCommerce Theme
Price: $94
After you finally got your template, you have to arrange a hosting plan, since without hosting any website simply wouldn’t work. Well, I recommend such providers as Bluehost, HostGator Cloud, WebHostingBuzz, or Hostinger. All these hosting providers are pretty decent and will never let you down, so go ahead and pick up your plan.
Launching and Promoting Your Store
Now you can finally launch your site. In fact, you can do it either on your own (if your theme is equipped with a visual builder) or hire a professional that will do all the work for you. This choice is completely up to, but if you are on a shoestring budget, just make sure that your template comes with a page builder and creating a website by yourself will not be a problem, even though you don’t know how to code.
In terms of your store’s promotion, you have to be creative and come up with interesting and catchy ad ideas. You also might want to collaborate with local bloggers, so they would promote your store. But perhaps the most important thing here is to come up with a decent site map, which would lead your shop to the top results in all the major search engines. So if you are interested in that, here is a guide you want to take a look at.
Final Thoughts
Shopping has drastically changed over the past decade, moreover, traditional mall shopping might completely disappear in the future. Well, this is exactly why opening an online shop is simply a marvelous idea. Fortunately, launching one is no longer a problem and you can even do that on your own. So why don’t you get a lovely template and give it a shot?
Would you consider opening an online shop in the near future? Feel free to share with us in the comment section below!
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