Welcome to YourMarketingPodcast. This is Series One – How to Start a Successful eCommerce Business in Less than 30 Days. In this step-by-step guide, you will learn how to quickly launch an eCommerce store and start seeing those sales roll in! And here’s your host…Ishani DePillo.

Welcome, everyone. I’m your host, Ishani. So I must say Congrats! To everyone! You are more than halfway through our How to Start a Successful eCommerce Business in Less than 30 Days Series. I’m so happy that you are sticking to it! 

In today’s episode, you are going to decide on a platform to use for your online store and complete your basic store set-up. These are the things you MUST do to ensure that your store is set up for success. We will send you a printable handout so don’t worry about having to take detailed notes.

Let’s recap last week, we talked about creating worthwhile visuals in the form of videos and photos that will really speak to your target audience and drive sales. You’re definitely going to need some beautiful product imagery and video to set up your online store.

Choosing the right eCommerce platform for your online store is so important because you want to pick a platform that is not only easy to use, so you can get it set-up right away but also easy to maintain and allow you the flexibility to grow. Avoiding excessive developer help and complicated coding can really save you some money now and in the future. There are so many pre-packaged e-commerce platforms that can help build your online store in no time. But how do you choose the right one? 

Let’s go over what you should look for when choosing your ecommerce platform. 

1. Easy to set up – As I mentioned before, you should look for a platform that is to set-up and use. Especially if you are doing all the work yourself. As a business owner you already have a lot to worry about, and setting up your online store shouldn’t be one of them. 
2. Look to see if it Has pre-designed themes that fit your style and brand – Because again, you want to get set up quickly and get those sales rolling in fast, 
3. Easy user experience, especially the checkout process. It should be seamless.
4. Speaking of checkout- Secure & provides multiple payment options – Customers need to feel safe entering their credit card information and also giving them a variety of payment options. For example, in addition to credit cards, perhaps allow PayPal checkout or amazon checkout options.
5. Next Mobile friendly because over 50% of traffic will likely be from mobile devices. 
6. Search engine friendly. You want to make sure the platform has some SEO optimization capabilities to maximize search engine exposure. 
7. Reporting options. You don’t need complicated reporting, but it should at least have the basics like the volume of traffic, revenue, orders etc. 
8. Integration options. By this, I mean the ability to integrate with email service providers, reviews platforms, etc. You want a platform that gives you the flexibility to connect with other platforms.
9. Monthly Fees/Transactional Fees. Pay attention to the fees.  They can add up quickly and cut into your profits.

Ok, now that you know what to look for, Let’s talk about the big boys in the industry: Shopify, WooCommerce, Squarespace, BigCommerce and Magento. 

If you don’t know what on earth I’m talking about… don’t worry, I guarantee you are not the only one. I’ll go over higher-level pros and cons of each platform. If you want additional details, head on over to yourmarketingpodcast.com/store to get really detailed and updated information about each one. 

Shopify. This is the most common and you may have heard of this one before. I can almost guarantee that you’ve experienced a Shopify Store if you shopped for anything  online recently. There are over a million Shopify Stores and it’s definitely growing in popularity for a  number of reasons:

1. It’s easy to launch and manage; it has a very clean, user-friendly interface and is therefore ideal for beginners to get set-up. You would rarely need to dive into the code.
2. It’s easy to customize and there are a variety of free and paid well-designed, mobile-friendly store themes to choose from.
3. It’s scalable for small to large eCommerce businesses and resellers; this platform easily grows with your business. 
4. With their Abandon cart saving functionality, you can recapture customers and urge them to come back to complete their transaction.
5. And lastly, there are lots of 3rd party apps & integrations available to customize your store to what you need.

Of course, a lot of apps come with a price tag that’s a monthly subscription, so it starts adding up quickly. Talk about annoying monthly fees that eat into your profits.

We used Shopify for Roam Often because it was just SO incredibly easy to create a beautiful shopping experience for our customers and get it up and running in no time. We were originally a little bit concerned with using Shopify because we weren’t sure if it would be SEO Friendly. Surprisingly there are options to optimize Shopify for SEO. In addition, we connected a WordPress blog and started writing content from the start. And we were shocked to see good SEO results within the first couple of months. 

Carissa Rogers, who built the Roam Often store, gave us some insight into the pros and cons of Shopify from a developer’s perspective. 

We were ranking for valuable keywords related to our blog topics. We will cover our strategy in more detail on an upcoming podcast, so stay tuned for that.

That’s Shopify, now, let’s move onto WooCommerce. WooCommerce is considered an add-on or plugin to a WordPress site to convert it to an eCommerce store. If you are already using a WordPress site, you might want to consider this option for you. Just like WordPress, Woocommerce is a free, open-source platform (so free access to CSS, HTML, and PHP style code) that you can customize with the thousands of themes available (some free, some with a price). Depending on the theme you pick, it can be super easy to set-up or require some work; each theme is different, so always read reviews before purchasing a theme and, if available, look at it in demo mode first to see if you like it. 

Overall, the platform is made for professionals and beginners alike and offers more flexibility in the code for eCommerce business owners and resellers. It can be configured to sell physical, virtual, or downloadable products. The major upside to WooCommerce is that you can really get into some customization for your brand like changing headers, footers, checkouts, etc.  and, just like WordPress, SEO is accounted for and, even, optimized towards. Security is also regularly updated to keep your store safe.

The downsides? Certain Woocommerce extensions require payment or a monthly subscription. The more plugins you add to your WooCommerce site, the more you will slow it down. It’s not as easy to set-up as Shopify, it can be a bit challenging for beginners. We recommend hiring a contractor to assist if you don’t have a lot of time, and/or you are a beginner.

The owners of CLEARstem Skincare & San Diego Acne Clinic went with the Woocommerce addon for WordPress. I’ll let them introduce themselves and give you their advice on how to choose the right platform for your business.

Next, Squarespace. Started in the early 2000s, it’s just so darn simple. You don’t need to know any code and there are customizable templates to use for your eCommerce store, not as much as Shopify or WooCommerce, but not bad. On the bright side, you can design your website in a browser and use its built-in email marketing tools. There’s even a logo design app to create a simple logo. Features are where it’s at, for Squarespace: you get a variety of them like a blog, options for hosting a podcast, 3rd-party app integration, etc.

Squarespace is not free but look for a free trial promotion to test it out. Of course, you should know about the Cons before going down this route. Depending on which plan you choose, currently, there are transaction fees and tax rates are not automatically calculated. Additionally, there is no preview option so pages and posts will go live once you save. And Squarespace doesn’t have a whole lot of power when it comes to SEO. Unlike WordPress or Shopify, it does require a lot of time and effort to really optimize your website for search engines.

Okay, this next one is big, like big-big, because it’s called BIGcommerce. It was built with the concept of being an eCommerce-specific platform from the get-go, therefore there are a handful of helpful features for brands, like no transaction fees, lots of reporting tools are available, and a review functionality built-in for product reviews. Additionally, it has great SEO functionality, with a built-in blog, integrated marketing tools, Abandon Cart Saver and multiple currency options. BUT it does have negatives to it, for example, there is only a small app marketplace available, so not many add-ons, or theme options. If you exceed the limit on online sales, you have to upgrade to a typically more expensive plan.

Okay if you are going to eventually have an eCommerce superstore and you want a lot of customizations, then Magento is your eCommerce platform.  It’s built on open source technology so you can modify the source code and create custom templates. You can then manage multiple stores, locations, languages, pricing, and currencies. There are a ton of extensions, plugins, and support available. It’s definitely SEO-friendly and scalable, although that comes with a hefty price tag. It’s very expensive and it’s difficult for beginners to design and launch. It’s also typically slow to load, so you’ll want to limit your customizations. And it requires a good hosting environment otherwise it will perform poorly. It’s most likely not going to be the best option for you starting out, but it’s always good to explore your options. 

Charith, the co-founder of TDot Performance, the largest automotive performance parts eCommerce store in Canada, uses Magento. He gave us his reasoning for choosing the platform and what he would do if he could start all over again.

Definitely weigh the pros and cons of each platform before you move forward with purchasing one and dedicating time to set it up. Head to our blog for even more insight into Store options, go to yourmarketingpodcast.com/store. 

Okay once you have decided on your Shopping platform, then start building your site. I’ll run through the checklist, but when you are ready, you can download this list at yourmarketingpodcast.com/launchchecklist.

1. So now that you know the platform you are going to use, let’s get an account created and add your custom domain name for your store.
2. Then look for a theme for the platform you have chosen. Each theme comes with different features and certain advantages. Look at other eCommerce stores and outline features you like. Choose a theme that offers you those features or similar features and is a style you like and is aligned with your brand. 

This is our developer, Carissa Rogers’  biggest piece of advice when it comes to building your eCommerce. 

Daniel and Kayleigh from CLEARstem Skincare shared what they’ve learned while building their eCommerce store.

1. Once you select a theme, add it to your store and start customizing.
2. Add your logo, fonts, promotional graphics, and start building the structure of your main menus within the theme. Don’t forget to add your favicon! A favicon is that small icon on the top of your browser tab. It can be your logo or some other icon, but just make sure it aligns with your brand. When someone has a ton of tabs open, a favicon helps them recognize the site. Use your branding document to get all this information and plug it into. The theme itself should be pretty self-explanatory. 
3. Start with the homepage layout, add photos and videos you took of your product.  We covered photos and videos in a previous episode. So you should have it by now. If you don’t have visuals yet (maybe they are not finalized yet), not to fret. Use placeholder images purchased from Shutterstock or from free resources like Unsplash. 
   1. Here’s an insider tip to SEO-optimize your images: add meta-data and descriptions to your photos and videos to get ranked faster for the products you’re selling. To learn more about this, head to our blog yourmarketingpodcast.com/launchchecklist

Keep a minimalistic design on the homepage for easy navigation.

4. Then move on to the category pages and product detail pages. Add your products on the Shop and build out your product descriptions and images to get people to purchase! Make sure your product pages look enticing! Be sure to add call-to-actions, cross-promote items to upsell,
   1. Side Note: If you’re planning to launch with pre-orders like Roam Often did, then add “Pre-Order” into the Product Description to ensure that customers know they are buying a pre-order – meaning they are paying now but won’t receive the product until later on. If you are doing preorders, we recommend being extra communicative with customers about when they can expect the product and if there are any delays. You don’t want to have angry customers before you even get your brand off the ground!
5. Add your contact information, return policy, privacy policy, and care instructions, so customers can get ahold of you and understand your terms before purchasing. It’s always better to give this information up front, so customers are never surprised.
6. Set-up your payment gateways, billing, shipping methods, and tax settings. If you use a shopping platform, like Shopify, it’s all integrated, it’s pretty easy to set-up. Otherwise, you will have to hook up everything yourself and decide on other third-party vendors for each area.
7. Don’t forget to hook up your email service provider to your store! And create emails, especially order confirmation, shipping notifications, and abandon cart workflows. We use Klaviyo as the email service provider for Roam Often because it integrates really well with Shopify. But there are plenty of ESPs out there, just find one that you like and integrate with your platform. We will cover email more heavily in our marketing episodes that are coming up. For now, just make sure you have all the emails needed to communicate with your customer regarding their order.  
8. And lastly, Add social media buttons, like Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, Facebook, and Pinterest, and link them to their corresponding channels.

Our developer, Carissa Rogers added a critical final step we wanted to include here as well.

Daniel and Kayleigh from CLEARstem Skincare shared some of the most important pieces they’ve learned while building their eCommerce store.

And that completes your store’s basic set-up! Come back for next week’s episode because …knock, knock…do you hear that? It’s the big guy…Amazon. He’s calling! We’ll be talking all about Amazon and if it’s the right fit for you. In the meantime and if you haven’t already, we urge you to sign up at yourmarketingpodcast.com/letsgo to receive email alerts with check-ins. It’s so easy to get distracted and derailed on this path. And we want you to succeed! These email alerts will keep you on task and come with even more resources because we can’t cover everything on the podcast. Thank you for listening to yourmarketingpodcast. See you next time!