Planning an eCommerce website is similar to real estate development.
First you need to buy the raw land (Domain Name),
next you need the foundation (Web Hosting)
and next you need the frame, roof, stucco, the actual structure (eCommerce Platform)
and last the interior (Products in your store)
With that said you will need to understand the following:
- Domain Name
- e Commerce Platform
- Hosting
- Social Media Marketing
All aspects of the project need to be managed. Decide who is going to do it and properly plan the requirements, activities, outcomes, milestones and timings.
Coming up with a domain name is probably one of the most important aspects in your journey.
This is the web address people will use to go to your site, so it has to be memorable and associate with your product, brand/store.
The best domain name to use is your company name:
For example if you have a sneaker store geared towards sneaker heads, I would choose something like 760SneakerBar.com.
I live in area code 760 and the business sells sneakers.
An eCommerce platform allows you to create an online store front, so your customers can purchase you items. The platform allows you to design the website fairly easy.
You can also upload pictures of your products, change product price, and insert product description. Of course these platforms charge you monthly subscriptions, and if they don't, they may charge fees.
They also provide secured shopping cart operations for you also.
You need a place to host and store all of your stuff, the eCommerce platform will include hosting.
Having a social media presence is a must in 2017. Creating a Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr account for your business will be important when creating your brand online.
Once your accounts are created you must create content, engage with your potential customers, and gain followers.
You can do this yourself or outsource this to someone else.
Also need to consider will you hire someone to add products to your store? Hire someone to manage your social media account? Delegate shipping out of the products?