How to Build an Ecommerce Website

The first step in building an ecommerce website is choosing a business concept and sourcing your products. The next step in learning how to build an ecommerce website is choosing a software platform, creating the website, and choosing how you will fulfill customer orders. Starting an ecommerce website can cost less than $100 without inventory.

Whether you’re looking to start a new full-time business, expand your retail business online, or generate extra income through a side business, there is plenty of opportunity to bring in revenue through an ecommerce website. Ecommerce is the fastest growing area of retail—in 2020, global ecommerce sales are expected to reach over $4 trillion.

Here’s how to build an ecommerce website in seven steps:

1. Choose a Business Concept

Building an ecommerce website starts with honing the idea for the products you would like to sell. To choose products, first select a larger overall concept by figuring out which niche or area you would like to focus on. This could be chosen out of personal interests or market opportunities. For example, a dog enthusiast might open an ecommerce website with pet products. However, someone looking to fill a market void might look to fill a need such as organic dog food specifically for pit bulls.

Once you have a general concept, decide on a business model. For ecommerce websites, this generally means how you will source products, price items, and fulfill orders. You’ll also need to design your brand including a name and logo.

Pick a Niche

When deciding to start an ecommerce website, the first, yet often overlooked step, is to choose a specific niche or interest to focus on. This is important because it is much easier to target customers with a specific interest and sell products that directly appeals to them, rather than offering a wide array of general merchandise. Choosing a niche will also give you a specific direction to start with, and makes it easier to develop a strong brand.

Pop Your Pup is a niche ecommerce site that creates custom products using customer’s pet photos

Select a Business Model

Once you have an idea of what you want to sell, you need to decide how you want to sell it. Of course, you’ll be selling online, but there are many different ways to sell online. You can start a dropshipping business and not stock any inventory, you can develop and manufacture your own custom products, start a private label brand, pack and ship orders yourself, or rely on a third-party to store inventory and fulfill orders.

Start by thinking realistically about the amount of time you want to invest in your ecommerce website and the amount of space you have available or are willing to obtain, for storing inventory. If your ecommerce website is a side project, it may be realistic to only sell and stock a few products. Or, only sell products that are available for dropshipping, so you don’t have to fulfill orders or pay for a third-party service.

However, if you are looking to grow your online business, you will likely want to develop custom or private label products and stock many of them yourself. This means having a dedicated garage, room, or storage space for managing inventory and packing orders.

Design a Brand

Once you have an idea of what you want to sell and how you want to sell it, you’ll need to develop a brand. This includes picking a company name, website, and logo. This is important to do early in the process or building an ecommerce website because you will need to purchase a domain name. Your domain name should either be your brand name or at least contain your brand name. For example, Away luggage brand’s website is awaytravel.com (away.com is already taken).

When choosing a domain name for your ecommerce site, be sure to:

• Choose a name ending in “.com”
• Make sure it is easy to spell
• Keep it as short as possible

The domain away.com was already taken, so Away luggage used awaytravel.com

Build a Business Plan

The final step in choosing a business concept is building an actual business plan. A business plan is essential for any new business. For those hoping to grow a large company, a business plan is needed to apply for loans and other funding. For businesses of any size, a business plan provides a clear action plan including how and when the business will become profitable.

There are several software programs available such as Liveplan that make the process of writing a business plan easy. You can also create it in any word processor. All business plans need an opening summary, market and industry analysis, a marketing strategy, and financial projections. Ecommerce businesses will also need to include product descriptions and sources, operational strategies and procedures, and pricing information.

Apply for Licenses and Trademarks

This is also the time to outline what licenses and legal protections you will need to start your business. Anyone selling products will need to obtain a resale license, also known as a reseller’s permit or sales tax ID from your state’s tax department. You will need to apply for this in each state where you have a physical presence (such as a warehouse).

If you are manufacturing or designing products, you will also want to file for a patent with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) if your products qualify. You will also want to trademark your business name to prevent others from selling under your brand name.

2. Source Your Products

Once your plan is solidified, the next step is actually sourcing your products. It will take some time to find the right suppliers and make sure you are completely satisfied with the final results. Plan to spend several months and several thousand dollars requesting sample orders from different suppliers, especially if you are customizing your products in any way with a unique formula, design, or branding.

How to Find Suppliers

Arguably the hardest part of starting an ecommerce website is finding a supplier you trust to deliver quality products on time and for the right price. There are a few different ways new businesses can go about finding one that is best for them. You can start by researching what manufacturers your competitors are using. You can also request samples from many suppliers at once through Alibaba or other US-based wholesale directories. The most traditional option is to visit industry trade shows to connect with suppliers in person.

Research Your Competitors

To find a supplier, one of the first steps you can take is to research your competitors. Purchase a few of their products and research what is on the product label. Many of them will have the location they were manufactured, or other details, which you can use in a Google search.

There are also smartphone apps you can download that will scan product bar codes and pull up details on the manufacturer. With your smartphone and these apps, you can gather a lot of manufacturing leads on a trip to the mall, box store, or boutique.

Connect With Manufacturers Through Alibaba

Alibaba has millions of products from thousands of manufacturers. Through Alibaba, you can find suppliers to manufacture products, build private labels, or purchase ready-made products to resell. The site is a top name in product sourcing and makes it easy to search for specific products and filter results by price, minimum order, or browse top-ranking suppliers. You can even search by image if you have a product you want to replicate.

Businesses can browse top-ranking suppliers on Alibaba

Use a Directory Service to Find US-based Suppliers

In addition to searching Alibaba, there are a number of other directory sites offering mostly ready-made products. Some directory sites link to outside suppliers, while others have a built-in interface for placing orders.

Popular wholesale sites include:

• Faire: Unique items from smaller apparel, gift, beauty, and home product makers.
• The Grommet Wholesale: Unusual gift items from independent makers and manufacturers.
• Worldwide Brands: A directory site with thousands of wholesale suppliers.
• Wholesale Central: A free directory site with thousands of wholesale suppliers.

Attend Trade Shows and Wholesale Marketplaces

Attending trade shows is the most efficient way to test a lot of products firsthand and is a great way to find suppliers you might not otherwise encounter, especially if you are only searching online. There are some permanent showrooms that you can visit year-round to find suppliers and products. Other shows are temporary and bring in thousands of vendors at once.

Popular shows include:

• AmericasMart Atlanta: Gift and home items.
• NY NOW: Gift, lifestyle, handmade, and home items.
• Toy Fair: Toy, collectible, and children’s products.
• Cosmoprof North America: Skincare and beauty products, including private label.
• ASD Market Week: General merchandise, apparel, accessories, and suppliers offering custom and private label.
• MAGIC: One of the largest apparel and accessory shows.

Choose a Product Type

When selling online, you can offer custom products, private labeled products, resell standard items, or any combination of the three. There are pros and cons to each method, and it mostly comes down to how much upfront funding you have and how much effort you are looking to put into the new business.

Manufacture Custom Products

Manufacturing your own products can result in the most profits. You will have a unique item that shoppers can’t find on other sites like Amazon. Plus, since you’re purchasing directly from the source, your costs per item are relatively low. The downsides of manufacturing custom products are that it requires a lot of upfront cash and large order quantities, which also means a bigger risk.

Design a Private Label Brand

Private label brands are goods manufactured by one company but then sold under the retailer’s brand name. So to start a private label brand, you will need logo and packaging designs, which will be placed on a standard, or slightly customized product from a manufacturer or wholesaler.

Starting a private label brand is a good middle-ground option. Private label items provide unique branding, SKUs for product listings, and sometimes unique formulas or design elements, but the process is much easier than designing and manufacturing a completely new product.

Purchase from Wholesalers

The most straightforward option for selling products on an ecommerce website is to purchase ready-made products from a wholesaler. Purchasing ready-made products typically means lower upfront costs including smaller minimum order quantities. When purchasing pre-made products, businesses have the option of purchasing larger quantities of products and fulfilling customer orders themselves or finding a dropship supplier who will fulfill customer orders as they are placed.

3. Select a Software Platform

After deciding on a business plan and finding the right products to sell, the next step is selecting an ecommerce software platform and begin the process of actually building the ecommerce website. The decision of which platform to use largely comes down to budgeting and technical know-how.

Some ecommerce platforms have templates with features that can be easily added and adjusted via drag and drop. There are other platforms with greater flexibility for those who want to add their own coding elements. There are also shopping cart plugins that can be added onto existing websites for businesses looking to monetize their site by selling products.

Creating a Templated Store vs Designing From Scratch

When building an ecommerce website, the first decision to make before selecting a platform is whether to use a templated store design or build a site from scratch. There are advantages and disadvantages to each. Larger businesses with developers on-staff or on-hand could be better served with a custom store. However, most small businesses that don’t have a developer on-hand and want to be able to manage the website themselves would have the flexibility to do so with a templated design.

Shopify has plenty of free and paid themes with different variations to choose from

Pros of building a custom website:

• Build solutions to unique needs: Businesses can build-in features that are harder to find in templated sites like user reviews, detailed discount options, and automated upselling.
• Unique design: Templated designs mean a lot of ecommerce sites look similar; custom sites stand out because you can add unexpected features.

Cons of building a custom website include:

• Higher costs: If you’re not building the site yourself, developer costs are pricey and will significantly increase your startup costs.
• Harder to update: With a custom site, you will likely need your developer’s help in updating, maintaining, or adding to your site indefinitely, whereas a templated design allows anyone to make changes.

Pros of using a templated design include:

• Easy setup and maintenance: Most small-business ecommerce platforms are geared toward non-tech-savvy users, so anyone can easily create and maintain an ecommerce site.
• Make changes as needed: It is usually easy to change templates, adjust designs, add plugins, and change built-in features as needed.

Cons of using a templated design include:

• Limited capabilities: It’s very possible there will be a feature you want that is not available in a template or quality plug-in.
• Hard to create a unique experience: Many online businesses use the same ecommerce platforms, so sites can look and feel similar.

Popular Ecommerce Platforms

There are several popular ecommerce platforms that many small businesses use to learn how to build an ecommerce website. Shopify, BigCommerce, Squarespace, Weebly, and Square Online store are some of the most popular ecommerce platforms for new businesses and retailers looking to expand online. All of these platforms offer templates, varying levels of inventory management tools, reporting, and options for connected payment processing.

These tools also offer native or plug-in solutions for selling and advertising on social media, selling in-person, connecting a blog, and selling on third-party marketplaces like Amazon and eBay. They also have different plans for businesses of different sizes and sales volumes.

Shopify

Shopify is a well-known ecommerce platform for small businesses and independent brands of all sizes. Larger brands like Fashion Nova and HarperCollins use Shopify, but it’s also a go-to for small businesses. Shopify is popular because it is extremely easy to set up, and has professional-level plans so small businesses will not grow out of the platform. Shopify also has a free, connected POS app for in-person sales.

Shopify Pricing and Features

DodoCase made their small business ecommerce site using Shopify

BigCommerce

BigCommerce is another popular ecommerce platform for new businesses. BigCommerce is similar to Shopify, but has a few more advanced out-of-the-box features like more options for product variants, built-in customer reviews, Google AMP-enabled templates, and product comparison features. While BigCommerce’s lower-tier plans are similar to Shopify, the professional level plans offer a better value, making BigCommerce the better fit for larger businesses. Brands like Toyota and CamelBak use BigCommerce to power their websites.

BigCommerce Pricing Plans

CamelBak uses BigCommerce to run its ecommerce website

Squarespace

Squarespace is a drag-and-drop web builder that prioritizes simple and visually-appealing sites. Squarespace has templates, rich product pages with options for video and photo zoom, and shipping features. Like Shopify and Square, Squarespace has a POS app for selling in person. Like Square, Squarespace also has features for selling and booking services. Businesses can also use Squarespace to sell digital products like e-books and subscriptions for monthly or biweekly subscriptions.

Squarespace Commerce Plans

Hyde is an online accessory retail store made using Squarespace

Square Online Store

Square Online Store is one of the most popular options for creating a free online ecommerce website. Like Shopify, Square comes with built-in payment processing and has automated inventory management and tracking across online and in-person sales. Setting up a Square Online Store is a very simple process. However, Square is not as robust as Shopify or BigCommerce when it comes to add-ons, analytics, or inventory management, making it a good fit for new and smaller online retailers, particularly those also interested in selling in-person with Square POS.

Square Online Store Plans

Square Online Store templates are mobile-friendly

Weebly

Weebly is similar to Squarespace in that it is a drag-and-drop web builder for creating an ecommerce store and/or a blog. Weebly offers built-in email marketing, shipping, inventory tracking, and customer review features. Weebly Ecommerce is straightforward, but it does not offer as many customization options as BigCommerce or Shopify, and does not have detailed inventory or data management features, making it a better fit for small sellers or businesses wanting to create a blog that also sells products.

Weebly Pricing Plans

Weebly ecommerce templates have detailed search and filter features

Building a WordPress Site

If your business is not a dedicated ecommerce site, but a blog, coaching, or publishing site that also sells merchandise, you may want to create a WordPress site and add a WooCommerce or other WordPress shopping cart plugin. Businesses can also turn any existing WordPress site into an ecommerce store by using these plugins, so it is a good option for businesses looking to sell merch or expand into retail sales.

4. Build Your Website

After choosing a platform, the next step is actually building the ecommerce site by choosing a theme, incorporating payment processing, putting security measures in place, and getting any necessary add-ons. Refer back to the brand design you did before writing the business plan, and any custom product packaging designs for a guide on choosing a color scheme, fonts, and an overall look for your site.

Choose a Theme

No matter what ecommerce platform you choose, all of them have many options for free and paid templates or themes, usually with multiple variations available. There are even many free and paid WordPress ecommerce themes available for different shopping cart plugins.

Tips for choosing a theme for your ecommerce site:

• Invest in quality: Don’t shy away from paid themes, spring for the one you think is best; it’s not impossible to change themes later, but it is easier to pick the right one from the start.
• Opt for a responsive theme: Mobile browsing makes up a large portion of online shopping, so make sure your theme is optimized for mobile.
• Prioritize navigation features: Easy navigation is critical for a positive user experience, so make sure your theme has a great header, search, and related product navigation features.
• Evaluate product pages: Quality product pages help increase conversions; choose themes with options for lots of high-quality photos and/or images, multiple types of product descriptions, and other dynamic content.

Integrate Payment Processing

Integrating payment processing is a mundane, yet critical element of building an ecommerce website. As an online retailer, you’ll need to choose a Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliant payment processor. Many ecommerce platforms have built-in payment processors or a few select payment partners that are compatible. Any built-in payment processors will be PCI compliant. For example, Square, Shopify Payments, Stripe, and PayPal are all PCI compliant.

For most small businesses, opting for the built-in payment processor is the easiest option. Payment processing rates between ecommerce platforms are usually competitive. However, once you start to grow larger (processing more than $15,000 per month) it may be worthwhile to actively shop for a payment processor that can offer lower rates, or negotiate a lower rate with your existing processor as you could qualify for volume discounts.

Shopify has options for standard checkouts, Apple Pay, PayPal, plus installment payments through third-party plugins

Adding Alternative Payment Methods

As an online seller, it’s critical to have an option for shoppers to enter their credit or debit card information. However, having more user-friendly options like one-click and eWallet payments, PayPal, and installment options are important for increasing conversions and sales. Most major ecommerce platforms have a direct integration for accepting PayPal payments. Many also accept Apple and Google wallet payments.

Installment payments are typically offered by a third-party processor that pays the retailer upfront, but collects monthly payments from customers so shoppers are only paying a fraction of the total cost upfront. Many of these services don’t charge customers interest or require hard credit checks. These payment options are appealing for shoppers that don’t use traditional credit cards. Popular providers include AfterPay, Klarna, Splitit, and PayPal Credit.

5. Add Products

When the infrastructure of the ecommerce website is in place, it’s time to add in the actual products. There are multiple layers to this process. First, you’ll need to enter in all of the inventory data for each item like wholesale price, retail markup, vendor information, SKUs and barcode information, categories, colors, sizes, quantities, and whatever other data points are relevant for your specific merchandise. If you already have a list of inventory, you can upload this information in bulk via CSV or Excel file. Otherwise, you can manually enter each product.

Most ecommerce platforms, including Shopify, let businesses upload products in bulk with CSV files

Create Descriptive Product Pages

Once the data is entered, the next step is creating a detailed individual product page for each item. For ecommerce websites, product pages are arguably the most important element of the website. Shoppers can land on a product page after browsing your store, from a Google search, or via a targeted advertisement.

In Shopify, sellers can add specific details to each product page and listing

A product page should have:

• Clear pricing information: Pricing should be displayed prominently and clearly indicate whether or not the price displayed is before or after any promotions.
• Easy “Add to Cart” buttons: Add a large “Add to Cart” button next to product images and below pricing information; the goal is to get shoppers to buy, so make sure the button is a color that stands out.
• High-quality photos: Product photos can make or break sales; use high-quality images that show products from all angles, in all variants, and in action where situationally relevant.
• Customer reviews or social proof: When buying online, shoppers can’t see or feel the product for themselves, so they rely on customer reviews to assess product quality; incorporate user reviews in product pages and/or photos and testimonials from social media—most ecommerce platforms have these features built-in or available through a plug-in.
• Helpful product descriptions: Product descriptions should be concise and include precise product information like size and material, but should not be salesy.
• Proactively address customer concerns: Indicate whether or not shipping is free or calculated at checkout, or if there is a minimum order for free shipping.
• Show related products: At the bottom, display similar products, or items people who bought the item also purchased—some ecommerce platforms have this built in, others have this feature available through plug-ins.

Forever 21 indicates a limited-time sale and displays a fit rating on its product page

Write Well-crafted Product Descriptions

Product descriptions should be uniform across the site, following the same template and tone throughout. In general, there should be three elements to a product description: a short intro, bullet points outlining high-level features, and a longer description at the bottom for shoppers who want greater detail.

Bath & Body Works product pages have collapsible sections describing the fragrance, features, safety, and instructions for each product

Upload High-Quality Product Photos

Product photos are one of the most important elements of an ecommerce website. High-quality images can showcase the details and quality of an item, while low-quality or grainy photos leave shoppers with more questions than answers.

Some wholesale suppliers will provide high-quality photos of their products, which will save you a lot of time and money. The first step in getting high-quality product photos is asking your suppliers if this is something they provide. If not, you can either take the photos yourself, or hire a professional.

When taking the photos yourself, use a plain white background in a well-lit area. You can do product photography on a budget with a smartphone camera and natural light. Though, if you are not a professional or experienced photographer, for the best (and fastest) results, there are services that specialize in ecommerce photography.

Square Photo Studio offers very affordable product photography with a fast turnaround time. Ship Square the products, choose three photos with different angles for $9.95 or a 360 degree photo for $29.95. Square will send you the images within 14 days.

Square Photo Studio delivers product photos with a white background and apparel displayed on a ghost mannequin

In addition to standalone product shots and 360-degree photos, also consider photos of the product in-use. This is especially important for apparel, accessories, and makeup items. Shoppers will want an idea of what the product will look like on them. For decor and home items, consider lifestyle photos of the products so customers can picture the items in their own homes.

6. Choose an Order Fulfillment Strategy

Order fulfillment is the process of storing products, packing customer orders, and shipping products out to customers. When first starting out, many small businesses handle this process themselves out of a garage or storage space. However, there are also companies that handle order fulfillment for ecommerce sellers.

Some order fulfillment companies will store products for you and pack and send customer orders as they come in. With this method, ecommerce businesses still purchase inventory upfront, and send it to the order fulfillment company to store. This method is often best for ecommerce businesses that have outgrown their at-home fulfillment space and do not want to start their own warehouse and large-scale fulfillment operation.

However, there are also dropshipping companies. Dropshipping companies serve as the product supplier and fulfill customer orders, so ecommerce businesses don’t have to purchase inventory upfront. When working with dropshipping companies, ecommerce sellers are limited in that they can only sell products the dropshipper has available. However, there are fewer upfront costs and a lot less work involved for ecommerce businesses.

Select a Shipping Provider

If you are packing and shipping customer orders in-house, you’ll also need to choose a shipping company. Most ecommerce platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, and Square Online Store have built-in shipping tools. These platforms have discounted shipping rates, automatically calculate shipping costs for customers at checkout, and make it easy for ecommerce businesses to print shipping labels directly from the order management system.

However, if you built your own site, or are using a shopping cart plugin that does not have these features, you’ll need to find a third-party solution. For small operations, Stamps.com is a popular option. It syncs with many online marketplaces like Amazon and Etsy, plus shopping carts like Magento. Simply import customer orders and print out the shipping labels at home.

7. Market Your Website

Once you’ve gotten through the process of how to build an ecommerce website, the final step is to advertise your business to bring in customers. Ecommerce marketing requires a multipronged approach with search engine optimization (SEO), listings on additional sales channels, and email marketing. Some ecommerce businesses also use in-person sales at pop-ups and events to grow their business.

Create an SEO Strategy

Ecommerce websites need at least a basic SEO strategy to make sure that product pages appear in search results. To do this, ecommerce sellers need to target a keyword with each individual product page (such as “striped polyester T-shirt”). Ecommerce websites should also make sure to add product titles and descriptions that will appear in search engine results, and alt text for images.

Shopify has tools to help ecommerce businesses set page titles, descriptions, and image alt text to make pages optimized for Google

Ecommerce website platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce have built-in tools to make this process easy. In addition to optimizing individual pages, ecommerce businesses should have a logical and user-friendly site structure so shoppers can easily navigate the website.

Sell on Marketplaces

Many successful ecommerce businesses grow by selling their products in more than one place. Even with a standalone store, many online businesses also sell on Amazon, eBay, Walmart, and Etsy. These sales likely won’t drive traffic to your main store, but they are a good way to bring in revenue, and can help strengthen your brand credibility and recognition.

Shopify, BigCommerce, and most ecommerce platforms have tools to sell on Amazon so your inventory and customer order information is synced and centralized in one place. This means you won’t have to check several places for customer orders, or manually update available products across multiple sites.

Shopify lets ecommerce businesses sell directly on other popular sales channels

Sell on Facebook and Instagram

For new online brands, advertising and selling on Instagram and Facebook are popular ways of gaining brand recognition. Both social platforms let businesses create advertisements directly linking to product pages, or with options to buy without even leaving the social site. Plus, businesses can create very specific ads targeting customers in a specific area, with certain interests, or of a certain age group.

Grow Your Email List

Email promotions are one of the best tools an ecommerce website has for driving repeat sales and connecting with customers. Ask customers to provide their email addresses with orders, but also have a sign-up option for people who visit your site but do not make a purchase. Most ecommerce platforms have either built-in tools for email marketing or integrations with email marketing solutions like Mailchimp.

Bottom Line – How to Build an Ecommerce Website

Thanks to plug-and-play software like Shopify, BigCommerce, and Square Online Store, learning how to build an ecommerce website is easy. Most people can even setup a basic store in under a day. However, building a successful and profitable ecommerce operation requires much more than simply building an ecommerce site. You’ll need a business plan, carefully selected or manufactured products, a marketing strategy, and an organized order fulfillment operation.

Shopify is one of the biggest names in ecommerce software because it makes it easy for individuals or businesses of any size to build an ecommerce website. Preset templates and built-in inventory and order management features make it simple to get an ecommerce business up and running in no time. Shopify’s app marketplace offers dropshipping companies, plus marketing tools, and features to build out product pages. With several pricing plans, individuals can start a small online store and grow it to an ecommerce enterprise all on the same platform. Visit Shopify for a free 14-day trial.

Visit Shopify