Whether you want to sell a new product you know will change the world, delve into dropshipping or offer exemplary service in a niche you’re passionate about, building an online store is the way to go. WordPress or an ecommerce website builder can offer you all of the resources you need to build your very own customised website – but where do you begin before you get into the nitty gritty?
This article will explain everything you need to think about before getting your ecommerce store set up, as well as all the steps on how to build an online store.
Summary
1. Research your market and what you want to sell
2. Decide on a platform
3. Pick a business name and register your business
4. Register your domains
5. Pick a template
6. Get your branding sorted
7. Add your products
8. Set up your payment method(s)
9. Establish your shipping and returns policy
10. Promote your website on social media
11. Optimise your website over time
Why should you make your own online store?
Building a website, or more specifically, an online store is going to get you ahead of the competition. If you need convincing, here are some of the many reasons why you should consider building an online store.
1. Reach all kinds of customers
Building an ecommerce website opens you up to the world – literally. You can ship internationally (if that’s your aim) and reach different audiences. So if global reach is your goal, then an online store is going to get you there.
2. Keep it running 24/7
Unlike a physical store, an online shop never sleeps. This means customers can shop whenever they want at any time of day – giving you lots of flexibility and the potential to reach even more customers in different time zones.
3. It’s cost effective
An online store means low overheads compared to running a physical store. You obviously won’t need to pay for rent or utilities for a storefront, and you also may not necessarily need to hire staff (unless you need specialist help).
4. Easier initial setup
Setting up your own physical shop can take a lot of time. Not only do you need to find the right retail space and secure a lease, but you’ll also have to spend a lot of time (and money) setting up the space before you can open.
Whilst building a website isn’t an instant process, the abundance of easy-to-use website builders means that even total beginners can set up a basic online store in a matter of days, especially if you use pre-built templates and themes. One of the main reasons to use an ecommerce website builder from Fasthosts is that you can utilise our many automation tools with our control panel, which can seriously streamline your processes – giving you lots of free time.
5. Product listings are endless
Do you have more than one type of product you wish to sell? An online store gives you tons of capacity to list all kinds of products and their multitude of variations. Plus, if you’re in the dropshipping game, you don’t need to worry about having any physical storage. Again – your product range can reach new audiences too!
6. Understand your audience
Our control panel and hooking up your store with the likes of Google Analytics allows you to gain more insight into how users interact with your online store. This data can tell you where you need to improve – do you need more website copy to explain your products? Is it not obvious where customers need to check out? All of this is possible to find out with an online store.
7. Scale as you grow
When you build an online shop, you'll undoubtedly intend on growing that business. As this is a website you know will scale up in future, we'd recommend hosting your ecommerce website on a VPS (Virtual Private Server). This is because Virtual Private Servers are highly flexible and easy to scale up to your needs. If you host sites on a VPS and you begin to see your website(s) near traffic capacity, you can simply get in touch with us to increase your SSD, CPU or RAM.
Need more power than a VPS? Our Dedicated Server solutions are perfect for online stores with serious traffic or computing demands.
How much does it cost to build an online store?
The cost of building your own online store varies. It’s dependent on how much of it you decide to build yourself, how much you promote it (and if you invest in paid advertising), if you pay for photography and/or videography of your product range, and many more factors. Here are some things to consider which may (or may not!) add to the cost of building your online shop:
1. Your chosen platform
The ecommerce platform you choose will factor into your outgoings. For example, our Website Builder and Ecommerce Website Builders start at £1 for the first three months. You can also opt for WordPress Hosting with us, which starts at just 49p per month for the first six months.
2. Your domain name
Registering a domain with Fasthosts starts from as little as £1! Before you commit to one, make sure the equivalent social handles on platforms you intend to use are also free. Check out our AI-powered Domain Name Generator if you're stuck trying to pick a domain name. Or, if you already have a domain, we can support you with free domain name transfers.
3. Web hosting
If you want to host a website with us, you'll need to consider your options. A new site might get away with living on shared hosting, but as traffic to your site increases, you may want to consider moving to something more substantial such as a VPS.
4. Web design
We offer tons of themes when you build your website with us. However, you may have your eye on a particular theme or wish to work with a developer – and that’s totally fine!
Developer costs can be quite high if you require lots of specific features, which is why we always recommend choosing one of our many themes to start with. If you must work with a developer, then expect to pay £100 - £1,000 (again – depending on the size and needs of your online shop).
There are many other things you’ll need to consider too which we’ll touch on as we go, such as:
- Payment processing
- Artwork (photography, video, illustrations, etc.)
- Shipping options
- Marketing and advertising
- Website maintenance
- Additional apps and plugins
How long does it take to build an online store?
There’s no exact timeline when you make your own online store. The total time it takes will depend on many factors, including:
- How many products you intend to sell (with more products meaning more product pages to create).
- How complex your online store will be – will you have an extensive navigation system covering many product categories, blog posts, and FAQs?
- Your chosen website creation method – e.g., coding it from scratch yourself, hiring a web developer, or using a website builder’s pre-built templates and easy customisation tools.
If you’re just building a very basic ecommerce website by yourself, you can use the pre-built templates, on-screen guidance, drag-and-drop functionality, and AI website creation tools of a website builder platform to create an online store in a matter of days. However, as soon as you add more products, design requirements, and team members into the mix, you’ll extend this timeline to a few weeks or even months. This will give you time for an initial design process, mockup creation and approval, coding and development, content creation, testing, and so on. Each of these stages could take a couple of weeks or longer.
As a general guide, here’s how long it might take you to build an online store depending on the complexity of your proposed website:
- Basic online store: 1-5 days
- Standard online store: 3-4 weeks
- Advanced or highly customised online store: up to 6 months
Depending on your skill level, you may be able to build an online store more quickly on your own (either using a website builder or coding from scratch), or you could make the process run more smoothly by hiring a web developer or agency. However, in the latter case, you’ll have to balance these potential time-saving benefits with the much higher cost of hiring developers, as this could cost thousands of pounds for a typical ecommerce website.
11 steps to build an online store
We hope you’re ready to get started with building your online store! If you’re a little daunted, don't worry. We’ve outlined all the steps for you to get started with building an online shop, from picking a business name all the way through to automating processes so you can do what you do best – build your brand!
1. Research your market and what you want to sell
Is there a particular niche you want to market to? What product is missing that could help solve a problem that’s in demand? Start by brainstorming these ideas and begin to plan how you can develop your very own product (or line of products) for your online store.
You’ll also need to do some market research to see what competitors are doing. Are they selling similar products? If so, how can yours be better? Take the opportunity to identify your USPs (unique selling points) so that you’re ahead of the game when it comes to building your online store.
In addition to identifying competitors in your niche, you’ll need to identify your target audience and think of how to tailor your website to their wants and needs. Consider their demographics, locations and interests, and use these characteristics to create a general ‘buyer persona’ you can refer to when creating your website. With every decision you make, think about how this stereotypical customer would respond. Do your website design and business decisions reflect their values, purchasing habits, interests, and so on?
2. Decide on a platform
While it may seem easier to begin with a free or budget web hosting option, there are many drawbacks. One of the main concerns is you’ll have to migrate your site at a later date (as free sites often have limited storage and bandwidth). In order to avoid this, it’s best to get started with an ecommerce site that you can easily scale from the get-go.
Be sure to ask yourself how many products you wish to sell, the kinds of products you want to sell, the website features you’ll need to build into your online store and what integrations you may need to get your online shop running smoothly. OpenCart and PrestaShop are very popular ecommerce platforms, working on PHP and cloud respectively – so it’s worth reading up on them, as well as WooCommerce and Shopify, to find the best integration for your needs.
Naturally, we’re going to boast about our own amazing WordPress Hosting, Website Builder and Ecommerce Builder here. And why wouldn’t we? Here are some amazing benefits you can expect:
WordPress Hosting
- Instant setup wizard
- AI website creation
- On-screen guidance
- Dedicated ecommerce platforms like WooCommerce
- A curated list of plugins
- Security updates handled on your behalf
- Scalable performance on a pay-as-you-go model
- An average of 386ms loading speed time
- Plenty of WordPress themes
Website Builder
- AI writing tools
- OneClick app installer
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Unlimited subdomains
- PHP 8.2, 8.1 and 8.0 support
- Free domains and SSLs
- Free email addresses
- Host multiple clients (up to 100 – great for custom services!)
Ecommerce Website Builder
- Free domain and SSL security
- 50GB Microsoft Exchange mailbox
- Facebook and Instagram shops
- No coding expertise is required – pick one of our amazing themes!
- Choose from a wide range of payment providers (including PayPal)
- Automated emails and abandoned cart recovery
3. Pick a business name and register your business
You’ll want to use this step to research how to register a business, as the rules are different for sole traders and limited companies. When you’re just starting an online store, many will opt to become a sole trader first. Just be sure to check Companies House to ensure your chosen business name isn’t being used elsewhere.
4. Register your domains
Yes – plural. When you decide on a business name, you’ll need to register a domain.
However, we also recommend registering domain name typos so that you can easily redirect customers to the correct website if they happen to get your domain name wrong. You may even want to take this a step further and register different country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) for the same reason.
You’ll want to be quite careful during the process of choosing a domain name, as you need to see your domain name as the “storefront” of your online store. Think about popular brands you like and their strong identity – are their names easy to remember? How simple are they and how have they expanded online throughout the years?
5. Pick a template
Once you’ve registered your domains, it’s time to get your site looking like a functional online store! Our Ecommerce Website Builder comes with a wide array of well-designed templates ideal for any type of online shop.
Ensure it’s responsive
With more mobile users browsing ecommerce sites, it’s crucial for your template to be responsive so that it can be easily viewed on any mobile device. You can test your website’s layout by using the “Inspect” element on a web browser, and switching the device to mobile and/or tablet to get a view of how it’ll look. You can also use this to determine whether your theme is suitable and adapt it accordingly.
6. Get your branding sorted
Branding can make or break your online store. Here are some questions you should consider when branding your site.
What website features are important for building your online store?
You need the right features for your online store to function as you intend it to. Ask yourself the following questions:
- How many product categories do you need?
- Do you want to display similar products under the main product pages?
- Do you need any image galleries or maps to any physical stores you have?
- Do you want to integrate videos or a social feed?
- How will your sitemap look?
How do you want your site to look?
Your homepage serves as the virtual storefront for your brand and will give site visitors the first impression of your store. You’ll need to think of ways to capture your audience’s attention as soon as they land.
Make things visually appealing with imagery, video and spaced-out copy so that users aren’t greeted with huge blocks of text. Ensure it’s easy to navigate so that users can click through to the products they wish to find.
You’ll also want to ensure you do your due diligence and look at what’s out there. If your online store is upmarket, does the font, information and imagery reflect this? Last but certainly not least, you’ll want to have a colour palette for your brand. Again, this is where competitor research comes into play. Use sites like Coolers.co to find the right colour palette for you, or consider enlisting the help of a branding expert if you need additional support.
How will you make your online shop easy to navigate?
Following on from the previous point, you need to ensure your UX and UI are on point. After all, users have little patience these days!
A well-structured navigation bar is going to really help you out. It’ll allow customers to effortlessly explore your online shop and could even be the key to more conversions. Even if you think your site is easy to navigate, someone else may not agree, so it’s worth having people test your site to see how they browse before you hit publish.
A rule of thumb is to build a left-to-right hierarchy – beginning with the most important content first. Try to avoid including pages with no value, and group similar pages together within a category for easy navigation. Say, for example, you own a clothing brand and you sell dresses, it’s a good idea to have “dresses” as a category, followed by sub-pages or sub-categories of variations such as “party dresses”, “a-line dresses”, “midi dresses” and so on.
Lastly, adding a sitemap is going to help massively. It should reflect the “map” of your online store. Ensuring it’s accessible to users (as well as Google) shows all the pages and files on your site and how they are connected. This map helps search engines find and understand your site, which is important for getting good SEO rankings. Even something as simple as your logo at the top left of your online store is enough to help users know that it can link back to your homepage.
7. Add your products
Now that you’ve picked a platform, registered your domain, picked a template and sorted your branding – it’s time to start adding your products!
Consider adding the following information to ensure users find out everything they need:
- The product name
- A series of pictures at various angles
- Video demos of the product
- Dimensions (plus fit and size guides if you’re selling clothing)
- Materials
- Weight
- File sizes (if you’re selling digital products such as templates or eBooks)
- Product variations (such as colours and sizes)
Our guide to copywriting may help you write effective product descriptions, as well as other areas of your site that require copy. If you need help adding products using our Website Builder, our guide to adding products to Fasthosts Website Builder details everything you need.
Quick tips on effective store images and videos
- Images and videos should be unique wherever possible, rather than stock imagery
- Use multiple high-quality images showcasing your product(s) in various angles and settings
- Keep videos short and to the point, with a focus on the product and how it can be used
- Maintain image and video sizes across your online store
- Take your own photos if you’re not able to hire a photographer – modern-day smartphones are capable of shooting RAW imagery to capture sharp detail
- Add a zoom function so customers can see products close-up
8. Set up your payment method(s)
It’s worth considering where your potential customers are, as some territories may prefer one payment method over the other.
Our Ecommerce Website Builder simplifies this process by allowing you to pick from an array of payment methods such as PayPal, Visa, Stripe, Apple Pay and more.
The three most widely used methods for receiving payments on ecommerce stores are:
- Merchant Account and Payment Gateway: This involves working directly with your bank to handle all payments.
- Payment Gateway Packages: Alternatively, you can opt for all-in-one software solutions that link your store's shopping cart to the card processing network.
- Simplified Credit Card Payment Processing: Another option involves using a service that seamlessly integrates with your store's checkout process, such as Shopify's proprietary payments gateway. This way, your customers can complete their purchases without leaving your website.
Some payment options may incur fees, which usually equate to a percentage of the transaction – so you’ll need to confirm what they are before you proceed.
SSL certificates
The ‘SSL’ in SSL certificates stands for Secure Socket Layer. This security protocol encrypts your users’ data to make their online shopping experience more secure, and it’s easy to identify by the little lock symbol in the address bar. Security is paramount, which is why we’re proud to offer free SSL certificates with all of our Web Hosting, WordPress Hosting and Ecommerce Website Builder packages.
9. Establish your shipping and returns policy
Shipping and returns can be a minefield if they aren’t clearly defined, so here’s everything you need to get right before launching your online store.
Now that your customers have a way of finding and buying your products, you’ll need to have a shipping and returns policy for customers. You've added products for customers to buy and set up payment options. Here are the basics you need to know about shipping when building an online store:
Have a shipping address
Shipping from a warehouse or somewhere that isn’t your main base of operations? You’ll need to have your shipping origin clearly defined for tax purposes. Plus, if users wish to return their items, this will be crucial so that you can process them properly.
Choose your shipping location
Shipping rates vary depending on which country or region they’re shipped from. So say you ship worldwide but your business is in the UK – you can offer far cheaper rates to domestic customers.
Define your shipping options
After deciding where you'll ship, determine how you'll deliver your products. Here are some common options:
- Free shipping
- Flat-rate shipping
- Real-time quotes
- In-store or local pickup
- Shipping based on order price
Choose your desired courier
Some well-known couriers include Royal Mail, Evri, Yodel and DPD, but there are a variety of others out there with their own set of benefits of drawbacks. Depending on your shipping integration, it may already partner with specific couriers, which in turn may lower your shipping rates.
Define a clear returns policy
Clear returns policies are going to ensure both you and your buyers are protected. Depending on the products, you may offer various return policies, but no matter what, you must stipulate a reasonable timeframe and clear instructions on how customers can process their returns, plus options on if they miss the deadline (such as store credit or partial refunds).
10. Promote your website on social media
With everything built – how do you ensure your site visitors grow? You need to plant the seed across the web, and one way to do this is through various social media channels.
While it could be a separate guide in its own right, having social media pages for your online store will allow people to discover you far more easily. Ensure your posts are a mixture of promotional as well as helpful content. Don’t be afraid to incorporate your personality and humour – people love to relate to content!
If you feel you’re up for the challenge, you could even sign up for influencer gifting platforms or outreach to influencers you like that you may wish to gift a product in exchange for a social post to boost your brand’s presence. It’s not uncommon for influencers to ask for payment – so consider your budget and only invest if their engagement rate is strong.
Tip: You’ll also want to ensure your social channels are visible on your online store!
11. Optimise your website over time
As you grow, so should your website and product offering. Our final word is to simply monitor your site’s progress and optimise where necessary. See where users may be dropping off since you’ve launched. You may also want to monitor pain points such as:
- Checkout issues
- Plugin functionality
- Inventory management
- Site content (are there any FAQs or guides to support your products?)
- Mobile responsiveness
- Browser updates (and how they affect the appearance of your site)
How to build an online store for dropshipping
Adopting a dropshipping model can reduce your overheads even further and make it easier for you to get started with your business. With dropshipping, you won’t need to keep products in stock in a warehouse. Instead, when a customer places an order on your site, you’ll forward this order onto your supplier, who will take care of product handling, packaging and delivery for you.
In terms of how you make your own online store, the process should be the same for a dropshipping business – you’ll need to research your market, pick a platform, create web pages, add products, and set up payment methods. However, the difference is that you’ll need to choose a dropshipping supplier or multiple suppliers, and coordinate with them on shipping processes so that you can add the correct information to your website.
One potential issue with dropshipping is that there may be shipping delays you’re not aware or in control of, so it’s important to maintain communication with your supplier(s) so you can pass on information about potential delays to your customers if necessary.
How to build an online store for free
Creating an ecommerce website is more affordable than setting up a physical storefront, but could you create an online store for free? When considering all of the costs involved with setting up a website, including web hosting, domain registration, design work, and website builder subscriptions, it’s very difficult to do it all for free, but you can keep costs extremely low by shopping around for the right deals.
If you only need a basic online store, a small VPS hosting package can get the job done for you at just a few pounds per month. And when you choose a hosting package from Fasthosts, you’ll get a free domain name and SSL certificate included with your hosting, helping you keep costs as low as possible.
Some providers offer free web hosting services, but we would recommend steering clear of them. Free hosting plans typically offer insufficient resources and no uptime guarantees, which will negatively impact your online store’s performance and potentially drive customers away. Plus, many free hosting providers make money by placing adverts on your website, and this can look very unprofessional. You’ll initially save money with this type of web hosting, but you’ll restrict your long-term growth by making a poor impression on potential customers. And if you ever wanted to switch from free web hosting to a more reputable paid plan, the website migration could be very disruptive. It’s best to choose scalable hosting that can easily grow with your business from the start – like Fasthosts VPS Hosting.
Want to learn more about how to make your own online store on a budget? Check out our blog post on how to create a website for free for more money-saving tips.
Frequently asked questions about how to build an online shop
How do I get an SSL certificate?
Fortunately, our Web Hosting services come with a free SSL certificate, meaning you won’t have to go through a different provider.
How many items should you start an online store with?
If you already have an online presence and are currently selling on a third-party website, then you may wish to keep your existing number of products. If, however, you’re starting out fresh, we recommend keeping the number low and using your audience insights to build a case to develop and offer more products further down the line.
Should I host my website on a server?
Hosting your website through a hosting server provider has numerous advantages such as scalability, speed, full root access and much more. Plus, if you run into any issues, we offer 24/7 customer support to help you whenever you need it.
Ready to build your online store? Contact us to find out more about our hosting services, Ecommerce Website Builder and other Web Hosting options. Our business hub will also aid you in maintaining your online store with the latest business and marketing tips.