This is very brief blog to give you an insight of what you’ll have to do to setup and E commerce website.
The word ecommerce means electronic commerce or trade where monetary transactions are carried out online and provision of products and services is done too.
For example, we have Jumia the leading ecommerce website in Uganda and globally you could have come across names like Amazon or Alibaba. All those names are for companies providing products and services online.
To run an ecommerce website, you don’t need a bank breaking budget. It can also go as low and $100 provided you’re not hiring an expert to fix things for you.
Here is a limited list of what you do:
First, buy a Domain
Your business is most cases will have a name and so does your online presence. The business needs a website or store domain name. This is what we commonly hear as a “www” such as www.cashleo.com. This is the name everyone of your client will use to access your online store, website or e-business. Domain registrar companies such as Namecheap and godaddy provide domain names at a cost.
The price tag for domains is between $10 to over $100 per year depending on the extension. When you register a domain, it is activated and you can start using it in minutes thereafter. Next…
Get Email and Website Hosting
Web hosting is basically the computer space on the Internet where your website will be seated. There are number of both local and international web hosting providers.
The costs of hosting are pretty similar to those for getting a domain. The can range from as low as $2 per month to over $100 per month. It is all based on the server performance, space, RAM, support among others. In Uganda, there are web hosts offering packages at roughly UGX 50,000 per year.
When you have your domain registered, you need hosting so as to point your domain where your website files will be located on the Internet.
Install a Content Management System (CMS) such as WordPress
Since you now have a domain for your to be online store / business, hosting space, now its time to build your website and have it hosted with your host (hosting space).
We recommend as you build your website a CMS. Simply, Install WordPress, a content management system we recommend that will enable you to build your website even with ZERO programing knowledge. By install a theme on top of WordPress, you’ll be able to drag and drop elements into your pages and you build your website.
WordPress is pretty easy, fast and secure and brings you endless possibilities. You can literally build any kind of website using this amazing platform. Joining other 33% of the entire websites on the Internet powered by WordPress.
Install the E-Commerce Plugins
Plugins are the thing that make WordPress interesting. By nature, plugins allow you to tap into the very structure of a CMS to implement the needs you have in mind for your business website such as collecting user feedback or having opt-in forms. These are enhancements made possible by use of plugins.
Woocommerce and Cashleo tap into this structure to enhance productivity and business growth. Since you want to sell using your website, installing Woocommerce is most advised. This is the official plugin from WordPress for enable WordPress users convert the websites into e-shop and e-stores. With this installed. You’ll also be able to install Cashleo and take accepting mobile and card payments via your store on the go.
In addition
Other things I have not mention about in this blog but very crucial are WordPress Pages, creating products, writing blog posts, getting a proper permalink structure, securing your website, optimizing your website for mobile, speed and search engines among others.
Happy selling