Online selling, also acknowledged as e-commerce has genuinely caught its peak. Research showed that e-commerce sales in 2011 exceeded $202 billion and projected to grow year after year. And you may be considering of becoming a new one in this online business.

Learning and figuring out how to start can be a confusing and jumbled mess. Fortunately, this article is made to help you cut through the noise and become a successful online seller by giving you a complete checklist in opening and running an online store. 

If your heart is set on understanding how to begin marketing online with your e-commerce store but aren’t sure what to do and how to start, here’s a step by step guide for you.

Decide what products to sell.

Before taking any steps, it is needed to decide and know what types of goods you’ll sell online. You’ll find success a lot easier if you have a prominent product, or, better yet, versatile great products. But whatever outcome you get, it must be a product you are passionate and comfortable about. If you don’t have on hand products, take a look at different shops that provide multiple products and sell them on your site. 

Find out the best e-commerce solution for you.

Depending on your level of expertise and considering your allotted budget, the next step would be selecting the ideal e-commerce solution for your store. It is classified as:

• Hosted- Hosted solution connects your website on their servers, as well as providing web-based software to build and give power to your online store. This is best for beginners.
• Licensed: Licensed solutions are out of the box program that you can install to a computer. In here, you are required to find your hosting and security protections.
• Open Source: These solutions are typically free downloads requiring building your website from scratch. You are expected to do some heavy programming if you consider this one.

Start building your store.

Now, it’s perfect time to building your store. Based on your selected solution, you are to begin setting up the essential pages, including your category and product pages, content pages and homepage. Most importantly, consider branding and designing your products.

Get a Domain Name

The domain name is the web address(URL) where customers can easily find your store. Picking a domain name that is simple, short and best to describe your business is a great idea.

Get Paid. 

While we are all in the business of making money, the next and one of the most important before launching an online store, you need to decide how you will receive payments. Some people are using PayPal and Google Checkout, but you can choose the best option that is convenient for you.

Market your Business

Make sure that your business is all prepared for the world to see. Drive customers to your store through marketing, in SEO, social media, emails and many more areas of online marketing. Look for ways to be able for your store to be found.