Create your e-Commerce or electronic commerce

Electronic commerce, e-Commerce or online shop are the terms used to describe the "the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet" is known.

This type of commerce has become one of the most widely used. It consists of the distribution, sale, purchase and supply of information on products or services through the Internet. In short, it is a means of online trading.

 

Advantages of setting up an e-Commerce

The e-Commerce has become one of the most used sales tools by businesses that have become digital. These businesses perceive a series of advantages over the traditional commerce:

• "Open" 24 hours a day: one of the most positive features of an online shop is that it never closes. As it is an automated tool that allows the user total freedom, they can make a purchase at any time of the day.
• No geographical barriers: there are no local limits for an e-Commerce since you can sell products nationally or even internationally.
• More visibility: the scope of an online shop is always much wider than the one of a local business. Any user browsing the internet can make a purchase within our e-Commerce if we work our positioning strategy correctly.
• Segmentation: by working online, we are able to segment our audience much more easily. This will help us to understand the consumer habits, improve communication with our audience and launch special offers related to each target.

Data points to a very positive progress on the digital commerce world. More and more users are buying online, with purchases made through mobile devices being particularly noteworthy. This information is very interesting in terms of mobile optimisation and the importance it is acquiring in today's world.

What types of e-Commerce exist?

Depending on the type of product and our target, our eCommerce will be catalogued as one of the following:

B2B e-Commerce

B2B or Business-to-Business is that which works with company to company transactions. Some examples of B2B e-Commerces are HubSpot or Microsoft.

B2C e-Commerce

One of the most common types of e-Commerce is the B2C or Business-to-Consumer business and refers to sales that come from a business to a user or consumer. Some examples would be Amazon or Zara.

P2P e-Commerce

The P2P or Peer-to-Peer e-Commerce is one in which the relationship established by sellers with customers is direct. This occurs on platforms such as Alibaba or eBay.

 

How to set up an e-Commerce

1. Analysis

When considering the creation of an online shop, it is important to analyse in depth both the environment and the idea we have in mind. To do so, there are a series of tools that can help in the process, such as the SWOT analysis or the creation of an MVP (minimum viable product). In addition, it is very interesting to know what type of products the audience buys from an e-Commerce, in what media it moves or what device it uses depending on the market it consumes.

2. Website domain

Once the topic of our e-Commerce is clear, it is very important to register the domain. This is a task that must be done as soon as possible to avoid the risk of someone else buying the name we are interested in.

However, although we should be quick to complete this task, it is very important to have an investigation process regarding our domain name. An ideal domain name should have the following features:

• Free domain:although this is obvious, it is important to ensure that the domain of our business is free. If this is not the case, we must look for alternatives that are as similar as possible to our name.
• SEO name:the goal of our website is to be at the top when a search is made for the keywords that interest us most at the business level. Sometimes, we can use a series of keywords in our domain that help us position our website at an organic level.
• Easy to remember: there's nothing more important than choosing a name that is easy to remember to make it simple for the audience to find our online shop. To do so, it is advisable to choose a domain name of about 8 characters, related to the sector we are addressing and without repetitions of two letters in a row.
• Pronounceable: this is another standard we must follow to help users find our brand and remember it more easily. In addition, we must ensure that it is clear and easy to dictate so no mistakes are made when writing.
• Extensions: the most recommendable is to keep a general one, like the .com or .es, being these the most common.

3. Hosting for e-Commerce

Once we have our web domain, the next thing is to look for the hosting for our e-Commerce. At this stage it is very important to look for a hosting that offers a good service quality and a number of features that fit what our e-Commerce wants to offer (traffic, bandwidth, support, sales number, etc.). In many cases, this hosting is hired at the same time as the e-Commerce platform and GoDaddy stands out as one of the most used.

4. Platform for e-Commerce

Choosing the platform for our e-Commerce is not a task to be done in a hurry. Before starting, it is interesting to see if it offers hosting services, domain or integrated payment systems.

Among the most widely used platforms are WooCommerce, Shopify or PrestaShop.

• WooCommerce:is the best known and most widely used platform for online shops. This is because it is one of the most intuitive and offers a large number of facilities to configure our e-Commerce.
• Shopify: is another of the most widely used platforms due to the facilities it offers at the technical level. In addition, it usually has integrated hosting and offers a wide variety of templates to develop our website.
• PrestaShop:this platform is the most complete and recommended for large businesses. However, it is not as easy to use as others and, therefore, it is necessary to have someone who can take care of both its configuration and its maintenance and updates.

5. Product catalogue

The product catalogue is the most important part of an e-Commerce because it is what users will see. Here is where the vast majority of efforts are put into the design, which will always be focused on being as optimized as possible in terms of usability (UI) and user experience (UX). It is essential to do a good job behind this because it is what will make or break the business.

6. Shipping

In case your e-Commerce sells services, this point is not relevant. However, this is different when it comes to physical products. The shipping method becomes critical and there are several questions you should answer when choosing it:

• Where will my product be sold? The commissions are not the same for national or international shipments.
• What kind of product do I sell? The size and weight of the items may vary and, therefore, the prices of the shipping companies.
• How many types of delivery do I want to offer? To improve the user experience, it is advisable to have several shipping methods and give the users the opportunity to choose the one that interests them the most (regular, urgent, etc.).

7. Payment gateway

Having a payment gateway is essential for an e-Commerce. This is the way customers will be able to carry out their purchases and it's also what helps us to automate our online shop.

Customers are more and more demanding in this aspect and need certainty that their payment will be secure, so it is important to configure several methods, the most common being card payment, with the payment gateway that your bank offers you, or through PayPal/Stripe, which are independent gateways and charge a commission on each sale.

How to sell with my e-Commerce

Once our e-Commerce is set up, it is crucial to have a marketing and sales strategy to help us boost our business. At first, it is important to be able to make a profit that at least supports the costs of maintaining the online shop, such as paying the hosting or the various contracts that have been made for payments methods and shipments.

For an e-Commerce to succeed, we need to work the marketing strategy always taking into account the following sales funnel:

• Attraction: this is the first phase of a marketing strategy and is focused on getting qualified visits to the website. In order to carry out this task successfully, it is important to have studied very well the market and the Buyer Person (potential customers) we want to address.
• Conversion: at this stage of the funnel we work on remarketing and the techniques that will help us to turn the lead into a customer, closing the sales process.
• Loyalty: this is the phase that must be worked on most carefully because this is where the vast majority of sales come from. 63% of consumers say that they change their consumption habits to get more out of loyalty programmes, so it is very important that we work on this part of the business in order to boost it as much as possible.

Setting up an e-Commerce is a task that requires a previous study and a very well thought out strategy behind it. After defining this information, you can follow the steps we have defined in this post.

If you want to go even further, the best option is to have a professional team to guide you through the process. At CREMA™ we offer you a full range of services for your e-Commerce, helping you with the business definition, the strategy and the design, and the implementation and maintenance for your online shop. Contact us and let's start working on your e-Commerce.