A company practically doesn’t exist in today’s world if it isn’t online. Consumers today anticipate that all respectable businesses will have an online presence. Practical requirements include having a company website and related social media accounts. However, businesses that let customers make direct transactions from their websites are most successful.

The pandemic wasn’t necessary for online shopping to take off in the world. However, it undoubtedly offered people more motivation to get interested in making purchases online. Does your business have a ready-to-use web store? It’s the appropriate time of year to have one set up with the start of a shopping season. Let’s go through the checklist a retailer would use to launch an internet store.

Choose an eCommerce Platform

The simplest approach for new online business owners to get going is to choose an eCommerce platform that provides ready-made templates that speed up the design process. The alternative would be to create a website from scratch, which calls for extensive coding and digital design expertise.

Choose instead from the top eCommerce website builders for small businesses on the list. For now, suffice it to say that learning how to establish a Shopify store, WooCommerce store, Wix store, etc. will save you a ton of time, energy, money, and aggravation. We’ll touch on some of the primary benefits of choosing an eCommerce platform over creating your website later.

Obtain a Catchy Domain Name

Your website address is another term for your domain name. You may research and choose a domain name for your online store through different services. However, suppose you’re working on a tight budget. In that case, it’s best to select a domain from a reliable, trustworthy domain name provider that offers some of the most cost-effective domain prices you will find on the market so you don’t break the bank while still getting the domain name you want. You can start setting up your online store as soon as you register your domain name.

Website Hosting

Each eCommerce platform has benefits and drawbacks of its own. Some, such as Shopify, include website hosting as part of the plan at no additional cost. Others may place expensive restrictions on what you are allowed to do with their hosting services, such as bandwidth restrictions, file storage restrictions, additional charges if you use a payment processor other than the one they offer, and so forth. To clarify what was said earlier, building your website from scratch might be much more expensive than using an eCommerce platform to host it.

Organize Your eCommerce Stock

You should be aware of the fundamental product category demand while designing categories for your online store’s inventory. What do people look up online? You may determine this with the use of Google Trends. It sheds light on how interest and search demand have changed over time. 

Based on previous searches and sales data, your research will assist you in predicting future demand for your products. To help you organize your supply chain operations and any day-to-day activities on your online store, it’s best to take advantage of ERP software, so you don’t get lost in inventory management and other inevitable obligations.

Create your product categories after learning what internet shoppers demand. Next, determine the bare minimum of stock you can sell for each item. Selecting the least amount of inventory you can keep while meeting client demand and preventing shipment delays should be your overall objective.

Adjust Your Shipping and Tax Settings

Verify that your shipping and tax charges are reasonable for the product you’re trying to sell. You can be losing money if you’re paying for order fulfillment out of your pocket if your shipping prices aren’t high enough.

Consider whether additional charges for the foreign shipment are necessary and how much you should charge for rapid delivery. You could also have to include sales tax, depending on where your clients and business are located.

Sort Out Your Return Policies 

Be prepared to receive your fair share of return requests if you accept payments. The value of eCommerce items returned in the United States alone in 2017 exceeded $121 billion, so there is undoubtedly no shortage of returns in the online retail business.

You should have a clear return policy on your website to effectively handle the seemingly endless stream of returns, and perhaps even limit them. Links to the return policy should be included on your home page, on the checkout screen, and at key stages in the customer experience. Once more, honest communication with your clients greatly contributes to trust-building.

Final Thoughts

To build a successful eCommerce business, countless other obligations will inevitably come up as well as a variety of challenges that you will probably encounter along the route. But as is frequently the case in life, experience is the best teacher. You can start strong in the interim by adhering to the steps listed in this eCommerce launch checklist.