One of the first things that we want to do right away as being new business owners is run and get a website. We never know right away how to go about it and so we either ask someone or Google it. There are many different platforms that you will be met with:
(examples):
- Shopify
- Big Commerce
- Woo Commerce
- Magento
- Volusion
- 3D Cart
- Wix
- Big Cartel
- Prestashop
- Zencart
- Squarespace
etc...
I know a few probably really stand out to you as a few up there are very popular and the rest...not so much.
You should already know which platform I recommend. You guessed it: Shopify! Shopify has a very easy to use interface and there are multiple plans to choose from. The thing that nudged me to creating my shop on Shopify as soon as I found it is that it offers a free trial. After the free trial, the most effective plan is going to be the one for $29.00/mo. Honestly, if you cannot afford this, you are not ready for a website, which is fine for you to start off! You do not want to start off incurring expenses and no income. That is a recipe for disaster. Shopify also has hundreds of apps (some free, some charge) that can really help with many functions of your business (example: marketing, creating email funnels, etc).
I also love Shopify because you do not have to be a graphic designer in order to craft a beautiful website. I know it sounds too good to be true but trust me! You will surely be surprised! There are very professional themes that are already completed and completey FREE. If you happen to not like any of them (have no thought this could be true) there are themes that you have to pay for which are EVEN BETTER. Remember, you do not want to get very intricate when you first start off because business is ever changing and you will go through many change of hearts of what you want your site to look like, what colors you want associated with your brand, etc.
The web hosting service is phenomenal. I have actually never had an issue with my website at all. If you ever do (for whatever reason) ending up having an issue with your web hosting, their support service is always readily available. The load times on the site is also pretty good. What do I mean by load time? Just as it sounds, when a customer goes to your page or is surfing your site, the loading time impacts whether the customer wants to be bothered with surfing your site. No one wants to wait too long for things to load. We lose interest and that affects sales. Good thing this is not something that you have to worry about with Shopify.
In the previous blog post, I gave you some information regarding business models. Shopify supports every single one of them very smoothly. If you can't really remember what the models are, go back and read the previous blog post and really think about which one you want to start with.
There are many things that Shopify makes possible to help with your customer's shopping experience (which is crucial to conversion). Let me go ahead and mention SOME as there are a plethora of them. If you already have a site created with Shopify, these can be found in your settings.
- Free SSL certificate: You get a free 256-bit SSL certificate. This means that all of your pages, content and credit card transaction information is protected by the same level of security as banks.
- 100 payment Gateways: There are many different ways a customer can pay you (bitcoin, paypal, ideal, etc). Shopify integrates with over 100 external payment gateways from around the world.
- Offer free shipping: You can improve your average order size by offering free shipping to your customers. You can also choose the price point at which you would like your free shipping offer to activate.
- Multiple languages: Your online store checkout has 50+ different languages available and you can always translate your store's theme to best fit your needs.
- Auto carrier shipping rates: Just by selecting who you ship with, your shipping costs can be calculated for you (UPS, USPS and FedEx).
- Abandoned Checkout Recovery: You can recover your lost sales by automatically sending an email out to your prospective customers with a link to their abandoned shopping carts. By doing this, you are encouraging them to complete their purchase with you.
- Flexible shipping rates: You can set up your shipping rates by fixed-priced, tiered pricing, weight based, and location based rates..
There is so much more information and things to benefit from using Shopify! I just wanted to give you some examples! If you have any questions, please contact me at: info@clarkwhiteco.com
If you got all the way to this point, you are pretty serious about pushing forward!