Many business owners and those seeking to profit from the internet have moved beyond the traditional cloak of selling through stores and shops, turning to investing in creating websites to sell various products online.
Creating a website to sell products represents a quick digital solution for business growth, increasing product sales, and establishing a presence in the commercial arena. It helps businesses keep pace with technological developments affecting markets and consumer behavior.
It also creates a professional impression on customers and clients, attracting them to buy from your brand, and contributing to a strong competitive advantage over competitors in the market.
So, in this article, we will discuss the topic of creating a website to sell products in detail, from three aspects: before, during, and after creation.
This is in addition to some important tips and factors to consider to ensure the success of your website to sell products. But first, before we discuss how to create a website, we will mention its importance for commercial projects, so you have a strong motivation to start your online project.
8 Points That Demonstrate the Importance of Creating a Website to Sell Products
A website dedicated to selling products online is an online profile page for projects and companies that includes information, images, and data about the products or services they offer. It is used to complete product sales.
Its importance lies in:
1. The website helps to attractively display products and goods, highlighting all their features, details, and available price discounts. It also allows for engaging content and a call to action that encourages customers to purchase.
2. A space can be allocated for leaving comments, suggestions, and opinions about the service and quality of the products offered. Developments and improvements can then be made to the project to match customer suggestions.
3. Providing a better user experience, compatible with the technological and modern developments that users are experiencing.
4. Easily control and manage sales, products, and inventory remotely, and communicate with customers quickly.
5. Easily generate profits and revenues by linking your bank account to electronic payment gateways, which facilitate the direct transfer of funds to your account and facilitate the payment process for customers.
6. The cost of creating a website to sell products is lower than establishing a physical headquarters for your business, in addition to the ease of targeting customers outside your country.
7. Easily measure the performance achieved in achieving goals, which contributes to improving, developing, or modifying strategic plans.
8. It allows the process of buying, selling, and browsing products 24/7, without interruption, even on holidays and official vacations.
Below, we will discuss the most important things to determine before creating your website.
First: Before Creating the Website
There are some important things to consider before starting to create a website to sell products online, the most important of which are:
1. Determine the type of products to be sold
Determining the type of products is very important, as it helps you establish the foundations and rules to follow. First, you must determine whether you will sell retail or wholesale products. Will you purchase or hand-make the products? There are many other options that must be decided.
Also, determine the product classification: whether it's clothing, perfumes, electronics, etc.
2. Competitor Analysis
Before taking the step of creating a website to sell products, it's a good idea to review competitors' websites that offer the same concept as yours. Study their websites, their customer engagement methods, their marketing strategies, their product display methods, and their website segmentation, etc.
All of these things give you a complete picture of what you need for your website during design, and the features you should ensure your audience has.
3. Target Audience
The target audience refers to the audience likely to be interested in what you offer on your website. You must determine their demographic characteristics, interests, and behaviors when purchasing products.
Accurately and consciously defining your target audience greatly contributes to the ease of targeting this audience with appropriate marketing methods and providing a service that meets their expectations and needs.
4. Design a visual identity for your brand
One of the most important steps in creating a website specializing in selling products is designing a visual identity for your brand.
This refers to designing a logo, choosing the colors, and fonts used in any project design, whether for the website or social media. These choices help distinguish your site from others and cement your brand in the minds of customers.
One of the best practices when designing a visual identity is to hire a professional designer who is proficient in using the tools and programs used to produce various designs and who can integrate identity elements together to create the most beautiful identity.
5. Determine Shipping Options
Determining shipping options is a crucial factor in determining the success or failure of your online project, as shipping companies are your interface with customers.
You must be extremely careful to choose reputable shipping companies that have a refined customer service style and offer packaging options that are appropriate for your products.
Make sure they have excellent capabilities that will help you provide an excellent shopping experience for your customers, such as shipping packages at prices that suit their budgets and the ability to integrate with your website.
6. Determine how to create a product selling website
There are various ways to create websites selling products, including:
a) Using an e-commerce platform such as Shopify
Recently, these platforms have become popular, helping business owners build websites quickly, without the need for technical coding and programming expertise.
They offer numerous options, features, and capabilities that facilitate a quick start in selling products online, and are affordable for beginners, such as:
Hosting and a domain for your website on their servers.
Continuous technical support.
Integration with shipping platforms that offer various options for air, land, and sea shipping.
Integration with electronic payment gateways.
Hundreds of ready-made interface design templates that you can choose from for use on your website.
Easy control and management, including adding product images and content.
A powerful system for managing and tracking inventory and sales.
A system for managing offers, discounts, and installment offers.
The ability to generate performance reports.
There are many e-commerce platforms you can rely on, but the most important and popular, and the one we recommend at Al-Rabihon, is the amazing Shopify platform.
b) Creating an Online Store Using a CMS
CMS are open-source platforms that allow the creation of fully featured websites that facilitate the process of displaying and selling products online.
One of the most popular options here is WordPress with the WooCommerce plugin, which is considered one of the most popular and important options for creating an online website selling products. Millions of online stores have been created using this option.
It also makes it easy to optimize the website designed with it for search engines using various plugins such as YOAST & RANK MATH.
Among its other advantages are:
The website can be updated continuously.
It is easy to integrate with shipping companies, electronic payment gateways, and social media platforms.
It is easy to protect against hacking using an SSL certificate.
C) Hiring a Website Development Company
Many business owners and projects turn to specialized companies to create their websites and online stores. This is because these companies offer many advantages, such as:
They have an integrated team of programmers, designers, marketers, and content writers who thoroughly study your website's concept and suggest the best ideas and concepts that will help your website succeed and stand out.
All the previous steps, including competitor analysis, identifying your target audience, designing your brand identity, and designing UX&UI interfaces and website pages, will be carried out by a qualified team trained to the highest level of experience and competence.
Selecting the best programming languages appropriate for your website concept.
Technical support will be provided after the design is completed.
Writing website page content, terms and conditions, and purchase, exchange, and shipping policies so that customers are aware of all website usage policies.
High-quality and fast hosting is also provided, with storage space appropriate to the size of your website and products. Ultimately, choosing the right method for creating a website varies from one project to another, depending on the experience and capabilities of each investor and business owner. All you have to do is choose the method that best suits your needs and get started immediately.
Second: when creating a website to sell products
the essential step of creating a website has arrived. Let me tell you that after the previous preparations, this step will be quick and easy. This step involves several steps:
1. Purchasing a domain and booking hosting for the website.
A domain name is the name of your website and its web address that appears to users in their internet browsers, such as newwebsite.com.
Hosting is the storage space for your website pages and data on a web server that is rented to make your website accessible to the public.
Note: The method you use to create your website determines how you book the domain name and hosting. For example, if you use a platform like Shopify, the platform will provide you with the hosting service, and you can also book the domain name through it.
If you choose WordPress or create your website through a programming company, you must purchase hosting yourself and undertake your own responsibility. There are many excellent hosting companies.
2. Website Design or Template Selection
This step varies depending on the method you use to create your product sales website. If you choose to use e-commerce platforms or WordPress, you will have ready-to-use design templates for the website's interface and pages that suit all website concepts and can be modified to match your brand colors.
Conversely, if you choose to hire a programming and website development company, you will rely on a UX & UI designer to professionally design the interface and pages to suit your target audience, your brand identity, and your ideas and vision for your website.
3. Website Programming
This step is only available if you choose to hire a programming company. After designing the interface, you will use programming languages appropriate for the website concept and begin implementing them, writing codes and symbols.
However, if you choose e-commerce or content management platforms like WordPress or Wix, the process is much easier. You won't need this step, as they provide you with ready-to-use, fully-programmed stores.
In both cases, the site is linked to available shipping companies, payment and installment gateways, and social media platforms. An SSL certificate is installed to protect the online store, and the most important plugins you need to connect to your site are also installed.
4. Add Products
After completing the previous steps, your website is almost ready for use. However, you must add products, detailed information about them, and high-quality images for each product.
One of the best practices when adding products is to add high-quality images of the products, along with a detailed description that includes the keywords your audience uses to search for the products.
Not only that, but the products should be placed in a well-organized and consistent classification, making it easier for customers to find the products they prefer.
5. Test Website Readiness
Before launching your website for public use, the most important and final step you should take is to test the website's readiness to ensure it is ready for use and search engine friendly.
Among the tests you should perform are:
Testing website speed and navigation.
Testing compatibility with all screens.
Track the shopping and purchasing process and ensure all steps are clear to customers.
Here are a number of factors that will greatly assist your website's success:
Providing suppliers and shipping companies that offer multiple options that suit your online business.
The website is fast and easy to navigate, allowing users to complete the purchase process easily without boredom, frustration, or long waits for pages to load. Compatible with all screens customers use to browse your website, including smartphones and computers.
Provide a search box within the store to facilitate product searches.
Use various e-marketing strategies to promote your website.
Provide exclusive offers and discounts that encourage customers to buy more.
Article you're interested in reading: 5 Deadly Mistakes to Avoid When Starting Your Online Store
Third: after creating a website to sell products (marketing and achieving sales)
You certainly need to inform your audience and customers that your website is ready for shopping and use so you can promote your website and products and begin your activities.
Now you need to use various e-marketing strategies that will help you start strong and achieve your sales and marketing goals:
There are various e-marketing strategies you can use in the marketing process, such as:
1. Social Media Marketing: A large segment of online shoppers use various social media platforms, so having pages for your website on them is a great opportunity to make it easier to reach them.
2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Optimizing your website to appear at the top of users' search results gives you a great, free opportunity to attract customers interested in your website's products.
Success in this depends on choosing the right keywords that people search for on search engines, then including them in your website's content and image alt text. This is in addition to some important technical aspects of your website, such as speed, performance, and compatibility with all devices.
3. Email Marketing: This is an excellent idea for retargeting customers and maintaining their loyalty through the use of thank-you messages, checkout completion messages, promotional messages, abandoned cart reminders, and more.
4. Influencer Marketing: This is one of the newest marketing methods used. Influencers are social media content providers with a large following interested in the content they provide.
Recently, many business owners and e-commerce stores have turned to influencers to attract their followers and audience to their customers. Therefore, don't hesitate to promote your website using celebrities.
Important Tips to Help You Increase Your Website Sales
1. Use tools that help you manage your customer loyalty and improve their experience, such as rewards and points programs. This motivates customers to purchase your products multiple times, contributing to increased revenue and growth.
2. Integrate with installment programs, whether with banks or major installment companies. This gives your website a strong competitive advantage, encouraging customers to purchase larger products and subscribe to your installment programs.
3. Rely on live chat and automated response programs, preparing answers to all customer questions so they can be responded to quickly, which helps improve their shopping experience on your website.
4. Add social media icons so your customers can follow you on the platforms you visit.
5. Run marketing campaigns to target abandoned shopping carts to boost sales and retarget customers.
6. Use programs and applications that remind customers of their abandoned carts and products on the website via text messages or emails.
7. Use WhatsApp marketing to communicate directly with customers and learn about their problems, opinions, and comments, helping you improve their experience and increase the efficiency of the service provided.
8. Employ paid social media campaigns to promote your website and products.
9. Rely on more than one strong source to create exclusive offers and discounts for your customers.
10. Use professional and attractive product photography that illustrates the details and features of all aspects of the products offered.
11. Create a section for frequently asked questions that your customers are likely to have while shopping on your website, helping you provide a seamless shopping experience.
12. Monitor customer feedback and comments and work to improve the website according to customer expectations.
13. Write pages that explain all the site's policies, such as terms of use, privacy, and refunds. Also, write instructions that require reading these policies so customers are fully aware of your site's operating system.
Frequently Asked Questions About Creating a Website to Sell Products
1. How to Create a Website to Sell Products?
Choosing a Domain and Hosting.
Interface Design.
Website Programming.
Adding Products.
Website Readiness Testing.
2. What is the importance of creating a website to sell products?
Selling to a large segment of customers online and making it easy to communicate with them.
Simplifying the buying and selling process and controlling them.
It is a strong competitive advantage for businesses.
Easy marketing, tracking performance results, and achieving goals.
3. What are the most appropriate e-marketing methods for promoting the website?
Social Media Marketing.
SEO Optimization.
Using Influencers.
Email Marketing.
Conclusion
Here we have reached the end of our topic. I have provided a detailed explanation of how to create a website to sell products, and the most important steps you go through before, during, and after creation. I also mentioned the most important factors and tips that will help you succeed in your website and contribute to achieving a high percentage of sales.