Thursday, December 15, 2022

How to set up a professional online store (step by step)

 Do you want to sell online? I'm not surprised. Everyone wants to know how to set up an online store, as e-commerce has been booming in recent years, especially in Arab countries.

ecommerce


If you're reading these lines, you're very excited, as this is the best time to start an e-commerce business. In addition, I will explain to you how to set up a step-by-step online store without having to learn programming, with the least possible time.

Requirements for the establishment of an electronic store

To build an online store, you'll need 3 basic things.

An e-commerce platform

 such as WooCommerce or OpenCart that will enable you to build and manage the store and receive orders and money

Hosting sites 

is a service that will enable you to publish your website and provide it to visitors throughout the week

Domain name or domain

 which is the link of your online store that visitors will use to access the site such as amazon.com or Souq.com

The cost of setting up an online store

The cost of setting up an online store varies depending on the method you will adopt (in this article I will explain the best way).

If you choose to hire a company to program the online store from scratch, it can take 3 months and thousands of dollars to pay the company. In the end, the result may not be satisfactory. Plus, you'll need to go back to the company every time, in case you want to change anything, so the cost of maintaining the store is very expensive.

If you choose to set up the store through a ready-made e-commerce platform, the cost of setting up a professional e-store can range from $35 to $600 per year depending on the e-commerce platform you choose.

The first step is to choose an e-commerce platform

The first step to creating an online store is to choose the right platform for you and this is the best.

Shopify 

Shopify is a fully hosted e-commerce platform starting at $29/month. The best thing about Shopifay is that it's easy to use and you can set up an online store in minutes.

While Shopifay allows you to customise your store's design, customisation options are limited when compared to a self-hosting e-commerce platform. You will also have to pay the transaction fee for each order in addition to the monthly fee. This means that your real cost will be higher than $29 per month, and will increase as your store grows.

Pros:

  • Easy to use.
  • You don't need to buy a hosting.

Cons:

  • You can't fully control your location.
  • Does not support Arabic.
  • The platform is relatively expensive as it starts at $29 per month.
  • You will have a problem with payment options for Arab countries.
  • Not the best in terms of seo.

OpenCart platform

OpenCart is one of the most popular platforms used to create e-commerce sites. This is due to good reasons as it is a free platform that provides you with all the basic characteristics of running your store. In addition, they are highly customisation.

Features

  • Source and free platform
  • Supports Arabic in an acceptable way
  • Let you camp in a good position
  • Clear control panel
  • Inexpensive

Disadvantages

  • You need to host (it will cost you approximately $2 to $10)
  • Not well improved for search engines
  • Not suitable for beginners where you need some technical skills

WooCommerce Platform

If you want to create a website before, you will know that WordPress is the best and most popular method used for it. WooCommerce is an add-on that enables you to add an online store to your WordPress website and is used in approximately 28% of all online stores.

The WooCommerce enable you to take full control of your online store and it comes with a number of built-in features such as shipping, payment reception, inventory management, coupons, reporting and more. You also have the ability to use AF plugins extras that enable you to add more features to your online store and help you increase your sales.

In addition, since the monomers are open source, it is free. All you need is a domain name and web hosting. All this will cost you only $2-10 per month, making the WooCommerce the least expensive and best way to set up an online store.

Pros:

  • Full control of your store.
  • Fully support the horror language.
  • The WooCommerce  is an open source and free program.
  • The possibility of major specialisation.
  • Easy to learn.

Cons:

  • You should host a site on your own (hosting costs approximately $3 per month).
  • Have a lot of features that might make it confusing at first.

Why do we recommend using WooCommerce ?


With The WooCommerce , you can fully control how your online store appears. It also allows you to use many WordPress add-ons to add more features to your online store.

In addition, the WooCommerce  have many ready-made templates (free and paid) to give your store exactly the shape you want. It is fully compatible with Arabic and you can greatly improve it for search engines until you show visits from Google.

WooCommerce lets you create the exact type of e-commerce site you want, without having to spend a large part of your budget.