If you contemplate on opening your first eCommerce business, you are on the right track to benefit from the paradigm shift in the shopping habits of the digital age shoppers. eCommerce is one of the fastest growing industries today that has outpaced a large number of traditional business due to the convenience it offers. At the same time to effectively compete with the thousands of established online stores out there, you need to really slog out for some time. The first requirement for an entrepreneur in the eCommerce domain is an attractive, simple to use and feature rich online shop. eCommerce website design is a tricky subject. Here is a step by step guide on how to go about developing your first eCommerce website.

Decide your niche and research the market

You can’t step into a lake without knowing its depth. To be able to establish yourself in the industry and do well, you must first identify what products and services will sell best. On one side you must determine your interests and capabilities and on the other side you must explore what today’s customers are looking for. You must also know who your competitors are and what strategies will let you outshine them. This background work will give you enough ideas on what should be your brand name and how to highlight your unique values to your customers.

Book your domain name for the online store

When you have clearly formulated the ideas regarding your store, you must now plunge into some concrete steps to launch your eCommerce store. Make a research on the domain names available. The name you choose must highlight your brand, the values of your business and the industry you are focusing on. In fact, there are many domain suggestion tools that can help you in coining an appropriate domain name for you. Buy the domain name for a given period of subscription from a reputed firm offering domain name registration services.

Select the right eCommerce platform and package

Perhaps this is the most important step in building your first eCommerce store. The two approaches in front of you here are hosted solutions and self-hosted solutions. Hosted solutions are managed by the companies who provide them. You can purchase a package from these companies and get the admin control to manage your site. There are several ways to customize such sites for your need. Some options under this category are Shopify, BigCommerce and Yahoo Store. If you choose self-hosted solutions, you can download the open source scripts for free and purchase the hosting. Here you have the complete control over the scripts and use it as you want. These are flexible, easy to use and can be customized in thousands of ways. The popular options you can think of under this category are Magento, WooCommerce, OpenCart.

Incorporate payment options for the buyers

This is a top concern for every eCommerce website. Make a smart decision by researching on the various payment options available today. Some of these options can be Credit/Debit Card/Net Banking, CCAvenues, PayU and digital payment methods like Paypal, PayTM and Google Checkout. All of these popular payment avenues are easy to sign up for an account and they come integrated with the popular eCommerce platforms.

Host your eCommerce store

Now your store is ready and up for running. Hosting the website is one of the most important decisions forming part of your eCommerce website design venture. You do not need to do anything if you are depending on a hosted type platform. While going with a self-hosted platform, you must purchase a hosting server that is trusted and robust. Select the right hosting plan that will suit your budget. Kudos and happy going with your brand new eCommerce store.