How do you build an online store?

Where there's a will there is a way.

First of all: make a business plan and do market research. Which products do you want to offer? Is there a need? Or is there enough supply already? In the latter case, you are looking for additional products or services with which you can distinguish yourself from the crowd. Are you able to develop products yourself? Top! Create niches. When you offer a unique product, you can of course set your price accordingly.

Make time for it. Imagine that building a website can take hours and maybe days. You will have to read, try and test a lot until your website is exactly how you envisioned it.

Find a good website + webshop builder that is functional in Dutch and that does not require you to program. Shopify and WooCommerce (Wordpress plugin) are the largest and most versatile players on the market. I chose Shopify myself. If you can't choose, both builders offer a trial period. Make sure to take advantage of that and decide which provider suits you best.

Not unimportant: to start a webshop with an electronic payment system you must be a registered company. You must be able to present a Chamber of Commerce/VAT number and be in possession of a business account number.

What does the picture cost?

If you are a sole proprietor or a small business, a basic subscription will definitely cover your needs. Once your business starts to grow, you can still upgrade.

With Shopify you pay around €25/month + €13/year for the domain name. In addition, you pay a small percentage of transaction costs per order, depending on the payment method. You naturally include these costs in your selling price.

While you're at it, immediately link a business email address (info@yourcompany.com). You can do this for 5 € per month via Google Workspace (formerly Google G Suite) and it still looks slightly more professional than an Outlook or Gmail address.

The lay-out

When your layout is perfect, your website immediately radiates more professionalism and confidence.

You must first choose a theme. This determines the look and feel. For a piece, because you choose your own colors, fonts, layout, images, texts,...

You have free themes, but also paid themes. In my experience, the free themes offer everything you need to build a professional webshop. The great thing is that you can make a concept of any theme without publishing it. That way you can try them all. Hurry and haste is rarely good, so take it slow and compare the details.

Opt for a clear navigation and layout. We all shop online from time to time. Ask yourself: what do you like and dislike when you visit a webshop? Get inspiration from major online stores in your industry. Look at their layout and navigation.

Provide a striking logo and try to adjust the colors and fonts of your website accordingly. Extend your corporate identity to your social media channels and business card.

Not only can you create a webshop with Shopify, you also get blank pages that you can create and fill in unlimitedly. Use this one! Customers love transparency. Highlight your company (storytelling!), write a blog now and then, inform your customers about how they can order, pay, ship, collect and return.

If you write your texts yourself, be sure to have them read by someone with a thorough knowledge of the Dutch language.

Pricing

When you are going to determine your prices, you first take into account all your costs (material, transport, packaging, shipping, WORKING HOURS, fixed costs, transaction costs, possible VAT...). Then you determine the profit margin. In the end you want to earn something from it, don't you? I put WORKING HOURS in bold because many entrepreneurs - myself included - often make the mistake of not charging them.

When you offer a unique product, you can use a higher profit margin than when you have to compete with x number of other webshops and physical stores that offer the same products.

What you should never do is get yourself into financial difficulties by adjusting your prices to the competition. Admittedly, it is sometimes difficult to compete with Instagram & Facebook shops that offer their services and products at dumping prices.

However, never compete with unregistered companies that do not have the costs or training that you do have as a registered entrepreneur. Know what you're worth! Knowledgeable customers are certainly able to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Add products to your shop

Once your layout and pricing are finalized, it's time to add your products.

A few tips:

• Create as many collections as possible so that your customers can filter more easily and find what they are looking for faster.
• Provide clear photos. If you don't have the budget to have photos taken, find someone with a sharp eye or try it yourself. Choose appropriate backgrounds and sufficient light. When you sell printed matter or digital products, it can be interesting to delve into making mock-ups.
• Provide a clear and detailed product description.
• To make a product extra interesting, you can give it a discount.
• When you are going to send both letter and parcel post, it is important that you enter the weight and dimensions of your products correctly from the start, because the shipping rates are calculated on this basis.

Order and pay

Being able to pay and receive quickly and especially safely is essential for both the entrepreneur and the customer. When I cannot pay with Bancontact or Credit card, my mouse cursor immediately moves to the cross at the top right. If a website does not have a solid payment system, you can ask yourself whether it is a registered company with a verified bank account number. After all, these are the two requirements to implement a payment system.

Shopify has its own payment system that allows you to let customers pay with the most common payment methods. For Belgium and the Netherlands this is iDeal and Bancontact, but credit cards (Visa, Mastercard), Google Pay, Apple Pay and PayPal are also supported. You set yourself when your turnover is transferred to your account. Daily, weekly, monthly or only from a certain amount.

If your webshop provider does not have its own payment system, you can use the Mollie app. Disadvantage: you have double transaction costs. Those of the provider and of Mollie itself. These are negligible amounts in themselves, but small amounts make a big difference.

Because Shopify Pay was only recently added for Belgium, I had to work with Mollie for months and I really liked it. So you don't pay any subscription fees or other snags per transaction. The rates per transaction can be found on their website.

Do you sell customized products that cannot be ordered and paid for through your webshop? After discussion with the customer, you can easily create an invoice with a payment link. The customer will receive an e-mail with the invoice and will then be redirected to the website to enter the shipping details and pay.

Shipping or pick up

You need to set up a shipping profile for each country. If you send with letterbox mail and parcel post, it is very important that you work with different rates and that you set the weight and dimensions for each rate. Check and double check this by going through the ordering process yourself. Choose different products and countries and check whether the shipping costs are applied correctly.

Shipping costs are a real bugger for both an entrepreneur and a customer. Especially when you want to ship internationally. As a starter, it is also difficult to negotiate low shipping rates with carriers such as PostNL, Bpost, DPD, ... After all, you have to send a minimum number of parcels to be eligible. You usually don't know this in advance.

Fortunately, there are also services such as MyParcel, Sendcloud & Mondial Relay that allow you to send parcels cheaper with the main carriers. The principle of shipping remains the same: you choose a carrier for each country, type of package, Saturday delivery, signature required on receipt... When you integrate their app into your webshop, a shipping label is automatically created for every order. You bring the package to a postal point and you can track it using the track & track code.

When something goes wrong with a shipment, they act as an intermediary, so that your claim is often processed and refunded faster. I have good experiences with sendmyparcel.be . You can also create a personalized track & trace portal with them with the look & feel of your website. In terms of professional appearance, this can count!

If you live centrally, it is interesting to offer a pick-up option.

Offering free shipping from a certain amount is always a good thing.

Notifications

You know, the receipt and shipping notifications you receive after you place an online order. With Shopify, this is all pre-configured. You can still adjust the texts here and there and it is also possible to add your logo to these templates.

Other settings

As you can see below, you have to deal with a lot of settings. Click open all tabs one by one and fill everything in thoroughly.

Privacy policy & banner

What many self-made webshops sometimes overlook... When your website uses cookies and processes personal data of European customers, it is required by law to inform your customers about this and to ask for their permission. This is done through the well-known privacy banners. With Shopify, you can easily fix this by installing the Customer Privacy Banner plugin. No doubt other providers have similar apps.

You should also add a privacy policy to your webshop. Here you will discover exactly what this should mean. You are free to copy my privacy statement . Then change the company details!

Accessibility

It is extremely important that your customers know how to reach you. Create a page with contact form and any other contact details. Also write when you can be reached or when they can expect an answer.

Tip: When asking a question or placing an order, make it mandatory for customers to provide their email address and telephone number. It has often happened that a customer types an error in the e-mail address. Very inconvenient when he or she cannot receive notifications. If you have his or her telephone number, this is immediately resolved.

Integrate external apps

Are all essentials in place? Then definitely take a look in the App Store of your provider. There you will find a lot of free and paid apps or plug-ins that add value to your shop: product reviews, sending newsletters, wishlist, digital downloads, Google shopping, Facebook shopping,...

Find some testers

Find a number of critical people in your area and ask them to thoroughly examine your webshop and give their feedback. If necessary, have them place an order (which you will then pay back) so that you can be sure that the picture is correct from start to finish.

Not fond of writing and graphic design?

You can contact me for logos and developing a corporate identity and social media content. If desired, I can also screen your website and provide targeted feedback. Click here for more information.

Marketing is everything!

Building a well-functioning webshop is one thing, building your customer base is even more important if possible. You can read how to do this in my next blog!

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