Right, you’re thinking of starting an e-commerce store. You are tech savvy and familiar with most eCommerce stores, but somehow you’re at a loss as to how you can set up your store. Today’s post is aimed at teaching you guys how to launch your eCommerce store on Magento.
Sure, the first step is to hire a good web developer or consult a reputable Magento development company like Towering Media to handle your Magento services.
If you’re in a tight budget and outsourcing the task will cause a massive dent in your finances, there are several alternatives to consider when launching your Magento-powered e-commerce store.
It’s acceptable if you don’t have the funds to outsource at the beginning of your project, and all you need to start is a practical idea to sell products online.
When you have proved that you can get a few products sold, we recommend you ditch the DIY approach and hire a good Magento services company. Below, we focus on the options available to you for a DIY approach to running your personal Magento store.
Although there are different e-commerce platforms on the market, we recommend Magento as it provides all the necessary functionalities at your beck and call. Besides, it is the most popular eCommerce platform worldwide, which infers that there is an abundance of resources available to store owners. It is a perfect choice!
Magento Hosting
The first thing to consider is the version of Magento you want to operate on and how your store will be hosted. There are two versions:
- Magento Community Edition
- Magento Enterprise Edition
For this article, we will focus on Magento Community Edition, also known as Magento Open Source.
We expect you to choose Magento OS when operating your store at the start. To make operation easier, ensure you find a host that will pre-install Magento on your server. If you’re not tech savvy, installing Magento 2 can be very tricky.
Or you can jump all these steps and outsource your Magento needs to one of the best Magento development companies in the US.
Okay, store owner. Let us proceed.
It is smart to pick a hosting company that has leading experience with Magento development. This means you can get limited technical support whenever you experience issues with your website.
Our top 2 picks for best Magento expert hosting companies are:
- Towering Media
- Nexcess
Magento Web Design
“what am I gonna do about the design? I’m probably gonna need an designer to stand out when I launch my store”…. Or not?
Magento contains thousands of themes that are pre-installed, which you can apply straight to your Magento store. While others are free, many of these professional themes can be purchased for a fee ranging from $50 – $200.
You need to change the logo, and if you, perhaps, hire someone to create a logo, chances are the hire will charge 10x the cost off purchasing “off the shelf.”
NB: The way a theme appears on a computer screen will be different from a mobile screen. In this new era, most of your customers online visit your store through mobile browsers. Hence it is crucial that you choose the correct designs.
On the Magento store, look out for designs/themes that are termed “Responsive.” These themes fit both web and mobile devices and can alter their appearance depending on the screen size.
Setting Up A Catalog
Now that you’ve got your store up and running, what is the next step? Get the basics covered when you contact us where we can send you a free sample training material and free tips on how to maintain your Magento store.
These tips will help you through the first steps of setting up your products and many more. Setting up a catalog requires you to get the attributes correct for your products. By reaching out to us, we can help you set up the product attributes correctly for maximum exposure and sales.
Magento Payment Integration
Collecting payment in your store is an essential part of doing business. PayPal is pre-installed from the go so if you’ve got a PayPal account, you can start receiving orders from customers. There are PayPal options available in the configuration menu to suit your preferences.
Other popular methods of payments include SagePay and co.
Magento Transactional Emails
The last box to tick for a basic Magento store set up is the transactional emails. These are messages that notify you when a customer places an order, requests passwords, and other general issues. Magento has these email notifications pre-installed, but we advise you to make some minor changes to suit your schedule.
Simply go to System > Transactions Emails > Options.
Ready For Launch?
Marketing and Branding Tips To Boost Your Magento Store
So, you’ve got a product catalog –, and a means for customers to pay for their orders. Still, there is a lot of work to do in terms of personalizing your store, but you can do this after launch.
The next step is marketing and promoting your brand. There are many options to choose from, namely:
- Search Engine Optimization
- Email Marketing
- PPC [Google AdWords]
- PR
- Social Media
- Promotions and Discounts
Any of the following ways can increase traffic to your site and triple your leads.
Monitor, Refine, and Test Your Magento Store
Purchasing a good analytics tool like Google Analytics is a must for any Magento store. Understanding the statistics behind your store will help you make the right changes where required. So, sign up to Google Analytics.
Start checking your analytics and track the source of your traffic. You can pinpoint which of your marketing strategies – SEO, AdWords, Email Marketing – contributed the most to your success, and how much you spent on each.
All this information and more is available via analytics tools. Whenever you make any change to your store, you can use the tool to check if your sakes decrease or increase. Hard data is the best way to know which decisions affect your store sales.
Installing New Features
As you understand how your store works better, it is essential to add new and exciting features to your store. Many things can boost your store like:
- Starting a customer loyalty program
- Installing an online/offline stick management system
- Linking your store straight to an email marketing system
These extensions. Are available in Magento and can be downloaded with the right knowledge or with the help of a Magento developer. Search for “Extensions” and choose the one you want.
Also, we understand this can be tricky, and you don’t want to buy the wrong extension or purchase an extension that requires expert knowledge to install. This is why, during your journey, you need an ally for the tasks that are beyond your skill level.
Partner with Towering Media at the start of your eCommerce journey, and you can expect your store to start flying high among its competitors!
