How to open an online store?

Opening an online store is becoming increasingly important for companies in all sectors. Sales via online stores have continued to rise in recent years and are expected to reach €88.3 billion in 2024. Creating an online store and being able to offer goods worldwide 24 hours a day, 7 days a week is a revenue-boosting channel that can help your company make unimagined profits across all industries. Nevertheless, around 67% of all e-commerce companies are unprofitable (source: EHI Retail Institute survey from 2023). However, successfully launching an online store requires a lot of planning, preparation and measures to avoid getting lost in the crowd. Here are a few tips for a successful start in e-commerce:

1. Market analysis and planning

Market analysis: Before you start, you should analyze the market and your competitors in detail. Find out which products are in demand and how you can set yourself apart from other providers. Use tools such as answerthepublic.com or Google Trends to get an overview of the market.

Business plan: Create a detailed business plan that includes your goals, target audience, marketing strategies and financial planning.

TIP: We organize professional workshops to make it as easy as possible to get started in the world of e-commerce. Contact us for further information.

2. Selection of products

Product range: Select the products you want to sell. Make sure that these products are in demand and fit in with your brand.

Suppliers: Find reliable suppliers who offer high-quality products at fair prices.

TIP: Don’t have space for a large warehouse? No problem. With over 53,000 m² of warehouse space in Germany and over 1,000,000 m² worldwide, we offer more than enough space for all your products. With connections to all major carriers and a real-time data portal. INFORM NOW

3. Choice of platform

Shopsystem: Decide on an e-commerce platform that meets your requirements. Popular options include Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, Oxid or BigCommerce.

Hosting: Choose a reliable hosting provider that guarantees fast loading times and high availability. Nothing is more fatal than an unavailable online store.

NEW: Interactive, high-performance & unique IDEAL 360° webshop to bring entire product worlds to life on the user’s screen. A whole new world of online shop systems. INFORM NOW

4. Design and user-friendliness

Design: Make your online store appealing and user-friendly. A clear, professional design increases credibility and attracts customers.

Navigation: Ensure simple and intuitive navigation so that customers can quickly find what they are looking for.

5. Technical implementation

Responsive design: Make sure that your online store looks and works well on all devices (desktop, tablet, smartphone).

SEO: Optimize your online store for search engines to be found more easily. Pay attention to relevant keywords, meta tags and a clean URL structure.

TIP: Whether well-known store systems or our new, unique IDEAL 360° online store. We optimize your online store for maximum sales both technically and graphically. INFORM NOW.

6. Payment and shipping options

Payment methods: Offer different payment methods, such as credit card, PayPal, and instant bank transfer, to make the purchase process as easy as possible for your customers.

Shipping: Define clear shipping options and costs. Offer different shipping methods, such as standard and express shipping.

TIP: Take advantage of our particularly favorable conditions for popular payment methods. Simply integrated, ready to go – incl. accounting service. INFORM NOW.

7. Legal aspects

Legal notice and data protection: Make sure that your online store contains a complete legal notice and a data protection declaration that meets the legal requirements.

General terms and conditions and right of withdrawal: Create general terms and conditions and inform your customers about their right of withdrawal.

Tip: We will be happy to advise you on the legally compliant implementation and setup of your online store. FIND OUT MORE NOW.

8. Marketing and customer loyalty

Social media: Use social media to promote your products and build a community.

Email marketing: Create a newsletter to regularly inform your customers about new products and offers.

Customer service: Offer excellent customer service to build trust and long-term customer loyalty.

TIP: The Marketing possibilities are endless. Together with our partner agency Alpha-Pool, we create concepts tailored to your company and take over the complete implementation of marketing measures for a sustainable increase in profits. INFORM NOW

9. Analysis and optimization

Tracking: Use analysis tools such as Google Analytics to understand your customers’ behavior and continuously improve your online store.

Feedback: Collect feedback from your customers and use it to optimize your products and services.

Contact us for the best possible start to your e-commerce business and we will help you make a sustainable profit.