How do you create an online store from scratch

Creating an online store from scratch

Selling online has never been easier. There are numerous routes to market that will allow you to have a successful and profitable career as an eCommerce business owner. To be successful, you need to start a store from scratch and for this, you need to think carefully. The more planning you do, the better it is for your business. So, here are a few quick steps for you to consider when starting your online store.

Choose a niche

The first thing you need to do is to select a niche market that you would like to sell into. This will have to align with the product you’re creating as well. It has to be something that you’re passionate about. Something that you could talk about all day. The more passion you have for your product, the easier it will be for you to sell it.

Choose the products

Some niches will have a wider selection than others. Or you might have developed your own products. It is important to aim for a profit margin of between 40-70% with the higher amount being better. Be sure to benchmark your pricing against your competitors to ensure you’re not overcharging. For instance, if you’re selling a product for £20 but everyone else is selling it for £10, then you might struggle to find customers.

Buy your domain

Next, you need to buy a domain name. This should be something that resembles the branding for your store, allowing you to build long-term relationships with customers. Having a domain name that represents your brand efficiently will help you with your marketing and in most cases is very cost-effective. Connect your domain/brand name to something that is meaningful. For instance, if you sell teddy bears, having this in the name or something to do with cuddles could be important. Go Sitebuilder offers a free domain name with every subscription.

Build your website

The next step is to build your website. You want to create several pages including pages for home, about, contact, terms and conditions, delivery and more. Building a website is very easy and you can get started for free with Go Sitebuilder.
Your website should be optimised for search engines and conversions to help you generate more revenue. However, you shouldn’t expect success straight away. While search engines may have some restrictions for new businesses within the first 6 months, this will allow you to put some time into other important areas such as perfecting your storefront and building out your launch plan.

Add your products

Now you need to add products. Products should have a great description and lots of high-quality images and videos to help them sell. You should also concentrate on writing descriptions that sell the benefits and not the features of your products.
Finally, always include a call-to-action in your product descriptions, encouraging visitors to buy your items.

Building a new eCommerce store is easy, especially with Go Sitebuilder. Discover how you can create an online store today for as little as the cost of a coffee a week.

Three must-have features for any beauty salon website

Three must-have features for any beauty salon website

Beauty is big business, but in this competitive field, standing out from your rivals is vital if you want your beauty salon to succeed. Having an eye-catching website that is informative, useful and easy to navigate are essential starting points for any beauty business owner. But, as a beauty salon business, you should also include these three must-have features if you want your site to enjoy a high search engine ranking.

1. Quality images

Beauty is inherently visual, so if you want to attract clients to your site, you need to include images of your products or the services that you provide. Never include stock photos on your site, but instead take real shots of work you’ve undertaken on clients’ nails, hair, make-up, eyebrows, or whatever is relevant to your line of work.

Pictures certainly say more than words in the beauty industry, so make sure the images you include are of high quality and aren’t grainy or fuzzy. If you specialise in nails, take close up shots and think about including images from different angles. Update your images regularly to keep your content fresh and to stay on top of the latest beauty trends. Search engines also favour those websites that keep their site current.

2. Testimonials

Add reviews from satisfied clients to your website to give your brand a credibility boost. This is also a positive way to encourage people to try your services if they may have been reluctant before or don’t know what to expect. If you offer a range of services at your salon, include reviews covering this variety of offerings, from a wide sector of customers. Again, it’s worth keeping this section current, so update your reviews frequently so that your site doesn’t become stale.

3. Online booking

Unless you can afford to hire a dedicated receptionist to take bookings, many beauty salon staff find they need to juggle working on clients and answering the phone at the same time. Alternatively, if therapists are busy, they might leave the answering machine to catch any incoming calls. This isn’t ideal, and many beauty salons might end up losing business if clients can’t book an appointment there and then.

This is where your website can come in handy. If you include an online appointment booking section on your site, this will make life so much easier for you and your clients. It means appointments can be made even when the salon is closed or you’re busy with another client.

Apps can be easily embedded into your site to include a calendar and booking system, and while clients are visiting your site, you can use this opportunity to promote other services or offers you might have at the time.

If you’re looking to create a website for your beauty room or hair salon check out Go Sitebuilder for free and see just how easy it is to get your business online.

Small business case study: Polly Evans Hypnotherapy

We love small businesses, and we love hearing from our small business customers! We’ve been sitting down with some of them lately to hear about their experiences with Go Sitebuilder so that we can keep improving and giving you what you need. Sometimes having a little insight into someone else’s experience with a product can make all the difference to people looking to use it themselves, so we’re sharing the first of our case studies with you here! Without further ado, meet Polly Evans, a Bristol-based hypnotherapist and proud owner of a Go Sitebuilder website:

Background 

Polly is a newly qualified hypnotherapist based in Bristol, England (our hometown!). After experiencing the benefits of hypnotherapy first hand, she decided she wanted to help others and took the exciting step of starting up her own hypnotherapy clinic. Clifton Practice Hypnotherapy Training (CPHT), where Polly gained her qualification, helped her set up her business. One of the things they suggested she invest her time in was a website (find out why a website is so important here!). It was especially important for her to have a website, as her audience is often comprised of people struggling with personal or mental health issues. These people may not want to call her or send an enquiry straight away, and so often want a way to get to know a therapist before taking these steps – a website gives them just that.

Finding Go Sitebuilder

Like many small business owners when they get started, Polly wasn’t technically savvy and was very limited on budget. She knew she needed a domain name so she purchased one online. The company she bought it from suggested a free trial of their website builder but Polly couldn’t quite get to grips with its interface. Fortunately, a friend recommended Go Sitebuilder and after a 14-day free trial, Polly decided to upgrade to a Go Premium subscription.

Getting started

Polly already had content, as CPHT had helped her with this. If you don’t already have content lined up, don’t worry! You can head to our blog to find out which key pages and information you need.

Understandably, with all the admin associated with setting up a small business, she hadn’t yet had a chance to think about imagery and branding. Fortunately, Go Sitebuilder’s onboarding meant that she could get pre-selected text and imagery to match her business in just a few clicks. It was easy to then carry the same theme throughout her website. She even used it as the basis for her business cards and posters!

“I changed the images by using the stock image library but I’ve actually kept some of the original text as I really liked it!” 

Expanding the website 

Polly started building her website on a friend’s laptop. Once she was happy with the way the website was beginning to look, she started to log in via her iPad to update her website on the go. Using Go Sitebuilder on her iPad and mobile phone, she has been able to add pricing and testimonial pages to her website. She knows she will be able to easily add more pages as and when she needs to.

“I don’t have an office as such and I haven’t owned a computer for a few years. I manage the rest of my business via my iPad so it’s been ideal to update my website from there too!”

Getting results

Once her website was live, Polly wanted to share it with the world. She used social media and Google Ads to get started, spending around £40 on Google Smart ads  and receiving around £500 back in client bookings. With a mixture of social media, ads and organic searches driving people to her website, she keeps her appointment slots booked out and is able to concentrate on her clients – leaving her website to do all the work!

In the future

Polly is planning to start a blog on her website. She wants to be able to share free information to help and support new and existing clients, and continue to build trust around her business. With any luck, the blog will attract more people to her website, build awareness and grow her client base.

As well as her website, Polly is also planning to grow her business. She is currently looking for a new clinic in a more central part of Bristol as she is steadily outgrowing the clinic she originally built at home – partly thanks to her website bringing in business!

To check out Polly’s website, head here, or try Go Sitebuilder for free here!