4 Steps To Building An eCommerce Store On A Budget

4 Steps To Building An eCommerce Store On A Budget


Are you an entrepreneur looking to bring your brand product lines to life through a well-crafted eCommerce store? Maybe a small business owner looking for more ways to bring in online traffic. You're in luck, this one's for you.

It’s no secret that a majority of sales these days happen online. Consumers have begun to favor the convenience of finding items online and getting them shipped to their doorstep rather than going into traditional brick-and-mortar stores. For that, we have services like Amazon to thank, This shift in consumer behavior has forced small businesses to adapt to this online shopping environment. The question then becomes how can your small business compete with brands who already crafted their online presence. The answer is simple, create your own eCommerce store.

Image of John Santos and Ben Kang In front Of tv

Now I know what you’re thinking. That’s not simple in the slightest. However, I’m here to shift your mindset today. It turns out that it doesn’t take an expensive, knowledgeable web developer to create an incredibly robust website, this comes straight from our friend and renowned web developer Ben Kang. It doesn’t get more real than that. Ben took some time out of his week to lay down the foundation of website building and to teach you how to design a website in a way that will be perceived by your customers. He organizes this key information into four main points. No need to wait, let's get into it!

Four Steps to Create A Website for Your Business


Step One: Planning Needs to Be a Priority

As Ben starts, he mentions the infamous quote “ If you fail to plan you are planning to fail.”

Creating and designing a website doesn’t have to be expensive nor do you need to know how to code to craft the website of your dreams. All it takes is some time and planning. Mentioned in this video are some key questions you need to ask yourself when creating your website. They are as follows:

  • How do you want to structure your website?
  • How do you want to portray your brand to your audience?
Image of Ben Kang with TV displaying color moods

Your website is a way to express your brand voice and key messaging, therefore before making your website you need to have these branding elements locked in. Without these elements, you will face tremendous challenges when building out your site.

Ben goes through a variety of ways and methods of planning out your eCommerce website design including creating wireframes and mockups so if you’re looking for more information I suggest heading over to the video.

#2 Choose Your eCommerce Platform

There are many options available to you when it comes to building out your site. These options include but aren’t limited to Shopify, WordPress, and Squarespace. Choosing which platform you will use will ultimately determine the route you need to take when designing your website. These platforms differ in their visuality, versatility, and scalability and because of this, it is best that you choose which platform you use based on your business needs and goals you are trying to achieve with your eCommerce website.

Ben Kang with TV Displaying options for eCommerce platforms

With these platforms, there are pros and cons as there are with anything. For example, WordPress is an incredibly popular platform known for its plugin ecosystem that allows you to do everything under the sun. Unfortunately, it doesn’t come with e-commerce functionality off the bat. To use this feature on WordPress must incorporate WooCommerce. On the surface, this sounds difficult but that’s what solutions like Hostinger are for. Hostinger is a web-hosting website that offers to host your domain through WordPress for as low as 5.99 per month for small businesses. This allows you to utilize that incredible plugin ecosystem I mentioned earlier all while saving money hosting your domain through Hostinger. It is because of this that Hostinger has been able to help 29 million users in 178 different countries by providing affordable website hosting.

Now if you’re confused, that’s ok, because so was I at first. So let me explain some of the terms used.

Domain

An example of a domain is “fromthegroundup.io” Because we have purchased this domain, no other person can build a website with this domain name.

Web Hosting

This is where your domain lives. For instance, if you have the domain johnxsantos.com you might be hosting your website on a platform like Hostinger, Bluehost, or Ghost Gator.

Website Design Platforms

This is where you design your website. Options discussed included Shopify, Squarespace, and WordPress.

It’s important to note that the WordPress talked about in the video is wordpress.org which is different from wordpress.com. When utilizing wordpress.org you can design your website but are still tasked with finding a space to host your website. That is where Hostinger comes in. They allow you to host your website on their platform all while being able to design your perfect site through WordPress. This is a popular option as I mentioned before because of the incredible plugin ecosystem WordPress has to offer.

#3 Choose Your Theme

Ben Kang exploring theme forest on his laptop

Most if not all platforms offer themes for you to choose from if you’re not wanting to build your website from scratch. When choosing your theme, it’s necessary to keep your audience in mind. Your website is a great representation of your brand so you’re going to want to make sure you hone in on the messaging you want your site to exhibit.

#4)Test Your Website

Image of an SEO test of a website

After completing steps 1-3, it’s now time to see how functional your website is. Ask others to test your website to get an outside perspective on user experience. You want to make sure that your website is easily navigable as well as made for the consumers that will be on your website. Testing your website will allow you to get all the kinks out and optimize your site accordingly.

With all of that being said, you now have the four main steps to building your eCommerce website. So what’s stopping you from getting started today?

For more information watch the full video below :)

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