Table of contents:

1. Introduction;
2. First step: study the viability of the products and the market;
3. Second step: research the best suppliers;
4. Third step: accounting planning;
5. Fourth step: virtual store platform;
6. Fifth step: routine processes;
7. Sixth step: promote your business;
8. Seventh step: retention;
9. Conclusion and cases.

Introduction

In more than 14 years of experience with Web design and CMS creations, we have come across several different situations and we try to bring the best resolution to each of them based on our expertise.

Well, of all the existing situations, in this article we will be addressing an extremely recurring question: "how do I create a sales website?".

The world has had to deal with the existence of the Internet for over 30 years, and after its creation, not much time passed before they realized the possibility of doing business through it.

Among different types of business, came the ability to create pages presenting products, making purchases available to users, receiving payments and sending them through logistics companies.

Okay, now to put into practice your idea of ​​selling products or services online, through your own website, we need to systematize some steps, and in this article we will show you everything you need to plan to start your online sales operations. line.

See the figure below for each of the steps mapped out in Eco Webdesign's 15 years of experience.

*A tip, don't worry about the steps 1, 2 and 3 if you already have a physical business operating. In these steps we will address basic questions to start selling products online. Skip to step 4. Platform.

1. First step: study the viability of the products and the market

This is the first step for anyone who wants to create a sales website.

Understand the commercialization viability of the products and what the market is like for this segment.

• Sell ​​products you believe in quality:
  
  It is easier to sell when we believe in what we are providing for other people. Selling is nothing more than solving a pain by offering a quality product or service.
  
  Often, at the beginning of the journey to create an online sales website, we are focused on the monetary aspect and this thought can be very harmful because it does not reveal the truth in the pain that you intend to solve for your customers.
  
  For example, let's imagine that we are creating a new women's fitness fashion online store.
  
  Firstly, the main objective will be to help girls who want to train feel comfortable and protected. Then we have post-workout, so this product needs to be resistant to be used at other times, remaining resilient to withstand different situations in the long term.
  
  Now researching the market and finding a product that meets all the characteristics we described above, isn't it much easier to feel confident in offering it?
  
  In short, outline your main objective, what pain you want to solve first of all and then find the perfect product to achieve this objective.
  
  
• Try to understand the legal obstacles:
  
  Sure, we have our product in mind, but we need to pay attention to other matters, such as legal issues.
  
  Supposing you want to sell products from a certain brand. Contact the representatives of this brand, understand how the resale of this product works, read all the terms and conditions so that you are protected from any legal obstacles.
  
  It is very common for people to start their sales online and not pay attention to the study of the sale of replicas, copyright and policies restricting the sale of certain types of product, such as snuff.
  
  Legal obstacles can become obstacles in the way when you start your first online sales operations, so study whether everything you are selling is legal.
  
  
• Is there a market for what you want to sell?
  
  Ask yourself whether you would be able to sell the chosen products physically, for example, to family, friends or acquaintances.
  
  We always raise this question because creating a sales website is no different than opening a store in the center of a city or another location, as the only difference will be the digital environment. So if the product you chose to sell is not attractive to anyone and does not offer a differentiator or advantage to those close to you, the online sale will not happen.
  
  In other words, ask people what they think of the products you are going to sell, always ask whether they would buy it or whether you would use it in your daily life, this way you will avoid unnecessary investments.

2. Second step: research the best suppliers

You already know what you're going to sell, great, this is the time to research who supplies this product you want to sell.

• Are there dropshipping suppliers or will physical stock be held?
  
  At this stage, let's assume that you already have capital to invest, so let's ask ourselves if it is possible to purchase a minimum quantity of your product to leave in stock or if you intend to sell through dropshipping, where you will be responsible for completing the sale and shipping orders are placed directly with the supplier who already has stock or manufactures the product within a certain time frame.
  
  There is also the possibility of carrying out consignment sales, agreeing with the supplier the entire sales dynamics of the products.
  
  Therefore, get organized and study to start avoiding difficulties in your initial online sales journey.
  
  
• Organize your stock:
  
  When deciding on a supplier, organize your product inventory in a spreadsheet. With this control, even if basic, you will already have a systematization that will make it easier to upload your products to your Online Store platform to start your online sales.

3. Third step: accounting planning

Any serious product purchase and sale process needs to be controlled, that is, it requires the issuance of an invoice.

Even to carry out the previous step, many suppliers will require registration with CNPJ and correct activity to sell the products.

Therefore, focus on opening a MEI (individual micro entrepreneur). The process is very simple and this will help you think about some important issues such as having a correct CNAE, justification of source of income in your IR, digital certificates, systems for generating your grades, among others.

If you know an accountant, ask them your questions or research online. On Google you will see the amount of content that can help you organize all of your accounting and at very affordable prices.

4. Fourth step: online store platform

Okay, now we arrive in our natural habitat and we will go through every detail about what a good Online Store platform should provide in your environment so that it is possible to create an online sales website.

• Responsive access (mobile phone or computer) on the platform:
  
  Ensure that the contracted platform has its usability adapted for use on a cell phone, as this can bring convenience to managing the demands of your Online Store from any location using your smartphone. A platform accessed through the browser and that has a PWA can greatly facilitate usability
  
  So, has a new order arrived? Use your smartphone and manage this order as soon as possible, taking the opportunity to send a thank you email and maintaining the excellent quality of service to encourage repeat purchases from your customers.
  
  
• Intuitive product catalog management:
  
  An Online Store platform that offers mass management methods for your product catalog will make your life a lot easier, depending on the size of your inventory.
  
  Check with the platform if there is management through Excel spreadsheets.
  
  It is important to remember that most of the time spent managing the Online Store is on the product catalog and orders, because of this, an easy-to-manage environment, with drag and drop management of category folders among other facilities added to the features. It can make your life much more pleasant and your costs lower by avoiding unnecessary energy costs.
  
  
• Variety of payment methods:
  
  Offering a variety of payment methods is important to bring freedom of choice between all the finance companies on the market and find the best rates for your business.
  
  Today the variety of banks is great, being able to choose between: Paypayl, Mercado Pago, Pagar.me, Pagseguro, Yapay, Cielo and others.
  
  Therefore, research the rates for selling online using the environment of these finance companies.
  
  Analyze whether your contract really has the best rates and whether the finance company has solutions for checking out the Virtual Store platform.
  
  
• Variety in delivery methods:
  
  Logistics and an online sales website go hand in hand, so offering different forms of integration with shipping companies is important.
  
  Just as we will analyze the payment methods offered within the platform to create your sales website, there is also a need to evaluate all types of delivery methods. For example: post office, frenet, best shipping, free market shipping, loggi, free shipping, among others.
  
  Therefore, being clear about shipping methods and thinking about the entire shipping process will make it easier to organize your online order management routine.
  
  
• Integrations with management ERPs:
  
  Well, firstly, what is ERP (enterprise resource planning)?
  
  When we are dealing with an online sales website, an ERP will be a software system that can be integrated to facilitate the management of your entire environment, such as managing orders, issuing invoices, managing inventory and even creating ads on marketplaces, in the case of Bling.
  
  It is very common for a business to have an ERP to carry out all day-to-day management of a physical store.
  
  Let's assume that a store systematized its management routine in 2010 and has more than 10 years of sales, customer and inventory data in its database.
  
  A great way to take advantage of this history and create impactful strategies for all these customers is to upload all the information that already exists in this ERP to the Online Store.
  
  Imagine running an email remarketing campaign for these thousands of customers?
  
  Well, in this sense, many online store platforms have already thought about this issue and have already adapted to accept ERP system integrations to consume and send data.
  
  Contact the platform team and check if the environment accepts your ERP, this path can save you many hours of work when creating your online sales website.
  
  
• Functionalities for creating promotions and discount coupons:
  
  Ok, at this stage we have an essential feature for the routine of a sales website: creating promotions and coupons.
  
  Like any physical business, an online sales site also needs to run promotions to sell old inventory, take advantage of commemorative dates or offer advantageous payment terms for first purchases.
  
  Therefore, when creating your sales website, pay attention to the promotional features of the chosen platform. Offering discount coupons for first purchases or abandoned carts are basic strategies to engage your customers with your Online Store.
  
  Also be aware of offering attractive promotions on special dates, such as: Black Friday, Mother's and Father's Day, Easter, Christmas and others.
  
  
• Easy checkout for customers:
  
  The purchasing process on a sales website needs to be intuitive and simple for the user to complete the payment as smoothly as possible.
  
  We highlight this checkout issue because it is common for platforms like Woocommerce or Magento that are adapted for foreign audiences to have a checkout completely outside Brazilian standards, and this issue makes it difficult for developers to adapt the platform's standard checkout to a version in the correct format. .
  
  Check that your checkout is optimized for PT-BR, that the account creation and login process is simple and always make it easier for your user to purchase. Nowadays it is very annoying to be at the mercy of large form fills, for example.
  
  Technologies such as login with Google and Social Networks also make it easier, you can be sure that by offering this alternative, mobile users of your sales website will choose these options without blinking.
  
  It is also important to offer auto-completion for address fields and cell phone number masks.
  
  If possible, carry out tests in a laboratory environment and if everything is comfortable for you, then it will be for your user as well.
  
  
• Content management:
  
  In your Virtual Store management routine, it will be common for you to change banners, promotional cards, insert new pages, change location blocks, among other content management demands.
  
  Make sure that the platform offers a simple environment to carry out this management, with rich text editors (WYSIWYG), media management for inserting compressed images (compress your images so your online store is not cumbersome to be accessed via 3G connections) , and easy drag-and-drop interfaces to manipulate your content.

5. Fifth step: routine processes

We are almost at the end of our sales website creation journey. Now we will break down the organization of your Online Store's maintenance processes.

• Catalog management
  
  The content of your catalog will require daily management, and why do we point this out? Many businesses need to register new products daily, and the success of their Online Store will often be linked to the number of products in their catalogue.
  
  Each product registered in your Online Store, depending on the platform, can generate new pages and these can be indexed on Google, where we will have a snowball with many links, this will help your website to have more links on Google and increase your chances of being found.
  
  Register as many products as possible and pay special attention to the information, a wealth of product registration will improve your ranking in search systems. Use descriptions, names, images, videos and other variations of information.
  
  If you're curious and want to know more about good product registration, check Google's own documentation: https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/7380908?hl=pt
  
  You can also ask questions about SEO in this article that has just come out of the oven, and has detailed all the characteristics that involve the universe of Google search systems: SEO How to Appear on Google in 2024
  
  
• order management
  
  Managing orders is a good sign, this means that you are being found and your business is attractive to the market.
  
  Now it is important to be aware that depending on the amount of purchase flow on your sales website, your biggest energy expenditure will be on order management, from updating it on the panel to packaging and shipping.
  
  The positive point of this process is its simplicity, so there is no need for great specialization to separate each order, print the label, package it and send it to a post office.
  
  
• Project Manager
  
  Let's assume that your sales website already has a reputation and many hits, you will gradually realize that it is necessary to have energy to offer quality service to your users, increasing the chance of their conversion.
  
  Offer an easy service channel, such as WhatsApp, as this will make it easier for each customer to ask questions about your products and build confidence to buy from your Online Store.
  
  This activity can be quite time consuming, but it is essential to understand your audience, so be aware that offering a service channel and perhaps providing a person just for this task will be a necessary requirement when creating your sales website.
  
  And finally, the most important process is to promote your business so that sales happen. This process is so important that we will allocate just one step to it, so let's go.

6. Sixth step: promote your business

At this step, we already have everything organized, now it's time to sell.

Start by sending your new sales website to family, friends and acquaintances. Organize part of your capital to promote your new website, both online and on other communication platforms.

Join communities, WhatsApp groups, organize your customers, provide quality information, solve your audience's pain points and on this path you will start to create a loyal community and repeat purchases.

This step is the most difficult for most people, as being a good salesperson requires experience, charisma and courage, so dedicate time to study, read content from informed sources, look for courses and constantly improve yourself.

We guarantee that by following these tips, your business can grow and you will achieve financial independence.

And if you still have doubts about this promotional step in relation to an online sales site, see our article that deals with the costs of promoting your online store: How Much Does It Cost to Create an Online Store and Sell on the Internet?

7. Sixth step: retention

Well, now is the last step and if you check our art with the online sales website creation step flow, you will conclude that from there, we return to step 5 with the routine processes. This is because, once you reach this last step, you will only need to work on furthering steps 5 and 6, investing in more people and more capital to promote your new sales website.

The service in step 5 will be essential for you to retain your customers post-sales and there are strategies to encourage repeat purchases from your customers, sending promotions through direct mail or even WhatsApp messages.

Offer discount coupons, impact those who have already purchased from you, offer new advantages and solve pain points to win your customers' loyalty, as for many people, the convenience of trusting a brand and continuing to buy from it is a very advantageous option.

It's like thinking about our daily lives. If you find a good beauty salon or barbershop, you will become a loyal customer, visiting whenever necessary.

The same analogy can be made for a store with good products.

Conclusion

We are covering all the necessary steps to start a new online sales website in a macro way, because if we were to write in more detail all the process, it would be a scientific article with more than 60 pages, so I would like to emphasize that it is important to know about business plans, plan and do a lot of market research, do not venture or be captured by charlatan conversations.

Making money on the internet is not easy and there is no miracle formula. There is hard work, a lot of study and determination not to give up at the first difficulty you encounter.

If you are interested in the subject and liked our content, contact us via the WhatsApp button, as the entire Eco Webdesign team follows the principle of always helping with information, regardless of the size of your business.

With our experience, we created our own e-commerce creation platform, I interact.

At Interago, we have an engineering team working weekly to update it with the latest technologies on the market, so all the content you read in this article is based on empirical experiences in creating platforms, creating e-commerce and advising/consulting for more than 500 partners who trust our work to conquer their space on the web.

If you prefer, contact us by email, sending a message to support@ecowebdesign.com.br. We will be happy to help.

Cases:

Below, we will also leave some success stories of online sales sites that believed in Eco Webdesign and are now growing every day.