How An Offline Retailer Can Go Online?

Preksh is Visual Merchandising Store. Buy wide range of products including Musical Instruments, Furniture, Home Decor, Toys, Gifts , Cloth and more

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1. Choose your Domain :

A domain is your own unique business identity or in other words the name of the store over internet. You can choose domain name of your choice (ex. Your name, presents store name or anything you think interesting/lucky), however the same should be available to own it. A domain can be easily bought from multiple registrars available online. All you need to do is google 'buy domain'.

While choosing a domain make sure you keep these pointers in mind :

• Easy to remember/recollect • Must relate to your line of business • Avoid similarity with existing domain names • Choose '.com'

2. Choose your Ecommerce Platform :

Nowadays ecommerce websites can be easily built in few hours. If you plan to have your own technical team/freelancers, you can go ahead with multiple free and open-source content management system (CMS) like Magento, Joomla and WordPress for publishing web content . If you are ready to ready shell out more money, there are higher versions of these available with more features and functionalities. For example, Magento Community Edition is fitted with bundle of features, anyone can modify the core system of Community version. Developers can implement the core files and extend its functionality by adding new plug-in modules provided by other developers.

Magento Enterprise/Professional Edition is derived from the Magento Community Edition and has the same core files. Unlike Community Edition, these are not free, but has more features and functionality. This edition is designed for businesses that require technical support with installation, usage, configuration, and troubleshooting. Although they have annual maintenance fees, neither Community nor Enterprise Editions include hosting. However the same can be safely outsourced to some proprietary E-commerce Service Providers (ESP) available in the market.

3. Set up Your Store :

Cataloguing :

An online product catalogue is basically an online version of your store products over internet. A catalogue is how your product would look to your potential customers. As your online store would not have a sales person, make sure your product description/visuals are strong enough to convert an online visitor to a customer. Few key items under cataloguing are.

If you choose an ESP, the content generation can be done on the basis of the agreement you sign. If you are using open source or you want to outsource content generation, there are multiple agencies available in the market who charge you per item basis to create the product catalogue.

Payment Gateway Integration :

If the customer plans to buy the product online, he will look for a safe and secure payment gateway. A payment gateway is an e-commerce application service provider service that authorizes credit card payments for e-businesses, online retailers, bricks and clicks, or traditional brick and mortar. It is the equivalent of a physical point of sale terminal located in most retail outlets.

Payment gateways protect credit card details by encrypting sensitive information, such as credit card numbers, to ensure that information is passed securely between the customer and the merchant and also between merchant and the payment processor.

4. Optimizing Your Online Store :

Design :

Customers are generally attracted by the design of website. An offline retailer should understand the type of website that is needed for the business. The retailer should then choose the right products that they need to sell online. The retailer can also conduct a market survey that can give an idea about what the customers like. The demands of customers can change from time to time retailers should keep that in mind.

Cost :

First time online retailers should find out a cost effective way to set-up an online business. The online business should not cost too much to the retailer. Do it yourself (DIY) solutions can help get a better understanding of effective solutions. DIY solutions include examples like Shopify, Bigcartel, etc.