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How to create an online shopping website? Do not miss those tips!

| Andrzej Herzberg | Web Development

If you’re determined to create a business online, the building an online store is the right choice. Creating a fully professional and modern e-commerce site requires focusing on design, functionality, and security. Thanks to cheap and useful tools like Joomla templates you can achieve your goal quickly and without large expenditures. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to build an online store. It should cover all the basics that you need to know before starting your adventure with an online business.

How to open an online store step by step

What do you need to prepare before you start selling products online? Let’s see the main aspects:

  • Online store software
  • Hosting
  • Security and backups
  • Shipping software
  • Payment gateway

What is an eCommerce website?

Before you can start with building an online store and submitting products for sell you need a ready website. Typical e-commerce websites are used for commercial transactions involving the transfer of information over the web. I recommend using a Joomla CMS. Joomla is a very popular worldwide known Content Management System allowing to build a website and manage it in an easy way.

How can I create an online business?

The easiest way to create an online store is to use a Joomla online store template. These templates take care of the whole aspect of proper design, layout, and functionality allowing you to quickly get a site up and running! Buying a Joomla e-commerce template you get a complete online store builder.

A great aspect of Joomla is the huge variety of website design options available through the use of premium Joomla templates. There are many templates offering e-commerce functionality included in 3rd part e-commerce Joomla extensions. Premium templates also come with a support and updates from its providers. There are a wide enough variety of templates that are easy to fit into a specific category. It’s important to find a template that best represents your brand.

How do you set up an online store?

So now you have a Joomla template of your choice, appropriate for your purpose. Next step is to choose a domain name and find a hosting. It’s good to find shared hosting with an affordable price. Hosting providers often offer also a domain name included - and that is a very useful solution. Modern hosting should offer easy setup, one click installation.

If you want to run an online store you can’t forget to purchase an SSL certificate. It establishes a secure link between your server and the customer’s browser and it’s reflected in your URL as “https://.” It protects your website’s crucial information and also provides privacy and security for your users' personal information.

Further aspects of security are:

  • Lack of storage of sensitive customer data (codes, credit cards numbers etc.)
  • Secure password requirements and storage
  • Server protection (firewall)

Other crucial things are automatic backups for your online store. Including this option will allow you to recover from the biggest failure or loss of data. It’s highly recommended to set up the site’s backups right from the start already.

How to backup Joomla website?

If you want to get paid you need to pick a payment gateway. It’s software you need to accept credit card payments from customers online. Joomla eCommerce platforms like VirtueMart or J2Store use different payment gateways like PayPal, 2Checkout, Bank transfer and more. It should be noted that much depends on the region and currencies accepted. You’ll be able to install plugins for different payment gateways. Your future customers will be directed to secure payment sites of chosen gateway.

How do I open an online store?

It’s time to fill the website with the content. Your website is ready and already running, so you can start filling your online store with products for sale.The question is what kind of products you want to sell? You can choose between digital and durable goods. Find yourself a product niche you are interested about or something that is trending.

Hopefully, this guide article was helpful for you. Now you should be prepared to create and launch a successful online business.
Do not forget to check your online shop’s reports regularly to find out how it's doing!

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