Whether you’re looking to expand your brick-and-mortar business or start completely something new, now’s a wonderful time to create a new online store.
Maybe you’ve been hesitating, though, because you’re not sure exactly how much time you’ll need to invest in building an ecommerce website.
There are all kinds of factors that can affect how long website creation takes.
Today, I’ll provide you with a general overview of the process to help alleviate any doubts you might have about diving into ecommerce!
Why your choice of ecommerce solution matters
When you’re ready to turn your ecommerce vision into a reality and start creating your online store, you’ll have numerous platforms from which to choose. With the variety of ecommerce solutions available, selecting the right one for your business isn’t always easy, especially if you’re new to online selling.
However, whichever platform you decide to use will likely play a major role in how long it takes you to build your store and launch your business.
At first glance, you may think that an open-source platform is your best bet. After all, the initial costs with this type of solution usually only include the fee for web hosting. I urge you to take a closer look at this option, though, as there’s more here than meets the eye.
With open-source solutions, you can view, change, and distribute the platform’s source code for your own use, allowing for lots of customization and flexibility. Sounds great, right?
Except…
Unless you’ve got some serious technical skills and coding knowledge up your sleeve, building a website this way, starting from nothing, is complicated. If you’re trying to do everything on your own, you could easily spend weeks or even months getting your site up and running.
Delays in the creation of your online store mean delays in sales of your products and a loss of potential income.
Furthermore, managing an ecommerce site with this kind of solution can be a pain. When something goes wrong, you might be forced to waste hours searching for the solution on help forums.
If it’s a critical issue that prevents or at least discourages customers from making purchases, your store could miss out on a ton of sales.
Finally, although open-source platforms are seemingly very economical, the subsequent costs that can come with them soon add up. These can include additional fees for bandwidth increases, applications or extensions, security, bug corrections, and more.
By now you might be thinking, “Ugh, there has to be a better way!”
Don’t worry—there definitely is.
You can alternatively opt for a software as a service (SaaS) ecommerce solution like WiziShop to build your online store. With SaaS options, the provider of the platform hosts and maintains the platform for you.
Because the base is already there and there’s nothing to install, you’re able to create your website much more quickly.
Even if you’re not especially technically gifted, building your online store couldn’t be simpler with WiziShop!
With our ecommerce platform, you’ll have access to all kinds of easy-to-use design templates for complete customization. In addition, we offer more than 400 features to optimize the performance of your site.
Our straightforward interface ensures that your new online store will be ready to go in a flash!
Still nervous that you’ll have difficulties creating your website? Not a problem. Your WiziShop account also comes with the ability to chat with a fabulous team of experts, our Business Coaches.
The WiziShop Business Coaches are trained for several weeks before they start assisting clients. This training is updated monthly, ensuring that they’re well equipped to answer any questions you may have related to your online store.
Besides that, if you run into an issue when building your site or even months into your journey with your online store, we get to work on fixing it right away!
The best part is that all of the aforementioned ecommerce features and more come at no extra cost to you when you sign up with WiziShop. You’ll simply choose one of our three pricing plans and pay a monthly fee plus a small percentage of your sales.
There’s no surprises at the end of month, as everything’s already included!
Time required to build a WiziShop store
By now you’ll have seen that you can’t go wrong with choosing the WiziShop platform to create your ecommerce website. With our solution, you can trust that you’ll build a high-quality, professional online store that’s ready to start selling in no time.
To give you a better idea of how long the process takes, I’ll break down the various tasks involved in creating your store with WiziShop. The first part involves setting everything up while the second entails adding content to really make your site come alive!
Site configuration
Once you’ve come up with an amazing product idea, business name, and business model, you’ll probably be in a hurry to get your store off the ground.
Rest assured that the WiziShop platform makes setting up your site a breeze. Our interface is intuitive and walks you through the entire process step by step...it’s completely painless!
1. Account creation
Estimated time: 1 minute
First up, you’ll need to go ahead and create your account with WiziShop. Did you know that it’s free to sign up with us? Yep, we offer a 3-day free trial, giving every user plenty of time to make sure that our ecommerce solution is the right one for their business.
You won’t even need to provide us with your credit card details for your free trial!
When you create your account, you’ll just have to answer a few simple questions. These include the name of your store, the color you want your site’s layout to be, what products you sell, your password, etc.
If you still haven’t determined exactly what you want to call your store or are feeling wishy-washy about the layout color, that’s okay! You can easily make changes to these settings later on if you’d like.
After supplying these details, you’ll be brought to your store’s administration area. Here, you can manage different aspects of your store and work on the next step, your layout design!
2. Website design set-up
Estimated time: 20 minutes
The answers you gave to the questions from earlier are used to create a responsive ecommerce website design that’s adapted to help you maximize your sales. You’ll be able to customize the design even further to suit the unique needs of your brand and target audience.
Next, you’ll want to go ahead and add your logo. Head to Settings > Change my logo > Edit the logo or banner. Then, follow the instructions on the screen to upload your logo. You can also add your business name and slogan while you’re waiting for the logo to be created.
Make sure that your logo is saved in a .jpeg or .png format. In addition, it shouldn’t be any more than 150 pixels in height to prevent the header from looking distorted.
You can edit your logo whenever you’d like, so don’t stress too much about this part!
Now, you’ll be designing your store’s homepage. For this part, you’ll be using our super simple WiziBlock templates to create a customized layout for your site. These WiziBlocks allow you to get really creative and design a layout that works best for you and your business.
To get started, just go to Content > Homepage. You’ll first provide a title and meta description, which is what shows up in Google search results. Next, you’ll be able to check out the block layout that we’ve created for you.
You may choose to keep this layout and replace the blocks with your own images, products, and text or create your own homepage and edit the arrangement. Then, you can begin customizing your homepage further by opening the WiziBlocks control panel.
This is where you can choose your site’s dominant colors and add high-quality images, your social media information, customer testimonials, and more.
Be sure to include some information to reassure your potential customers here as well. For example, you can add details regarding payment security, deadlines for product returns, where/how your products are made, etc.
If you’re looking for even MORE customization and want a completely one-of-a-kind layout, we can help with that too!
We have a wide range of partnerships in all aspects of ecommerce. Feel free to get in touch with our Business Coaches if you’d like them to connect you with one of our design agency partners.
3. Delivery set-up
Estimated time: 20 minutes
Hopefully you had a blast setting up your website’s layout, but now it’s time to move on to configuring your delivery methods. If your online store offers services rather than products, you can skip this part. Otherwise, let’s continue!
As you’ll have noticed by now, WiziShop wants to give you as much freedom as possible when bringing your dream ecommerce site to life. This is no less true for your delivery options!
To begin setting up your delivery, go to Settings > Store set-up > Manage my delivery methods.
First, you’ll need to state how long it takes you to prepare orders. This will help us to provide your customers with an accurate estimated delivery date, as we’ll add the preparation time to the delivery time.
Next, select from a variety of delivery methods to ship your products. These may include, for instance, a standard option, an express option, and a click-and-collect option.
In addition, you’ll be able to adjust your settings for free shipping here. You can opt to offer free shipping for all orders or after customers spend a certain amount.
It’s completely up to you!
4. Payment method set-up
Estimated time: 10 minutes
For our clients’ added convenience, WiziShop has more than 50 pre-installed payment solutions from which to choose. They only need to be activated, which you can accomplish with just a few clicks of the mouse!
When deciding which payment methods to offer, be sure to consider the needs of both your target market and your business. It’s best to feature multiple payment options, as you’ll want to be able to accommodate as many potential customers as possible.
To begin, go to Settings > Add a payment method. We suggest adding at least one credit card option, as this is a popular form of payment with many online shoppers.
Additional payment methods you might want to consider include digital wallets, such as PayPal and Google Pay, bank transfers, and others.
5. Domain name purchase
Estimated time: 10 minutes
Though further down on our to-do list for building your ecommerce website, purchasing your domain name is no less important of a task! The domain name is the unique URL address for your online store.
After you’ve decided on a business name, you’ll want to secure your domain name as soon as possible.
To do so with our platform, just head to Set Up > Domain Names > Order a Domain Name. Type in your preferred domain name in the search bar to see if it’s available.
If the domain name is already taken, you might need to get a bit creative until you find one that’s available and suits your business.
When you’ve found one, click the Order button and enter your payment details. This domain name will then be connected to your WiziShop store and comes with an SSL certificate for extra security.
Content creation
After setting up your ecommerce website, the next step involves adding content to different parts of your store for the finishing touches. You’ll see that these sections will generally require more time, as they need some extra attention.
It’s important that your thoughtfully created content clearly communicates your messages to site visitors and is an accurate representation of your brand.
1. Writing content for the homepage
Estimated time: 1 hour
When adding written content to your homepage, keep in mind that this is often the first impression that many visitors will get of your business. It’s essential that your online store’s homepage appears professional and contains information that only serves to improve the customer experience.
As mentioned in the “website design set-up” section earlier, you’ll want to add written content to your homepage to reassure visitors to your website. This is your chance to really draw potential customers in and make them confident about buying from your store!
Whether you’re writing about customer service or mentioning publicity for your business, make your text concise and leave no room for doubt regarding its meaning.
2. Writing content for the “About Us” page
Estimated time: 1 hour
With so many ecommerce websites out there, you’ll increase your store’s chances of success if you find a way to stand out from the competition. The content you include in your “About Us” page helps give a personal touch to your business.
When store owners are in a hurry to launch their sites, this page unfortunately often becomes an afterthought. However, I encourage you to take your time and write content here that’ll make a lasting positive impression with visitors.
So what kind of information should you add to your “About Us” page? Consider discussing your business’s origins, business model, mission, and goals. After reading the information on this page, your potential customers should understand why buying from your store is a great idea.
3. Adding product pages
Estimated time: 15 minutes (per product page)
Product pages are another very important part of your website. After all, this is your main opportunity to convince site visitors to buy your products.
When customers visit a traditional, brick-and-mortar store, they can see and touch a product for themselves, but this isn’t the case online.
For this reason, it’s up to you to put some real thought into your product pages with well-written content and high-quality images. Your product descriptions should answer any questions customers might have about the item and explain how it can improve their lives.
The estimated time mentioned above is meant for if you’re in a hurry and are only able to write short product descriptions for the time being.
However, I suggest that when you’re not pressed for time, you create descriptions that are at least 300 words long. This will allow you to explain to potential customers why they need this product, and it will also help to improve your search engine optimization (SEO).
In addition, your product pages should include details regarding pricing and special offers, stock, and shipping costs.
Don’t forget to also add photos that show off your product and all of its features. It’s best to have a professional photographer take these images, but if that’s not in your budget, you can handle this part yourself too.
Now that you know how fast you can build your ecommerce website with WiziShop, I know that you’re ready to get started ASAP.
Get started today with your 3-day free trial, and then enjoy your first month for just $1!
From the moment you sign up, you'll be able to take advantage of all the wonderful benefits that our platform has to offer.
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