How to Create a Successful Online Store Easy and Fast with ExpandCart
In order to learn how to start a successful online store with ease, ExpandCart has made a set of new distinguished updates within the store control panel to ease the process of creating an online store on our ecommerce platform for the first time, as well as to ease managing the business for store owners.
How to Create A Successful Online Store
In this blog, we will take a tour inside the control panel to overview the latest updates made by our ecommerce platform and explain how to run a successful ecommerce business using ExpandCart and enjoy building a free-for-life online business, including free consultations from our experts and our support team.
Let’s get started…
First: Register to Build an Online Store for Free
The following steps will tell you how to run an online shop, easy and breezy.
- Go to the registration page by clicking on this link.
- Fill in the required data: your store name, email address, password, name, and phone number. And then hit the blue button “Create Your Store.”
- ExpandCart team will create your store after confirming your data. After that, click on the “Start discover” button to start your journey.
- You will be transferred to another page to answer a set of questions to help us better understand the types of businesses of our customers so that we can help them customize their online stores.
- The first question in the ecommerce store creation process is “How do you currently sell your product?” You need to determine the way in which you were selling your products before creating the online shopping store, whether on social media, online marketplace, or through your own retail store, and so on.
For example, we will choose “I sell my products from my retail store”.
- The second question is “Where do you source your products from?”
As an example, we will also select the option “I am a retailer and I get my products from wholesalers”. Of course, you can select the appropriate option for you, but here we explain with an example only, so that you can understand the process of starting an online store.
- The third question is “Do you have a registered company?” Here, we need you to explain to us whether your business is registered and has a commercial register and tax card or not.
At last, check if you have an eCommerce website for your business and then click on “Next.”
- After that, you’ll be directed to a page to choose the type(s) of products that you’re planning to sell on your online store.
You can either choose or skip this step but it’s very important to help us provide you suggestions for templates that suit the products you are selling so you can provide a good shopping experience for your customers.
You can choose more than one type of product, and you can also edit your selections any time later from your store control panel. No need for web design or coding skills.
- Once you’re done, click on “Next.”
No credit card required and no hidden fees.
Second: Create an Online Store — Customization Settings
- After setting up a selling website on ExpandCart and typing all the required data, it’s time for the most important stage, which is customizing your online shopping store settings from the control panel.
- First, you need to set your preferred time in case you want to receive a call from our sales and business development team.
- Once you’re done, click on “Confirm.”
- After registering, you will be directed to your store control panel, and at the top of the page, you’ll find a success story of one of our clients to inspire you.
- You can also click on “Register to the Webinar” to save your seat on our next webinar which will guide you to effectively build an online store using ExpandCart.
Scroll down a little bit, you’ll find the 3 main steps you need to take to create your online store in a perfect way.
- Add Your Products
- Pick Your Web Design
- Setup Your Domain
Let’s take a deep look at each step…
1. Add Your Products
- Of course, you need to add your products to your online business to start receiving orders. Click on the “Add a product” button, as shown in the below image:
- Once clicked, you will be directed to the products page. You can remove all the existing products or you can keep them. It’s up to you.
- Click on the “Add New Product” green button, which appears at the top right side of your control panel.
Here is a quick overview of the basic steps you need to take to successfully add your products in product pages:
- After clicking on the “Add New Product” green button, you will be directed to the product information page, and you will notice that there are a number of fields that need to be filled.
- Enter the product name and the product description you want.
Important Tips for eCommerce websites:
- Write a catchy product description on your product pages that highlights the advantages and characteristics and all the important details of your product in order to convince your target audience to buy.
- Both product names and product descriptions should be written in English and Arabic languages in case you’ll launch your online store in two languages.
- you can add images and/or videos to your product description. You can make also all changes you want to the text style.
It’s time now to add product images…
- You can drag and drop your product images or upload them for your device.
Advanced Advice:
We recommend choosing more than one image for the product and to have attractive and professional images to increase the conversion rate. Also, keep in mind that the preferred size of the image is a minimum of 500*500 pixels.
- After that, you need to add your product price that will appear to your target audience. Add also the cost price to calculate the profit margin, the type of tax imposed on the product, and the minimum order quantity to control the lowest number of products requested by a customer.
- Once you’re done, click on the “Save” button, which is located at the bottom right side of the page. Thus, you will have added your first store products in a simple and easy way.
- As for the other fields on the page, they are optional fields that provide you with advanced features when you need them.
Note:
You can view the product on your online storefront page after adding it by clicking on the “Preview” button at the top right side of the page, which appears to you immediately after saving the product details.
2. Choose Your Store Design
Now, it’s time to give your online store a pretty look…
After the new updates made by our development team, customizing your online store settings became much easier. Just one click of a button is all you need without having to go into too many and boring details.
Here’s a step-by-step overview of how to choose your online store template:
- From “Home,” click on “Pick a Template.”
- You will be directed to the templates page of ExpandCart to choose the template that appeals to you more.
- You will find a wide range of distinctive and unique templates with a variety of innovative designs that suit your business, and you will notice that they are suggested based on the basic information that you’ve provided at the beginning of registration, specifically the type of products that you’re willing to sell.
- You can also filter the templates according to your business type to reach the appropriate template faster and easier by selecting the category you want.
- Click on the “Apply Template” button after settling on any of the templates to be immediately applied to your online store.
3. Choose a Domain Name
From “Home,” click on “Start Selling Now” to choose your domain name and here you have 2 main options.
- The first option is to get a free domain name on purchasing any of ExpandCart packages. Once you click on “Start Selling Now,” you’ll be directed to our packages to compare features and choose which fits your needs the most.
- The second option is to have a ready domain name, and in this case, you can easily link it to your online store on ExpandCart to start selling and receive orders from your target audience.
By reaching this step, you have finished the basic settings to successfully build your online store. Only a few simple steps are needed to launch it to its final form.
Launch your professional online store for free and enjoy smart benefits and features of ExpandCart.
No credit card required and no hidden fees.
Third: Additional Store Settings—Customizing Shipping and Payment Services
Among the new updates made by the team of developers of the ExpandCart in order to provide an easier and faster user experience while creating an online store is placing the shipping and payment options in the interface of the control panel so that you can reach them with just one click.
1. Shipping Settings
Inside the Shipping and Delivery settings page on the store control panel, you will notice many updates that make it easier for you to choose the appropriate and most effective shipping method for delivering orders to your target audience with the highest quality.
Suggestions for the best shipping companies for your business to offer the best shopping experience.
“Suggestions” is a newly added feature to automatically recommend the best shipping solutions based on some factors including the country from which you registered your free store, the basic information you initially provided us with, and whether or not your business is registered.
In the below image, you will notice that the ecommerce platform’s shipping suggestions are working in Egypt because we have already registered from Egypt, so the suggestions are all in full agreement with the registration information that you’ve entered at the beginning of registration.
2. Displaying new special offers
The applications or companies that partnered with ExpandCart to offer exclusive discounts to our customers are distinguished with a red rectangle. The objective is to quickly reach these shipping companies to hunt the best price, rather than taking a long time and effort to reach them.
3. Payment Settings
From “Home,” click on “Explore Payment Options” to be taken directly to all available payment methods.
The new updates that we made within the Shipping Settings are the same that you will notice on the Settings of Payment Methods, starting with the recommended applications according to the country from which you registered, your basic information, and special offers that are provided by our partners, and so on.
Inside the payment settings page, you will notice the availability of many payment options which include:
- Credit cards
- Prepaid cards
- PayPal
- Cash on delivery
- Bank transfer
You can choose the most appropriate method for your business and your location. After finishing up your store, you may start running a few email marketing campaigns to work on your new brand awareness.
Fourth: Book a Consultation Session for Free
Again from “Home,” click on “Book a Free Consultation” to book a free consultation from our e-commerce experts and professional support team to inquire about whatever you need.
Wrapping Up
In this article, we tried to review the latest updates made by our developers to improve our onboarding process for store owners and provide a fast and easy user experience to create an online store in a few and simple steps.
We also built an online store together step-by-step, starting with registering for creating an online store, passing through customizing store settings for adding products, choosing a web design, shipping, accepting payment, and ending with launching the store in preparation for receiving orders from customers.
Share with us what are you missing to launch your store and start your business in the world of e-commerce?!
You can build and launch your professional online store for free and enjoy smart the services and benefits of ExpandCart.
No credit card required and no hidden fees.
