10 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Setting Up an Online Store

To be successful in your venture as an online merchant, you need to have clear direction for your business. Ask yourself questions that would help you set your site up around a business goal.

1. What is the purpose of your website? The answer may seem obvious: to sell, sell, sell. But how exactly do you go about reaching that goal. When defining your website’s objectives it will help you create the proper funnel towards a call to action.
2.  What products will you be selling? This is the time to pick your niche. Research on the marketability of your products and the feasibility of selling it online. This is also the perfect time for you to start doing keyword research for your chosen product.
3. Who are your top competitors? Since you’re already in the process of doing market research, you might as well find out what you’re up against. What do they offer in their website? How can you give your own website competitive advantage?
4. How many product lines will you sell? Inventory sourcing and management is one of the key things to consider in online retail. Asking yourself this question early on will also help you design the architecture of your site by helping you determine which are your top categories.
5. How will you accept payments? Online payment processing is not as easy as the set up for brick-and-mortar stores. You do not have a physical point of sale or a cash register in your online store. What you will need to do is research on the best shopping cart, payment gateway solutions, and where you want to set up your merchant account. If you are planning on accepting credit cards as payment, you will also need to secure your transaction and have SSL certificates.
6. How will you handle order fulfillment? Do you plan on keeping physical inventory or will you go for dropshipping? Will you be shipping the item out yourself or will the supplier do it for you? Order fulfillment is another important element of online sales as it is your first “real” contact with your buyers.
7. What fees do you need to charge? Shipping and handling is a must if you will be keeping physical inventory and sending those to buyers yourself. If a product is returned, you might also want to consider restocking fees. Are there any applicable government taxes for your product? Find out the fees you need to charge and be transparent about it.
8. How do you plan on maintaining your website? Before you begin putting together the site consider how you will scale it. If you will be doing the design and coding yourself, assess how good your skills are in your chosen language. If you plan on hiring or outsourcing the maintenance, choose a  programming language is that common and is not expensive to develop. Don’t opt for the latest technology just because it sounds cool, it may end up costing you more in the end.
9.  How do you intend to market your site? Any retail business should have a marketing plan. This is where you indicate a realistic budget, the approach you want to take and the resources you require. Since what you have is an online store, then it is only appropriate that your marketing plan include online channels such as SEO, social media marketing, pay-per-click advertising and more.
10.  How do you monitor the success of your site? Setting Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and monitoring success is vital for business growth. You can start with free software such as AwStats or Google Analytics. Whatever software you choose it should be able to produce data you can easily understand and act on. Track your performance daily, weekly and monthly as you see fit.                                                                  

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