21 Tips to Start Shoes/ Bags Online Business

Shoes/ Bags Online Business

1. Define your product or service.

Starting an online business gives you the benefit of having access to millions of customers, but you also have a lot more competition. No matter what you’re trying to sell, you can bet that hundreds more online retailers have a similar idea. What differentiates your product from other similar products? To help your product stand apart from the rest, you’ll need to find a niche.

Read also: 22 Tips to Start Online Skin Care Products Business 

• Let’s say you make jewellery—but so do a few million other people. What makes yours different? If one-of-a-kind jewellery (or another product) is your gig, make sure it’s truly original.
• Offer expertise in an area. Even if the product itself isn’t very unique, your expertise might be a strong selling point. If you’re selling a line of skincare products, for example, it helps if you have a degree in a field related to skin health.
• Check into the competition. Figure out what isn’t already being offered, and find a way to fill the hole with your product.

Shoes/ Bags Online Business

2. Register your business.

Your business needs to be registered according to your state’s laws. Choose an official business name and fill out the appropriate paperwork to make your business official.

• Before you register your business, it can help to have a business plan laid out. Consider your production costs, shipping costs, taxes, and web hosting fees.
• Know the business regulations in your state, and be sure to comply when you get things up and running.

View also: 14 Tips to Carry Out Product Market Research

Shoes/ Bags Online Business

3. Register a domain name.

4. Get a web hosting service.

There are free hosting services to be found, but if you’re serious about running an online business long term, consider paying for one that offers all the services you need. You’ll be less likely to run into problems when your business starts to take off. Choose a hosting service that allows for growth.

• Some hosting services are highly structured, allowing you to choose from among different templates to create a website quite easily. Others allow you to do your own programming, giving you greater flexibility.

See also: 16 Tips to Start Health Insurance Agency Business 

Shoes/ Bags Online Business

6. Create a stylish and functional website.

 Elegant or funky, classical or hipster, your online store should reflect what you’re selling. No matter what your style is, it’s important to give off a professional air. Since you won’t be able to earn people’s trust in person, your website will have to do the selling for you. Your site should be engaging, and most importantly, easy for customers to use when they’re ready to make a purchase.

• Make sure your site design matches your product. For example, if you make traditionally styled diamond jewelry, having a website that looks like shredded cardboard with edgy fonts and images taped to the cardboard would tend to drive away your potential customers.
• Consider setting up an online portfolio. Whether you are a programmer who specializes in Javascript, a graphic designer who works on commissions, a plumber who is on call 24/7, or a copywriter who will write about anything at all, having an exemplary website where potential clients can evaluate your work is crucial to your online business success.
  

  Read also: 23 Tips to Run Furniture & Carpentry Crafts Business in Nigeria

  Shoes/ Bags Online Business

• You don’t have to design the website yourself—there are professional designers who are more than up to the task, plus ecommerce websites will offer dozens of appropriate templates for you. If you know in advance what you want, you’ll make selecting a designer or a template that much easier.
• When designing your site you need to remember to focus on what is important. Your ultimate goal is to make your site simple and easy to use.
• Your customers should have to make no more than 2 clicks in order to land on the page where they can make a purchase.
  

  Shoes/ Bags Online Business

• The top of every page should have a link to your shopping cart if its an ecommerce store
• Buttons should be large and clear to read and input boxes should be large and easy to enter your information
• Less is more. Don’t be wordy when you don’t need to on payment pages
• Make sure your logo at the top of the page always links to the homepage
• If you have dark backgrounds use light text and vice versa.

Read also: 27 Tips to Open Door 2 Door Health/ Beauty Vending Business in Nigeria

Shoes/ Bags Online Business

7. Get ecommerce software.

You’ll need this so your customers can view your products, enter their information and make a secure purchase. The software safely stores customer information. Don’t skimp in this area, since the ecommerce software you choose will make a big difference in how easy it is for customers to feel secure buying something from your store.

• You can also use an all-inclusive ecommerce web service. Sites such as Shopify and Volusion offer competitive packages, with free templates, custom packages, credit card processing, and more. Ecommerce web services makes it easy to sell your products on the web, without a lot of overhead. There are no custom interfaces or templates to work with; you simply create an online store within the framework of the service.

Shoes/ Bags Online Business

8. Set up a merchant account.

Service businesses in the past had to generally rely on cash or check—setting up an entire credit card processing system was a thankless, expensive task at best. Using a service such as PayPal makes it possible to accept virtually any form of credit or debit card for your services, and includes dispute resolution should the need arise (and it will arise).