If you have something you’d like to sell, it can seem like a daunting idea to set up and run your own site to do it. Whether it is a digital product you’ve made yourself like an eBook or software, your own crafts, or a collection of goods you would like to sell on, the web is easily the best place to do it, because you don’t have to worry about the location of your audience (as long as you can deliver the goods to them and comply with any relevant sales laws), and you don’t need a physical space to sell your wares – no need to wait for the next craft market or other relevant opportunity to get your products out there!

you-really-can-build-and-manage-your-own-online-retail-website

Photo by Suphakit73 at freedigitalphotos.net

A Web Store of Your Own

Of course, there are ways to sell and promote your products without your own web store, but given you will definitely want a website to promote your business anyway, adding ecommerce facilities to it should not be such a great leap in terms of effort, especially with the tools available these days to help you do it.

With easy to find resources, you really can set up a website and blog that’ll help bring in visitors, and an online shop where you can sell directly to your customers. Here’s some help to get you started!

Create a Great WordPress Site

WordPress is by far the easiest way to get your homepage, blog, and the general website around your online store set up. You can choose an appealing theme, add your own logo and other branding, and then simply begin creating great content that will help Google users find your store, and promote and reinforce your brand. There are loads of resources to help you get to grips with WordPress on the web, but it is designed to be easy and streamlined even for people with no web design experience or skills.

Use the Latest Build of PrestaShop for Your Ecommerce

As well as a good site with great blog type content, you’ll need a platform on which to list your products and prices, and actually allow people to buy them. For that, a great open source system you can use is PrestaShop. PrestaShop has just undergone an overhaul to the design of its back office area as part of a major new update, so it is incredibly easy to use, and the new release also brings with it helpful features like managing compliance to regulations when you sell to the EU.

With these two tools, you can build a great site, and then all you need to do is get traffic coming in! Well made content will do part of this for you, but you should also consider working with someone who is an expert in SEO and social media marketing, to help get your site in front of the very people who want to buy your products. Alternatively, you can learn about online marketing, and manage this yourself too!