The start of the coronavirus pandemic gave a dramatic rise to the digital world of business. With the ongoing pandemic, the internet is not an option but a deliberate choice that every business has to opt for their growth.
In 2021, the B2B owners adapted business digitization at a commendable and overwhelming pace. This trend is here, only to stay and increase.
If you want to thrive you have to catch the train and hop on with the trends.
Do you ask what is its relationship with having a B2B eCommerce website?
Well having a B2B eCommerce website is the basic but the most necessary step. A fully functional website is like a blessing for B2B owners considering the pros it offers such as driving sales, global exposure, better insights of the business through the data collected, etc.
Now that we have a fair understanding of the necessity to build eCommerce website, we are sure you might want to know the fastest way to create eCommerce website. Don’t worry we have got you covered.
5 Steps To Creating An eCommerce Website
Before we get started on the steps to create an eCommerce website, we must have a thorough understanding of a couple of things.
As a B2B business owner, you must have a clear long-term vision of your business. This gives you a precise understanding of your goals and a plan as to how to proceed towards them. This helps in understanding the functionality you want to include in your website.
The growth of the business is more assured when you align the long-term vision and the functionalities of a website.
Here are 5 simple steps that will help you ace the process like a pro and build an eCommerce website in a lesser time.
Step 1: Launch your website.
Step 2: Research and Gather the Requirement.
Step 3: Keep your growth strategies in place.
Step 4: Choose your website builder.
Step 5: Build your eCommerce website.
Step 1: Launch Your Website
The first step to creating an online store is that you would need a domain and a host.
There are several such as GoDaddy, Namecheap, etc. that help you check the domain availability. So get it checked and if the name you thought is already taken better find an alternative.
Few things to keep in mind while thinking of domain names and checking their availability are:
- The domain name should be short but precise (6-14 in length preferably).
- The name should be unique if you have similar names to other ventures which are ranked well by SEO, it might be confusing for your target audience as well as hamper your growth due to the competition.
- It should be easy to pronounce and remember. This can seem like a really small thing but it does make a significant difference as it eases the process as the target audience can remember it easily and that would increase the reach and indirectly drive sales.
After checking the availability of the domain name, the instant action should be to block it by purchasing. But do remember to do your research carefully, various offers keep on happening and some platforms also offer to cover the cost of the domain. Look out for them and go ahead and purchase it when all the factors are checked off your list.
Step 2: Research and Gather the Requirement
Put on your magnifying glasses. Be very cautious and picky. Research well and gather requirements to create an online store through the eCommerce website building platforms.
Narrow down your research to your target market. If you want to create a website for B2B eCommerce, the process remains quite similar to B2C. The major difference is, B2B is between two businesses but still, they are consumers too. There is a difference in the size of orders, transactions, and the services offered.
Pay keen attention to the needs of your consumers, build use cases. Think from a 360-degree view about the consumers, your resources, markets, and then conclude by having a list of checkpoints you want to consider when you choose the platform for your website.
Step 3: Keep Your Growth Strategies In Place
We want to speed up the process of having a fully functional eCommerce website. Agreed.
But have you imagined having a website that does not aid the growth of your B2B venture? It sounds terrible, right?
That is where the role of growth strategies comes into play. Growth strategies are not just constrained to marketing. About the website, one of the significant and necessary growth strategies is to be SEO-proofed. When your website passes through the SEO check, basically you rank well in the search engines. It also allows you to stand out among your competitors.
Imagine surpassing your competitors in the very first step by increased visibility.
Ranking well in search engines gives you better traction of audiences. More the traction of consumers, better chances at the increase in the sales.
Having growth strategies in place fastens the reach and purpose of having a B2B website in the first place.
Step 4: Choose Your Website Builder
Now you have a clear picture of how you want your website. The functionalities, features, SEO, etc.
Since we are looking for the fastest way of creating an eCommerce website, we would want to skip going to a web developer or designer and go for a low code way. That is why we should choose website builders as our online store builder. They are the tools that build websites without coding. Website builders provide ready-made templates from which you can choose and proceed to build an eCommerce website.
Some must-have features that your website builder should offer are the theme, payment gateway, product managing functionalities, responsive designing, easy navigation, customer support, etc.
Step 5: Choose a Cloud-Based Platform
The choice of an eCommerce platform impacts multiple factors of your business. A cloud-based platform saves your money and resources in a big way. There is no need for big investments in servers, worrying about scalability, stability, and speed. Cloud-based platforms take care of all these aspects effectively.
A good internet connection takes care of all your needs. You can access your eCommerce application 24×7 from anywhere in the world as long as you have an Internet connection.
Step 6: Build your eCommerce website
Yes, the most anticipated step is here!
Ready to build your eCommerce website? With a website builder of your choice in place, the process to create your eCommerce website will be easy and fast.
Drag and Drop is a feature that you should look out for quick creation of your website.
With this feature, you can create a website without the knowledge of coding. The widgets or functionalities can be dragged and dropped to configure the web page.
Select the theme of your website
Pick a theme or template that resonates with your brand’s voice. The theme of your website right from the colors, and the placing of the functions should make the consumer feel welcomed and easily approachable.
The modern consumer has a very low attention span on the internet. This is how you hold the consumer’s attention which will massively affect your growth.
Product Management Functionalities
The first thing we focus on is the look of the website. Here we will draw your attention to the functionalities which you may miss while planning.
When it comes to product-related functionalities there is a range of features that you would like to cover in product management.
Some of them are-
- Fix a minimum number for order or amount this acts as a safety net and also sorts out the types of customer. If you have a B2B business, your sales are going to be in larger quantities. So having the minimum order or amount aids in understanding the sales and profits.
- Your website should have the option of re-ordering. It saves the consumer’s time and also makes the customer loyal to your brand. Someone who holds on and chooses your service or product repeatedly.
- If you have a business where discount offers form a part of your pricing strategy, you should go for a dedicated page or section on your website. When there are bulk orders, this would motivate the consumers to choose you considering the save in money. But plan discounts strategically, be vigilant about the way you give discounts. The purpose of it is to attract consumers and not your loss.
Payment And Security
In B2B transactions there must be a wide range of options that give flexibility while choosing them. The payment option should have all the options credit, debit, UPI, and even cash on delivery because the transaction of money is huge in B2B compared to B2C.
Since the payment transaction is large it must also provide a high level of security. You must ensure the authentication, set permission rules and the site must be SSL certified. It should follow all the safety protocols such as PCI compliance, GDPR compliance, etc. all the necessary precautions in terms of security must be taken.
There are other features too that must be part of your B2B website but these three were extremely important and prominent ones.
And Finally!
With these simple but significant 5 steps, you can create an online store fast. Hope you find these details useful and can build your eCommerce website soon and have a smooth journey of your B2B venture.
