Nobody creates a website without a plan to make money from it. Sometimes the plan is to use ads to generate revenue. Other times, your money will be coming from a marketplace on your site. It’s not just a few clicks to create a market and luckily we’re here to give you the tools and guidance to get started right away.
Build a Foundation
The first step in any project is to make a strong foundation. In eCommerce, that foundation means a stable platform for which you will sell your products.
First, you’ll need a domain name and web hosting account. They’re both quite simple to obtain and generally won’t be more than $50 total. From there, you’ll need to have an SSL Certificate . An SSL certificate will protect your customers’ data and your organization’s details so that payments will be secure. With BryZar hosting you can use the free Let’s Encrypt service as we have it integrated.
Next, you’ll want to download the Woocommerce platform for WordPress websites. This step isn’t 100% necessary, but it is recommended for making a successful, flexible, and easy to navigate market. Woocommerce will add carts, accounts, checkout and shop pages available for you to add quickly and easily to your website. It includes lots of useful information you can add such as shipping details, sales tax, payment options, and many more.
Why Woocommerce?
Woocommerce makes it easy to have a market. It’s that simple. Past all the nitty gritty details, you’ve also got an easy way to add products and product categories to your store, and it’s not just “T-shirt — $10”.
You can change shipping options, inventory listings, related products, retail and sale prices, images, product details, and so much more. Quite frankly, Woocommerce takes a lot of the hard work away from you but still gives you the freedom to add what you want, where you want, and with the price you want.
What now?
You’ve got a basic market! But what do you do now? Well, you can add or change your theme to reflect your store better. You can also look into different plugins that might help you better your market even more. Some might include galleries or analytics, and others might be as simple as a contact page or a requests page.
Your website is your own and I’d highly recommend doing at least a little work on it more than just making a market and being done. Websites need constant attention and updating to remain relevant, so think about what you’d like to see in a market and make it happen for yourself!