Creating an online store: A guide for beginners

Planning an online store

First of all, you need to think carefully about what you want to achieve with your online store. Here are some questions to ask yourself:

What kind of product or service will you sell?
Who is your target audience?
What is your budget for creating and maintaining an online store?

Choosing the right platform

Otherwise, we do not recommend it (read more about why here ) but if you're going to tackle it yourself anyway Creating an online store , you need to decide on which platform to set it up. There are many platforms on the market for creating online stores, each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Some of the most popular platforms are:

Shopify: Easy to use with lots of built-in features.
WooCommerce: A plugin for WordPress that allows for customizable options.
Magento: A powerful platform for larger stores with extensive functionalities.

Online store design

Design Your Online Stores is key to attracting and retaining customers. Here are some tips:

User Experience (UX): Make it easy and intuitive to navigate the site.
Mobile friendliness: Make sure your online store is optimized for mobile devices.
Visual appeal: Use high-quality images and a consistent color palette.

Add products

Once you have the platform and design ready, it's time to add products. Pay attention to the following:

Product description: Use detailed and attractive descriptions.
Product images: High-quality images are key to attracting customers.
Prices and inventory: Update product prices and inventory regularly.

Set up payment methods

Your online store should be safe and easy to pay. Some popular options include:

PayPal
Credit cards (Stripe, ...)
Cash on delivery

Synchronization with the accounting system

When you start with online store , it is crucial to have an effective financial management system. Synchronizing your online store with an accounting system or ERP system can make it much easier to keep track of income, expenses, and other financial data. Here are some steps to achieve this:

Choosing the right accounting system: Choose an accounting system that integrates well with your online store.
Integration: Install the accounting plugin on your online store and connect the accounting system.
Automatic data transfer: Set up automatic transfer of transaction, inventory, and account data between your store and your accounting system.
Regularly check and reconcile: Regularly check and coordinate data between the two systems to ensure accuracy.
Help from professionals: Consider working with an accounting professional who can help you optimize your accounting practices.

SEO optimization

In order for your Online store to reach the maximum number of potential customers, you need to optimize it for search engines. Here are some key steps:

Keywords: Use relevant keywords in your headlines, product descriptions, and metadata.
Meta descriptions: Writing compelling meta descriptions can increase your CTR (click-through rate).
URL structure: Use clean and understandable URLs.

Marketing and promotion

Once your online store is ready, you need to Promote . Here are some strategies:

Online advertising (Google , Facebook ,...)
SEO : Search engine optimization of your site.
Social Media: Using Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. for promotion.
Email Marketing : Sending news and promotions to your subscribers.

Analytics and improvements

Regularly monitoring the performance of your online store will help you understand what works and what doesn't. Use tools like Google Analytics to track visitors, conversions, and other important metrics.

Creating an online store requires proper planning, knowledge, time and effort. There are many pitfalls in the process that can affect the success of your store. Not knowing key aspects such as search engine optimization, user experience, and payment security can lead to problems that will hinder the growth of your business. Therefore, it may be best to leave this process to professionals who have the experience and knowledge to create an efficient and successful online store.
Why it is better to entrust the creation of your online store to a professional team, you can read HERE
With professional help, you will be able to focus on growing your business while we take care of the technical details.

They trust us .

We have been cooperating with the advertising agency PNV for many years. We especially like their responsiveness and promptness, understanding of the specific industry, and self-initiative. Once a month, we have a meeting where we review our achievements and set goals for the future. We are happy to recommend the PNV team to other companies that would like to have a regulated field of marketing.

Veit Team d.o.o.

Thank you for everything – both for the excellent solution of our challenges and for the enormous amount of goodwill with which you undertake all the tasks. I am always happy to contact your team!

Irina Ryzhenkova, Vi vis d.o.o.

Dear PNV members!
Sincere thanks for all your support, kindness and professionalism. You are a trusted partner who is a pleasure to work with. We look forward to our further joint projects!

Roche d.o.o.

We have been cooperating with PNV d.o.o. for many years. Their team takes care of the area of our digital marketing, which includes, among others, our social networks (Facebook, Instagram) and all our Google Business profiles, but they are always available to us for other services. Since we have been working together, the quality of our social networks has risen to a high level, and at the same time the number of our followers has increased significantly.

Our relationship is based on mutual trust. They never run out of ideas, they point out our shortcomings on their own initiative and suggest improvements, put themselves in our shoes and understand our wants and needs. As a company, we know that their contribution, with all the work they do, is very important to us.

Branka Jazbinšek, AVTOHIŠA REAL, d.o.o

In our industry, the nature of work is such that there are really many products, small and large, that need to be presented online in some meaningful way. When we were looking for a provider to set up our new website, the PNV agency knew what we were looking for, as they have experience with similar or such extensive content.

The project itself went quite quickly, because together we set a clear picture of what we wanted and everything went smoothly. The PNV agency really stuck to the agreements, were responsive and ready to help in order for the project to run smoothly. We are grateful for all the support we have received and had the opportunity to meet such lovely people.

David Kozjek, Odako d.o.o.

We decided to change the agency, due to the lack of support from the previous one. We have received too little feedback from them regarding the input itself and the results achieved.

Mutual communication is absolutely necessary, mainly because the contractor has a good understanding of the client's needs, vision and wishes.

Tomaž Bizjak, Managing Director of Vaillant Slovenia

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