Table of Contents

Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Time to Get Legal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Setting Up Your Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Building Your Store . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

How an Online Store Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Driving Traffic to Your Website . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Analytics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Bonus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

About the Author

Lina is a content creator at Ecwid. She writes to inspire

and educate readers on all things commerce. She loves to

travel and runs marathons.

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IntroductionIn this book, we have collected and chronologically organized

articles from the Ecwid blog that will be the most useful in

helping you get started and successfully manage your online

store. We’ll cover everything, from finding the right niche to

analyzing your key success metrics, and much more!

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Getting Started

First things first, you have to decide what products to sell and how to

evaluate the potential of your idea.

Finding Your Niche

– Need help figuring out What to sell online?

– Where to find ideas for your online store

– How to evaluate your business idea

– How to evaluate product viability

Tip: The narrower the niche, the better. You’ll need less money for

advertising, you will need less content on your site, and it will be easier to

compete in the market. In the future, you can figure out what products you

want to add in order to expand the niche.

Obtaining Your Product

– How to find a manufacturer for your product idea

– Where to find a wholesale supplier for your online store

– Should you make, manufacture, wholesale or dropship your product?

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Tip: Do NOT rely on one supplier. Ideally, have a backup option in the form of local suppliers. If your main supplier lets you down and leaves you without a product at the wrong time, then at least you will have the chance to order from another location.

Evaluating Your Competition

– How to analyze competitors? 12 questions and 9 services

– What your business plan should look like: sample

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Time to Get Legal

"Getting legal" is another must-do step on the road to launching, even

though it’s something we'd all like to avoid. The good news is that it isn't

nearly as hard as you think. The first step to getting legal is determining

what the legal structure of your business will be.

– Registering your e-commerce business: LLC or Corporation?

– Tax differences between LLCs, C Corporations, and S Corporations

Tip: Register your business at the start (as soon as possible). The main

reason is that unless you have a properly licensed and registered business,

real wholesalers won’t work with you.

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Setting Up Your Business

Beside finding a genuine item to offer on the web and registering your

business, another difficult step is picking your business name, logo, and

a proper shipping strategy. The blog posts below will help you handle

these critical tasks.

Naming Your Business

– Protecting the brand: how to register a trademark for your online store

– How to name your store?

– How to buy the perfect domain name for your store

Making a Logo

How to create an awesome logo for your brand

Tip: Create a logo. This is important. People will associate it with

your company and subconsciously use it to distinguish you from your

competitors. An online store without a logo looks unfinished and does not

convey trustworthiness.

Creating a Business Plan

What your business olan should look like: sample

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Choosing a Shipping Strategy

– The last piece of the e-commerce puzzle: shipping and fulfillment

– Why you should offer in-store pickup (even if you don’t have a physical

store)

– International shipping: picking a provider & shipping around the globe

– How to get from zero to ship: carriers, rates and strategies

Tip: Be honest with your clients. If something went wrong with the shipping,

products, packaging, etc., let them know. Anything can happen! If you can’t

solve the problem quickly, admit it to the client. Do not be silent and do

not attempt to hide it – that will only aggravate the situation and ruin the

impression you’re making. Buyers appreciate honesty.

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Building Your Store

– How much money do you need to open an online store?

– How to create an online store without a website

– How to add an online store to your existing website

– How to open an online store on Facebook

– How to move your brick and mortar store online: a 5-Step guide

– How to pick a payment system for your e-commerce store

Tip: If you don’t have a website yet, nor time to create it – that’s nothing to

worry about. A one-page website with an integrated online store will be do

the trick. Try the Ecwid starter site, or site builders like Wix, Tilda, SpaceCraft,

etc. Templates are fine to start with, because you can start in a day without

much effort. The only thing you have to worry about is filling your store with

the right products.

Before You Go Live

– Online store KPI: what it is and how it works

– Is your e-commerce business making one of these 10 design mistakes?

– Set up google analytics

– How to build the best mailing list possible

– Opening day checklist: what to do before launching your e-commerce

store

Open Ecwid Store

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How an Online Store Works

Below, we have included a rundown of our best blog posts to help you

create beautiful product photos, write good product descriptions, and set

up pricing and discounts.

Adding Descriptions and Photos

– How to write awesome product descriptions that sell

– Simple product photography tips to beautifully showcase on your store

– How to optimize product images: step-by-step instructions and an

overview of services

– How to make a good background in pictures of your products without

using Photoshop

Pricing Strategy

– How to price your products? A science backed answer

– How to maximize sales using promotions and special offers

– Price wars: what to do if your competitors reduce the price

Tip: If your competitors are dropping their prices, that does not mean you

should do the same. Solution 1: Arrange exclusive prices with the supplier.

Solution 2: Add value, and earn on accessories and service. Solution 3:

Raise your prices and monitor the results. Work with two prices and two

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sets of products. The first price – minimum price (for example, for pick-up).

The second cost is higher (for example, you bring the goods tomorrow at a

convenient time for the buyer and provide an additional service).

Store management

– Keep your customer: how to fix your store's navigation

SEO

– The e-commerce guide to SEO

– Manual meta tags: a simple way to a better SEO now in your store

Client support

– Keep your customer: how to fix your store's navigation

– How to use Facebook Messenger for business: six essential tactics

– The art of positive communication in customer service

Tip: Your customer – your wealth. Love and appreciate them, solve their

problems, do a little bit more than promised. Any manifestation of your

kindness will return to you a hundredfold, as well as positively influence

your income.

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Driving Traffic to Your Website

Like any business, the first few months of an online store are important.

In particular, getting customers to visit your store is vital. Marketing your

online store doesn’t have to be complicated. Check out our tips on some

basic online marketing methods to kick-start traffic to your store.

Driving Traffic

– 7 ways to make your first sale online

– Affiliate marketing: a valuable strategy to make money online

– The importance of a blog and how to start one for your store

– Publicity on a budget

– How to promote your brand outside of social media

– Art shows and craft fairs: how to effectively sell your products In-person

PPC

– 5 Google AdWord tips every small business owner can use

– The anatomy of Facebook ads: how to increase traffic for $3

Tip: The most effective ways of advertising at the start are paid ads on

Google, retargeting, and social media advertizing. They give an immediate

effect.

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Email Marketing

– How to write a welcome email that sells

– How to send trigger emails that keep customers coming back

– How to increase your revenue with newsletter segmentation

Tip: Begin to collect your customers’ email addresses from day one. Add

a subscription form to your website, and send emails about promotions,

products, and new arrivals.

Let's Get Social

– How to become instagram-famous in an algorithm-based feed

– Make facebook work for your small business

– How to use twitter effectively for marketing your e-commerce business

– Top Pinterest tools to boost your business

– How to sell using Youtube

– Creative and low-budget ways to use Whatsapp, Kik and Telegram for

business

– How to use Facebook Messenger for business: six essential tactics

Tip: Do not chase all the rabbits at the same time. Choose one or two

platforms, and focus on them. Manage your pages efficiently.

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Analytics

Analytics give you a better understanding of your business. They tell

you who your customers are, where they’re coming from, and what

they’re buying. It doesn’t matter whether you’re running an e-commerce

business with $10 million of revenue per year, or a tiny little blog. You

need analytics to succeed.

– The beginner’s guide to Google Analytics for e-commerce stores

– How to add Google Analytics to your online store

Tip: Whatever promotional methods you use, the most important thing is

to evaluate their effectiveness. Ideally, you should know: 1) whether your

advertising is paying off; 2) how much you spend on advertising; 3) what

sources provide the most traffic; 4) how to assess user behavior on your

website; 5) how much you have earned.

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Bonus

The best way to learn how to do something is to see an example. We

picked 50 beautiful and user-friendly Ecwid online stores for you. Let's

see if they can help you find inspiration for your own Ecwid store.

50 Exemplary Online Stores Built With Ecwid

AWESOME ECWID STORES

Read Now

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ConclusionYou need every advantage you can get to achieve your dream of

running an online business. The Ecwid E-Commerce Blueprint can be

your guide to quickly launching your e-commerce business: from

choosing a niche, to evaluating viability, to launching and growing your

sales.