Nowadays, many people dream of entrepreneurship. Starting a business never was so easy. Now building an e-commerce website only takes a few steps and can potentially be done within two days or a week.
The e-commerce market is developing at a fast pace in the last decade. Retail sales from worldwide electronic commerce are forecasted to grow over 6.54 trillion in 2023. Canada has become a profitable market in recent years. In late 2019, e-commerce retail trade sales amounted to almost 1.85 billion Canadian dollars, with approximately 28.1 million Canadians have made purchases online. The retail e-commerce market is expected to surpass 33 billion U.S. dollars by 2024, up from 25.4 billion in 2019.
Any business owner that stays offline is missing out on their piece of those profits. Remember, if your competitors make their items available online and you don’t you are behind and will lose that business.
What Do You Need to Build an eCommerce Website?
Probably you are wondering what are those things you need to build an e-commerce website. Firstly, you have to know that an e-commerce site is different from creating a standard website. The following is a list of the main things you require to build an e-commerce website.
- A domain name
- A web hosting provider
- A tool to build your store
- Initial capital to create/buy your products
- Packaging for shipping and products itself
Decide a Domain Name
A domain name is basically what you type in your browser. This step could be one of the hardest ones for some people. It requires you to make a creative decision and verify if your idea is available.
You can start searching for your domain name here. Remember that it’s not necessary to register the exact domain you want if it is not available, you can find other alternatives that match your objectives. Don’t take too long in choosing your name, sometimes it’s better to have a domain name that doesn’t match exactly what you want than ending up with no website. Just to let you know BlackSun includes a free-one-year domain name when you sign up!
Choose a Hosting Provider
There are different ways for hosting a website, the most common option is to get shared hosting, which means that you will share a server with other sites, this is the least-expensive option. Another way would be dedicated hosting which costs more, but you will get your own private server. Make sure that your web hosting provider includes an SSL certificate as part of its offer. It will ensure that your website moves from HTTP to HTTPS which is more secure and gives your website credibility. BlackSun offers an SSL Certificate for free with any shared web hosting plan.
A tool to build your store
As you may have heard, the most popular is WordPress. It is a free system perfect to get you started and very easy to use. With your shared web hosting plan, BlackSun’s provides a one-click WordPress installation. However, you must know that the free WordPress version is quite limited since many themes do not offer extra features like creating buttons, using shortcodes and creating landing pages, among others. While WordPress Premium provides much better features, customization options and quality support.
Wrapping It Up
We hope to have provided you with the information that you need to kickstart your website. If you already have an idea of a business, start building it with a domain name and a web hosting plan.
If you decide to start your business with friendly Canadian web hosting, do not doubt to contact BlackSun. Our team of experts will be happy to resolve your inquiries. BlackSun Web Hosting Made Easy!