Online Store, Do you want to open an online shop? It’s a nice project, but do you know how to do it and, above all, how to make it work? Here are some tips on our blog.
Competitive prices, the speed of shipping, and the security of online payments have made shopping on the Internet more and more popular. For this reason, more and more merchants are feeling the need to open a virtual shops where they can sell their products. In this guide dedicated to e-commerce, you will discover how to open an online store and make it efficient to increase sales in the short and long term.
How to open an online store: requirements and platforms
Before understanding how e-commerce works, it is essential to have a clear definition of “electronic commerce “: this term means both the set of commercial transactions carried out online and the commercial relations between seller and customer to exchange information—relating to the supply of goods and services on the Internet.
To open an online store and be in compliance with laws, it is necessary to follow a complex bureaucratic process, specifically:
- open a bank account;
- set up a company before a notary;
- open the VAT number (necessary for those who intend to carry out online sales activities on a continuous and non-occasional basis);
- Register with VIES (if the transactions will be carried out within the community).
To start an online shop, other formalities are required with the Chamber of Commerce, the Municipality, and INPS. A request must be submitted to the Business Register using the “Comunica” form (valid for insurance, tax, and social security purposes) and the SCIA. Once you have obtained the green light without any communications to the contrary, you can create an e-commerce site. It is then necessary to communicate to the Revenue Agency;
- the web address of the site;
- the Internet Service Provider;
- e-mail address;
- the PEC;
- the telephone number.
There are several platforms on the Internet for creating an online store. Some of them are free, do not require special skills, and guarantee good possibilities for graphic customization. Therefore, they are particularly suitable for those who want to experiment with online commerce. Other, more elaborate platforms require specific skills (or the help of a web developer) but are ideal for those who want a highly flexible and customizable online store.
The choice of the right platform is linked to the available budget and business objectives, but the usability of the site must also be taken into consideration, one of the determining factors for the future effectiveness of the online store.
The best strategies for an online store
The goal of an online store is the same as a physical store: to sell the products. To make it work both in the short and long term, therefore, it is necessary to put in place a series of ad hoc strategies.
We have already mentioned the importance of the user experience, but several factors can influence the effectiveness of an online store:
- use professional and eye-catching photographs for the products on sale;
- accompany the images with complete and SEO-optimized text descriptions ;
- pay particular attention to the user’s purchase path;
- provide an adequate pre and post-sales assistance service ;
- safe and fast payment system and delivery mechanism.
Among the traditional forms of promotion of an e-commerce site, from the company blog to Google Ads campaigns passing through Social Media Marketing, Native Advertising has recently stood out, i.e., a form of advertising that camouflages the advertisements for advertising purposes within the editorial context that hosts them, both from the point of view of graphics and of the actual contents, in order to circumvent the natural ability of the consumer to recognize and ignore an advertising content (banner blindness).
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