How to Start Selling Online with Ecwid

How to Sell Online:
Selling on Social Media

You can sell your products anywhere you can post a photo, but how do you get started? Here are some ideas to help kickstart your online social media sales.

• Network with others in your virtual community.
• Check out our guide for how to network at industry events and how to network online.
• Give your friends a shoutout on social media asking if they’d be interested in buying what you’re selling. People love supporting their friends so that you may get a few orders right off the bat!
• Post about your product using “shopstyle” photos. This way, it’s easy for people to buy from any platform they have access to. Instagram shopping is turned on.
• Start with a story or how-to style post that offers advice and then unveil your product at the end of the post. 
• Use hashtags like #linkinbio if you’re selling on Instagram, which will automatically share the content with our community of millions of shoppers!
• Post about how other people can buy what you are selling and how they can get in touch with you if interested.
• Post photos of your product being used by real people. Show how it works and how other people’s lives are better because they have access to your product. 
• Post-how-to videos and images explain how your product works and how it’s used. We all see how-to videos nearly every day on social media, whether or not we realize it!

How to Sell Online:
Places To Sell Online

Once you build out your product catalog the first time for either your website or Instant Site, you’ll be able to automatically connect that product catalog to a variety of other sales channels, including social media like Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest, marketplaces like Amazon and eBay, Google, and even live in-person through point-of-sale systems.

Known as “omnichannel selling,” Ecwid empowers you to sell online across a broad number of sales channels from a single dashboard. Without a platform like Ecwid powering your e-commerce, each sales channel would be its own self-contained store, and you would be responsible for managing the inventory and product catalog of that store separately. Ecwid eliminates the need for extra management by connecting all your channels in a single place.

So let’s say you sell out of an item on Facebook, that information would immediately be reflected across all of your other channels as well (website, Instagram, Amazon, etc.)

How to Sell Online:
Building An Online Store

1. Choosing a platform — Unfortunately, there isn’t one answer. You can start selling online through social media or your own website. The best platform for selling online depends on how you sell and how much work you want to do. For example, if you’re already active on social media, consider how well your products could fit into existing posts across Facebook and Instagram.
2. Create An Online Store — Use Ecwid to link it to TikTok so that you can promote your items to a broad and varied audience.
3. Market Research — Before deciding which platform is right for you, it’s essential to ask yourself how you plan to sell and how much work you want to do. For example, selling goods via a social media marketplace may be easier than building a website from scratch. Still, it also means you have less control over how your storefront looks and where people shop when looking for your items. While marketplaces are significant for reaching the masses online, if you need to do retargeting or collect customer data to run your online store, you may be better off building a website on your own.

You have a lot of options when it comes to establishing your online store with Ecwid. Let’s start with the most obvious option. Creating your e-commerce website is one of the most important things you can do for your business, so make sure you choose wisely. You may either use Ecwid on its own or alongside another online shop builder like Weebly, Shopify, Bigcommerce, or Squarespace.

Option 1. Plug Ecwid’s Shopping Cart Into Your Existing Website

If you’ve already got a website and you’re looking for a more robust presence, this is the way to go. Ecwid was initially designed to be a seamless and straightforward plugin for websites seeking an e-commerce solution, and it functions magnificently in this role. Ecwid’s “plugin” function will naturally integrate with your chosen content management system (WordPress, Wix, etc.) and instantly mimic your website’s design to make selling online from any CMS a snap. No additional coding is required.

Option 2. Build An Ecommerce Site with Ecwid’s Hyper-Efficient Instant Site Website Builder

If you want to build a website to start selling online fast, Instant Site is your answer. It’s a website builder, packed to the brim with design tools and pre-set themes to make creating your e-commerce website fast, easy, and almost too much fun. With Instant Site, you’re empowered to build a beautiful, conversion-optimized, and fully functional single-page storefront to sell online without any experience.

Set Up Shipping Methods

Shipping Methods Ecwid has relationships with all the largest carriers. Select your preferred shipping provider, then choose how you’ll handle shipping costs —- free, flat-rate, live carrier rates, or a mix of any. And Ecwid makes it simple to tailor your shipping cost strategy for your store, including a smart shipping calculator for your customers that lets them see real-time shipping rates based on their locations.

Set Up Payment Methods

Choose from more than 50 payment providers to power your store to sell online, like Stripe and WePay, or choose providers like Square to include hardware for offline sales as well. Simply select a provider from the list and fill out the appropriate information to connect your bank account to your chosen payment method. No sweat. Watch this video for an in-depth look at choosing your payment provider.

Things To Remember Building An Online Store

Many details go into building an online store, here are just a few of the most important ones:

Naming

Your store name will be how people find your products online. Make sure it’s easy to read, memorable, and that it matches the look of your brand. If you’re selling on Amazon, choose a name that doesn’t include the marketplace (i.e., “Amazon,” “eBay,” etc.), so it’s clear how people are arriving at your store.

Your brand name could be your persona or a lifestyle (for example, “Randy’sFreshOysterDiet.com”), and you could sell products derived from that brand idea (a cookbook for your weird oyster diet). Or your brand name could be product-focused (FreshOysters.com), and you would sell products related to that focus (fresh oysters, oyster cracking implements, salt, etc.)

Before committing to a name, search on popular social networks to ensure that your top choice (or something very similar) is still available for brand consistency. Then, of course, grab it while you can.

Domain

Your online store’s digital property is everything. Your store name is how customers will find products on the internet — search engines like Google and other sites like Facebook will list your products based on how people are looking for them.

Names like “Amazon” and “Etsy” will be at the top of these listings, so if you’re looking to sell online, make sure your domain name is unique.

Product pages (Images, Descriptions)

Make sure your product pages are clearly labeled and that you have consistent keywords that help people find your products while searching online. With phones taking better pictures than most cameras nowadays, taking quality photos that showcase your products is easy. Simple lighting kits are inexpensive and will give you items the spotlight they deserve.

You should also make sure to provide enough detail for customers considering making a purchase. Don’t feel like you can give too much info and answer the obvious questions even if the pictures show the answer.

Legal pages (Terms, Return, Privacy)

I know this can be the boring part, but you will need to have terms for why issues arise. Be sure to read up on how to create terms of service and how to set up a privacy policy. You’ll need these pages if you plan to sell online. 

When customers place an order through your store, they’re giving you their private information, so make sure it’s clear from the start with how you inform people about how you will use their information.

Also, make sure you have a black and white return policy. Shoppers will feel better about purchasing if they know that it is possible to return the item.

About Us page

This is an easy step to skip, but that doesn’t mean you should. This is where you share info about your company background, mission or story. This page is how people will want to learn more about how you started your business, so make sure to include details.

Your “about us” is your elevator pitch. It’s the very first piece of written content you should create for your website, and it defines who your brand is and what your customers can expect when you begin selling online.

Brand logo

This is how customers will recognize your brand! Your logo will be how they find and remember your products, so you want it to clearly represent the store’s branding and style. The logo should always look great alongside images of your products and website design.

Make sure it is also unique and doesn’t look similar to a competitor’s logo.