How to Build an eCommerce Website: A Step-by-Step Guide

Want to sell products or services online? Building an eCommerce website may sound like a big project, but it doesn’t have to be.

You don’t necessarily need to be a programmer, hire a developer, or spend a fortune on a complicated eCommerce platform. With the right website builder, you can build your own online store and have control over how it looks, how it works, and how you manage it.

So, where do you start?

Here is a step-by-step look at what you need to build an eCommerce website.

1. Decide What You Want to Sell

Before you start building your website, figure out what you are selling.

That might be:

Physical products
Digital products
Services
Downloads
Handmade products
Subscription-based products or services
Products you make yourself
Products you source from other suppliers

You don’t have to have hundreds of products to start an online store. In fact, starting with a smaller selection can make it easier to get everything set up and tested.

You’ll also want to think about your pricing, inventory, shipping, and how you will fulfill orders.

2. Choose a Domain Name

Your domain name is your website’s address on the internet.

Ideally, choose something that is:

Easy to remember
Easy to spell
Relevant to your business
Not overly long
Easy to say out loud

If your business already has a name, you’ll probably want a domain that matches it as closely as possible.

It’s also a good idea to check whether the name is available on the major social media platforms you plan to use. Consistent branding can make it easier for customers to find you.

Tip: Use a multi-domain lookup tool like the UltimateWB Check Domain Availability Tool to test multiple name ideas simultaneously.

Helpful Guides on Domain Names:

3. Choose Your eCommerce Website Builder

This is one of the most important decisions you’ll make when building your online store. The website builder you choose affects how much control you have over your website, how easy it is to manage, and what you can do with your website as your business grows.

For an eCommerce website, you want more than a way to make a few attractive pages. You need the eCommerce functionality to be part of the website itself, so you can manage your products, shopping cart, checkout, inventory, discounts, and other store functions without having to piece everything together from separate services and plugins.

UltimateWB has eCommerce built in. You don’t need to install a separate eCommerce plugin to turn your website into an online store.

That means you can build your regular business website and your online store in the same platform, with your eCommerce features integrated directly into the website. You can add products, product variations, shopping cart functionality, discounts and coupons, inventory management, and more as you build your store.

And because UltimateWB is a full website builder – not just an eCommerce platform – you can build the rest of your website around your store too. Your homepage, About page, contact forms, blog, galleries, membership features, and other website functionality can all be part of the same website without any third-party plugins too.

4. Plan the Pages Your Website Needs

An online store is more than just a page displaying products.

At a minimum, you’ll generally want pages such as:

Depending on your business, you may also want a blog, customer account area, product categories, reviews, a gallery, or other sections.

Think about the customer’s journey.

Someone may first arrive on your homepage, browse a category, look at a product, add it to the shopping cart, and then check out.

Make that process as straightforward as possible.

With UltimateWB, these features are built in, so you can build them into your website as needed.

5. Add Your Products

Now it’s time to build your actual store.

Each product should have enough information for someone to make a buying decision without having to hunt around for answers.

Depending on what you’re selling, that can include:

Your product photos are particularly important. Online shoppers can’t physically pick up your product, so good images can make a big difference.

Your product descriptions matter too. Don’t simply list a few features. Explain what the product does, who it’s for, and why someone would want it.

Organize your items in categories when it makes sense.

6. Set Up Your Shopping Cart and Checkout

Once customers have found products they want, they need an easy way to purchase them.

Your eCommerce website should make it simple to:

The fewer unnecessary steps you put between a customer and checkout, the better.

You also want to make sure the checkout works well on mobile devices. A customer shouldn’t have to pinch and zoom their way through your checkout page.

7. Set Up Your Payment Processing

Your customers need a way to pay for their orders.

The payment options available to you will depend on your business, location, and the payment services you choose to use.

When setting this up, consider what your customers are most likely to expect and make sure the payment process is secure. If you’re integrating PayPal, you can allow your users to pay via their PayPal account, as well as via credit cards – without a PayPal account required.

8. Set Up Shipping, Taxes, Discounts and Inventory

There are a few less glamorous parts of running an online store that are very important.

Shipping is one of them.

Decide:

Where you will ship
What shipping methods you will offer
How much shipping will cost
Whether you will offer free shipping
How you will handle international orders

You’ll also need to consider taxes and any applicable requirements for your business and location.

And don’t forget discounts.

You may want to offer coupons, sales, or other promotions from time to time.

Inventory management is another important consideration. If you sell physical products, you don’t want to keep accepting orders for something you no longer have in stock.

A good eCommerce system should help you manage these details instead of forcing you to keep track of everything separately.

9. Make Your eCommerce Website Mobile-Friendly

This one is no longer optional.

People shop from phones, tablets, laptops, and desktop computers. Your website needs to work well across different screen sizes.

That means more than simply making the homepage responsive.

Your product pages, menus, shopping cart and checkout should all be easy to use on a smaller screen.

Before launching your store, actually test it on a phone. Click through the website. Add something to the cart. Go through the checkout process.

You may notice things on a phone that you never noticed while building the website on your desktop computer.

If you’re designing with UltimateWB on your desktop/laptop, you can also just decrease your window size to check how your website will look and automatically reformat for users on tablets and smartphones.

Read: How to create your own responsive website without any coding!

10. Optimize Your Store for Search Engines

Getting your store online is only part of the job.

People need to be able to find it.

Search engine optimization (SEO) can help your products and other pages appear in search results.

Start with the basics:

Use descriptive page titles.
Write useful product descriptions.
Use descriptive URLs.
Optimize your product images.
Organize products into logical categories.
Link related products and pages together.
Create useful content around your products.
Make sure search engines can crawl your website.
Create and maintain an XML sitemap.

Don’t write product descriptions just for search engines, though.

Write them for actual people.

If your content is useful to customers, you’re already heading in the right direction.

11. Secure Your Website

Security is particularly important when you’re running an eCommerce website.

You’ll want to use HTTPS with an SSL certificate, keep your website software up to date, use strong passwords, and maintain regular backups.

You should also make sure that any payment processing is handled through secure payment systems and that you follow the requirements applicable to your business.

Security isn’t something to think about after your store has been hacked.

It should be part of your setup from the beginning.

All UltimateWB web hosting plans and UltimateWB Cloud plans include free SSL.

12. Test Everything Before You Launch

Before announcing your new store to the world, test it.

And then test it again.

Go through the website as if you were a customer.

Check:

Do all the links work?
Do the product images display correctly?
Are product prices correct?
Do product variations work?
Does the shopping cart work?
Does checkout work?
Are shipping charges correct?
Are order confirmation emails working?
Does inventory update correctly?
Does the website work properly on a phone?
Are your contact forms working?
Are your policies easy to find?

Most importantly, place a test order yourself.

It is much better to discover a problem yourself than to have your first customer discover it for you.

13. Launch Your eCommerce Website

Once everything has been tested, you’re ready to launch.

But launching your website doesn’t mean the work is over.

Now you need to get people to it.

Depending on your business, that might include:

You don’t have to do everything at once.

Start with the methods that make the most sense for your business and your customers.

14. Keep Improving Your Online Store

Your eCommerce website shouldn’t be considered finished forever.

Pay attention to what customers are doing.

Which products get the most attention? Which pages bring visitors in from search engines? Where do people leave the website? Are customers having trouble finding something?

Use that information to improve the website over time.

You may eventually add new products, new payment options, customer accounts, additional marketing features, or other functionality as your business grows.

How UltimateWB Can Help You Build an eCommerce Website

If you want to build your own eCommerce website without coding everything from scratch, UltimateWB gives you the tools to do it yourself.

And if you do run into a question along the way, UltimateWB includes free tech support, via our contact form, live chat, and online forums.

You can also look up your questions in our Knowledgebase, follow along video tutorials, or read through the user manual.

Helpful E-Commerce Topics:

So, Is It Hard to Build an eCommerce Website?

It can be complicated if you have to put together a website, shopping cart, plugins, payment system and other services separately.

But it doesn’t have to be.

With the right website builder, you can build an eCommerce website yourself, even if you’re not a programmer. The key is having the eCommerce functionality built into the website while still having control over the rest of your site.

That’s what UltimateWB is designed to give you.

Whether you’re starting a small online store or building an eCommerce website for an established business, you can create the website yourself and expand it as your needs change.

And here’s a tip: You can have your e-commerce framework set up for you by using the built-in Configure Site > Templates Generator for e-commerce.

UltimateWB Templates Generator in your website admin panel

Ready to build your own eCommerce website? Learn more about UltimateWB. We also offer web design packages if you’d rather have your website designed and built for you.

Got a techy/website question? Whether it’s about UltimateWB or another website builder, web hosting, or other aspects of websites, just send in your question in the “Ask David!” form. We will email you when the answer is posted on the UltimateWB “Ask David!” section.

Meet David from the UltimateWB Team

David is a full-stack web developer with over 20 years of experience in programming, design, and server administration (WHM/cPanel), specializing in building high-performance, secure web solutions that prioritize user autonomy. Have a technical hurdle? Ask David!