How To Build Online Presence For The Handmade Items Business?
- Tamseel Khan
- Sep 13, 2020
- 6 min read
Updated: Nov 15, 2024
"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing." - Walt Disney
Your skills for making any handmade articles can be your strength to develop a business. We are making you aware of the various ways through which to develop a hobby that you enjoy into a business endeavour. We are more specifically explaining how to create a market for your business through the eCommerce platform. To know about the area we have already discussed, go through How To Start Your Handmade Items Business?
Most of the companies who are offering customized Website Builders for developing an online presence are relying on SAAS platform for their user's convenience and easily adaptable platforms.
SAAS Platform As Website Builders
SAAS (Software as a Service) is a complete website solution which offers ready to use website design templates, services like payment and marketing, and a hosted platform. When you use SAAS website builder and hosting, the website updates or any other technical details are automatically managed. The service provider's technical specialists do this. Here are a few SAAS platform with ready to use templates for your reference:
With complete control over your website's navigation, content pages and design, Shopify is a fully-featured WYSIWYG content management system. It offers web-based, drag and drop, website builder that gets your online shop up and running in no time. To host your entire business website on Shopify is an easy and hassle-free option for new business owners.
Wix provides a world-class platform to millions of users in close to 200 countries, empowering the people to express themselves and build their strong online presence. Whether you're an entrepreneur, designer, developer, musician, photographer or restaurant owner, you'll find dedicated features to create an eye-catchy professional website and manage your business.
Weebly's drag-and-drop website builder allows everyone from the novice to expert to build their online presence. You can use it for making an online store, a blog website, or create an impressive landing site for potential customers. It is simple, easy to use, and yet offers customization and adapts to your business needs as you grow.
WordPress is a content-oriented site builder. You can use this for building a simple blog or even a beautiful full-featured website. However, wordpress.org is not a SAAS platform but offers an open-source for creating a website. You have to buy a domain and hosting services from other providers and build your online presence with the help of many free themes and available plugins. Did you know, 38% of the web is built on WordPress. Bloggers, small businesses, and many big companies use WordPress more than all other options combined. On the other hand,
is a SAAS platform very much offering the same services as other service providers.
It is the world's most popular open-source eCommerce solution. It means you retain full ownership of your store's content and data forever. You will, however, have to run and manage your web hosting. Therefore it does not come under the SAAS platform. Whether you are launching a new business, or taking you existing brick-and-mortar retail online, or developing an online store for clients, use WooCommerce for a store that powerfully blends content and commerce.
Since Woocommerce is an open-source (now owned by WordPress), therefore you will not pay the SAAS monthly fees as you do for other platforms and it will be your responsibility to look after all your customer details which otherwise is taken care of by other SAAS service providers. WooCommerce can be a lot more customizable, which can be useful as you grow and scale your online store.
Domain & Hosting Service Providers
Name Cheap - Namecheap.com
WPX - wpx.net
Blue Host - bluehost.in
Big Rock - bigrock.in
Godaddy - godaddy.com
Useful Designing Software For Contemporary Websites
The most visible design element within your website is the design of the content itself. Whatever content structure you choose apt designing helps in its implementation. Selecting the best graphic design software can take your business to the next level. A smart graphic design tool enhances efficiency in addition to putting stunning creativity into real-world design.
Here are brief introductions of the four prominent graphic designing software which are making stunning website designing possible:
It has become the reference point of image editing and graphic design software. Its numerous design tools for both mobile apps and web, its rich set of typography, its slick user interface and loaded 3D design capabilities makes it the first choice of the web designers.
It offers excellent capabilities to design stunning magazines, info sheets, and brochures while easily exporting them to PDF or HTML. It supports HTML exporting that helps web developers to export clean and simple codes during the implementation of the website's layout designs. It is ideal for WordPress sites.
It is easy to use and packs some pro-level features and offers a highly accessible interface. It is a bundle of multiple applications software that deliver complete and powerful editing features.
It is much more than just a graphic design tool. It is perfect for illustrative artwork, page layouts, corporate logos, website mockups, and covers almost all your requirements. Moreover, it's an industry benchmark in perfect vector creation tools.
It is an easy graphic design platform that allows users to create social media graphics, presentations, posters, documents and other visual content in a few clicks. You can choose from many professionally designed templates, and edit the designs and upload your images through a drag and drop interface.
The Other Essential Tools For Online Store
Once you are on with the display arrangement and the terms and conditions of your products, you need to find a way to sell them against the payments made. These are taken care of by different special category software. Let's understand more about them:
Shopping Cart
A shopping cart for an online store is the most important element. As on an online retailer's site, it facilitates the purchase of a product or service. It accepts the customer's payment and organizes the distribution of that information to the merchant, payment processor and other parties. Shopping carts usually have collaboration with eCommerce website providers. But if you want to get it separately, then you can always choose from PayUbiz, Razorpay, Instamojo, BillDesk etc.
Shipping Partners
ECommerce owners actively search for inexpensive and reliable shipping companies so that they can reach their distribution deadlines. Seeking an eCommerce distribution service that has the best sales rate along with competitive pricing is vital for popularity as a brand. Yet you can always find your Shipping Partner like DHL or FedEx directly.
E-Marketplace
A marketplace like Amazon, Flipkart, and Etsy are ideal initially for developing individual e-market solutions.
The Detail Elements Needed For The Website
Once you have selected the website builder, you will need the following elements to develop your website:
Graphics
You would need these to develop the creatives and the infographics. Graphics should engage your customers, but it can connect with relevant customers only when they represent your appropriate business.
Content
Though the entire website is content, here we are referring to the textual part of it. Simple and lucid content that is direct and explanatory to the audience is a basic requirement.
Product Details
They are descriptors of the product. Without an easy yet captivating description of the products, the audience will not be curious about trying them.
After Sales Service
Your reliability and relationship development depends on these. Once a consumer places an order for a pair of woollen gloves and finds that as a misfit for her size, there must be an efficient customer relations team, who should address her issue on how to get it replaced by an appropriate size pair of gloves.
Analytics
There are ways and means to monitor the nature of the visitors who visit your website. There are ways to gain more specific information like which are the sections of your website that they visited and even how much time they devote for them. These are derived through checking the analytics at the backend. You can always analyze your consumer profile and their preferences to make charts from the analytics. The most popular ones are Google Analytics and Facebook Analytics.
Last But Not Least - Digital Marketing
Digital Marketing is an integral part of any business nowadays. Through a well planned Digital Marketing Strategy, you can always create demand for your product and reach out to a wider market. From maintaining a social media presence to carrying out targeted content marketing and search engine optimization for search engine ranking are some of the proven tactics for that. We will discuss those in further detail later on.
From Hobby To Business - A Matter Of Initiation
So now you can see that with an entire marketing ecosystem around you, with a little confidence and determination, you can always transform your hobby into a rewarding business once you get started.
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