How To Build An Online Store From Scratch? Easy As Never Before!

To date, if you want to get a stable source of high income, one of the most effective solutions is starting your own business. And the dropshipping business model suits those who are eager to become a 100% business owner and make money online without extra investments and effort. That’s why people who want to join dropshipping are very interested in the following question: how to build an online store from scratch?

And since we always do our best to help everyone, especially ecommerce newcomers, start their dropshipping ventures easily, we have decided to prepare a detailed guide for you on how to build an online store from scratch.

Actually, nowadays there are lots of options to get a smooth start in dropshipping, but it’s not always clear what’s the difference between them, and which one to choose. So make yourself comfortable, the travel along right creating a dropshipping business is about to begin!

How to build an online store from scratch: options to start a dropshipping business

Let’s assume that you’re the very person who appreciates the dropshipping business model and decides to start your own profitable dropshipping venture. Right, when starting a dropshipping business, there are a number of aspects you should pay particular attention to. So you need to do the following:

• Select a promising niche
• Find reliable suppliers
• Consider the product range of your online store, etc.

Meantime, one of the key actions you need to take is building an online store. But since there are lots of options for starting a dropshipping business on the market, how to choose right? Which one is supposed to suit you perfectly?

Well, let’s figure that out!

Custom online stores

What is the easiest way to start a dropshipping business? Well, it’s a lot easier for you to buy a ready-made online store. And we are happy to provide you with 3 options to choose from.

One of them is ordering a custom dropshipping store.

Custom dropshipping store is an online store that AliDropship specialists create for you with your personal preferences in mind.

Actually, buying a ready-to-go custom dropshipping store made by our experts for you individually is probably the best option for ecommerce newcomers. In that case, you won’t need to worry about any of the tech aspects of launching a properly operating site. In fact, with this Online Store Builder you can get an online store of your dreams even easier!

So you choose one of the custom store packages and add hosting which we are also glad to provide you with. The team proceeds with turning your dreams into reality, and that’s it! When we hand the completed store over to you, it’s ready to welcome customers and process orders from day 1, with no further time-consuming works from your side.

Try Sellvia – it’s a one of a kind ecommerce ecosystem, which provides you with everything you need to start an online business. From a custom online store, to high-quality marketing materials, best-selling products and much more! Experience it for yourself completely for free!

Premium dropshipping stores

Buying a Premium dropshipping store, you get a 100% replica of one of the most profitable dropshipping stores AliDropship team has been running.

Not clear? Well, the idea of Premium Dropshipping Stores from AliDropship is pretty simple. Not all the profitable stores we run are sold as Established ones.

When some of our stores start to bring a high and stable profit, we let entrepreneurs simply make copies of them and run them as their own independent stores. So what do you get in case of purchasing a pre-built Premium Dropshipping Store from AliDropship?

Interestingly enough, you can get an exact copy of a successful store that makes over $500,000 per month! Don’t wait while others are already achieving fantastic results!

You become an owner of an exact copy of one of our most successful dropshipping stores. In fact, this is an online store that also works in a particular niche, has a profitable product range, etc. All you need is to upload this copy to your hosting and voila – you can start to sell online to the day!

How to build an online store from scratch: summing up your options

Well, how to start a dropshipping business if you’re an ecommerce newcomer eager to own a ready online store? We have tried to make it clear for you. However, if you are still not sure what option to choose, here is a short guide for you:

• Do you need a tailor-made online store? Are you eager to choose a niche for your business based on the tips from our experts? Do you want an online store that is made for you individually in accordance with your preferences only? If so, choose a Custom Online Store!
• Do you like the idea of getting an already functional business, but want to minimize your startup expenses? Would you like to start promoting and selling your products immediately after the store purchase rather than wait till designers and developers create an individual store for you? Then, consider buying one of our pre-built Premium Dropshipping Stores!

How to build an online store from scratch by yourself at minimum cost?

Well, there are several ready-made and ready-to-go business solutions we have mentioned above. It means you have an opportunity to let our team make all the hard and boring work for you.

This is convenient, isn’t it? You can easily save your time and effort, meanwhile, get a smooth start in dropshipping.

But what if you are ready to spend time building your dropshipping store by yourself? What if you want to sort out all the technical aspects and understand how it all works? Or what if you put your vast ecommerce experience to the test? Then, all you need is AliDropship Plugin!

AliDropship Plugin

What is AliDropship Plugin and how to build an online store from scratch with this plugin only? Let’s figure this out!

AliDropship Plugin is an instrument that helps you easily create and manage a fully-fledged online store.

How does it work and how to create a store using it?

Actually, it’s not challenging to build an online store from scratch. Even an ecommerce newcomer is able to sort this out. Moreover, there are lots of guides and video tutorials that help you do this.

Well, here are 15 steps to build an online store from scratch by means of WordPress and AliDropship Plugin.

1) Buy hosting

First of all you need to buy hosting in order to make your website available for other Internet users. There are lots of companies that offer hosting solutions. However, we recommend that you pay attention to the option from AliDropship since it’s specifically optimized to meet the needs of dropshipping business owners. Here is AliDropship hosting FAQ.

2) Install WordPress and AliDropship Plugin

Since we build online stores using WordPress, you need to download it (it’s free!) and install it on your website. What’s more, you need to install AliDropship Plugin as well. This is the very instrument that will help you not only easily create and customize your online store, but also put most of your business operations on autopilot. Learn more about installing WordPress, AliDropship Plugin, and themes for your online store from the AliDropship Knowledge Base.

3) Choose a theme for your online store

What will your online store look like? It depends on the online store theme you will choose! Please, pay attention to the fact that AliDropship Plugin is compatible with original themes that are designed by AliDropship and can be downloaded from our website.

Beyond this, AliDropship plugin can work with several third-party themes. So feel free to learn more about the themes for your online store. To apply a theme to your online store, you need to go to ‘Appearance’ in your admin area, then click ‘themes’, and upload a theme you have downloaded.

4) Create and upload design elements

Do you want to make a unique and trustworthy online store? In that case, you need to create and upload such store design elements as logo, favicon, banners, etc. In order to add them to your online store, go to ‘Customization’ in the admin area of your website. It lets you customize the appearance of each website page, add descriptions, and so on.

What’s more, you can add links to your online store social media accounts so they will be shown on your website.

5) Create product categories

All the products in your online store should belong to categories. In order to create product categories, you need to go to ‘Product’->‘Product categories’ in your admin area. After you create a product category, don’t forget to add it to the menu and mix the categories in the way you like.

6) Create a product range

Now you need to add products to your online store. So, then go to ‘AliExpress’->‘Import Products’, and click ‘Direct Import’. You will be redirected to AliExpress. In fact, it remains for you only to choose the product you like and click ‘edit’ at the top of the page.

BTW, pay attention to the fact that AliDropship software lets you check if there are suppliers who sell the same product at a lower price. And don’t forget to edit product titles and product descriptions when importing products. Moreover, you can also use bulk import.

Don’t you know what products are trending to sell? Then, use Insights from AliDropship! This is a free-of-charge database of the best products to sell, time-tested dropshipping suppliers to deal with, and the most promising niches.

7) Import product reviews

In order to make your online store look trustworthy, AliDropship Plugin also provides you with an opportunity to import reviews. It means if a product you choose for your online store has reviews, they will also be added to this very product in your store. What’s more, you can choose the language they will be written in and whether they will include photos from original reviews. In order to do this, you need to go to ‘AliExpress’->‘Import Reviews’ in the admin area of your website.

8) Choose the currency

Your next step is to choose the currency. AliDropship Plugin suggests to use USD by default. However, you are able to change these settings in accordance with your target audience. All  you need to do this is to go to ‘Settings’->‘General’ in the admin area of your website.

9) Consider the pricing policy

For your convenience, AliDropship Plugin lets you easily set up prices for the products imported. So you don’t need to do this manually. All you need to do is to set a pricing formula or choose a recommended one. In order to do this, go to ‘Settings’->‘Pricing’ in your admin area.

10) Make your website SEO-friendly

Search engine optimization is crucial for ecommerce. So if you want your website to rank higher on Google, we recommend that you enable several functions in AliDropship Plugin. So go to ‘Settings’->‘SEO’ and create titles, descriptions, and keywords for your homepage. Moreover, don’t forget to create articles for your homepage and product category pages. You’re welcome to use this SEO ecommerce checklist!

11) Boost your sales by means of coupons

As a way to boost your sales, we recommend you enable coupons by means of AliDropship Plugin. In order to do this, go to ‘Settings’->‘Coupons’.

12) Automate product-related tasks

If you want to import products from AliExpress, update them, and process your orders automatically, you need to install AliDropship Chrome Extension. This is absolutely free of charge. So go to ‘AliExpress’->‘Import Products’->‘Install AliDropship Chrome Extension’ and put your products’ management on autopilot.

13) Set up payment gateways

After that, you need to set up payment gateways. In order to do this, you need to go to ‘Setting’->‘Payments’.

14) Make your store run automatically

Since AliDropship always does its best to make the process of running your business as convenient as possible, our team has developed lots of add-ons that can do the hardest and most boring work for you. So you can easily reduce your business participation to several clicks a day. That’s why feel free to learn more about AI-powered marketing automation tools!

15) Run Facebook ad campaigns

In fact, your store is ready. However, if you want to count on first sales, you need to promote your store. That’s why it’s high time to launch ad campaigns on Facebook. But before promoting your ecommerce store, it’s a good idea to check whether all the systems work as planned.

So that’s it! When you get the first order on your website, you need to go to ‘Orders’ in your admin area. Fortunately, AliDropship Plugin has a ‘Place Order Automatically’ magic button. So it remains for you only to confirm the order! By the way, these tips on handling your first order may come in handy, too. 🙂

Well, there are only 15 steps you need to take in order to get profit. It’s not as challenging, actually, right?

Final thoughts on how to build an ecommerce website from scratch

As we have already mentioned, there are lots of options to start your own dropshipping business. All you need is to choose the one that suits you perfectly. And it mainly depends on time and money you are ready to spend on it.

The most affordable option is to build an online store from scratch by yourself using AliDropship Plugin. Right, this requires some time, but the level of involvement in your ecommerce business is going to be over the roof!

If you’re not ready to spend hours on building your online store from scratch on your own, but you are eager to get a ready-to-go business or the one that already brings profit, there are also several options for you, for all tastes!

We hope that these materials will help you to choose the option that suits you best, and buy a ready business or create it by yourself. We believe it won’t be challenging for you since you already know how to build an online store from scratch by means of AliDropship Plugin!