Want to start a webshop today? Here’s how!

Shopping is increasingly happening via the internet. This makes it increasingly interesting for entrepreneurs to start a webshop. And they’re right to: there are, after all, many advantages to a webshop. It isn’t difficult to start a webshop, but there are a number of things you need to take into account. Below you’ll read what you need to know before you have a webshop built.

Choose your products

The centrepiece of your webshop is, of course, the range. It’s important to consider which part of your current assortment you do and don’t want to sell via the webshop. If you want a webshop alongside your physical shop, you can choose to sell part only in your physical shop and part via the webshop. Also ask yourself whether you want to offer a broad assortment, or whether you want to focus on a niche market (a good or service that isn’t offered by the parties in the main market).

Formulate your objective

What do you want to achieve with your webshop? To really achieve success, it needs to be clear what the desired result is. Is one order per day enough, for example, or are you only satisfied with at least 10 purchases a day? Or do you specifically want to increase customer satisfaction? Objectives help create clarity about what you want to achieve as a business in a given period. By setting concrete goals, employees know what the organisation is aiming for. This lets them focus on it and work together in a more targeted way. So ask yourself why you want to start a webshop and formulate your objective from that. Make sure you describe it in the right way. Here you can use the SMART model: specific, measurable, acceptable, realistic and time-bound.

Determine which payment system suits you

To use a payment method, you need a party that offers it. You can then turn to a Payment Service Provider (PSP), in other words a payment system. The advantage of a PSP is that they can offer multiple payment methods, such as iDeal and Afterpay. As an entrepreneur, you therefore don’t need to sign a separate contract for every payment method. It’s advisable to offer several payment options. This increases the chance of the visitor going through with an online transaction.

An example of a PSP is Mollie, which we also work with. It’s a trusted and experienced company that processes payments for webshops. Mollie offers the option of paying in many different (also international) ways. It’s a transparent company that guarantees flexible service. Mollie is approved by De Nederlandsche Bank. On top of that, no technical knowledge is required to apply Mollie to your webshop.

Consider whether a quality mark suits your webshop

As the owner of a webshop, you want potential customers to fully trust your business. The more trust in a webshop, the greater the chance someone will go through with a purchase. To achieve this, a webshop quality mark is nowadays a plus. There are various quality marks with varying degrees of reliability. The requirements a webshop has to meet differ per quality mark.

Determine your logistics process

Customers buy products in your online webshop. The next step is shipping these products to the customer. You can choose to deliver to the customer yourself or to use a carrier for this. The best-known carriers in the Netherlands are DHL, UPS, PostNL, DPD and Red Je Pakketje. Every carrier applies different conditions and offers different options. Make the choice beforehand: are you going to handle delivery yourself, or do you want to use a carrier, and if so, which one?

Choose your webshop software / CMS

Before you start a webshop, you choose a Content Management System (CMS), in other words a website management system. You can see it as the foundation of the webshop. It’s an online platform on which your webshop is built, managed and updated. The five most popular systems are WordPress, Drupal, TYPO3, ProcessWire and ExpressionEngine.

dotsolutions has developed its own CMS for the use of websites and webshops: dotcontent. Advantages of dotcontent are its security and expandability. The platform can be expanded as desired. This CMS is mainly used for complex websites.

Decide whether you want reviews on your webshop

Just like quality marks, reviews ensure that customers gain more trust in a webshop they don’t know. By posting reviews, a business radiates transparency. Consumers become familiar with that. And the more trust in a webshop, the greater the chance someone will go through with a purchase. On top of that, you receive direct feedback and get a good picture of how customers experience your business. You can place different types of reviews on your website, such as texts with a photo, Facebook reviews, LinkedIn recommendations and Google reviews.

Take laws and regulations into account

Last but not least, laws and regulations. As an entrepreneur, you deal with these a lot. Your business and also your products need to comply with various rules. There are also plenty of European and Dutch laws that webshops need to comply with. These are mainly designed to protect the consumer and to make online shopping safe and attractive for them.