How to Start an Online Store [2025 Complete Guide]
Running your own business comes with the freedom to do things your way and follow your passions. But there are technical steps that come before you can start an online store. Not knowing where to begin makes some people give up before they even try.
Having a plan puts you a step ahead of most people when it comes to starting your business. In this article, you'll learn how to turn your business idea into an online shop by structuring your store, building your brand and marketing, and creating a great customer experience.
How to Start an Online Store in 10 Steps
- Choose your offers and identify your audience
- Create your branding and messaging strategy
- Make a business plan and register your business
- Pick a selling platform
- Choose a name and domain for your brand
- Set up your store
- Take product photos
- Add a payment provider
- Market your products
- Plan for good customer service
1. Choose your offers and identify your audience
Even if you already know what you want to sell, you need a unique value proposition to show what sets you apart from your competitors. Do you know of a product that's already good but that you could improve? Do you have a problem in mind that your product could solve? Can you offer something new to a current trend that will have value after the trend passes?
Before you look for a manufacturer or start making items yourself, do your research. Talk with people who would find your product useful to find out what they need and what would make them likely to buy it. From there, you can design your product and target your ideal audience as you build your brand.
2. Create your branding and messaging strategy
The way you present your products and how you speak to your audience can make or break your store. You want people to recognize your business when they see it online, and that involves having a brand logo, colors, font, and voice that stays consistent across all your platforms.
When it comes to colors, keep color psychology in mind and consider what emotions you want your product to inspire. Do you want bright red for passion and action or cool blues and greens for a calming effect?
The same applies to your brand voice. Do you want to exude professionalism with a serious tone, or do you want people to feel like you're a friend with a relatable, casual voice? For example, you probably wouldn't buy from a skincare brand that uses technical jargon. But one with a luxurious tone focused on making you look and feel good speaks to what you want from the product.
Once you've nailed down your branding materials, put them in all your online spaces — your website, social media, marketing materials, packaging, and anywhere else your customers will see them.
3. Make a business plan and register your business
Before you start selling, you need to take care of the technical and legal parts of your business. First, you'll need to register it according to its type. The type depends on how you plan to run it, how much you invest in it financially, and how you want to protect it.
A sole proprietorship will work best if you're running your online store without any employees and are combining your business and personal assets. Limited liability companies (LLCs) offer you more protection by separating your business and personal assets. They also have more tax benefits. And if you're starting a business with someone else and you both own it, you would file for a partnership. This type of business gives you a legal agreement on how you each share and contribute to the business.
You'll need to plan to pay estimated quarterly taxes from your business income and comply with any other business regulations in your state. Look into getting any relevant permits for your specific product, and open a business bank account to separate your personal and business funds.
4. Pick a selling platform
Having a website gives you more control over your online shop and how you present it. This will be the hub where you list items and take payments, and it functions as one of your marketing touchpoints.
There are lots of eCommerce sites out there, including Shopify, WooCommerce, Big Cartel, Square, Weebly, and Wix. The one you choose depends on what you plan to sell, the platform's security for you and your customers, what formats and payment providers they support, and the features they have to help you build and run your store.
You'll also want to think about the future and whether your chosen platform can grow with your business. The platform should be a place that you and your customers can trust and that has the functionality you need to run your store without running into problems.
5. Choose a name and domain for your brand
You may already have a name in mind for your brand, but you'll need to make sure it hasn't been taken already before you claim it. Search for your business name online to see if there are any similar or identical ones, and consider changing it if there are. You don't want people getting your store confused with another one, and you don't want to cause legal issues by using the same name as another business.
A name that's too long is harder for customers to remember, and it can interfere with SEO. You may want to align your brand name with SEO terms so it's easier for people to find.
If you can, make your domain name as close to your business name as possible to make finding it through a web search easier. Domain names vary in cost, though they're one of the easiest parts of getting your business off the ground. Some platforms offer a free one when you build your website, but you may spend up to $20 per year to keep it.
6. Set up your store
Your online store should be both functional and visually appealing to visitors. Create a clean layout, clearly display your products, and consider how buyers will navigate your site right up to the point where they add items to their cart and check out.
Many eCommerce sites have templates to help you set up and put your products front and center. Make sure you add calls to action (CTAs) to guide the customer on their buying journey and show them where to click next. Customers should be able to find your products and any information they need in less than three clicks, or they're more likely to leave your store.
Showcase your products and their benefit to your customers through your images, product descriptions, meta descriptions, and every part of your website design and branding. These combined parts should make it easy for them to take the next step in exploring your website and making a purchase.
7. Take product photos
Next, add clean, professional product photos that clearly show what you're selling. The quality of your product photos can make your audience click on your product or click away and choose your competitor. To catch your customer's eye, use clear images without clutter, bright and natural lighting, and focus on your product.
Still, even with all the right conditions, you may need to do some editing to refine your product photos. Editing software can make your images look more professional, remove distractions, and showcase your products in a more appealing way than an unedited photo.
Promeo is one option that can help with editing your product images with its AI Creative Studio. It has tools to remove your original photo background and replace it with a newly generated one based on your prompts. It also has a stock library from Getty Images, where you can find millions of royalty-free images that match your brand and coordinate with your products.
The software helps with decluttering photos, especially for solopreneurs and small business owners who need an efficient way to get high-quality images for their stores. Product photos are one of the first things that get your audience's attention, so having Promeo also encourages people to explore your products.
8. Add a payment provider
If you're going to make money from your business, you need a way for customers to pay you. Ideally, you'll want to add multiple payment methods, such as credit and debit, digital wallets like Google Pay, Apple Pay, and PayPal, and bank transfers.
You might even want to offer payment plans, especially if you sell more expensive items. Having more payment options available makes it easier for customers to choose you, rather than jump to a competitor because you don't have their preferred (or only) payment option available.
9. Market your products
Marketing is the only way your audience will know about your products. Without a solid strategy, consistent messaging, and appealing images, your products might never reach your ideal customers.
It's a good idea to start marketing your business before you launch your site. This gets people interested and builds anticipation for what's to come. You can start marketing easily on social media by creating an account for your business on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and other platforms. There, you can share how you're building your business and the kinds of products you offer.
Consider building an email list to build a more personal relationship with customers. If you have the budget, run ads on social platforms like Instagram and Facebook. To do that, you'll need editing software to combine your messaging and images that make people want to buy your products.
The right editing software has resources to put together marketing materials, create images for your campaigns, and refine your messaging. Promeo's AI Magic Designer can help you here with its design generation tools. Tell the AI what your product is and any keywords to help it understand what you want it to create. For example, if you're launching seasonal scented candles, put "scented candle" into the product section and "seasonal, cozy, gift" into the keywords box.
From there, AI Magic Designer will create an image with text that you can edit and customize to your brand. It cuts down on the work you need to do to create marketing materials, so you can send them out to your audience and get more eyes on your products.
10. Plan for good customer service
Beyond selling a quality product, you want your customers to be happy with their experience in your online store. Having a customer service plan lets your customers leave feedback, contact you for help or to ask questions, and return items. Plus, it lets you outline your customer service policies, so you have a written guide for returns, expected response times, and how to contact you.
When customers have a good experience with your store, they'll tell their friends, family, and followers about you. As a result, it boosts your reputation and gives people a positive impression of your product, even before they buy from you for the first time.
How to Start an Online Store FAQ
1. How much does it cost to set up an online store?
The cost of setting up an online store varies based on the cost of registration, your website and domain, how many products you offer, and the cost to produce your products. To set up the store alone, it can cost as little as $20 for a domain, hosting platform, and website design, especially if you build your website yourself. However, working with a professional web designer, buying themes, adding a payment provider, extensions, and manufacturing your products can cost thousands of dollars combined.
2. Is it worth it to have an online store?
A third of the world shops online, including 70% of the US population. An online store gives you more ways to market and makes it convenient for shoppers. It's also less expensive for you to build your brand online rather than in a brick-and-mortar location. If you do plan to start an online store, be prepared to market your products on multiple online platforms, understand SEO, do audience research, and create quality images and copy to get customers' attention.
3. How many products should I put in my online store?
To start, we recommend listing around 10 products. This gives customers enough choice while avoiding overwhelm on your end. No matter how many products you start with, Promeo can help you create attractive product photos for your listings with its AI Creative Studio. It can replace your image backgrounds, create templates, and has stock images that you can use to make beautifying your online store easier.
4. How do I make a successful online store?
There's no one right way to be successful with your store, but you need to create a positive customer experience and a strong marketing campaign. Make it clear how your store operates, make it easy for your customers to buy from you, and use professional product photos. You can edit your photos with Promeo and use the AI Magic Design tool to generate ads that you can customize. Your customers should be able to recognize your brand, and the happier they are with their experience, the more they will recommend your store.
5. What is the best way to take product photos?
When you take your photos, use a tripod to keep your camera still and use natural lighting as much as possible to avoid glare. You should make sure the label on your product is in clear view and that the image clearly shows what the product is. After you've taken your photos, edit them with Promeo using the background remover, object remover, image enhancer, and other AI tools.
