---

Everybody buys things online these days. Online shopping is quickly taking over buying things from brick-and-mortar stores in many cases.

However, before your online retail business can be successful, you’ll need to make sure you have the following essential; things. 

A website 

One thing you’ll need if you want to run a successful online retail store is one heck of a website. Indeed, your website is truly the cornerstone of your whole business because it’s where you will close your sales, provide the majority of your customer experience, and host all your content for search engine optimisation (SEO). The latter brings customers to your site organically. 

All this means your site has to be stellar in every way. Where possible getting a site custom-designed for your business’s specific needs, and your customer’s preferences can be a great investment over the long term. Regular audits for loading speed, mobile optimisation, SEO as well as user experience (UX) and user interaction (UI) is a good idea too. 

Howeve, if you’re just starting and a custom-built website isn’t in your budget right now, then signing up with an established ecommerce platform like Shopify, Etsy, or eBay can also be a good choice. This is particularly the case as they all offer the infrastructure you need to host, update and keep track of your sales easily. 

Enough storage 

When running an online retail store you need somewhere to keep the stock you will ship out to customers. Unfortunately, this can be a real sticking point for some people, especially when they are just starting as they may not have enough room at home, but also can’t afford to buy space in a warehouse either.

Fortunately, there is a solution to this issue and it is to work with providers like Yeates that offer cost-effective self-storage solutions. Indeed, with high-end security and 24/ 365 access such facilities are perfect for online retailers as it means they can always access their stock at any time of day or night, while also keeping their own home free of clutter. 

Payment gateway 

Another thing you’ll need to run a successful online retail store is to sign up with a third-party gateway that allows you to take fast and secure payments. Indeed, many online retailers now offer not one gateway but both PayPal and Apple Pay as well as the option of paying through their banks. 

A reliable and cost-effective delivery service 

Last of all, if you are going to run an online retail store you’ll also need a cost-effective and reliable delivery service. That is a service that enables you to send your products to your customers promptly. 

Such a service needs to be cost-effective because many online retail stores offer free delivery to their customers. However, even if you ask your customers to cover delivery costs you’ll want them to be reasonable so they aren’t put off from using your service because of this.

In some cases offering a delivery subscription usually over a year for a single one-off low price can work well too. The reason is that it encourages customers to buy more from your store because delivery costs will already be covered.

---