How to Choose the Best Ecommerce Platform for Your Online Print Shop

Creating an online print shop is a lot of work. Right from technology to user experience to website maintenance, your brains are about to do some overtime. It is a tough journey – agreed, but it is not impossible. In this ultimate guide to create an online print shop for your web to print business, you would find all the information required for a perfect online business setup. 

Web to print e-commerce website builder

An eCommerce builder is online software that makes it easy for you to build your very own online store. It is a user-friendly tool that requires no advanced technical knowledge, skill, coding knowledge, and a high-end computer setup. Just make sure you are connected to the internet, and you are ready to set up your online web to print store. 

• Find a website builder

Maybe we are exaggerating, but even the selection of eCommerce website builders is going to be tough. There are many online store builders, and only one thing can save you – your budget. Before you begin the work, make sure you have a budget plan. It should not be less; it should not be more; it just should be perfect. Talking of options, here is a list of eCommerce website builders you can try out: 

1. WordPress (Good for small businesses) 

2. Shopify or Magento (Good for large stores)

• Select the right website builder

Businesses can be broadly divided into two types – small businesses and large businesses. A business that is small today would aim at becoming big, and thus scalability of the platform is very much important. You might even have to migrate to a newer technology that supports your new needs. Furthermore, a large store has to define its business goals and would have to align all the technical tools needed to support large operations. Large traffic on your site can crash your website, making you lose good leads; plus, branding and marketing hold a big chunk of the entire budget. In this section, we would help you understand what would be good for your online print eCommerce site as per the size of your enterprise. 

For small stores

For small stores, it is not recommended to invest in the big web to print software. You can start with the available SaaS products and later move on to customized software once sales start looking good. We recommend you go with WordPress development; it is one of the most SEO-friendly technologies and offers a plethora of plugins that can help you boost your sales. WordPress also has good customizable free themes/ templates, which saves a lot of money.  

For Large Stores 

If you want a website with more than just basic features, your needs cannot be meet out with WordPress. Enterprises that sell more than ten products and have a turnover of $1000+ are recommended to go for high-end platforms such as Shopify or Magento. The Shopify plans start from $29 - $299 per month and offer 50 modern themes.  The platform comes with features such as inventory management, email marketing, sales tools, etc. However, you would have to pay 2.6- 2.9 % commission and 30 cents as a transaction fee if you are not using Shopify payments. Likewise, Magento is the most trusted eCommerce development platform. Magento is available in two versions – Magento 2 Open Source and Magento 2 Commerce. Both the editions can be used to develop eCommerce sites of any size and of any type. However, the Magento Enterprise version comes with other add-ons that can help you streamline your business. 

• Try for free

The platform is a very important aspect of setting up the web to print software, and thus, you must test your eCommerce website builder before launching your business site on it. You can try both WordPress and Shopify on14 days free trial. Now start testing by asking yourself the following questions: 

1. Is the template/theme user-friendly, and can you customize it?

2. Is the template blending well with your brand?

3. Is it easy to categorize products and add new products? 

4. Can you make sub menus and add new pages to the site easily? 

The website should be easy to use and must have all the necessary tools required to manage your business operations. You must compare the sites well and see if upgrading your plan would solve the problem.

Buy a domain name for your store 

A good domain name would help you capture your user’s attention. A domain name is a URL that identified your store name. It helps you build trust with users and proves useful in establishing a brand. 

• Buying and integration process

You can buy a domain name from Shopify or WordPress for $10-$20 per year. Alternatively, you can go for GoDaddy, which is also a trusted site. Once you have bought the domain name, you can link it with your online store builder. If you already have a domain name, you can transfer the domain name to your store builder, or you can link your domain to your builder page. You might have to connect to the domain provider for this process. We recommend buying a domain from the website builder as it would bring more ease to the process. 

• Few things you must know

1. You must choose the domain name that identifies your brand name. Brand name should be unique and memorable and add a keyword to it. 

2. Buy the domain name that is available in the budget. 

3. Set a reminder to renew it before the expiry date comes. 

Pick the right template

Look for templates that are designed by experts and have well-written code. It is necessary that your website looks modern and chic. Selecting a theme in Shopify is very easy; it offers you many templates, and you can pick any one from the wide assortment. Select the theme, buy it, and you are done. WordPress works; similarly, you will find the themes well divided into different categories, and you can pick the one that best suits your industry. 

1. How to pick the right template/ theme?

2. Check the features you get in the theme

3. What is the homepage style?

4. Is the navigation on the website easy?

• Features

See if the template offers all the features necessary in the online print eCommerce site. Think about all the necessary features, make a list of the ones you would want to incorporate, and then narrow down the options available in the themes. 

• Homepage design 

The homepage is the first impression you leave on your customers. It is crucial that your homepage tells what your brand is all about at one glance. Choose a template that gives you all the necessary space to display what you have an offer. Also, an eCommerce store, be it an online print eCommerce site, should have a lot of images to display products and say less. 

• Navigation 

Smooth navigation is necessary. Your site might have an intuitive interface and should let your customers move freely around your site. Add necessary pages to the site and don’t include pages that are not important to your business in the header. Add them in the footer or in a drop-down menu. 

Customize your eCommerce template 

No theme would give you all the things that you need. Everyone becomes all too ambitious, but in reality, these are pre-built themes. And you can always customize them as per your liking. Add products Using an online store builder gives you strong control over your product pages. Add a name, price, category, weight, etc., to the pages. 

• Check for limitations 

When choosing an online web to print store builder, you must check if there are any limits, such as: 

1. Number of products you can add

2. A number of options for each product you can add, such as size, color, etc. 

3. A number of product variants you can add. 

• Important features on the product page

Things that are absolutely necessary on product pages:

1. Product description

2. Product images 

3. Product categories 

Write a winning product description, don’t use complex jargon, avoid cliches, add keywords, don’t use long sentences. 

• Product images 

Product images are crucial in a web to print software; people should see the final product. Needless to say, they should reflect what you are selling. 

1. Use high-quality images 

2. Each image should be of the same size 

3. Take your own photos if you cannot invest in a professional photoshoot. 

4. Add product variation image

5. Add zoom option

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• Image optimization 

You can easily optimize images using free compressing tools. The tool would help you reduce the size of the image and without reducing the quality. It also speeds up the website. 

• Build product categories

Product categories help in faster navigation. It improves user experience on the site. You can add product categories as per: 

1. Price range

2. Featured products

3. Filtering option

4. Product information

Check payment method 

As said earlier, you would have to pay the transaction fee on Shopify for each transaction. Ecommerce website builders allow you to add all the leading payment methods on the site, such as Apple Pay, PayPal, Visa, Mastercard. 

• Necessary payment options 

1. Merchant account and payment gateway 

2. Payment gateway packages

3. Simplified payment processing 

Choose the payment gateway whose charges are competitive and also is secure. 

Finally, Preview, Test and Publish

Add products and customize your store, and set up your payment and shipping. Once you have reached the final step, all you have left is to check the website and publish it. Check if the website is working properly, check if the store has all the necessary content, the store is responsive, and works seamlessly on the browsers. 

• Final settings on the store 

1. Language

2. Currency 

3. Time zone

4. Address

5. Contact details 

6. Order settings 

7. Product settings

Setting up an online print eCommerce store is going to take some technical knowledge. It is best that you leave that to experts. Be it WordPress or Magento or Shopify; it depends on what features and tools you need to make your website experience better for your users and streamlining your business operations. Lastly, always have a budget, communicate with the tech consultants to understand the time and cost it would take to develop a web to print software.

You can contact us for demo/ consultation/ assistance at info@wtpbiz.com or call at (+1-707-706-3077); we would be happy to assist you in your journey.