Month: May 2022

There are several ways to accept payments online — from payment links and invoicing tools to full checkout integrations — and most take less than ten minutes to set up. This guide breaks down all your options: what they cost, how they work, and which one fits your business, whether you’re selling a product, offering a service, or sending your first invoice.

How do online payments work?

At its core, getting paid online means money moving from your customer’s account to yours. There are two fundamental ways that happens — and understanding the difference makes everything else in this guide click.

Debit and credit card payments

When a customer pays by credit or debit card, the process moves through several steps behind the scenes: the customer enters their card details, a payment gateway captures and encrypts the data securely, a payment processor moves the money through the card network, and the funds land in your merchant account — minus a small fee. For most growing businesses, credit card payments are the fastest, most familiar option for customers, and they settle within one to two business days.

Direct bank transfers

With a bank transfer (sometimes called ACH in the US), the customer’s bank sends funds from the customer’s bank account directly to yours — no card network involved, fewer intermediaries, and usually lower fees as a result. 

The trade-off is speed and convenience: transfers typically take one to three business days to settle, and the customer has to initiate the online payment manually rather than entering card details at checkout. Bank transfers work well for large invoices and B2B transactions, but they add friction for one-off or impulse purchases.

Three terms worth knowing:

• Payment gateway: the technology that captures and encrypts your customer’s payment details the moment they hit pay, then passes them securely to the payment processor. Most website builders and online payment platforms include one, and you won’t need to set it up separately.
• Payment processor: the service that takes those encrypted details from the gateway and does the actual work of moving money, communicating with the customer’s bank, getting authorization, and transferring the funds to your account. Stripe is an example of an online payment processor.
• Merchant account: a holding account where your funds land after an online transaction is approved, before they’re transferred to your regular bank account. Platforms like Stripe include one automatically, so you won’t need to open one yourself.

The good news is that wrangling these terms — and the technology behind them — isn’t something you necessarily need to do manually. When you use a modern ecommerce platform or website builder (like SiteGround Ecommerce), the gateway is built in, the processor connects with one click, and the merchant account is included automatically. It just works.

Everything else in this guide — the platforms, the setup steps, the costs — is really just about which channel you use to collect one of those two payment types.

Ways to sell online

There are four main channels to accept online payments. Which one makes sense depends on what you’re selling and where your business is right now.

Payment links

A payment link is a URL that takes the customer straight to a checkout page. You generate it through a payment platform, then share it however makes sense (by email, in a social media DM, on an invoice, or even in a text message). No website required. Payment links are the fastest way to get started: you can be set up and ready to accept payments online in under ten minutes. 

The downside is that they’re fairly bare-bones: there’s no storefront, no product listings, and no real presence for customers to browse. They’re ideal for service providers, creators, and anyone testing a new offering, but they’re not a long-term substitute for something more permanent.

Online invoicing

Invoicing tools let you send a professional bill to a client that includes a link for online payment. They’re especially well suited to freelancers, consultants, and service businesses that bill clients on completion or by project. Tools like Wave (free) and FreshBooks make the process straightforward, and some support direct bank transfers alongside cards.

That said, bank transfers come with more friction and slower settlement. Worth checking what payment methods a platform supports before committing to one.

Marketplaces

Platforms like Etsy or Gumroad handle the entire selling experience (think: listings, checkout, and payments) without you needing to build anything. What you give up: fees are typically higher than processing your own online payments, customization is limited, and building a direct relationship with your customers — including building an email list — is much harder when the platform sits between you and the buyer. A reasonable place to start for physical or digital products, but not a long-term substitute for your own setup.

A website with a checkout page

A website with an integrated checkout brings everything together: your storefront, payment gateway, and processor all in one place. It’s the most scalable and professional option — and for sellers thinking about website marketing and long-term growth, it’s the only setup that gives you full control. This is the right choice for product sellers from the start, and the natural next step for service providers who want a permanent presence and a direct marketing channel to their audience.

One thing worth considering as you set up: a checkout page needs to feel trustworthy and load quickly — both have a direct impact on whether customers follow through on a purchase. That means an SSL certificate, a clean design, and fast, reliable web hosting.

A note on other payment tools

Tools like Venmo, Cash App, and Zelle (known as peer-to-peer (P2P) payment apps) are a common starting point for informal selling, and they work fine for the occasional online transaction between people who know each other. But they come with real limitations for business use: most offer no seller protection, accounts can be flagged or frozen when used regularly for business purposes, and none of them are designed with commerce in mind. If you’re just starting out, they might get the job done in a pinch, but they’re not a reliable foundation to build on.

Apple Pay and Google Pay are a different story. They’re not selling channels — they’re a checkout convenience that sits on top of a regular card payment. Most payment processors support them natively, which means if your processor does, they’ll show up as a checkout payment method for your customers automatically. Worth knowing they’re covered, but not something you need to actively set up.

A note on AI-built websites

If your site was vibe coded with an AI app or website builder, adding payments doesn’t require a rebuild. A portfolio site, a restaurant site, or an event site built this way started as a chat prompt, and connecting a payment processor works the same way. Stripe is the easiest option here: Coderick AI now integrates with Stripe directly in the chat, so you describe what you want to charge for, connect your Stripe account, and Coderick builds the checkout, payment links, and confirmation page for you. No separate gateway to configure and no code to touch. The same logic applies to any AI-built site: Stripe (or a similar processor) plugs into the existing structure instead of asking you to rebuild around a payment feature.

How do online payments get set up — with or without a website?

The setup process is way simpler than most people expect. Before you begin, you’ll need three things: 

1. a bank account to receive funds
2. a payment processor (or platform that includes one) to handle the transaction
3. a way to send customers to the payment (so a link, an invoice, or a checkout page)

Chances are, you already have the first one covered.

Accepting online payments without a website

1. Sign up for an online payment platform and connect your bank account
2. Run a test transaction before going live
3. Generate a payment link or create an invoice
4. Share it with your customer (by email, message, or social media)

Accepting payments on a website

1. Choose a website builder with built-in ecommerce and payment support (such as SiteGround’s)
2. Sign up for a compatible payment processor — Stripe and PayPal are two of the most widely used — and add your bank details. Stripe is typically the better fit for websites and scalable setups, while PayPal is faster to get started with and widely trusted by consumers.
3. Connect the processor to your website builder (usually one click — the gateway is already built in)
4. Enable direct bank transfer as an additional online payment option if your platform supports it
5. Add your product, service, or booking listing
6. Run a test transaction
7. Go live

How much does it cost to accept online payments?

The cost depends on how money moves and which platform you use. Here’s a basic breakdown.

Card payments

A commonly cited industry rate is 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction — meaning on a $100 sale, you’d typically keep around $96–$97. If you’re selling internationally or accepting multiple currencies, additional fees can push that total meaningfully higher, so it’s worth checking the full pricing breakdown.

Payment platforms generally offer two pricing models:

• Pay-as-you-go: no monthly fee, but a slightly higher per-transaction rate. Better for lower-volume sellers.
• Monthly subscription: lower per-transaction processing fees in exchange for a fixed monthly cost. More cost-effective once you’re processing a consistent volume.

One thing to check: some ecommerce platforms charge their own transaction fee on top of the processor’s, unless you use their preferred processor. This can add up, so it’s worth reading the pricing details before committing.

Direct bank transfers

Bank transfers are usually charged as a flat fee rather than a percentage, which makes them meaningfully cheaper on larger transactions. On a $1,000 invoice, the savings over card processing can be significant. Whether those savings are worth the added friction for your customers depends on your setup — for high-value or repeat clients, usually yes. Not all platforms support bank transfers either, so it’s worth confirming before building your setup around it.

What to watch for: processors that bury fees in fine print, charge monthly minimums on low-volume months, or advertise low rates that only apply to specific card types. Always check the full pricing page, not just the headline number.

Which payment setup is right for a small business?

It depends on what you’re selling and where you are in your business. Here’s a quick-reference guide:

Business type	Best starting point	Why it works	When to level up to an ecommerce website
Freelancer / consultant	Payment link or invoicing tool	Fast, low overhead, no website needed	When you want a professional online presence
Service business	Invoicing + payment link	Easy for repeat clients; supports bank transfers	When bookings or quotes go digital
Product seller	Website with checkout	Handles inventory, shipping, and multiple buyers	Already the right choice from day one
Testing an idea	Payment link	Get paid before investing in infrastructure — though setting up a basic website is simpler than it might seem	Once demand is proven

What are the most common mistakes when accepting online payments?

The most common mistakes are easy to avoid once you know what to look for.

• Not understanding payout timelines. Card payments and bank transfers settle at very different speeds. If your cash flow depends on quick access to funds, card payments are the safer choice.
• Ignoring chargeback policies before they’re needed. A chargeback is when a customer disputes a charge and the card network reverses it. Understand your processor’s policy before your first sale, not after.
• Choosing a processor with hidden fees. Monthly minimums, annual fees, and fine-print per-transaction charges can quietly erode your margins. Read the full pricing page.
• Missing the platform’s own transaction fee. As we mentioned above, some ecommerce platforms add their own fee on top of the processor’s. Easy to miss, easy to avoid by checking in advance.
• Skipping the test transaction. Always run a test purchase before going live. It takes two minutes and prevents embarrassing failures on day one.
• Not having a refund policy visible at checkout. Customers are more likely to complete a purchase when they know returns are handled clearly. It also reduces disputes.
• Offering only bank transfer when customers expect to pay by card. Bank transfers add friction. If most of your customers are individuals rather than businesses, card payments should be the default.

Start accepting payments online today

No technical skills or big budget are needed to get started. Payment links and invoicing tools make it possible to accept payments in minutes, and these days most setups are far simpler to configure than they appear.

When you’re ready for something more permanent and professional, a website brings everything together: your storefront, payment gateway, processor, and direct transfer support all in one place. SiteGround Ecommerce is an easy way to take that next step — quick to set up, secure out of the box, and with no platform transaction fees on top of your processor’s. Plus built-in online payment processing, a website builder designed for non-developers, and around-the-clock expert support from people who know small business.

FAQs about accepting payments online

This article was originally published in May 2022, and then updated in April 2026

Wondering how to create an ecommerce website? It means setting up an online store where customers can browse your products, add them to a cart, and pay securely — and with the right platform, you can do it in a single day. Here’s exactly how.

Most people trip up by spending months obsessing over the perfect logo, debating color schemes, and reading every “ultimate guide” they can find. Meanwhile, their store? Still not launched. Or worse, it’s live, but nobody’s buying because they forgot the actual goal: making sales.

This guide is different. We’re not here to help you build a perfect ecommerce empire (it doesn’t exist anyway). We’re here to help you get your first sale. Because once you’ve proven that people will actually pay you for what you’re selling, everything else gets easier.

Ready? Let’s build an online store that actually makes money.

Step 1: Start with the sale in mind

Every decision you make while building your ecommerce site should serve one goal: getting someone to buy. Before you pick a single template or upload a product photo, clarify what you’re actually trying to accomplish.

Get clear on the problem you’re solving

Think about the last thing you bought online. You didn’t buy it because the ecommerce website had a cool parallax scrolling effect. You ultimately bought it because you had a problem and that product was the solution.

Your potential customers are no different. They’re thinking about their problems, and your ecommerce marketing job is to solve one of them, clearly and specifically.

So when creating your site, it’s essential to first clarify:

• What specific problem does my product solve?
• Why is it painful enough that someone would pull out their credit card?
• How does my solution make their life measurably better?
• What is my unique selling proposition? 

Write this down. These answers becomes the foundation of everything: your homepage headline, your product descriptions, even which products you launch with.

Define your customer persona

You don’t need to write a novel about a fictional person named “Jennifer” who likes yoga. You just need to answer: Who actually has the problem I’m solving and would pay to fix it?

What you should consider when thinking about your customer persona:

• The basics of your target audience: Age range, life stage (college student vs. new parent vs. retiree shop very differently)
• The mindset: Budget-conscious or quality-focused? Impulsive or careful researcher?
• The context: Where do they hang out online? When do they shop? What makes them trust a new brand? Where will they be at in the customer journey?

Focus on one main action

Your ecommerce site needs to make people do something. And that something should be buying your product.

Here’s what to do to make sure your site is focused:

• Pick your one main action (likely: it’s “Add to Cart” or “Buy Now”)
• Build everything around making that action easy and appealing
• Keep every website page focused on moving people toward that button 

Step 2: Choose an ecommerce platform

Choosing your ecommerce platform is the most consequential decision you’ll make. It determines your setup complexity, cost, flexibility, and support options.  For first-time sellers, an all-in-one platform removes unnecessary complexity and helps you launch faster, with fewer decisions and fewer things that can go wrong.

Think of your ecommerce platform as the engine under the hood of your online store. Pick a good fit, and you won’t think about it much (which is exactly what you want). Pick a bad fit, and you’ll be fighting with it every time you need to add a product or process a payment.

You don’t need to become a tech wizard or spend weeks researching. But you do need to understand your options and pick the path that makes sense for where you are right now.

All-in-one vs. DIY: pick your path

You’ve essentially got two realistic routes when it comes to creating an online store:

The DIY route: Go with a content management system like WordPress and get WooCommerce Hosting for ecommerce support. From there, you’d need to connect your domain, configure payment gateways, install security plugins (if it’s not done for you), troubleshoot when things break, and so on. It’s doable if you enjoy tinkering with tech, but it eats up time you could spend actually selling.

The all-in-one route: This means that your domain, hosting, and ecommerce are all in one package. Everything’s connected, optimized, and ready to go. Log in, pick a template, add products, start selling.

For first-time sellers, an all-in-one approach (like SiteGround Ecommerce) is the smarter play. You get professional-grade hosting, automatic domain setup, built-in security and speed optimization, and one support team for everything. More importantly, you get to focus on making that first sale instead of troubleshooting plugins at midnight.

Domain and hosting

Depending on which route you choose, you’ll need to get your domain (your web address like yourstore.com) and web hosting (where your site lives on the internet) sorted out. For the sake of this article (which is focused on getting you started simply and efficiently) we’re going to discuss the steps for an all-in-one ecommerce platform.

With this type of easy-to-use platform, you simply choose your custom domain name (and if you’re stuck, tools like the SiteGround AI domain generator can help you find something perfect), and then everything, including hosting, is set up for you in one simple process. No connecting separate services. No configuring servers. No hoping everything talks to each other properly.

Availability of templates

Unless you’re a designer (or have one on speed dial), you’ll want pre-made templates that don’t look like they were built in 2003.

Good platforms offer:

• Industry-specific templates designed for ecommerce, not just generic websites
• Professional website designs that build trust with customers from the moment they land on your site
• Easy customization so your store reflects your brand without looking like everyone else’s
• Mobile-optimized web designs that work beautifully on any device
• Accessible web design built in, so that your site is usable by everyone and meets modern accessibility standards

Ease of use

You don’t need to be a tech genius, but you do need basic tools to manage your online store, and help people actually find it.

When choosing an ecommerce platform, look for:

• Built-in ecommerce SEO (search engine optimization) features like customizable page titles and meta descriptions (as seen below)
• An intuitive dashboard where you can add products, edit pages, and take care of order management and inventory tracking without having to study a manual
• The ability to customize your site visually, no coding required
• Tools like email marketing and analytics that help you as you grow your online business.

Multiple payment gateways

People have strong opinions about how they pay for stuff online. Some love PayPal. Some refuse to use anything but Apple Pay. Some want to type in their card directly.

With that in mind, your ecommerce platform should support:

• Credit and debit cards (the basics, like Visa, Mastercard, etc.)
• Digital wallets like PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay
• Secure checkout that keeps customer data safe (and keeps you compliant with all those annoying-but-necessary regulations)

Transaction fees

Many platforms take a percentage of every sale on top of your payment processor’s fees. It might not seem like much at first, but it adds up quickly — so factor it into your platform decision early.

Step 3: Set up payment and taxes

Payment and tax setup sounds intimidating, but modern platforms have made it surprisingly straightforward. If you’ve chosen an all-in-one ecommerce platform, most of the work is already done for you. You’re mostly just connecting accounts, choosing options from dropdown menus, and letting the system handle the calculations.

Payments

The set-up process is actually surprisingly easy. Usually you just need to connect your accounts (like Stripe or PayPal, which takes all of about five minutes), and toggling on the payment methods you want to offer. That’s it. No coding, no complicated integrations.

Shipping

You don’t need a complicated shipping strategy on day one, but rather just need something that works.

Start with the shipping basics:

Define your shipping zones: Are you shipping locally? Nationwide? Internationally? Start conservative, as it’s much easier to expand your zones later than to deal with shipping headaches, unexpected costs, or delivery issues in regions you’re not ready to serve. If you’re just starting out, consider limiting to your country first and adding international shipping once you have a few orders under your belt.

Choose your shipping methods:

• Flat rate shipping: Charge the same amount regardless of what they order (keeps it simple for you and predictable for customers)
• Free shipping: Offer it on orders over a certain amount to up average order value
• Local pickup: If you’re local or have a physical location, let people skip shipping entirely

You can always get fancier later with real-time carrier rates and zone-based pricing. But for your first sale? Simple flat rates will do just fine.

Taxes

Ah yes, everyone’s favorite topic. But before you start sweating, remember: your platform can handle most of this automatically.

For most first-time sellers shipping within their own country, this takes maybe 10 minutes to configure. The platform already knows the sales tax rates: you just tell it where you’re located and where you’re shipping, making it easy to collect sales tax.

If you’re selling internationally (especially in the EU), there are extra considerations like VAT and different tax classes. But even here, good platforms have pre-loaded rates and can handle things like EU B2B transactions with VIES checks. It sounds complicated, but the platform does the math for you.

Advanced tax setup (if you need it later):

Some platforms, like SiteGround Ecommerce, offer advanced tax services (like Stripe Tax integration) that automatically calculate taxes for even more countries and product types, plus give you detailed reporting. 

Step 4: Pick a theme & customize

Your theme is the visual foundation of your store — it shapes how customers perceive your brand before they’ve read a single word. The goal isn’t to win a design award; it’s to create a professional-looking store that doesn’t scare people away and makes it easy to buy. You can refine the aesthetic later, once you’ve made some sales and know what resonates.

Start with a template 

Unless you’re a designer — or have the budget to hire one — you’ll start with a pre-made template. That’s a good thing. Modern ecommerce platforms offer templates built specifically for online stores, so you’re not designing from scratch or guessing what works.

Choose something that fits your industry. A handmade jewelry store should feel different from an auto parts shop. But don’t overthink it. As long as the structure is solid, you can adjust the visuals to match your brand.

The goal isn’t perfection; it’s launching with a website design that looks professional, works on every device, and makes it easy for customers to buy. You can always refine the look later, once sales start coming in.

Customize the basics (but don’t go overboard)

Once you’ve picked a theme, you’ll want to make it yours. But “making it yours” doesn’t mean rebuilding everything from scratch.

Focus on these essentials:

• Your logo: Even a simple text-based company logo is fine to start. You can always upgrade later
• Your brand colors: Swap in your main colors so it feels cohesive with your online business.
• Your font: Same with fonts: pick a set of fonts that aligns with your branding basics.

Most modern themes let you do all of this with user-friendly builders. No coding required. You click, you type, you upload an image, you’re done.

Resist the urge to tinker endlessly

Customization tools are fun to play with, but they can be a trap! You can change button shapes, rearrange sections, edit images…and before you know it, it’s been six hours and you still haven’t added a single product.

So remember Step 1? Keep the sale in mind, and save the tinkering for later.

Step 5: Build your website pages

Your website pages are what turn visitors into customers, and you don’t need many of them to launch. A handful of well-built pages that do their job beats 20 half-finished ones every time. Everything else can wait.

Create essential pages

Let’s talk about the non-negotiables — the pages every ecommerce site needs from day one:

• Homepage: This is where most visitors land first, so your homepage design should quickly explain what you sell, why it matters, and what to do next. Keep it simple with a clear headline, featured products or categories, and an obvious path to start shopping.
• Product category pages: If you sell more than a few products, category pages help shoppers browse without feeling overwhelmed. Group similar items together and make it easy to scan products at a glance.
• Product pages: This is where the sale happens. Each product detail page should clearly show what the product is, why it’s valuable, how much it costs, and how to add it to the cart without distractions.
• Trust pages: Every store also needs basic trust pages (we’ll touch more on these in a moment).

A note on why structure matters: Thoughtful website structure, with clearly organized categories and product pages, not only makes shopping easier for visitors but also helps search engines and AI-driven tools (including GEO search) understand your site, increasing visibility and discoverability.

Fill your website pages

Now that you know which pages you need, it’s time to fill them with content that actually helps people take action.

Start by writing for real humans. Use clear, straightforward language and focus on what the customer cares about most, and what this product or page does for them. Answer obvious questions before visitors have to go looking.

Next, make your content easy to scan. Most visitors won’t read every word; they’ll skim until something catches their eye. Research has found that on the average web page, users have time to read at most 28% of the words during an average visit.This is why visual hierarchy matters.

To keep pages scannable and effective:

• Use descriptive headings that clearly explain what each section is about
• Break information into short paragraphs (2–3 sentences max)
• Use bullet points for key features or benefits
• Bold important details so they stand out at a glance
• Make sure each page naturally leads to one clear action (as discussed in Step 1)

This kind of thoughtful structure doesn’t just improve usability — it also helps search engines and AI-driven search tools better understand your pages, making them easier to surface in search results.

Clear content, strong visual hierarchy, and a logical flow all work together to turn browsers into buyers.

Add basic imagery

The reality is that people buy with their eyes first. In fact, clear visuals are the most important factor for 67% of online shoppers, often outweighing product descriptions and reviews. So your images need to be good enough that people can actually see what they’re buying.

Types of images to include:

• Product photos: Show each product from multiple angles, include a size reference if needed, and demonstrate use when relevant.
• Other key images: Homepage hero images to set the vibe, category banners to preview what’s inside, and a personal touch photo for your About page.

Practical tips:

• You don’t need a professional photographer on day one. A smartphone with good lighting works for most products.
• Avoid generic stock photos; they kill trust immediately.
• Keep image styles consistent across your site to align with your brand.
• Leverage an AI image generator (such as the one built in to SiteGround Ecommerce) to create original images on the go.

Include an email marketing signup form

Here’s something super important to always keep in mind: not everyone who visits will buy on their first visit. But if you can capture their email (especially with the help of a good lead magnet), you get another chance to convert them later via email marketing. Plus, email marketing consistently delivers one of the highest returns on investment of any marketing channel — reason enough to make it a priority from day one.

To get those sign-ups, keep the ask simple: “Get 10% off your first order” or “Be the first to know about new products.” Don’t ask for their life story; just an email address.

Step 6: Make your website trustworthy

Trust is everything when you’re new. You don’t have thousands of reviews or a recognizable brand name yet, so you need to work harder to prove you’re legitimate. 

Here’s what website content builds trust:

• Clear contact info: Email address in your website footer, a dedicated Contact page, and ideally a phone number (even if it goes to voicemail). Nothing screams “scam” louder than an ecommerce website with no way to reach the people running it. Bonus points if you actually respond quickly, because nothing builds trust faster than a helpful human.
• Simple policies: Shipping policy (when will it arrive and what does it cost?), return/refund policy, privacy policy (legally required in most places), and terms of service. Keep them straightforward and customer-friendly. 
• Social proof: Customer reviews on product pages, testimonials on your homepage, trust badges like secure checkout icons, and links to your social media. People trust other people way more than they trust you. 

Step 7: Launch & drive first visitors

Your site is built, your products are listed, everything works. Now you need to actually get people to show up and (hopefully!) buy something. But the internet is vast and crowded, and nobody’s going to stumble upon your brand new store by accident. You need to actively drive traffic, especially in those critical first few weeks.

Here’s how to drive traffic to your ecommerce website as you launch:

Send email marketing

If you already have an email list, this is your fastest path to first sales.

Here’s how to use email marketing for your ecommerce website launch:

• Announce your launch: Send a simple, exciting email letting people know you’re open for business
• Offer a launch discount: Something like “10% off for our first 50 customers” creates urgency
• Make it personal: Remind people why you started this and why they should care

Leverage social media

You might already have some followers on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, or wherever you hang out online. Now’s the time to tell your followers about your store.

Smart ways to use social media marketing to build sales:

• Post about your launch: Share behind-the-scenes content, product photos, your story
• Go live: Do a quick video showing your products and answering questions
• Tag relevant people: If you know anyone who’d genuinely love what you’re selling, tag them (but don’t be spammy)
• Use relevant hashtags: Make it easier for people interested in your niche to find you
• Engage in communities: Join groups or forums related to your products and participate genuinely (not just dropping links)

Invest a small amount in paid ads

Organic reach is great, but paid ads can help you get in front of targeted customers quickly, even with a tiny budget.

Start with $5-10 per day and test:

• Facebook/Instagram ads: Target based on interests, demographics, and behaviors
• Google Shopping ads: Show your products in search results when people are actively looking
• Pinterest ads: Great for visual products (home decor, fashion, crafts)

Focus on your ideal customer from Step 1, test different images and copy, and track actual sales (not just clicks). Don’t blow your budget on day one; instead start small and scale what works.

Gather customer feedback

Pay attention to what’s working and what’s not. Track where traffic comes from, which products people view, and where they drop off. Send survey emails, asking early customers how they heard about you and what almost stopped them from buying.

This feedback tells you what to double down on and what to fix. Your first few weeks are a live experiment, so adjust accordingly.

Step 8: Improve and fine tune after first sales

Your first sale is proof that people will pay for what you’re selling. Now the job shifts from launching to improving, using real customer behavior and data to make your store work better over time.

Tweak design

Now that you have real traffic and sales data, you can look at your digital marketing metrics to see how people actually use your site (as opposed to how you thought they’d use it).

Look for friction points:

• Are people abandoning their carts? Maybe your checkout process is confusing or your shipping costs are surprising them at the last minute
• Are certain pages getting high bounce rates? Could be slow loading times, unclear messaging, or design issues
• Are mobile users struggling? Check your analytics. If mobile traffic is high but conversions are low, your mobile device experience needs work
• Is your CTA button getting missed? Maybe it’s not prominent enough or the color doesn’t stand out

Make small, strategic tweaks based on actual behavior and feedback. Change one thing at a time so you know what’s making a difference. A/B test if you want to get fancy, but honestly, just fixing obvious pain points will get you most of the way there.

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Add more products

Your initial product lineup was enough to prove the concept. Now you can expand strategically.

Smart ways to add products as you scale your business:

• Look at what’s selling best and add variations (different colors, sizes, related items)
• Pay attention to customer requests: If multiple people ask “do you have X?”, that’s a clear signal
• Fill gaps in your catalog: What would make sense as a natural addition to what you already offer?
• Test new categories carefully: Don’t go too broad too fast. Instead stay close to what’s already working

Build your email list

Remember that email signup form you added in Step 5? Now’s the time to get serious about building your email list and actually using it.

Focus on:

• Optimizing your signup offers: Is your incentive compelling enough? Test different offers (10% off vs. free shipping vs. early access to sales)
• Capturing emails at checkout: Every customer should be on your list
• Sending regular emails: Weekly or bi-weekly newsletters, product launches, exclusive deals. Stay top of mind without being annoying
• Segmenting your list: Send different messages to first-time buyers vs. repeat customers vs. people who abandoned carts

Email is your most valuable marketing channel because you own it. Social media platforms can change algorithms or disappear. Your email list is yours forever. Treat it like the asset it is.

Now you know how to build an ecommerce site — get that first sale

Building an ecommerce store is truly easier than ever. You don’t need a massive budget, a tech degree, or months of preparation. You just need a clear plan, the right ecommerce tools, and the willingness to launch before everything feels perfect.

Ready to start? SiteGround Ecommerce gives you everything you need in one place: domain, premium web hosting, payment processing, email marketing, and an intuitive online store builder. No juggling multiple services. No technical nightmares. Just a straightforward path from idea to first sale.

Stop planning. Start selling.

FAQs for how to create an ecommerce site

This article was originally published in May 2022, and then updated in April 2026