Right at the beginning, an important note – to set up and manage a more complex and successful web shop professionally, it’s really necessary to invest some money and a little more time and enlist the help of a professional who specializes in what you need (e.g. SEO optimization, content marketing, storytelling, web design, programming, maintaining or setting up social media accounts, etc.) – at least for the setup and advice on rules, legalities and trends in using each of the tools you need for a successful and secure website.
Starting online business without stress
Online platforms and tools come and go every day, their design, legalities and rules of use change. Trying to keep up with all of this while trying to maintain and grow your own business with little or no support can leave you feeling anxious and overwhelmed. Such feelings often lead to a strong resistance to anything related to technology.
The good news is that this does not have to be the case in your case. If it already is, it’s easy to change – in the way that you enlist the help of an expert to guide you through the basic functions of your web shop and website, for which you, as the owner, are still legally responsible, and then choose a tool or channel, such as Facebook, Instagram, or blog, that is in your comfort zone and with which you will begin your tech (m)learning. 😉
Then, step by step, move to other channels (if you need them at all in your industry and depending on the size and development plan of your company). Knowledge is available online and much of it is free.
Go slow and set your goals realistically
Perhaps the less good news is that there are no shortcuts. You have to decide if you and your company want to move forward and just show up. Time and perhaps money should be invested in education. The reality is that the website is the face of your business, and it would be good if you are the one who maintains that face and knows it best.
Knowing how to automate the administrative part of the business using technology (e.g. discounts, promotions, sending order confirmations, invoices, package confirmations, etc.) – part of the communication with consumers (e.g. automating Facebook replies), etc. – is absolutely VITAL in the 21st century for any type of business and only so that you can keep up with the competition and the expectations and buying habits of customers.
Be smart and use technology to your advantage
If you use technology intelligently and automate as many processes as possible in your business, you will save money and time, depend less on others and increase your competitiveness in the market and your profit.
My suggestion is that you try to learn the basic technology skills that are available for free online, and then ask a professional what you do not know. This way you will need less paid consulting hours and you will be able to control the quality of work of digital marketing developers and consultants to some extent, if you yourself understand the basic postulates of online communication and important terms that we use when doing business on the Internet.
Before you start your website and think of a name for your website or already have it, check if the domain is available or already taken. If it is available, you can buy it from quality website hosting, such as SiteGround.
These are some of the sites and channels where you can start learning. In general, Udemy is the best site for education when it comes to digital marketing, there you will find courses on the topic you are interested in and at affordable prices.
Platforms for the website’s creation
The most popular platform for creating websites, which is the easiest to use even for non-professionals, is WordPress (which has its own web shop plugin WooCommerce).
Depending on whether you sell your products or services to the end customer or to other companies, whether you want a web shop or if you are an artist who just needs a showcase for your paintings or if you are a student who just wants a website with your resume, the Wix.com platform might be interesting to you.
Here you can learn how to use the basics of the WordPress interface: Lynda.com, WPBeginners, Codex.
Paid online WordPress education courses: Udemy – WordPress for beginners, WooCommerce education.
Email marketing tools
MailChimp is one of the tools for email marketing, and other popular ones are: HubSpot, MailerLite, Mailjet, Moosent, EmailOctopus, etc.
With these tools, you can create email lists, create beautifully designed emails easily, quickly and hassle-free (without any programming or design knowledge) and track in the analytics how many people actually opened the emails, how many of them clicked on the link in the email, used a promo code or bought the product you are promoting in the email.
Email marketing works. Whatever you think about it, trust us. It works.
They do not remember you once a month, and they will not remember you once a year if you do not remind them (preferably by email, but it works with an automated mobile message, etc.) that they may have added products to their cart in your web shop but did not complete the purchase because the phone rang or something else distracted them from the computer, send them a promo code for a discount on their birthday, remind them about your super-duper Christmas offer back in November, etc.
Free training courses for setting up email marketing tools on your website or web shop: Free Udemy course, Paid Udemy course.
Social networks
The most common mistake small business owners make is to open all accounts on all existing social networks without first checking if your target audience is present on that network and, if so, if they are searching there for the service or product you offer.
Also, have quality content, a plan for publishing that content, time to post the content to the social networks on a daily basis, and money to promote the content so your target audience can see it in the first place. Yikes…okay! Now that you have given up on setting up accounts on most social networks, let us move on! 
Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp are all part of the same company, so these accounts are connected through a business center. These are the three accounts we recommend. So, download the WhatsApp Business application and create a catalog of your products or services in your WhatsApp profile.
Then, depending on your target audience, open a Facebook and/or Instagram account, after carefully planning the content, budget and publishing schedule that you can realistically keep, or – automate the schedule of posts so that they appear on a specific date with regular control.
Google tools
Google offers many tools, and among the most used are probably YouTube and Google Analytics. For businesses with an outlet, Google Business will also be important to promote your outlet and get reviews more easily.
- Google analytics training / Google Analytics for beginners
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization) – the way Google positions your website in the search engine.
- YouTube training
- Google Business
Do not forget that in order to grow, you need to monitor financial flows, and our TOOLS are available to help you do that.
