How do you start your own webshop?
Posted on September 4, 2017 • 3 min read • 551 words
After helping friends start a new online store last week, I thought it would be fun to explain this whole process. How can you start your own webshop? It is not complicated in itself, but you have to take your time. You have quite a few choices to make.
The Plan
One of the most important steps. What are you going to do? How are you going to do it? Are you going to reinvent the wheel yourself, or are you going to attend knowledge days? The Chamber of Commerce , among others, has events about starting your own webshop. This is not an unnecessary luxury
Chamber of Commerce
Now that we are talking about the Chamber of Commerce… Registering with the Chamber of Commerce is also one of the things you have to do. You are then registered as an entrepreneur.
According to the law, you are an entrepreneur or have a business if you independently provide goods or services to others, with the intention of making a profit. I think that the webshop owners are in the business to make money, so that seems like a no-brainer to me. The choice is then ‘only’ which legal form. In most cases you will want to register as a sole proprietorship, but this of course depends entirely on your situation.
Read all about legal forms for your business on the Chamber of Commerce website.
Administration
Make sure you have your administration in order. Not only is this legally required, but it can also prevent you from getting into financial trouble. Insight into what comes in and what goes out is useful when doing business.
If you are not very good at administration, do yourself a favor: Make sure you find someone who can do this for you.
Not having your administration in order can also have consequences for your tax return. The tax authorities are not lenient when it comes to fines for not keeping the administration or not keeping it properly.
Purchase a webshop package
There are various parties that can provide you with a webshop. You get everything you need to get started. The prices of the packages and what you get for them differ considerably.
A small list. This list is certainly not intended to be complete.
Take out a subscription, choose a theme, enter your products and done: You are ready to sell products.
Self-host
If you have decided to install and set up your webshop yourself, you will still have to choose which product you will use for this. Make sure you have a good hosting party and install webshop software.
A selection of the possibilities:
- OSCommerce
- WordPress in combination with WooCommerce -Magento
Payments
As soon as payment is due, you will also have to arrange this. As with all those other things, you have more than enough choices here.
- iDeal
- credit card
- PayPal
- Cash on delivery
You can conclude contracts for individual payment methods with a bank or payment provider, but you can also use payment providers. These handle all payment transactions for you.
Closing
Now that you have built your webshop and arranged your payments, it is time to advertise yourself and your products. But that’s food for next time.
