Getting ready to launch your online store? Or just getting into the world of digital products? Wherever you are in your monetization journey, we’re here to help make sure you have everything you need to set up a successful online store and start up a new income stream.

Here, we’ve put together a checklist of everything you need to do to launch and grow your online store. That includes deciding what to sell, marketing your products without feeling sleezy, and everything in between.

What to include in your online store

Below are the basics of what you’ll need to launch an online store.

[ ]  A home base for your entire store:

[ ]  An exciting home page that displays all your products

[ ]  A way to navigate between different pages of your site and different product pages

[ ]  Individual product pages complete with the following:

[ ]  Images

[ ]  Descriptions

[ ]  Prices

[ ]  Checkout flow

[ ]  Ability to take (ideally) multiple payment options

[ ]  A confirmation screen pre purchase

[ ]  A confirmation screen post purchase

[ ]  A way to get questions answered, such as:

[ ]  An FAQ section

[ ]  A “contact us” page or a place for feedback

Growth strategies for your online store

Now that you’ve got the setup down, you can explore strategies to start driving traffic and sales on your online store!

Storefront improvements

[ ]  Convey your unique selling proposition - your true differentiation - front and center. What makes your products different and valuable?

[ ]  Invest in website design - beautiful design goes a long way in driving sales

[ ]  Use a website builder - using a website builder like Beacons lets you leverage premade website building blocks to make your storefront easier to construct and more complete

[ ]  Ensure your website is mobile friendly (websites built on Beacons are all mobile friendly!)

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[ ]  Add an “about me” section to help potential customers really connect with your story

[ ]  Offer great customer service -  be accessible and responsive to customer questions

[ ]  Ask people to try clicking and checking out on your products - have friends and family share feedback on the messaging and user experience of you store

Product page improvements

[ ]  Include testimonials and rave reviews from your top customers (can even start it off with just your friends and family if you are new to selling)

[ ]  Include high-quality product images - you want people to be excited about buying your products and seeing what they are going to get

[ ]  Offer free products as lead magnets to hook potential customers

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Marketing improvements

[ ]  Create a marketing plan with some of the following points:

[ ]  Set up a blog to write about your products and start “content marketing”

[ ]  Set up an email marketing drip to your followers (you can use the Beacons email marketing product which can fully integrate with your Beacons store and automatically pull in all of your product information)

[ ]  Spruce up your social media pages to announce your store launch - consider doing something creative like an AMA, a live stream, or a give away

[ ]  Collaborate with other creators to co-market your products to get more reach across their channels along with your own

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