hey if you're watching this video that means you're looking to create an ecommerce website
for your online business and on this channel we share various ways to create apparel brands
and show you how to sell them online in this video i want to introduce you to an ecommerce
platform that is helping entrepreneurs get their business online and is truly allowing you to grow
your brand internationally and this platform is called big commerce and they are generous enough
to sponsor this video but more about them in the moment right now i want to discuss the key tips
you need in order to properly start your online business and the very first one that we want to
start about is about knowing exactly what it is you're going to sell and creating the correct
messaging and branding around that after working with hundreds of entrepreneurs over the years
throughout this channel the most common issue we encounter is unclear messaging and branding now a
name is a good place for you to start but i want you to go a little bit further into it and really
tell the story to help a complete stranger quickly and effectively understand what it is that you're
all about and why you offer the products that you offer during this stage this planning stage it's
also recommended that you guys create a business plan for how you will make money and who the ideal
customer is now we have free resources and links to everything that we mentioned in this video
which will be linked right in the description down below as well as in the comments from there
you want to jump into the designing a logo and the aesthetic that will resonate with that messaging
now if your brand is all about sustainability then don't use bright neon colors as it's not
the way to go aesthetically a sustainable brand is more earth tones logos are a little bit more
thoughtfully crafted and not as bold as a corporate brand during this stage make sure
you use online pin boards and slides to organize this information which will help designers and
your team expand on this direction because the reality is guys you're not going to be able to
do everything yourself so make sure you do the ground work in order for other people to help you
where they have strengths and skill sets now once you have your name logo and your brand direction
started this means that you are 99 better off than entrepreneurs who are going into business for the
very first time now with this information you are now ready to start creating your product lines
use the brand direction you created to help present your brand to manufacturers and the people
that you want to work with in order to get your brand off the ground now you see by putting in
this groundwork vendors will see that you aren't just going to be wasting their time asking a bunch
of random questions this increases your chances of securing quality partnerships with manufacturers
and vendors of your product line and this also opens the doors to getting free to low-cost
samples of your new designs and improving the overall manufacturing experience i can't stress
this part enough guys as it's a common mistake most new brands make when reaching out to people
they want to work with they literally show up and say hey i have this idea for this product can you
help me but by putting in the groundwork you know exactly what it is that you want from a production
partner which in terms helps them communicate what they can provide and if you guys are okay with
what they can provide and what you want then you know it's going to be a good fit but if they have
no idea what you want and you have no idea what you're really looking for that's when things get a
little tricky and you're gonna have some very very easy mistakes that you could have prevented if you
just followed the tips that we just mentioned a common question that overseas suppliers will then
ask you once you have your design ready to ship out is if you have a shipping account so they
could deliver your goods that's why it's important that you guys establish the business the right way
this means to legitimize it and in order to legitimize your business you have to register
it at the state and local level now there's two there's your state and then your city or county
we have a video expanding on this process which we'll link in the descriptions
up above as well as in the descriptions down below there's a little note card that'll pop up and
it'll take you to a playlist there in short you will have to decide what business structure you
want to choose there are various options starting with a sole proprietor which essentially means
you're the so owner and liable for the business a partnership which means you're legally partnering
with someone else a corporation or an llc which is a hybrid of a partnership and a corporation
now llcs are a preferred entity as they help protect your assets while keeping the
paperwork and legal fees lower in most states that you live in now this is not legal advice
and we highly encourage that you guys speak to an attorney and certified cpa for your situation
with the registration of your business you are now able to apply for an ein number through the
irs website and with that number you can complete the registration with the sales tax department in
your state now the department of taxation will give you a number called the sales tax id number
and with that number and business information you can register your business to ship internationally
with any major carrier and you'll also be able to buy wholesale for major brands and businesses in
the us after receiving and approving your samples you are now one step closer to starting your
online ecommerce business and at this point you're probably wondering what e-commerce platform you
should use there's a lot of options out there and it's hard to choose which one fits best
some platforms are designed for creatives that are selling a service and some product lines
others are designed to showcase portfolios with the little side of e-commerce and others are great
beginner-friendly e-commerce options but for those that have a strong vision for an international
e-commerce business bigcommerce is a solution unlike other e-commerce platforms that provide you
with tools to sell online bigcommerce is one of the only platforms that will help you sell almost
anything online literally anything as long as it's legal in your country now you would think
that every platform that allowed you to sell and do business online would allow you to do the same
thing but they don't unfortunately other platforms have very strict terms of service that constantly
change so if you're selling something that is borderline in the gray area but is legal to sell
and if that platform finds out about it they can immediately shut down your store
causing you to lose your business overnight i can only imagine the frustration that store owners
feel when this happens and if you're a business that relies heavily on ecommerce sales this is
not what you want happening to you the best part about bigcommerce is that it comes with a variety
of tools right out of the box so it saves you time and also helps your website perform better as it's
not dragged down by a bunch of apps you have to install to create the features that bigcommerce
has they also allow you to connect with any card processor with no added fees now other platforms
allow you to connect third-party processors but they also charge a fee on top of that
but bigcommerce allows you to connect with any payment option so this is a great option
for brands that are going to be selling globally and need to connect to third-party processors in
different countries in a few seconds i will show you guys how to get set up with bigcommerce but
before we do that i want to mention that we will be showing you guys some tools and tricks to help
start your marketing within this video walkthrough so get your pen and paper out to take some notes
and be on the lookout for part two of this video where we share how to scale your ecommerce brand
in this future collaboration we work with the ceo of solo stove which is a high growth
outdoor company that went from five employees to 125 employees within three years so make
sure you guys subscribe to this channel right now if you haven't already and turn on those
post notification bills to be alerted of its video release in that video john mara
shares insight into how they scale their ecommerce brand successfully and profitably
i'm pumped to share that insight with you guys and i'm ready to show you how you can get started with
this bigcommerce tutorial so let's jump right into it start with bigcommerce simply create an
account to the link provided down below there's a 15 day free trial with no credit card required
once you create your account you'll see this dashboard if you click on over here you'll see
your online store section you'll see that there's already a storefront created with products inside
now in a moment we're going to show you guys how to remove these and fully customize your website
right now i want to take you into some of these tabs on the left to help you understand how they
all come together to create your ecommerce store the first tab is the orders tab which allows you
to view pending orders new orders or search for past orders from customers on your store
under the products tab is where you'll be adding your products right now it's pre-loaded with all
those sample products so before we upload ours we're just going to quickly delete all of these
under the customer tab you can add customers manually or in bulk through the import feature
now this is where you want to go if you're changing from a different platform to bigcommerce
and then you have the marketing tab under this tab you have the option to add banners to your store
that will populate to the store's header or footer now you can also run promotions here there's
abandoned cart notifications and even create coupon codes now that we have that out of the way
let's go to the part where you get to customize your online store now head on over to the theme
marketplace to get started you can filter through these themes under the free or paid and also
select the industry that you're into to find the designs that go with your brand's aesthetic
as you filter through some of the theme options available you'll see that some come in different
prices from 399 to 300 and up each theme is unique here and the way that it organizes information
such as how headers are going to appear icons sliding bars navigation a lot of
the features of the website can be previewed here before you buy or install it on your store
you can also do a mobile preview of those themes to ensure that it's going to work with your brand
and product line for the sake of this tutorial we're going to go with the fortune contrast
after uploading products to our store we're going to start to customize this and truly make it ours
now as you view your storefront here in order to import the products that you guys have uploaded
you're going to want to go into theme styles under the menu option under this option you
have the opportunity to pull in products as well as customize colors of the theme that you want
to choose so most of the visual aesthetics for your store is going to be customizable under this
menu option under the homepage settings it will help you import the product lines that you have
according to the theme design that you purchased this theme came with a product option it allows
you to keep customers on the same product line if they don't like it they can click out and
then start to shop for other product lines that you may have under the homepage setting it will
help you import the product lines that you have according to the theme design that you purchased
now a great feature about bigcommerce is that it allows you to drag and drop elements directly
onto the store without coding experience now for example if you want to have a hero banner to break
up some product lines you can simply do that by adding the hero banner option into the theme store
and from there you can upload the image and provide a call to action you can customize the
details of this call to action from the size to the colors to the fonts and the buttons
and where it will take the customers after they click by clicking on the preview tab you can see
how this shows up on desktop and mobile view you can continue to customize your store any
way that you envision so for us we'd like to design an image underneath the main banner
we're able to enhance or reduce opacity as well as align the image as we see fit through this option
now you may notice that there's a global widget here now what this means is that it
appears throughout the entire site now this is a great option to announce sales or any
special promotions or just for the branding of the collection that you've been working hard on
now this is how you customize your storefront now i want to jump into the uploading and branding of
the store under the storefront you're going to find the logo option you'll upload the logo from
your computer and you refresh it to find it at the top of your page or wherever that theme puts
your logo for the branding if you want to update your call to action on your home banner it's going
to depend on the theme that you have now for this theme the call to action goes underneath the image
so as i was stating earlier guys depending on the theme that you choose is going to depend
on where some of these aesthetics go this theme also has social media icons on the footer and to
edit the social media links you enter the link without the https and hit save one time you can
also reorganize these links that you create by simply dragging them to the top now let's go to
the web pages section you'll find that there's web pages that already came with this theme so
to add a page such as an about us simply create a page like this and fill in the information
and you should be good to go now you can also upload the photo whatever photo you want from
your team or to show about us i highly recommend that you resize images before importing them
here so they show up right on the website now let's clean up the product area of your store
as it came preloaded with different categories now to do this you'll notice that you have all
the different categories still existing on the home page tab now to clean that up over here
select products from there go to product categories and you can get rid of the existing
ones and now you can also create new categories in this area now categories should be treated like
you can call it something like t-shirts hats shoes sneakers but you can also select new categories
uh under collections so you can categorize a new collection like for our example the foundation
kit that's going to be a category of its own i also recommend that you preview the layout design
on the mobile version to make sure everything is working properly now if you want to go back to the
storefront you can select image manager to find all the images that you uploaded to your website
such as banners anything on your about us page and you can also navigate over to the blog site where
you can create and start your official blogging of your site it's a pretty cool feature that it
allows you to upload your thumbnail as well as tags once you finalize your branding and some of
your settings you can preview the store and see that ours is coming along pretty nicely i like
how it's starting to look on the mobile version as well as the product categories how these are all
organized now it's all formatting pretty nicely and as a note adding banners throughout your store
can really bring it to life and now it brings us into the final part of the store which is the
marketing and launch of the website now under the marketing tab you'll find an option for banners
and what this means is that you can update and upload a banner specifically for collections
for a home page or anywhere else that you guys might need this if you want to use an image you've
already uploaded you can select it from the drop down that appears right here you can also rename
that file on your computer before uploading in case you change the dimensions or you edited
something about it once you hit saves you'll see that it loads up in a specific category that you
created for that product the example of our store here it's under the foundation collection and
we can see how that previews here as you can see ours is at the bottom and the image is kind of big
but we can essentially edit this to make it come up nicer and we can also change the position
either to the top or the bottom bigcommerce allows you to truly brand and market collections across
multiple pages pretty simply which i think is a really cool feature as historically if you wanted
to do anything like this you'd have to either paid someone to code or install another application
that slows down your site another great feature of bigcommerce is a promotions option which allows
people to qualify for discounts based on how they shop or any of the campaign that you're creating
as well as any banners that you guys might want to include to help upsell them at checkout
this comes into play with things like creating free shipping offers over a certain dollar amount
now bigcommerce also has an ecosystem for apps such as clavio which allow you to install it
directly into bigcommerce that way you can start to immediately begin your marketing campaign
you can manage everything within bigcommerce so it doesn't take you outside of the platform
now this is a great tool to help you grow your email marketing and retarget customers with ease
all of your apps that you install will be located in this area there's a lot of apps to choose from
that will continue to help you grow your business now that that site is ready the last thing you
want to do is set up your custom domain name now to activate this feature you need to select a plan
again they have a 15 day free trial so it doesn't charge you until the trial period
ends and there are links that we're going to link right down below to help you get started
as you look at the different tiers and options that big commerce has available to you
you'll notice down here that they have a cap on how much you can sell before they upgrade
your plan now this is because they're not charging customers any transaction fees it's solely based
on the plan that you select other platforms charge you a monthly fee plus transaction fees on top of
everything that you sell and if you're plugging into third-party platforms this is really where
you could spend a lot more money than what this monthly fee is bigcommerce allows you to plug
into any third party with no additional fees and because of that they have different plans to help
you get started and grow once you purchase a plan you're able to connect your domain name
to bigcommerce you'll be able to buy the domain name or connect an existing one the easiest route
is to just buy the domain at bigcommerce and they'll give you options on what is available
once you register the domain name you are now good to start doing business with your custom url
if you'd like to connect an exterior domain name go to the settings options here and update the
name servers there's a video on our channel that will help you do this and i'll also link it in
the help section down below now that you have your custom domain names you can also configure
new user accounts here to help people get access to the store you can also select the permission
levels of what they'll be able to do when they log in and the final thing to do is launch your store
you can select that under store setup and your site is now live man as you guys can
see bigcommerce has such a wide variety of tools and to be completely honest with you guys when i
first started using the platform i had a lot of learning curves i had to do so i hope that
this video tutorial helps to really alleviate some of those pain points and if you guys are
looking into starting with bigcommerce make sure you guys use the links in the description down
below they are affiliate links which helps us continue to produce content such as this
and make sure you guys are subscribed to the channel and you turn on those post notifications
as we roll out part two of this video which i'm personally excited to do because we're gonna get
to talk to the ceo of solo stove which is a super high growth business right now that's killing it
in the outdoor space and this and the ceo of that company is going to be sharing his tips and advice
to help entrepreneurs in our community such as yourself take their business to the next level
so thank you guys all for watching to this point for those of you guys that are here
i realize that you're ready to start taking action on things so i highly encourage that
you guys join our communities which are located in the descriptions down below through that you
guys can interact and connect and you guys can also download pdf and resources that
are available to help you continue building your brand and business from the ground up
when we started this channel our mission was to do exactly that to bring clarity to business
and help you guys build a brand that impact the world so once again we appreciate big commerce for
sponsoring this video and giving us an opportunity to help share this information to continue working
with entrepreneurs on a global basis so i look forward to seeing you guys on the next video