Note: This article includes information specific to the Japanese e-commerce market (e.g., Japan-specific services, regulations, or customs). Some details may not apply outside Japan.
For those of you who want to launch an online store: the steps to opening one are clear, but success depends on knowing "what to do" and "what to avoid."
This article explains in detail the 7 launch steps beginners should follow, basic customer-acquisition methods such as SEO, social media, and email marketing, and the back-end operations that boost customer satisfaction and drive repeat purchases — everything you need to steadily grow your monthly sales.
Steps to Launch an Online Store
1. Decide What Products to Sell
First, decide what products your online store will sell. Your sales strategy will differ greatly depending on whether you're sourcing existing products to resell or selling products you've developed and manufactured yourself.
2. Decide Your Shop's Concept
Once you've decided on your products, decide on your shop's concept. "Target selection" is key here.
For example, if you're selling "bags," your shop's design and marketing strategy will differ depending on the target audience's gender, age group, occupation, and so on.
We recommend setting a concrete target audience and deciding on a concept that aligns with it.
3. Decide Between Your Own EC Site or Mall-Based EC
One of the first important decisions when launching an online store is whether to open on "your own EC site" or "mall-based EC."
Characteristics of mall-based EC
Mall-based EC is an online shopping mall made up of multiple online stores. Amazon, Rakuten Ichiba, and Yahoo! Shopping fall into this category.
Since mall-based EC has a large number of users, its biggest advantage is strong customer acquisition. On the other hand, because many stores are competing within the mall, price competition tends to occur easily.
If you're dealing in existing products, opening a store on mall-based EC is recommended. Since the products already have brand recognition, you can expect traffic from in-mall search.
The article below compares EC malls in detail. Please use it as a reference.
Characteristics of your own EC site
Your own EC site is an online store that a company builds and operates independently.
How to build your own EC site is explained in detail in the article below.
In the early stages, you have almost no built-in customer acquisition power, so you need to handle marketing yourself. However, your own EC site tends to have a higher profit margin than mall-based EC and lets you freely customize your site, giving you the advantage of easier branding.
If you're dealing in original products, branding is important, so opening your own EC site is recommended.
The pros and cons of your own EC site versus mall-based EC are explained in detail in the article below.
4. Choose Your Payment Methods
One important element of launching an online store is offering a wide range of payment methods. If a user wants to buy but their preferred payment method isn't available, they're likely to abandon the purchase.
To prevent lost sales, we recommend offering a variety of payment methods, including credit card payment, PayPay, Rakuten Pay, Amazon Pay, carrier billing, and bank transfer.
5. Start on Your Site Design and Page Layout
Once you've completed the preparations above, move on to actually building the web pages where users will purchase your products.
How you build the site depends on the platform you chose in step 3, but be sure to design it with a look and color scheme that matches your concept, and a UI that's easy for users to use.
6. Source and Register Your Products
Once your web page is complete, source the products you'll actually sell and register them on your site. Put effort into your product photos and descriptions so that the features and benefits of your products come across clearly.
Depending on the products you handle, you may also need certain licenses or permits. For example, if you sell food, you need a qualified food hygiene manager and a business license based on the Food Sanitation Act.
Similarly, if you sell over-the-counter medicines, you need a pharmacy establishment license.
Failing to obtain these constitutes a violation, so be sure to check in advance whether the products you plan to sell require any licenses or permits.
7. Launch Your Online Store
Once everything is ready, go ahead and launch your online store. It's a good idea to place a test order before launch to confirm that orders can be processed without issues.
How to Run Your Online Store After Launch
The success of your online store is determined by how you run it after opening.
Simply opening your site won't attract users on its own — marketing and driving traffic are the keys to increasing sales.
How Should You Attract Customers?
First, it's important to make users aware that your online store and products exist. No matter how good your shop or products are, they won't sell if users don't know about them.
The article below introduces customer-acquisition methods in detail. Please use it as a reference.
There are many marketing methods, but let's start with three fundamental ones you should know first.
SEO
SEO refers to efforts to rank your web page higher in search results, increasing search traffic.
For your own EC site, the goal is to rank higher on search engines like Google; for mall-based EC, the goal is to rank higher in search within the mall itself.
The article below explains the basics and benefits of SEO, along with concrete practical methods.
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is a method of promoting your products' appeal on platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram. By sharing product information on social media platforms with many users, you aim to drive customer traffic.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is a marketing method that uses email. It involves sending emails to your customer list to achieve goals such as attracting customers, building customer relationships (turning them into fans), and driving product purchases.
The article below explains the benefits and practical methods of email marketing in detail.
Listing Ads / Social Media Ads
If organic traffic isn't enough, you can also pay to have your web page shown in a search engine's ad slots. Ad costs vary by search term, so it's important to find the optimal terms that fit your ad budget.
Other Major Marketing Methods
・Display ads
・Affiliate ads
・Mass advertising
・Content marketing
・Influencer marketing
Which methods you can pursue depends on the budget you can allocate to marketing. Finding the marketing methods that fit the products you handle is key to business success.
Back-End Operations Are Key to Repeat-Purchase Measures
In the early stages of your launch, acquiring new customers is important, but at the same time, encouraging existing customers to make repeat purchases is also essential.
The EC operations that are most closely tied to repeat-purchase measures are back-end operations.
Back-end operations refer to work such as packing, shipping, and after-sales service once a product has sold. It's important to handle this work carefully in order to increase customer satisfaction and encourage repeat purchases.
Even after a product ships, you'll need to handle customer inquiries and complaints. Providing solid, high-quality service here helps you gain repeat customers and fans.
It's also important to run after-sales activities aimed at earning repeat customers, such as proactively emailing customers to ask for a review or survey response, or offering a coupon they can use on their next purchase.
Recommended Services for Those Who Want to Start an Online Store
Choosing the right service platform is important when setting up your online store. We recommend the following two options.
[BASE Is a Good Fit for These Kinds of People!]
- You just want to open an EC site for now, to try it out
- You want to test-market a product and see how it's received
- You want to sell moderately well-known goods, such as sports club merchandise
- You already have your own EC site, but want to avoid putting extra load on your own server from tie-up promotions or special-collaboration products
BASE is recommended for the cases above. In other cases, we recommend Shopify, which offers high functionality and is easy to customize.
[Benefits of Shopify]
- High functionality and customizability
- Can integrate with external applications
- Easy inventory integration and strong shipping/fulfillment support
- Makes it easy to try selling overseas
The article below explains in detail how to create a Shopify account and set up your store.
