If you are a car fanatic or you are looking for a good opportunity to start selling car parts online, it can be done very easily with the many free online tools at your disposal. You will need a small investment for a few products and services and you will obviously need to buy stock, but other than that, starting an online store doesn’t have to be a very big investment at all.

Here are five steps you should take to get your store online quickly and in the most cost-effective way possible:

Step 1 – Find Yourself a Domain & Hosting Provider.

One of the hardest parts to starting an online car parts store is that you’ll need to come up with a good name for your brand. If you already offer services in your own garage such as engine remapping in Kent, then you will already have a name for your brand, so now it’s time to register that brand online by using one of the many top online domain registrars. Once you have a name, you will need to purchase web hosting and that can usually be done with the domain registrar as well.

Step 2 – Build Your Site Using a Popular Content Management System.

Now you’ll need to find a content management system (CMS) for you to base your store on. There are many of these available on the internet, but the most popular and recommended platform is WordPress as it is completely free and comes with many free plugins and themes for you to choose from. Installing WordPress is easy and can usually be done in your web hosting control panel with just a few clicks.

Step 3 – Now Choose a Theme.

The great thing about using the WordPress CMS is that it gives you many options when it comes to themes. You want your shop to look great so you will need to pick a design that suits your needs but also looks attractive. You can also buy a premium theme from one of the many theme stores if the free ones don’t tickle your fancy.

Step 4 – Install WooCommerce and Other Helpful Plugins.

Now it’s time to install WooCommerce to bring your store to life. WooCommerce is a free plugin in the WordPress plugins directory and can be installed in your WordPress admin panel within a few seconds. This plugin will give you the ability to add new products, change prices, add photos, and much more. Without this plugin, you will not have the management ability to update your store with new products easily.

Step 5 – Now It’s Time to Get Social.

Marketing your site is the hardest part about bringing in clients. You will want to sign up to the popular social media platforms and socialise with potential customers. As well as the social media aspect to marketing, you will also want to concentrate on a search engine presence that will provide you with organic traffic for free. You can do this by writing unique articles on your new site.

There are many CMS’s you can use other than WordPress, but it is by far the most popular and well-supported CMS on the planet. By following the above simple steps, you could have your brand new car parts store online within just a couple of hours.