Does a small boutique shop actually even need a website? You might be wondering whether it’s worth it to make the move online if you’ve only been successfully selling physical items in person.

Maybe you have a website already, but don’t have an online shop. Or maybe you’ve held out in the past because the process of running a website, marketing online, and shipping items to customers feels overwhelming. Is it worth the work?

In a simple answer: Yes! It can absolutely be worth it - especially when using Squarespace to make the whole process run smoothly!

When you have a physical store, your customer market is restricted to only those in your local area. Even if you live in a highly populated place that gets a lot of visitors, you’re still only able to sell to the people around you.
When you sell products online instead of just locally, you can grow your client base exponentially. You can sell and ship to different states, countries, and even different continents. This is especially helpful when you sell niche items and have difficulty finding enough customers in your local area with the same interests.

But how to get started? It’s really simple - I’ll walk you through the process...

How To Start An Online Boutique Shop That Drives Sales

1. Start With A Squarespace Template

I highly recommend using Squarespace over any other website platform. You need your website to be professional and easy to maintain. As a shop owner, you don’t want to spend hours working out website errors. You want a reliable online shop and checkout for your clients. Squarespace has amazing support and is constantly adding new features to make life easier for business owners.

If you use a LC Squarespace template, you get an extra layer of support and a simple design that gets you that much closer to launch. Website pages are predesigned and built out for you so you can easily upload your content. You also get an extended 6-month trial before going live so you’ll have time to add in your products and customize everything to look the way you want.

2. Begin With Just Your Top Products

One reason you might be feeling overwhelmed as a shop owner is if you have a large inventory of products you sell in person. No one wants to upload hundreds of product photos and descriptions. But keep in mind you don’t have to put everything online that you sell in stores.

If you have a lot of products, I recommend just starting with your bestsellers. You can test your top products with different audiences and see if you get similar results. Keep it simple and you can always add more products to your shop as time goes on.

3. Use High-Quality, Branded Photos

Your customers can’t see and feel the products online the way they can in person. So you want to be sure to take multiple quality photos of your products in good lighting and from different angles. Show your product by itself and also in use. Demo videos and branded, styled photos are powerful sellers.

You also want to communicate your store’s brand through your imagery. Share images of the lifestyle your audience will be drawn to. (Note: All LC templates come with a bonus Website Imagery guide to help you choose what to feature.)

4. Give Customers A Reason To Come Back

Converting online viewers to happy customers is amazing. Keeping those customers and giving them a reason to come back is even better and will make a huge difference in your sales. You can do this by following up, offering regular discounts through Squarespace, or sharing new collections in your store via email.

You never just want to build your website and forget about it. Keeping your online shop fresh with new items and seasonal promotions will help your business to keep growing.

5. Connect With Your Audience

In a physical store, you can easily chat with customers while they’re shopping. It’s a little different with an online shop. You can still communicate with your clients but you’ll need to do so with things like Email Campaigns or weekly blog updates.

You can get creative with this, sharing how to best use your products in everyday life or how to maintain them. You can share why your products are worth the investment and what’s special about your history. Connecting with your audience will create a great experience for them and build loyal customers.

6. Use Integrations To Save Steps

I won’t go into too much detail here, but Squarespace has a lot of integrations with other platforms to make e-commerce easier. You can easily outsource services like on-demand ordering, printing, drop-shipping, payments, or even live-chat support services. One common example is using Printful for on-demand printing and shipping, then linking it to your Squarespace shop. Saving yourself a few of these steps can help you successfully manage both your physical and online stores at the same time.