How to create an online store: six steps to your first order

Roughly 70% of online baskets are abandoned before payment. That is the average across 50 studies collected by the Baymard Institute. A store people actually buy from depends on decisions most first-time sellers make too late.

If you're working out how to create an online store, here are the steps in the order we take our own clients through them.

Step 1: decide what you sell and who to

The platform comes later. Answer three questions first, because everything else depends on them:

• how many products the catalogue will hold at launch and a year on: twenty or two thousand;
• whether products have variants (size, colour, pack size) and stock levels that change daily;
• who is buying: consumers in Bulgaria, businesses expecting trade prices, or customers abroad.

A thirty-product shop for Bulgarian shoppers and a three-thousand-item catalogue tied to a warehouse are two different projects.

Step 2: choose a platform

For most small stores the choice comes down to three options:

• Shopify. A subscription platform: hosting, security and updates are Shopify's problem. You pay a monthly fee and accept its limits.
• WooCommerce. A free WordPress plugin. The store is entirely yours, and its integrations with Econt, Speedy and Bulgarian payment providers are the most established. Hosting and maintenance, though, are on you.
• Custom build. For non-standard logic: trade pricing, several warehouses, a link to accounting or ERP software. It costs more up front, but you're not fighting a ready-made platform's limits.

We compare the first two in detail in WooCommerce vs Shopify for a Bulgarian store.

Step 3: domain, company and the legal side

The domain is the easy bit. The paperwork takes longer:

• Company and payment reporting. Whether you issue a till receipt or an electronic document under Bulgaria's Ordinance N-18 depends on how your customers pay. Settle it with your accountant before you pick payment methods.
• Terms and conditions and a privacy policy. Both are mandatory and should describe how you work, not someone else's shop.
• Right of withdrawal. Shoppers in the EU can cancel an online purchase within 14 days without giving a reason, as the European Commission's Your Europe portal explains. Write down how returns work before the first order arrives.

Step 4: products, photos and copy

In our experience, this is where most stores lose weeks. The catalogue isn't ready, photos come from five different sources and descriptions are pasted from the supplier. Those same descriptions sit on dozens of other stores, so Google has no reason to show yours.

For each product, prepare a title, a short description of the benefits, specifications, price, stock level and at least three photos on a consistent background.

Step 5: payments and delivery

In Baymard's research, 40% of shoppers who abandoned an order blamed extra costs that were too high: shipping, tax and fees. A Bulgarian store needs:

• Cash on delivery. Practically essential in Bulgaria, where many shoppers still prefer to pay the courier.
• Card payments. myPOS, ePay or Stripe. The integration needs a contract with the provider and testing with real cards.
• Delivery with Econt and Speedy. A choice of office or address, with the delivery price visible in the basket rather than on the last step.

Step 6: test and launch

Before launch, place at least five real orders: cash on delivery, card, to an office, to an address and from a phone. Check that customer emails arrive, that the waybill is created and that a cancelled order puts the item back in stock.

Then register the store in Google Search Console and submit your sitemap. Google's guide for e-commerce sites covers what else to check, from product structured data to URL structure.

The verdict

Creating an online store is easy. Getting it to sell is the hard part, and that takes a clear catalogue, cash on delivery, a visible delivery price and test orders for every payment and delivery option before launch.

If you'd rather not do it alone, see how we work in our e-commerce service. What each option costs, from a €500 DIY theme store to a €4,000–9,000 custom build, is in how much an online store costs in Bulgaria, and indicative timelines are on our pricing page.

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take to build an online store?

A small catalogue on a ready-made theme can be live in a week or two. A store with custom design plus courier and card integrations usually takes eight to fourteen weeks.

Can I create an online store for free?

Not really. Software like WooCommerce is free, but the domain, hosting, theme and card payments aren't. A DIY theme store costs at least €500, plus a monthly fee.

Do I need a company to sell online in Bulgaria?

If you sell regularly, yes. Selling online is a commercial activity and needs registration, payment reporting and terms and conditions. The rules depend on how customers pay, so clarify them with an accountant before launch.

Which platform is best for an online store in Bulgaria?

For most small stores, WooCommerce, thanks to its established Econt, Speedy and Bulgarian payment integrations. Shopify suits you better if nobody will maintain the store. A custom build is justified for a large catalogue or non-standard logic.