Alexis Kestler
I want to let you in on a secret that changed my entrepreneurial fortunes forever – Nexcess StoreBuilder. Never heard of it before? You‘re not alone. This ingenious platform flies under the radar of most aspiring ecommerce merchants. However, Nexcess delivered the customized, affordable foundation I required to leave my 9-5 job behind and open my very own outdoors shop.
Intrigued yet? Buckle up! By the end of our journey together, you‘ll possess everything needed to determine if StoreBuilder should become the next chapter in your business narrative too.
Why Online Business Beckons in the 2020s
Humanity experienced rapid digitization across all facets of life over the past decade. However, the sheer avalanche triggered by COVID-19 accelerated ecommerce adaptation by an estimated 5 years!
Just look at the numbers:
- Global retail ecommerce sales will swell from $4.2 trillion in 2020 to over $7.3 trillion by 2025
- Shopify merchants alone processed $175 billion in 2021 – up 57% year-over-year
- WooCommerce empowers 43% of all online stores, powering a third of the web behind the scenes
The trends speak for themselves – selling online offers meteoric growth potential as consumer behavior prioritizes convenience.
However, critical hazards lurk beneath the surface if you don‘t chart the proper course early when claiming your piece of this boundless digital frontier.
Why Nexcess StoreBuilder Should Top Your Shortlist
When originally plotting my small business exploration, I almost joined the Shopify herd before stumbling upon Nexcess StoreBuilder serendipitously. And I‘m forever grateful for that fateful detour!
Both solutions simplify creating full-featured online stores without technical expertise. But Nexcess offers uniquely compelling advantages from the merchant perspective:
Unrestricted Customization: StoreBuilder builds upon WordPress and WooCommerce, leveraging open source technologies collectively powering over 80% of all websites. Unlike Shopify, nothing gets hardcoded behind the scenes limiting your control. With thousands of plugins and themes at your fingertips, Nexcess grows alongside your ambitions.
Own Your Audience: You cultivate every customer interaction on StoreBuilder sites and own all associated data. Shopify transactions occur on their platform – if you ever leave, poof goes your hard-earned audience. Why waste years nurturing an audience for another company?
Cost Savings: Nexcess delivers superior bang for buck, with feature-rich ecommerce sites starting at $30 per month including hosting. Equivalent Shopify plans cost 2-3x more when adding must-have extras like abandoned cart recovery. Those savings add up over time, enabling profitable growth.
Let‘s compare Shopify and Nexcess StoreBuilder across the attributes you care about most:
| Shopify | Nexcess StoreBuilder | |
|---|---|---|
| Startup Cost | $0 + $29/month | $0 + $30/month |
| Themes | 10 free themes 100+ premium themes ($$) |
4000+ free themes Hundreds of premium themes |
| Plugins/Extensions | Shopify app store $79-$299/month for top apps |
55,000+ WordPress plugins Thousands free or freemium |
| Transaction Fees | 2.9% + $0.30 for Shop Pay 2.4% – 2.9% + $0.30 for other gateways |
Stripe/PayPal rates only |
| Technical Customization | Shopify Liquid development Add code snippets |
WordPress developer ecosystem Fully customize code |
| Audience Data Ownership | Shopify owns data Take list with you if you leave but start from scratch |
Full data ownership Take users/sales history anywhere |
| Optimized for SEO | Decent out of the box Some theme limitations |
Extremely SEO-friendly Customize page structure and metadata |
This battlecard should demonstrate why Nexcess StoreBuilder offers the superior foundation for longer-term online commerce success. You retain full control over customizing experiences for your clientele without compromising the benefits of an integrated managed services provider.
Now let‘s get hands-on building your very own StoreBuilder site!
Step-by-Step: Launching Your Nexcess Store
I want you to visualize the finished destination right up front – customers discovering your brand online, seamlessly purchasing products they love, and becoming loyal brand advocates that refer friends.
This may seem aspirational now as you begin sourcing suppliers, snapping product photos on your iPhone, and jotting down logo ideas onto napkins.
But StoreBuilder combined with the right roadmap will progress your vision from fantasy to reality faster than imagined…
Securing Your StoreBuilder Subscription
Commence your 14-day free Nexcess StoreBuilder trial here using your email and password.
Enter payment credentials to validate your account but fret not – no charges occur without explicit confirmation. Consider this layer of friction necessary to deter nefarious actors from abusing generous StoreBuilder terms.
After registering, access the intuitive Nexcess dashboard housing all configuration and management capabilities for your online store. We will explore key areas momentarily.
Selecting Your Store Starter
Click the "Design Your Site" button to choose a starter template aligning to your business vertical. Nexcess includes several polished options spanning typical categories like fashion, food & drink, travel, and more.
If nothing fits perfectly, no worries! The underlying WordPress platform supports unlimited visual customization so don‘t waste time overly debating aesthetic initially. Focus first on structurally sound setup facilitating future modification.
For our example, choose the Craft Online Store:
After picking the starter aligning best to your product mix, name your business and configure fundamental parameters across identity, location, currency, and social accounts.
This phase focuses solely on broad strokes branding so any specifics can get adjusted later. Let‘s stick with the defaults for our online craft shop.
That‘s it! Behind the scenes, Nexcess provisions hosting resources and installs WooCommerce plus accompanying plugins. Within 60 seconds, your initial digital storefront emerges…
Admittedly underwhelming initially but fret not! We need merely fine-tune this base into the crown jewel showcasing your lovingly handmade crafts to the world. Onwards!
Importing Your Catalog
Now for the fun part – populating your shelves with carefully chosen products poised for web-wide fame!
Navigate to WooCommerce > Products within the StoreBuilder WordPress backend. Here you can manually create offerings one-by-one or mass upload 100+ products instantly via CSV import.
I imported 100 handmade Guatemalan crafts sourced through a fair trade retailer in my local community using information forwarded from their internal catalog.
Download this product CSV template matching the required Nexcess format to simplify your own data preparation.
Why bother importing products via spreadsheet when adding manually allows superior customization? Volume! Populating 100+ products individually requires hours wheras bulk upload completes in minutes. And you can still tweak products after import completes if necessary.
Configuring Tax Rates, Shipping Zones, and Payments
With your digital inventory stocked, next step transforming that catalog into lucrative sales by configuring commerce functionality within StoreBuilder.
Navigate to WooCommerce > Settings to activate payments, calculate taxes, and define shipping rules critical for checkout conversion.
Connect payment gateways like Stripe or PayPal using your account credentials. This tells WooCommerce how to process transactions via customer selected option later:
Venturing into local and international sales? Set up tax rates that automatically apply during checkout based on customer location:
Last but not least – connecting delivery details ensuring your artisan wares reach their new owners!
Determine countries served, carriers and rates, shipping speed, and related options by configuring zones within WooCommerce shipping:
While slightly tedious, properly establishing backend business logic now alleviates painful customer checkout friction later that destroys conversion. Trust me, the temporary grind delivers long-term gain.
Customizing Your Storefront with Care
With foundational commerce mechanics activated, the fun part – crafting an artisanal online habitat showcasing your handmade creations in their best light!
Assuming you selected the Craft theme earlier, a stylish store awaits by default:
Looks market-ready correct? Well…not quite. The cookie-cutter layout lacks personality reflecting your distinctive artisan wares. Let‘s fix that!
Navigate to Appearance > Customize for fine-grained control over all design elements from headers to product galleries to fonts and colors. Modify global theme settings or customize individual page looks.
For example, the boring homepage headline fails capturing attention:
I updated with an eye-catching hand-drawn logo and tagline encapsulating the organic uniqueness our crafts offer:
With similar tweaks applied across key pages over an hour, the custom atmosphere better transports visitors into the sustainable Guatemalan artisan experience I aimed for:
Still not sold this can work for you? Don‘t just take my word – see the transformed online store live here and inspect yourself!
Keeping Your New Venture Afloat Long-Term
Believe it or not, you now own a fully-functional specialized online business! Pat yourself on the back my friend ð
You can officially open for sales and watch those inaugural orders roll in. But the launch marks only your first stride in the ecommerce marathon.
Here are my top tips for keeping your Nexcess StoreBuilder venture growing profitably:
- Create Compelling Content: Optimize homepage text for SEO, launch a blog sharing artisan stories, run social media specials, etc. Content engages visitors, earns rankings, and personalizes the brand.
- Promote Via Ads: Experiment with Google/Facebook ads to sustain awareness and trials. Target lookalike audiences to reduce waste. Start small, track conversions, refine messaging.
- Analyze Metrics: Review sales reports, best-selling items, conversion funnels, margins, etc within StoreBuilder. Iterate based on data-driven insights.
- Solicit Reviews: Ask happy customers to leave positive reviews on public platforms. UGC builds trust for new shoppers. Offer discounts to incent.
- Expand Carefully: Consider wholesale, consignment or distributor partnership opportunities. But calculate impacts on overhead and operations before overextending.
Stick closely to this playbook and your StoreBuilder shop will flourish. But also know that I remain only an email away to answer any guidance needs during your adventure!
Ready to Give Nexcess StoreBuilder a Shot?
We covered tremendous ground exploring the Nexcess StoreBuilder opportunity from industry context to setup guidance to launch recommendations.
My goal – equip you with everything required to determine if pivoting into ecommerce stands as the obvious next stage in your career trajectory as it did mine not so long ago.
So let‘s recap the key benefits this friendly Shopify alternative offers:
- Intuitive wizard to launch stylish online store out of the box
- Built on flexible WordPress/WooCommerce extensible over time
- Affordable pricing with premium features included
- Full control over customizing experiences and owning audience
- Scales from side hustle to enterprise operation
Consequently, Nexcess provides the tools to start small, learn the digital retail ropes, and expand intuition into a thriving web storefront over the long-term.
Sound enticing? Initiate your risk-free StoreBuilder trial here and feel free to Ping me anytime for 1:1 coaching.
I can‘t wait to hear about the next chapter in YOUR ecommerce ascent!
