Creating an online fish store: from origins to profit

1. What are the key factors that make an online fishing theme store profitable?
2. How to promote & market an online fishing store
   1. First you need to create a competitive range of products
   2. Now it's time to introduce the target audience
   3. Search for honest suppliers
   4. Solution of the technical issues related to the delivery, processing, and storage of seafood
   5. Selection and implementation of advertising campaigns
3. Turnkey solution for starting a fish store
4. How to start online fish store on WordPress
   1. Install WordPress CMS
   2. Install WooCommerce Plugin
   3. Adding Goods
   4. Menu setting
   5. Connecting a specialized StoreFront theme
5. Online Store Setup Service
6. How to Choose Your Fishing Website Template

Every fisherman dreams of creating his own online fishing store, to have everything you need for a secret trip always at hand. If you are a beginner, buying fishing equipment can be exhausting. You can find a lot of fishing rods, reels, tackles, and accessories on the market, without mentioning the fact that each of them has its own unique features to improve the experience. Fishermen who fish with a hook are used to bringing a tackle box full of relevant equipment. But in each tackle box there will usually be the same standard items.

Having good insight, you decided to create your own fishing equipment website. You can definitely organize its work. You can sell equipment for beginners and advanced anglers. Here you will learn how to become a businessman, what you need to create a successful website, as well as how to configure and promote it.

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What are the key factors that make an online fishing theme store profitable?

If you do not know how to sell fishing equipment on the internet, it can be as easy as downloading the appropriate template. Ready solutions, action menus, and other useful tools await you there. With TemplateMonster, you will quickly and easily start trading through your fishing website.

An online store is a site which sells goods through the internet. It allows users in the real world to place an order and choose a payment and delivery method through their browser or through a mobile application. Moreover, the sale of goods is carried out remotely.

Create attractive content and launch your online store as soon as possible. 

Different types of content can be used for developing your site. Let’s look at the basic ones:

• Text: about sales, information, entertainment, etc.
• Photos: of merchandise and beautiful thematic images. Photos are added to product cards and to the entire blog; sliding effect can be created for them also. All this allows you to promote the topic and increase the desire of the customers to make a purchase.
• Audio and video content: It is sometimes available for download, but most supplements and informational articles or descriptions posted can be on the main blog, groups on social networks, and in the catalog.

While you create content, you can be guided by a number of rules:

• Content: can be unique and non-unique. The last option is not the best choice, as sooner or later you may get complaints from the copyright holder. Therefore, it is worth creating your own unique photos, videos, and texts with the help of specialists.
• Internal SEO optimization: It is necessary to supplement text materials with key queries, meta tags, detailed product names, headings, and subheadings. As part of internal optimization, it is optimal to focus on linking web pages.
• External SEO optimization: increasing the reference mass. Links can be bought or obtained as part of a business partnership with owners of other resources.
• Relevance: Texts, photographs, and other content should correspond to the subject of the site with the goal to solve the user’s problem.
• Lack of clutter: Too many keywords, lack of common content, low relevance - all this can cause shutdown of the site thanks to modern sanctions by search engines.

Content is a part of the online store that users constantly interact with. It also has a direct impact on the progress of promotion and indexing. It is recommended to create a content plan in order to develop a clear content strategy, calculate a budget, and attract the right specialists.

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How to promote & market an online fishing store 

The classic model of the marketing mix consists of four elements — ‘4Ps’: 

• product 
• price 
• place 
• promotion 

Analyze whether you have all of these elements in your arsenal.

The product is fishing products. Some examples are:

• hooks 
• lines 
• sinkers 
• floats 
• rods 
• reels 
• bait 
• lures 
• spears 
• nets 
• gaffs 
• traps
• waders
• tackle boxes

Set prices for your products and show them on your online fishing store. Analyze the pricing policy of your competitors. Please note that the cost of production includes transportation costs, as well as the salary of employees. Moreover, its size should not exceed the price. But if you are an experienced businessman, this has been clear a long time ago to you.

Now you have to determine the place for sale and promotion of your product. We suggest you use a template for this. You can read more about the promotion and marketing of online fishing stores in the article below.

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First you need to create a competitive range of products 

The assortment should be diverse and stable and should include the following types of goods:

• shrimp
• mussels
• oysters
• squid
• crabs
• rapans
• black, red caviar
• scallop meat
• seafood cocktail
• octopuses
• cuttlefish and others

They can be chilled, frozen, or alive, in conventional or vacuum packaging. The bigger popularity is in the finished product, supplemented with oil, spices, or vegetables which are then packed in tin, glass, plastic, and other types of containers. The assortment can be supplemented with crab sticks and meat, semi-finished products, and salted-dried food. Often in online fishing stores you can sell its various types, even canned: salmon, tuna, trout, flounder, and others.

Seafood quickly loses freshness, so you need to purchase or rent equipment for storage, packaging, and other processes, which is associated with substantial expenses. So, it would be wise to form the assortment, analyze competing stores, and evaluate financial opportunities.

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Now it's time to introduce the target audience

You need to start work by collecting data about a potential client. At first, you should create a general portrait and then carry out a segmentation which allows dividing customers into target groups. The collected data directly influences the construction of marketing campaigns, the search for communication channels, and the sales strategy. 

During the preparation of the portrait of the target audience, you will need to build it while considering the following data:

• gender, age, profession
• presence/absence of family, children
• hobbies, psychological features
• demographic characteristics
• level of solution
• behavioral traits and others

Data collection can be carried out through social networks, online questionnaires, and research of the competitive environment. A good solution would be to obtain data from materials prepared by rating and analytical agencies. The easiest way is to attract a marketer who will perform this immediately.

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Search for honest suppliers

Finding the right suppliers is paramount to business success. 

You can detect partners who will supply the online store with goods using the following methods:

• selection of companies in international catalogs
• visiting wholesale stores
• attend theme events
• analyze sides of famous manufacturers or distributors that are open for cooperation

The selection of suppliers should be made only by taking into account their cost of logistics and subsequent delivery. It is better to focus on companies, operating in the regions where the main warehouses of the online store are based. Some suppliers carry out delivery in the warehouse-warehouse format; you will have to pick up the goods yourself from wholesale bases. It is important to remember that the manufacturer or distributor must have the necessary documentation: certificate of registration (FLP, LLC, and other forms), permission from the SES and the veterinary service, a sanitary passport for the machines used to transport products, documents for the goods, and others.

The owner of an online store will have to get some types of documents and permissions, because the legislation strictly regulates the transportation, processing, storage, and sale of food products. At this stage, you should ask for advice from a food production technologist and lawyer.

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Solution of the technical issues related to the delivery, processing, and storage of seafood

Retail trade in food is associated with long bureaucratic procedures. If you want to store goods you need to buy or rent a warehouse that meets sanitary standards and fire safety requirements. The equipment of the warehouse depends on the type of activity and the sort of product. Consider the key types of equipment:

• tables and equipment for packaging
• chambers or devices of dry (shock) freezing
• industrial aquariums
• ice makers
• scales and more

When choosing equipment, such things are taken into account:

• forecast of sales amounts
• forecast of goods’ amounts which are stored in stock
• format of business–sales of finished products, processing, packaging, etc.

Spoiled seafood must be disposed of correctly. Equipment needs maintenance - all these processes require every second, controlled by the business owner with the help of technical specialists. It is worth remembering that all employees who work with food must have a health card from the local government!

For delivery, special machines with refrigerators are used, which will meet a number of requirements:

• accurate cooling, ventilation, and heating systems
• compliance with sanitary standards
• lack of extraneous goods–It is forbidden to transport household products, sweets, cosmetics, and other goods along with seafood (they must be transported in sealed packaging).

Such machines are allowed for transportation to distances far and near. They can be bought or rented. The best solution is to hire a service that provides food delivery services within a specific region or nationwide.

Do not forget to formalize your activities legally.

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Selection and implementation of advertising campaigns

It is time to launch advertising campaigns. The most effective is contextual advertising, as well as:

• banners and teasers
• mailing to email addresses
• social media marketing
• advertising in promoted blogs with a large number of subscribers
• viral marketing
• landing page, which allows you to additionally collect contact information
• advertising in mobile applications
• YouTube video ads

With a limited budget, you should use these free advertising tools:

• cross-marketing (affiliate)
• group management in social networks, internal blog
• word of mouth
• add your store to free catalogs

You can create an application for shopping by using printing and holding contests - there are many methods, but it all depends on your advertising budget. Before launching the campaign, a marketing plan should be compiled, CAC (cost of attracting a client) is calculated, and analytical accounting is constantly conducted, which helps to determine the most effective advertising channels.

At this stage, it is necessary to form competitive offers that will be able to interest and retain the target user. The following tools often used to attract customers:

• cold calls that can only be made with your own contact base
• free services or good discounts; for example, for delivery, second purchase, packaging
• holding actions with and without cause
• development of a functioning loyalty program: personal discounts, bonus accumulation system and others
• remarketing
• use of commodity aggregators
• creation of additional sales channels in social networks

It is very important to work with abandoned baskets, analyze the effectiveness of the sales funnel and at the same time improve the usability of the site and the technology of collecting contact information.

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Turnkey solution for starting a fish store

Now you know how to sell the fish. It remains only to select a platform for it. This is a very important task, so let's get started comparing these two platforms.

You can turn your attention to WooCommerce. There you will find many lineaments that simplify your workflow and save you working hours. 

You can also turn your attention to Shopify. There you will be able to open your business as soon as possible. Shopify focuses on quick startup, without any technical difficulties. By choosing one of their offered tariff plans, you can launch your business fast because you do not need to do the binding with extra functions in order to provide greater reliability of accounting.

WooCommerce creates detailed information about your shop, plus, it grants you the Store, Checkout, Cart, and My Account pages. You can immediately start selling thanks to this platform. Just publish your products, customize your WordPress theme if you want, and send customers to your new online store.

Unlike WooCommerce, Shopify is a more independent e-commerce platform. You do not install it on your site. Instead, you can just sign up for an e-commerce service like when you created your email or social media account. Shopify launches a subdomain for you, which helps your shop to stay online at all times. However, you still need to buy your personal domain (i.e. yourstore.com) from Shopify or another domain registrar. At the same time, the monthly payments will cover hosting, which means you do not need to worry about hosting from another place.

The installation of both platforms is very simple. WooCommerce offers you more options at boot time than Shopify. For example, you can choose the currency. The product editor in WooCommerce offers more settings and product filters than Shopify. It is free and you can start selling immediately after installation. Shopify is paid and you have to choose one of the offered paid tariffs before you can start. Shopify comes with an SSL certificate (HTTPS), but you will need to order one separately for a store on WooCommerce.

Shopify offers changes to the installed theme at any time. As in WordPress, the number of custom parameters depends on it. The more advanced the theme, the more settings.

WooCommerce inherits the full power of WordPress CMS and thanks to this, it is able to offer more plugins than another platform. 

All platforms are made for customers and aimed at high performance and security. If you decide to open a fish store with Shopify, you will get high-quality hosting. This allows you to work at high speed.

If you decide to sell fish online, do not forget about the safety of your business. To ensure this, Shopify offers an SSL certificate. WooCommerce and WordPress propose many options for protection plugins. These include Security Themes. In addition, you can always install free SSL or pay for а certificate from another provider. Check out other ways to protect your WordPress, such as password defense and installation updates, themes, and plugins.

WooCommerce offers a powerful and customizable tool for the electronic trading of fishing goods. Shopify also offers you the services of a basic electronic store, but it’s a little bit expensive.

However, comparing these platforms is the same as comparing an all-wheel drive crossover with a manual gearbox to a minivan with an automatic gearbox — each has its native advantages, but we know that each is most suitable for its particular landscape and use. By using POS, you can choose both commercial plans for sale like on the internet, such in a real store.

The option for design landing pages and their effective work will be hosting. It must be optimized for WordPress. Here you will not find unacceptable errors; the speed will be high and the downtime — insignificant.

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How to start online fish store on WordPress

The creation of an online fish store gives you a great chance to make money. This product is very actively bought at any time of the year. It is loved by children and adults, vegetarians, and all fans of a healthy lifestyle. A step-by-step instruction will help you create a competitive online fish selling website, in which all the processes are considered — from the formation of the catalog to the first transactions.

The site can be created independently or with the help of professional services, the last option being more convenient. The problem is that designers and other free development methods do not guarantee security. 

Such sites have many disadvantages:

• overloaded with advertising
• difference in loading
• look patterned
• do not have difference in reliability
• poorly indexed

A paid website can be created by a private programmer, but it is better to contact a web agency to get a working online store on time. Agency services are expensive, but specialists are able to solve the whole cycle of problems: development, testing, troubleshooting, filling, and launching advertising campaigns in search engines.

You can look at the CMS. With their help, you can create a lovely online website with responsive design, which differ in a number of advantages:

• affordable cost
• powerful internal tools for promotion and analytics
• quick and easy development
• easy administration
• opportunities for distribution of access rights
• large selection of plugins and templates

This is only a small part of the benefits. Statistics shows that more than 45% of modern sites are based on CMS. When selecting a development method, you need to evaluate the financial capabilities, goals, and requirements for the final result.

If you’ve never heard about WordPress, you are a unique person. But don’t worry; WordPress is just a kit which gives you a chance to build numerous websites, including online stores. Once you've created a WordPress website, you can turn it (or part of it) into an online store using a plugin such as WooCommerce. Thanks to this CMS it’s a piece of cake for starters to open a fish store.

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Install WordPress CMS

If you do not already have a blog, then first install CMS WordPress:

1. Register on a hosting site. Then buy a domain name. Let the engine install itself. After registering, you need to open the CMS section in the hosting control panel.
2. In the next window, remember to test the domain name on which the site will be installed (you will be given test data after registration on the hosting, for example test.bget.ru), enter the password.
3. Click on the install button. After a few seconds, the fish selling website is ready.
4. To check the admin panel, open the address: test.bget.ru/wp-admin. The login will be admin, and the password is the one you created. 

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Install WooCommerce Plugin

At this stage, perform the following actions:

1. Go to the Plugins section in the blog admin area.
2. Then add the new plugin and in the search bar click WooCommerce.
3. Do not forget to click Install and then Activate.
4. After that, the “Installation Assistant” page will open. Go through 4 configuration steps: General, Payment, Delivery, and Add-ons. Then activate.
5. On the first tab, Store Setup, select your country, specify address, and currency. You can also select what type of product you plan to sell: physical, digital, or all together.
6. There is also an interesting tick: “I will also sell goods or services in person.”

On the second tab, just turn off PayPal and install Yandex.Cash a bit later. If appropriate, choose “Offline payment” expand and select “Payment on delivery” — in any case, this option is useful.

On the third tab, you can set a fixed price for delivery in your region. As you can see by default, the choice of delivery conditions is not great, but do not worry. A little later we will connect a convenient plugin to provide more options. A little lower in this window, change the units of measure for goods if they do not suit you. By default, weight is kg and length is cm.

On the fourth tab, you are offered to install the StoreFront theme. If you are starting from scratch, then do it. If you already have a blog, you shouldn’t post yet, but first check how the store will look in your usual topic. You can always install StoreFront later.

On the fifth tab, you are offered to install the Jetpack plugin. This is a pretty useful option, especially for starting a fish store. Use it, you won’t regret it.

In the next window, you will need to come up with a password for your Jetpack account, if you agreed to install it.

On the sixth tab, you can already start adding your first product. You can also agree to receive the newsletter to your inbox.

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Adding Goods

Now you can start adding products. This procedure is similar to the adding blog posts. After you publish a description of the product and enter the title, you will need to fill in some custom fields. On the tab “Product Data” you can select its type and price.

There are 4 types of goods:

1. Simple product. This is the most common type. Suitable for most items. For example, "Hook". Simple goods also include intangible goods, i.e. services. If you check the Virtual product box, you can sell it, for example, “Fishing Support”. If you check "Downloadable", then you can attach a file that will become available immediately after payment. For example, "Program for archiving" or a book in PDF format.
2. Grouped product. This is the one that is usually sold along with some other product. For example a fishing rod and a float that comes with it. The composition of the group is indicated on the Related tab. The price is determined separately for each product in the group.
3. External/affiliate product. This is a very rare type of finished product. This way you can sell someone else's fish equipment online through your store by simply providing a link to their item.
4. Variable goods. This is for example sizes or colors. When you sell fishing tackle, there is no variation at all. Indeed, for each type of gear you need to choose not only bait, but also hooks, the thickness of the fishing line, the weight of the load, etc. Fields Base price and Sale price - are used to set the corresponding parameter. If you indicate the purchase price at the sale, then on the product page the regular price will be crossed out and a new one will be indicated.

On the “Stocks” tab, you can enable inventory accounting for each item. For example, you can indicate that only 5 pieces are left in stock for a particular product. If you use a Variable result, then you can specify the balances in the context of Variations. For example, "5 pieces of red baubles left."

On the tab "Delivery" indicate the weight and size of the goods. Add a photo through the “Product Image” and “Product Gallery” blocks to the right of the description. You can also set the Category and Tags for the product just like a regular post.

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Menu setting

After you add some items for fishing - it's time to take a look at the resulting page. But first you need to configure the menu (if you already had a blog) or create a new one (if you are doing it from scratch). To add a menu you need to choose: Appearance / Menu. Then click the link “Create a new menu” and come up with a name.

After that, you can add pages related to the store selling exotic reef fish to the menu. You can also add product categories to create convenient navigation in your catalog. WooCommerce Endpoints are also pages for registered customers. Through them, they can enter/exit your personal account, view their orders, etc.

After you configure the menu, you can look at the appearance of the created page and check whether the current theme is suitable or if you should still use a specialized one.

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Connecting a specialized StoreFront theme

This theme will allow you to use absolutely all the functions of the plugin. To install it, you need to follow this path: Appearance > Themes. Then click "Add New" and in the search bar type DriveFront. Then click "Install," and then "Activate."

Immediately after activation you will see a button that offers customization of your theme. Click it and get to the theme settings page and settings of the store’s main page. A virtual tour will be launched right away which will tell you everything in great detail.

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Online Store Setup Service 

It is not necessary to personally stand at the "counter" to sell fish online. You can use the services of a personal assistant. An experienced person will help you configure the store to your needs. To take advantage of this privilege, choose the ultimate service to get your web store online hassle-free.

If you don’t know how to set up the website yourself or you simply don’t have time for this, then expert e-commerce development services are created specifically for you. Here you will get working pages with customized payment and delivery, a logo image, imported goods (1000 pieces), and a customized backend. You will see five unique pages and multilingualism, which includes five items.

It should be noted that advanced SEO-optimization of the page is available only for English, Russian, and Ukrainian languages. You can expand this circle by contacting the manager.

One important step is the analysis of the central audience and the identification of the target segment. To make this real, Google Analytics is added to your site. It will provide complete reports about the visitors to your site. This will expand new possibilities for optimizing your overall performance. This collection of statistical data will demonstrate to potential customers your professionalism and an integrated approach to trade in fishing accessories. This, by the way, will increase conversion and make customer behavior predictable. And this is a prerequisite for expanding the range, creating new ideas, and scaling the business model.

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How to Choose Your Fishing Website Template

You have been selling fish for a long time, but online it will bring even more profit. However, maybe this is something new and unknown to you. Creating an online store is a frankly difficult task for a beginner, but it is doable. The most optimal solution is to use a good site builder. This will save a lot of time and energy in the future. Go to the online store themes for inspiration and create the most visited place you can imagine.

During the creation of a business, special attention should be paid to bureaucratic procedures, the search for honest suppliers and competent personnel. All processes — from managing employees to customer reviews — need to be carefully monitored, so the owner of an online store should always be alert. Competent analytics, planning, proven business partners and, of course, TemplateMonster with their ready-made solutions to simplify your life, will help to prevent difficulties.

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