What You Need to Start in E-Commerce

Most people who want to start in e-commerce begin with the question "which platform should we use". Yet the platform is a decision near the end of the list. A few things need to be clear first, and when they are skipped the site gets built but no sales happen.

What do I need to start in e-commerce?

Before the technical platform these four must be clear: the stock and supply arrangement for the product to be sold, the shipping and return process, the company and contract paperwork needed for the payment infrastructure, and the distance-selling contract together with the KVKK texts. Platform choice comes after these; reversing the order is the most common mistake.

1. What you will sell and how you will deliver it

This seemingly boring step determines every decision that follows:

• Number of products and variant structure (colour, size, pack). A catalogue of five products and one of five thousand require completely different systems.
• Where is the stock kept? In your own warehouse or at the supplier? Will stock information be updated by hand?
• Shipping weights and volumes. They directly affect pricing.
• Return flow. Legally mandatory; plan how it will work from the start.

Once you put these in writing, the platform choice largely clarifies itself.

2. Legal requirements

What a site doing e-commerce in Turkey must have:

• Distance-selling contract
• Pre-information form
• Return and withdrawal right information (14 days as a rule)
• Delivery and shipping terms
• Privacy policy and KVKK privacy notice
• Cookie banner and consent mechanism
• Business details: trade name, address, contact, tax details

These are not things to say "we'll add later"; their absence is both a legal risk and a loss of trust. A visitor won't enter card details on a site where it isn't clear who is selling.

3. Payment infrastructure

What you need to decide:

• Virtual POS or payment institution? The bank's virtual POS usually has a lower commission but a more laborious setup. Payment institutions start fast; the commission is slightly higher.
• Are instalments needed? If your product price is high, instalments seriously affect conversion.
• Will there be cash on delivery? It increases the operational burden and the return rate, but in some sectors it is an expected option.

Whichever route you choose, test the payment flow before launch with a real card. It's common for an integration that works in the test environment to cause problems live.

4. Shipping

• Contracted courier company and price tariff
• Free shipping threshold (the simplest way to raise the average basket)
• Shipment tracking integration — the customer should be able to see it without asking "where is my parcel"
• Packaging materials and process

Bury the shipping cost in the price, or show it separately? Both are valid; but seeing an unexpected shipping fee in the cart is the most common cause of abandoned carts.

5. Product content

This is the point where most projects get delayed, and it directly affects sales.

Photos. Several angles for each product, preferably on a plain background. A well-lit photo taken with a phone is better than a badly lit professional shoot. Optimise the images before putting them on the site — you can resize and convert them to WebP with the Image Converter.

Description. Using the supplier's text as is creates two problems: the same text is on dozens of sites so you can't stand out in search, and it doesn't answer the customer's real questions. Add concrete information such as dimensions, material, use and care.

Title. Write it the way people will search. Not "Model X-42" but "Cotton Oversize T-Shirt - Black".

6. Platform choice

Now you can make this decision:

A marketplace and your own site are not alternatives to each other. For most businesses the right path is using both together: volume on the marketplace, brand and a better profit margin on your own site.

7. Pre-launch checklist

• Payment flow tested with a real card
• Order confirmation email arrives (doesn't land in spam)
• Shipping integration and tracking working
• Legal texts published and accessible
• Mobile view and cart flow problem-free
• Product images optimised
• Stock logic working correctly (sold-out products can't be sold)
• Return process defined
• Analytics and conversion measurement set up

Order emails arriving is especially critical. If your domain's email authentication is incomplete, confirmation and invoice emails land in the spam folder. Verify your SPF, DKIM and DMARC records with the Email Health Check tool.

8. First goals after launch

After the site opens the order should be:

1. Deliver the first orders flawlessly. The first customer experience is worth more than everything that follows.
2. Watch abandoned carts. Where do people give up? Usually at the shipping fee or mandatory registration.
3. Improve product pages. Which product gets viewed but not sold? The photo or description may be lacking.
4. Start producing content. Guide posts about product categories are a lasting source of search traffic.

Common mistakes

• Leaving the legal texts to the end. They stay missing on launch day.
• Requiring registration. Conversion drops on a site without guest checkout.
• Showing the shipping fee at the last step. The number one cause of abandoned carts.
• Copying supplier texts. You neither stand out in search nor help the customer.
• Unoptimised images. The page doesn't open on mobile; no sale.
• Starting without measurement. You can't know what works.

Pricing and profit margin

As important as the technical side of the site, but often left for later. What you need to factor in when setting your sale price:

• Product cost
• Shipping (if you offer free shipping, this is your cost)
• Payment commission (card commission, instalment cost)
• Packaging
• Return rate — varies by sector but is not zero
• Marketplace commission (if you sell there too)

A price set without adding up these items produces a business with high turnover but no profit. In particular, set the free shipping threshold slightly above your average basket value; it both grows the basket and covers the cost.

Where the first visitors will come from

When the site opens, nobody comes. This is normal and needs to be planned in advance. Realistic sources:

Existing customers. If you have a customer list, the first orders come from there. This is the cheapest and fastest channel.

Social media. Effective if the product images are good. If you're starting from an account with no followers, it takes time.

Advertising. Fast but needs constant money. Useful at the start for testing which product attracts interest with a small budget.

Search engines. The slowest but most lasting channel. Your product and category pages start bringing traffic within months; that's why writing the content correctly from the start matters.

Marketplace. There is ready traffic, but the customer belongs to the platform, not to you. If you want to build a brand, use the marketplace as a test ground and steer to your own site.

The most common mistake of beginners is leaning on a single channel. In particular, a structure dependent only on advertising means sales stop when the budget is cut.

The tax and accounting side

Not a technical topic, but it must be clear from the start to avoid surprises later:

• Sole proprietorship or limited company?
• Will an e-archive invoicing arrangement be set up?
• Will the accounting program integrate with the e-commerce system, or will invoices be issued by hand?
• How will shipping and collection reconciliation be done?

When order numbers grow, issuing invoices by hand becomes unsustainable. Planning the integration from the start is cheaper than changing systems later.

What to measure in the first three months

These five numbers guide every decision that follows. Improvement made without measurement in place is guesswork.

If you try to choose a platform before these four are clear, there's a high chance you'll have to change the platform you chose within a few months. Getting the order right is the cheapest decision of the first year.

If you'd like to plan the setup process together, get in touch.