How to Create an Online Store: 10 Steps to Your First Order

To create an online store, follow ten steps: choose a product and work out its profit, pick a name and a link, choose a platform, open an account and pick a theme, add products, write trust pages, turn on payments, turn on shipping, place a test order, then launch and market. On a hosted platform the technical steps take hours; the real time goes into preparing your products.

The short version: do not start with design. Start with a product whose profit you know, choose a platform with cash on delivery and local shipping built in, add five products with complete details, place a test order from your phone until it ships, then share the link. Every step below has a short checklist.

This is the hands-on companion to our guide to starting an online store in Egypt. The guide covers requirements, stages and cost; here we walk through the steps in order, as if you were building the store on your phone right now.

The steps at a glance

Step	What you need	Rough time (estimate)
1. Product and profit	A product, its cost, a price and a margin	A day or two of thinking and maths
2. Name and link	A name, a simple logo and an available link	An hour or two
3. Platform	A hosted builder or WordPress	An hour of comparison
4. Account and theme	Sign-up, theme and colours	Under an hour
5. Products	Photos, descriptions, sizes and prices	The longest step, depending on product count
6. Trust pages	About, returns and contact	An hour
7. Payments	Cash on delivery and an online gateway	An hour; gateway approval can take days
8. Shipping	A courier and governorate prices	An hour or two
9. Test order	An order from your phone through to shipping	A day
10. Launch	Link in bio, an ad and WhatsApp	Ongoing

1. Choose the product and work out its profit

The first question in building a successful online store is: how much will I make per order? Write down the product cost, the selling price, shipping, your expected return rate and the ad cost per order. If what is left is very small, change the product or the price before doing anything else. The full formula is in what a cash-on-delivery order really costs you.

Checklist: a clear product, a defined customer, and positive profit after every cost.

2. Pick a name, a logo and a link

The name should be easy to say and spell, and available as a social media handle. At the start you can use a free platform link (such as mystore.baseet.cc on Baseet) and buy your own domain once you are sure.

Checklist: an available name, a logo that reads on a phone, and a simple link.

3. Choose the platform

This decides how the whole store works. Ask every platform five questions: does it support cash on delivery? Is it connected to Egyptian couriers? Is the Arabic mobile checkout good? Is there a free tier to test? Can you export your data if you leave? A detailed comparison is in the best e-commerce platforms.

4. Open your account and pick a theme

Sign up with your email and phone number and choose a theme close to your category. Do not spend a week on colours: set your brand colour and a clear font, change the hero image, and that is enough for now.

Checklist: the theme looks right on an ordinary Android phone, not just on a laptop.

5. Add products properly

This is the longest and most important step. For every product:

• At least three photos in good light on a clean background, including one that shows scale.
• A clear title with the product type and its key feature (for example, "plain crepe abaya with wide sleeves").
• A short description that answers buyer questions: material, sizes, how to use or wash it.
• Sizes and colours as options, each with its available quantity.
• A clear final price, with the old price shown if there is a discount.

If you have many products, import them from an Excel sheet instead of adding them one by one. For product pages that sell, read how to build a product page that converts.

6. Write your trust pages

A first-time visitor needs reassurance. Write an about page (who you are and what you sell), an exchange and returns policy (time limit, conditions, who pays shipping) and a contact page with a working WhatsApp number. Show the expected delivery time on the product page. And because an unhappy customer can complain to Egypt's Consumer Protection Agency (how complaints work), a clear written policy protects you as much as the customer.

7. Turn on payments

In Egypt, cash on delivery has to be there. Add at least one online method for customers who prefer to pay by card or wallet. Paymob, for example, lists on its pricing page a standard rate of 2.75% + EGP 3 per transaction, with no monthly fee. Include that fee in your profit maths from step one.

8. Turn on shipping

Set a delivery price for each governorate or zone, or connect a courier that calculates it. Decide whether to offer free shipping above a certain amount, and make sure that cost is covered. If most of your orders are cash on delivery, prepare a way to confirm each order before shipping; the COD order confirmation playbook has message templates and timing.

9. Place a complete test order

Order a product from your own store on your phone, as a customer would, and follow it to the end:

1. Did the page load quickly on mobile data?
2. Were the cart and checkout clear and in Arabic?
3. Did the shipping fee appear before the last step?
4. Did you receive a confirmation message?
5. Did the order appear in the dashboard with all its details?
6. Could you book the shipment and print the waybill?

Fix any "no" before you spend a pound on ads.

10. Launch and market

Put the store link in your bio, in every post and in your WhatsApp status. Send it to the first 20 people you know and ask for honest feedback. Install your pixel before the first ad so you know whether the ad brought orders. If you want your products on Google, Google Merchant Center lets you upload them to appear in shopping results, with free listings alongside ads.

Creating a store on Facebook and Instagram

Many people ask how to create a store on Facebook or Instagram step by step. What every merchant can do: a business page, a product catalogue, and your store link in the bio, posts and ads. In-app shopping features on Facebook and Instagram vary by country and by Meta's own rules, so check what your account offers before relying on them.

What works for most merchants in Egypt: social media for discovery and ads, the store for ordering and payment. You can connect your store's product catalogue to Facebook and TikTok so ads show your products automatically, as explained in Facebook and TikTok catalogues for Egyptian stores.

How to open an online store in Saudi Arabia

The practical steps are the same, with one important official step. The Saudi Ministry of Commerce has announced that the Business Platform is the only approved platform for e-commerce authentication, and that authentication requires a valid commercial register or freelance document plus a commercial bank account linked to the store. Sort this out before selling in Saudi Arabia, and ask a local adviser if you are unsure.

The five most common mistakes

1. Designing before working out the profit.
2. Weak photos or incomplete descriptions that push customers to ask in chat instead of ordering.
3. Shipping fees hidden until the last step.
4. Launching without a test order.
5. Running ads without a pixel, so you never know which ad makes money.

These steps on Baseet

On Baseet, steps 4 to 10 happen in one dashboard. This is what the site lists: an account with an email and phone number, category themes with Arabic support, adding products or importing them from Excel, payments by cash, Fawry, Paymob and Tabby, shipping with Bosta, Mylerz and J&T with shipment booking and waybill printing, and WhatsApp automation for order confirmation. There is a free tier to start with no credit card.

FAQ

How do I create an online store with no experience?

Choose a hosted platform with a free tier and follow the ten steps in order. Start with just five products, place a test order, then share the link. Hosted platforms are built so the merchant can do everything without a developer.

How do I open an online store at the lowest cost?

Start on a free tier with a ready-made theme, the free platform link and cash on delivery. Your fixed cost is zero at the start; costs come with sales: shipping, online payment fees and ads. The full maths is in online store cost in Egypt.

What is the most important step?

Working out profit before anything else, then the test order. The first protects you from a losing product; the second protects you from a problem only your customer would otherwise discover.

Can I build an online store from my phone?

Yes. Most hosted platforms have a mobile-friendly dashboard, and Baseet has a dashboard app on the App Store and Google Play. Preparing photos and descriptions is easier with a laptop, though.

How do I know my store is ready to launch?

Place a full test order from your phone and answer the six questions in step nine. If every answer is yes, your store is ready. After launch, review your first ten orders yourself.

Written by Sara Mahmoud, E-commerce Strategist at Baseet. Last updated: 6 October 2026.

Start step four now: open your free account on Baseet.