To create an online store, you need to make five decisions: where you will sell (your own website, a marketplace or Instagram), which platform you will build on, how you will take payment, who will handle delivery and where your buyers will come from. The technical part — domain, design, catalogue, basket — comes after these decisions and is often the easiest part. In 2026, the main difficulty for anyone opening an online store in Azerbaijan is not building the site but turning it into a system that brings in orders.
Key takeaways:
- Your own e-commerce website gives you full control over your customer base, pricing and brand; Instagram and marketplaces work well as a starting point and as additional channels.
- There are three routes when choosing a platform: a subscription service such as Shopify, an open-source CMS such as WooCommerce, or a custom-built store.
- For online payments you connect e-commerce acquiring from local banks and payment providers; cash on delivery is still widespread and should be kept as an option.
- Approximate market range: website-builder and template solutions from ≈ 150–500 AZN (manat), a full-featured online store upwards of 5,000 AZN; domain and hosting ≈ 50–150 AZN/year.
- Sales do not start on the day the store opens: the budget for Meta catalogue ads, Google, email and retargeting has to be planned in advance.
How to create an online store: an 8-step plan
The practical answer to the question of how to create an online store is the sequence below. You can change the order of the steps, but you cannot skip any of them.
- Define your niche and product range. At the first stage, put the list of products you will sell, their cost price, margin and stock on hand into one spreadsheet. If no profit is left after delivery and payment fees, a website will not fix that.
- Choose your sales channel. Your own website, a marketplace, Instagram or a combination of these — the comparison is in the next section.
- Get the legal side in order. Register as a taxpayer and consult an accountant; this is usually a precondition for connecting bank payments.
- Choose the platform and buy the domain in your own name. The domain and hosting accounts should be tied to your email address, not the contractor's.
- Prepare the catalogue. Categories, filters, product names, photos, descriptions, prices and stock.
- Set up payments and delivery. A contract with the bank, test payments, delivery zones and rates.
- Connect analytics and place test orders. GA4, Meta Pixel, purchase events; at least one real order placed from a phone, from start to finish.
- Launch together with a marketing plan. The first month's ad budget, content and discount mechanics should be ready before launch.
An Instagram shop, a marketplace or your own online store?
The short answer: Instagram is for your first sales, a marketplace for ready-made traffic, and your own store for a long-term asset. Growing businesses usually run all three in parallel, but with their own website at the centre.
| Criterion | Instagram profile + Direct | Marketplace | Your own online store |
|---|---|---|---|
| Start-up cost | Minimal | Low, depending on the platform's terms | Highest |
| Traffic | You build it yourself (content, ads) | The platform's ready-made audience | You bring it in yourself (ads, SEO) |
| Commission | None | Commission on sales, plus the platform's rules | Only the payment system's fee |
| Customer base | Partly yours (message threads) | Mostly stays with the platform | Entirely yours: email, phone, purchase history |
| Order processing | Manual, by message | The platform's dashboard | Automatic: basket, payment, status |
| Control over brand and pricing | Medium | Low — competitors are on the same page | Full |
| Scaling | Gets harder as the number of messages grows | Depends on the platform's terms | Easy: catalogue, automation, integrations |
If you get a few orders a day and all of them are closed by chatting in Direct, Instagram is still enough. If you cannot keep up with messages, answer the same questions again every day and orders are getting lost, the time has come for your own store. The availability of Instagram's shopping features, such as product tags, varies by country and by account, so do not tie your plan to them alone.
A platform for your online store: Shopify, WooCommerce or a custom build?
The choice of platform comes down to three questions: how many products you have, which integrations you need and who will manage the site. There is no universal "best" platform — each has its own trade-offs.
| Option | Advantages | Drawbacks | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify and similar subscription platforms | Quick to launch, hosting and security sit with the platform, plenty of ready-made themes and apps | Monthly subscription and extra app costs; whether local bank payments and delivery can be connected must be checked in advance; dependence on the platform | Stores that want to start quickly, have no technical team and also sell abroad |
| WooCommerce (WordPress) and other open-source CMSs | The licence is free, there are plenty of plugins, you choose the hosting yourself, any integration can be coded | Updates, security and speed are your responsibility; the more plugins, the heavier the site | Small and medium catalogues, limited budgets, businesses that have technical support |
| Custom-built store | A full fit with your business logic, high speed, deep integration with warehouse, CRM and accounting | The highest start-up cost and the longest timeline; requires a reliable contractor | Large catalogues, non-standard sales models, companies planning serious traffic |
Before you choose, ask the contractor three questions: how are local bank payments connected on this platform, can products be bulk-uploaded from Excel, and can the site later be moved to another hosting provider or contractor? For an overview of website types and stages, see website development: types and stages.
Which features must an e-commerce website have?
An e-commerce website should take the buyer from product to payment by the shortest route; seven features are essential for that. Everything else — a loyalty programme, product comparison, a mobile app — is a job for a later stage.
- Catalogue and search. Logical categories, search by product name and code, stock status ("in stock", "to order").
- Filters. Selection by price, size, colour and brand. In clothing and footwear, a catalogue without a size filter wears the buyer out.
- Basket. Changing the quantity, removing a product, seeing the delivery charge before paying.
- Checkout. No registration required and, as far as possible, on one page: name, phone, address, delivery and payment method.
- Delivery zones. Separate rates and delivery times for Baku, Absheron and the regions; an option to collect in store.
- Order tracking. An SMS, email or WhatsApp notification when the status changes — it cuts down on "where is my order" calls.
- Admin panel. Managing products, prices, stock, order statuses, discount codes and reports without a developer.
On top of these, a WhatsApp button visible on every page is practically standard for buyers in Azerbaijan: people ask about size, stock and delivery and then place their order.
How do you set up online payments, delivery and the legal side in Azerbaijan?
In Azerbaijan, online payments are accepted through e-commerce acquiring (internet acquiring) offered by local banks and payment providers, while cash on delivery is still widespread. The best model is to offer both methods.
Connecting online payments
The process usually goes like this: you approach several banks or payment providers, compare their terms and sign a contract; a developer sets up the integration in a test environment, and after test payments the live mode is switched on. The commission, the time it takes for funds to reach your account, the refund rules and the availability of instalment payments vary by provider — compare them in writing.
Before signing a contract, banks usually check the website: contact details, terms of sale, delivery and returns policies, a privacy policy and an SSL certificate must all be in place. If you prepare these pages in advance, the process will not drag on.
Delivery
Within Baku, your own courier or a courier service does the job; for the regions, the postal service and cargo companies do. State the rate, the delivery time and the minimum basket value for free delivery clearly on the site. Confirming cash-on-delivery orders by phone before dispatch reduces the number of refusals.
Legal basics
Selling online is a business activity too: you need to register as a taxpayer — as an individual entrepreneur or as a legal entity. Work out with an accountant which form and tax regime are most advantageous for you, and how invoices and receipts should be handled. Some product categories may require a separate permit or certificate, so check that in advance as well.
Product photos, descriptions and SEO: how should you prepare the catalogue?
In an online store the buyer cannot touch the product, so the photo and the description do the salesperson's job. The same catalogue is also the basis for free traffic from search engines.
Photos. Several angles of each product against the same background and in the same light: front, side, detail and in use. Add one shot in the hand or on a person to give a sense of size. Compress the files in WebP format — heavy images slow down the category page.
Descriptions. Do not copy the manufacturer's text. Build the description around the buyer's questions: material, size chart, who it suits, how to care for it, warranty and returns terms. Give the specifications as a table and the benefits in 2–3 sentences.
SEO for category and product pages. People often search Google at category level ("men's sports shoes", "pushchair prices"), so every category needs a unique title, an H1 and a short intro text. A product page gets a clear URL, a unique name, images with alt text and Product structured data (price, availability). Make sure the thousands of duplicate URLs that filters generate do not get indexed, and do not delete a product that is no longer on sale — redirect it to a similar one. The core principles are explained in our guide what is SEO.
Pre-launch checklist and post-launch marketing
On launch day the site has to work; the day after, so does the advertising — the two are not planned separately. Go through the technical check first.
| What to check | What to do | Ready? |
|---|---|---|
| Test order | Place separate orders from a phone, one by card and one with cash on delivery | ☐ |
| Payment | Test the successful, failed and refunded payment scenarios | ☐ |
| Notifications | Do the buyer and the sales manager receive an order notification? | ☐ |
| Delivery | Are zones, rates and the free-delivery threshold calculated correctly? | ☐ |
| Legal pages | Terms of sale, returns, privacy, contact details | ☐ |
| Analytics | GA4 e-commerce events, Meta Pixel: ViewContent, AddToCart, Purchase | ☐ |
| SEO | Titles and descriptions, sitemap, registration in Search Console | ☐ |
| Speed and mobile | Measure the category and product pages in mobile mode | ☐ |
| Backup | Automatic backups, and the login details in your hands | ☐ |
Where do the first orders come from?
In the first months, traffic to a new store comes mainly from paid advertising, while SEO kicks in over time. Four channels complement one another:
- Meta catalogue ads. Upload your product catalogue to Commerce Manager and link it to the Pixel — the system shows each user the product they viewed or a similar one. Campaign set-up is covered step by step in how to run Instagram ads.
- Google search ads. Ads that lead to category pages for intent-driven queries such as "buy", "price" and "order" — the details are in our guide how to run Google ads.
- Email and message sequences. Order confirmation, abandoned-basket reminder, repeat-purchase offer. We show how to set them up in what is email marketing.
- Retargeting. A separate campaign for the audience that viewed a product without buying or abandoned a basket; this is usually where the cheapest sales come from.
A real example of what systematic ad optimisation delivers: on the Sneak'n'Fresh project in retail and e-commerce, Advertol used conversion-focused creatives and campaign optimisation to bring the cost per enquiry down from $3 to $0.30, while revenue grew roughly 10-fold.
How much does it cost to create an online store?
The cost of creating an online store depends on the route you choose: a small storefront on a website builder costs a few hundred manat, while a full-featured custom store costs upwards of 5,000 AZN. The figures are an approximate market range, not any particular company's prices.
| Cost item | Type | Approximate market range |
|---|---|---|
| Simple store on a website builder or template | One-off (plus a subscription on a builder) | From ≈ 150–500 AZN |
| Custom-designed catalogue website, without online payments | One-off | ≈ 1,000–5,000 AZN |
| Full-featured online store: basket, online payments, delivery, order dashboard, integrations | One-off | Upwards of 5,000 AZN |
| Domain and hosting | Yearly | ≈ 50–150 AZN/year |
| Payment system fee | Per transaction | As per your contract with the bank or provider |
| Ad budget | Monthly | You set it yourself |
| Photo shoot, copy, technical support | One-off and monthly | Agreed according to scope |
Do not plan your budget around building the site alone: ad spend and content production for the first three months should be a separate line. The factors are explained in full in website development prices. Advertol has no fixed price list — a proposal is prepared after a free strategy call, based on the scope of work.
What are the most common mistakes when opening an online store?
Most mistakes are planning mistakes, not technical ones: the store gets built, but nobody thinks about who will run it or how.
- Launching without a marketing budget. A website does not bring in traffic by itself. Fix: an ad plan covering at least three months, ready before launch.
- Mandatory registration and a long checkout. Buyers do not want to create an account. Fix: guest checkout, a minimum of fields.
- Online payment only, or cash only. Both groups of buyers exist. Fix: card payment and cash on delivery together.
- The delivery charge surfacing only at the last step. It is a typical reason for basket abandonment. Fix: show the rate on the product page and in the basket.
- Stock levels not being updated. Selling a product you do not have damages your reputation. Fix: synchronisation with the warehouse, or a daily update routine.
- Advertising without analytics. If the Purchase event is not set up, the platform does not learn to find buyers. Fix: test the events before launch.
- The domain and accounts being in the contractor's name. Fix: hold all the logins yourself from day one.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to create an online store?
A small store on a website builder or a ready-made template usually opens within a few weeks, provided the content is ready. A store with custom design, online payments and integrations can take a few months. In practice, it's preparing the catalogue and the payment contract with the bank that stretch the timeline most, so start those two jobs in parallel.
What documents do you need to open an online store in Azerbaijan?
At a minimum you need to be registered as a taxpayer — as an individual entrepreneur or a legal entity — because selling online is a business activity too. To connect bank payments you need a bank account and an acquiring contract. Additional permits may be required depending on the specific type of product, so consult an accountant or a lawyer.
Can you sell online through Instagram alone, without a website?
You can, and many businesses start exactly that way. The drawback is that every order is closed by message, the customer base stays on the platform and, as the number of messages grows, orders start getting lost. Once sales stabilise, moving to your own store both saves time and lets you optimise your ads for the purchase event.
Does Shopify work in Azerbaijan?
You can open and run a Shopify store from Azerbaijan. The main question is how you'll accept payments by local bank cards — check in advance whether the bank or payment provider you choose has an integration with this platform. Bear in mind, too, that subscription and app fees are paid in foreign currency.
Should an online store keep cash on delivery?
Yes, at least at the first stage. Some buyers don't want to enter card details on a site they don't know and prefer to pay once they've seen the product. To reduce the risks, confirm each order by phone before dispatch and keep statistics on refusals.
How much ad budget does an online store need per month?
There's no single figure: the budget is calculated from your average order value, margin and target number of orders. For Meta ads, a reasonable start is a 7–14 day test at $5–10 a day — in that time the real cost per order becomes visible. After that, increase the budget only if your cost per order is lower than your margin.
Conclusion
Creating an online store is more of a business project than a technical one: when channel, platform, payments, delivery and marketing are thought through together, the site brings in orders. Start with a small range, keep the checkout simple, offer card payment and cash on delivery side by side, set up analytics from day one and plan your ad budget separately from the price of the site.
Advertol builds online stores — design, catalogue, payment integration, admin panel — as part of its websites and apps service, and runs post-launch advertising together with its digital marketing team. To discuss your project, book a free 15-minute online consultation.