Make that dream you had at work a reality and learn how to start your own online store by following these key steps.
Ever have that hazy dream when you’re at work where you imagine your perfect working scenario of running your own crazy successful fashion boutique where you get to design all the clothes and make a bucket-load of money?
Just me?
Well, even if you haven’t had this exact dream, you’ve probably had something similar and know the longing feeling these thoughts can bring on.
Fear not!
With this new fangled thing call the internet, you can create your very own fabulous store in a whole lot less time with a whole lot less money – only online.
Think about it, there is no brick-and-mortar store to pay for and maintain, no inventory to carry (unless you want to), and no face-to-face interaction with everyone and their brother entering your store.
Hooked?
Yeah, I thought so, me too.
So, now that you’re on board, how do you actually start an online store?
You can easily get into the weeds, but below I’ve outlined a few key steps you’re going to want to take to get yourself going.
Take the leap and make the dream come to life…for all of us.
This post may contain affiliate links. This means I could earn a commission if you purchase through my links, however, there is no cost to you. Rest assured, I only promote products that I use or think are great. Thanks for reading!!
How to Start Your Own Online Store
Pick a Product to Sell
It goes without saying that if you want to start your own online store, you need to pick a product to sell… well, duh.
Don’t freak out.
You just need to think smaller. Niche down.
What is a niche you ask?
A niche is a small or specialized subset of the market.
When you are starting out with your online store, you’re going to be a small player. You can’t compete with the Amazon’s of the world. You need to think of a smaller group of people that your product could target.
Some examples are coffee drinkers, gardeners, artists, vegans, dog owners, etc…
How to Choose A Product Niche
Out of the thousands and thousands of niches, how do you choose one?
- Choose a passion – What kinds of products do you like to use? Do you have a hobby that you do regularly?
- Follow the trends – Check social media (Pinterest is good for this) or our good friend Google and see what ideas and topics are circulating. Also look at Amazon and see what the best sellers are.
- Solve a problem – Is there a product that you have that just doesn’t work right? Have an issue that is annoying, but there is nothing on the market that addresses it?
- Do some keyword research – Use Google’s Keyword Planner or a tool like Ahrefs or Semrush and plug-in some words and see what the competitiveness and searches look like.
The main goal here is to not go into analysis paralysis. Don’t over think and don’t reinvent the wheel.
Just pick something and make it a little more you or a little bit better than the competition.
Source Your Online Product
After you decide on a product, you need to figure out a way to physically make it and get it to your customers. You have several options here.
- DIY: You can make it and ship it to your customers yourself – or have a fulfillment company ship it to your customers.
- Manufacturing Company: You can find a manufacturer (here or overseas) to make your product and you ship it to your customers – or have the fulfillment company ship it to your customers.
- Drop Ship: You can have a drop shipping company source, make and then ship the product to your customers.
The first option is somewhat self-explanatory. You buy your supplies and then put the product together yourself. A lot of these are Etsy type businesses.
The second option is the more traditional method of creating a product. You need to deal with a manufacturing company to create your product, get samples, etc… As you can imagine, this can get expensive depending on what the manufacturing company’s minimums and costs are.
With either of these first two options, there is a certain amount of upfront money that would need to get put down, which can end up being cost prohibitive for some people.
Another thing to keep in mind, unless you hire a fulfillment company to house and then ship your product for you, you will also be dealing with inventory and shipping.
The third option, drop shipping, is where the drop shipping company creates the products, carries the inventory and ships the products to your customers.
With drop shipping, you list the products on your website and when a sale comes in, you notify the drop shipping company and they handle the rest. Your “job” is setting up/maintaining your website and marketing.
Which Product Sourcing Method is Best?
There is no one method that is best, per se. It is up to your personal circumstances and the product that you want to put out into the world.
The advantage to creating a product yourself or getting it manufactured yourself, is that you are in control. You are not beholden to any one company. The profit potential is also a lot higher since you can set and market the prices as you see fit.
With a drop shipping model, the systems are a lot easier, but the profit margin is a lot smaller. You are not in control as much and there is more competition since there are a lot of the same products already in the marketplace.
The one caveat are companies that allow you to create your own designs/artwork and then add it to their products. You can then either sell it on their platform (Society6, Fine Art America, etc…) or sell it through your own website (Printful, Printify, etc…).
This can become a very passive income stream, but these companies will take a commission from each sale.
Check out my post Get off the 9 to 5 Hamster Wheel: Passive Online Side Hustles from Home for more info on passive income streams.
Wild Card: Digital Products
This wouldn’t be a post about how to start your own online business if I didn’t mention digital products.
With digital products, you circumvent a lot of the hassles of traditional online stores.
Digital products such as online courses, printable artwork, templates, videos, audio content, e-books, daily planners, meal plans, organizers, printable stickers, or any other downloadable file are low cost to create yourself and you don’t have any inventory or shipping costs to deal with.
Choose a Selling Platform
Next up, selling!
Now that you have a product, you have to sell it somewhere.
There are a bunch of different eCommerce selling platforms out there to make this step not as daunting as it could be.
- Create it yourself from scratch – WordPress and WooCommerce. If you are tech/web design savvy and have the know-how, you can create an online storefront yourself. Many people that want to do it independently of a platform will create a WordPress site and integrate a system like WooCommerce into it to handle the shopping cart and store part of the site.
The advantage is you are completely independent and can control everything yourself. You just need a domain name and website hosting. I always recommend Bluehost for a reliable and cheap hosting.
- Shopify. If you hear of someone who has an online store, they are usually using Shopify. They are the leader and the first service that comes to mind for most people.
Shopify is easy to use, flexible and can be scaled up. Since they are the largest, there is also a lot of support and developers out there that can help. The downside is that it doesn’t come with as many features as some of the other platforms right out of the gate. You will most likely need to buy additional apps to get everything you want to incorporate in your store and that can sometimes add up.
- BigCommerce. BigCommerce is the next biggest player in the space. BigCommerce is also easy to use, flexible and scalable. They have great product search and SEO features which make it great for online shops with lots of products. They also come with a lot more features right out of the box so you can get up a rolling with less money.
The disadvantage is that since they are not the biggest player, there isn’t as much support or developers creating apps for the platform. Since they do offer a lot of features right away, this can make setting things up a little trickier as well.
- Squarespace. If you were ever at an artist’s stall and they had you check out with an iPad, it’s a good chance they were using Squarespace. Squarespace has beautiful, modern templates. Their websites can also be easily integrated with blogs and social media.
The downside is that Squarespace is not solely set up for e-commerce which can make it harder to use for an online store. They also only allow PayPal and Stripe for payment gateways, which can be limiting for some.
- Wix. The best thing about Wix is that they are very easy to use and have a ton of templates to choose from. Wix is also very affordable since they don’t charge transaction fees.
The downside to Wix is that their platform can be a bit slower and there is not as much room for customization or scalability.
If you have a smaller online shop, Wix can be a great option, but if you are looking to grow large, you would probably be better off looking at Shopify or BigCommerce.
The Looks: Branding
Now we enter the fun zone!
When you are deciding how to start your own online store, this is the stuff that usually comes to mind first because it is the fun part.
When you are thinking about branding your product(s) and thus your new online store, there are a few things you will need.
- Brand Name. There should be some thought that goes into a brand name. Short, sweet and to the point. Industry keywords and something catchy also help.
- Logo. A logo helps you differentiate your brand from everyone else.. It is a quick visual that helps people recognize you. If you don’t have the skills to design one yourself, hop over to Fiverr to find a graphic designer to create one for you.
- Images. Product images and images for your online store. People are visual and the more appealing your images, the more appealing your products feel. Make sure you are using royalty free images. You can’t just take willy-nilly from Google. Take your own pictures of your products, or use the images supplied by the manufacturer. For filler stock images, check websites like Unsplash, Pixabay or Pexels.
- About Us. Help people get to know you are your products. Tell your story. The more familiar they feel with your online store and you, the more comfortable they will feel spending.
- Contact Us. Have a way for people to contact you if they have questions and make sure to respond as quickly as you can.
- Payment Collection. This is what it is all about, right?! Have a lot of choices for the way people can pay on your website. The more ways you have, the more trusted your online store feels. A lot of people use PayPal and Stripe for collecting money on their websites.
- Bonus: Reviews. Reviews can definitely influence a purchase. Think about it, whenever you are buying something on Amazon, how often do you look at the reviews to decide if this is the item you want? Right.
Market the H-E-Double Hockey Sticks Out of Your Online Store
Now that you have everything all squared away, we need to get some eyeballs on your online store.
Marketing might feel like you are selling out or being smarmy (that’s a real word, right?) , but marketing can be fun and most of all, inexpensive.
Easy Marketing for Your Online Store
- Social Media. This is the first step that comes to mind. Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, etc… Don’t think that you need to do all of them to be successful. Pick a couple and do them well. To manage social media posts, I use Tailwind.
(As long as you are in the app store, check out my post Impulse Purchases Be Gone: Apps For Selling Stuff Online for ways to make money with your phone.)
- A Blog. Content marketing, or a blog is one of the cheapest ways to start getting some traffic to your store. Add a blog to your online store and try to write one keyword targeted article every week. This gives your online store more credibility with search engines and your customers.
Check out my post Believe the Hype: How to Start a Blog and Make Money for more info. - Email. An email list is everything. Have an email list sign-up form on your website that is easy for people to find. Email subscribers are interested in your product already and are eager to hear from you. You can then send them targeted emails with links to your online store and products. I like ConvertKit for their easy forms and marketing automation.
- Paid Ads. If you are willing to spend a little money, paid ads can be a big help in the marketing wars. Google Shopping is the first thing that comes to mind, but you can also pay influencers to market your product, or buy ad space on many social media platforms like Facebook.
- Special Offers. This last one is for all the inventive things you want to try. You can offer giveaways, have special discounts or sales, contests, free shipping, etc… sky’s the limit here. Get creative and see what you can come up with guerilla marketing style.
Resources to Check Out:
If all of this seems overwhelming and you just want a resources that you can look back to and work from with all the information you could possibly want, I highly recommend the My Wife Quit Her Job – Create A Profitable Online Store Course. I’ve used it for years and still reference it today. I tis constantly being updated with the latest info too, which is nice to know.
If you don’t know which platform to start out with and have no experience, I would choose Shopify. If you have some website building experience and don’t want to be tied with a platform, I would use Bluehost to get a domain name and hosting and just start.
If you have your own website, you are going to want to collect emails so you can market to them. I use ConvertKit and really like it.
You will also want to start marketing on social media. To manage everything, I use Tailwind.
If you need a cheap designer, coder, whatever, I always recommend checking out Fiverr.
Now You Know How To Start Your Own Online Store
The. End.
This article was a lot, so I feel like I should just end, but if you really boil all of this down, you are just a few decisions away from learning how to start your own online store.
You don’t have to try to do this all in a week, spread it out, take your time.
No stress please.
This is meant to be fun and to make you some M-O-N-E-Y.
There is a quote that I recently saw from Earl Nightingale – “Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.”
If you take a few incremental steps today, your hazy little dream can become a reality for the rest of your life.
(Check out my post Your Wallet Called: It Wants You to Figure Out the Best Things to Sell Online Already for more ideas on things you can sell in your new shop.)
