Open An Online Store

When it comes to setting up an online store there are a huge number of possible ways to go about the problem.

For example, are you going to use a stand-alone piece of software or are you going to use a third-party service? The benefit of having your own store is that you are not at the mercy of any other company, should they go bust or change how they do business. On the other hand, you can frequently gain traffic and as a result sales from hosting with a third party solution.

And whichever of these two options you choose of course, you have the additional problem of exactly which system to go for. Each has different strengths and weaknesses and it can be a real challenge to decode on which is the “best” solution.

I’m writing to you today though about Ebay and their online store software. You see, not so long ago, I was very doubtful about Ebay and how it applied to an online store.

If I’m honest, I saw Ebay as quite an amateurish option and preferred to set up my own stand-alone stores and drive traffic to them via the search engines and paid advertising.

But then I had a few odd things lying around at home to sell and so I decided to place them on Ebay. And I was positively shocked with the results.

I had half a dozen people or more watching each of my auctions and the prices my items fetched surprised even me. And that was when I started to understand the power of Ebay.

Quite simply, people go to Ebay with their credit cards in hand looking to buy. All the visitors to Ebay are people who are actually looking to spend money rather than just to browse for information or entertainment.

And so by having an Ebay store you are able to tap into this massive body of potential customers. In this way, while you will likely pay more out in terms of fees to Ebay than you would to your own credit card processor if you ran your own stand-alone store, the increased sales you can generate as a result of being on Ebay can more than offset that - and result in increased profits for you at the end of the month.

In short, Ebay seems like a really good potential solution to opening an online store.

For those with an idea to open an online store, the passion and excitement can be heady stuff. We dream of setting up our own successful, profitable business and taking control of our own destiny.

But before you take the plunge, it is important to take a step back and do some basic research on the validity of your plan. After all, I believe a large part of the reason for so many businesses failing each year is simply that these business owners do not do their homework.

Luckily on the internet this basic market research is both quick and simple, and there are four main elements we need to consider.

Demand

The first, most important question, is whether there is any demand for the products you are considering selling. There seems little point opening an online store if nobody is interested in buying your importaed Ecuadorian hats or suchlike.

So carefully consider your target market and where they hang out online, then approach some of them to test the response. Dicussion forums can be an excellent place for this. Simply ask people whether they would be interested in your product. Hopefully enough people will respond for you to you to make you realize you have a winner on your hands.

Price

Assuming it does look like there are plenty of potential customers who are willing to spend money on what you want to sell, the next step is to check out your competition to see what they are selling and what prices. The internet is a very price-sensitive medium and so you must set your proces inline with other similar online stores. So consider how much they are charging and make certain you can still make a reasonable profit at these prices.

Sourcing Products

The next element for consideration is where you will get your products from. Obviously you know the potential retail prices having carried out your market research in the last step so now is the time to look at suppliers. Check out not just the unit price to you to ensure you can make a profit but also look at such things as minimum orders and shipping costs to you.

Fulfillment

Finally consider how you are going to fulfill orders as they come in to your store. What will you charge for shipping? How will you pack them? How often will you send off orders? make sure you also have your packing materials ready and have factored these costs into your product prices to ensure you can still make a profit.

Assuming you have found a hungry niche, a supplier and a shipping method that are low-cost enough that you can still make a profit while competing on price, it’s time then to actually get building your online store - and the best of luck to you with it