In an increasingly digitally focused world, ecommerce is flourishing. So, how can you enter into this world of entrepreneurship and start generating income by making your first online sale?
How can you enjoy a piece of the pie? Here are 8 different business ideas that will help you launch yourself into ecommerce without further delay!
Ecommerce in a few figures
Before we get into the details of some of our best business ideas that can help you earn money online, it’s important for you to understand the environment you’re heading into. Ecommerce has seen huge success globally in the last few years, as can be seen in the following statistics from e-Marketer:
- U.S. consumers spent approximately $1.04 trillion (USD) on ecommerce in 2022.
- The total percentage of retail sales from ecommerce has risen from 9.9% in 2018 to 14.7% in 2022 in the US.
- By 2027, ecommerce alone is expected to generate $1.72 trillion (USD) and 20.6% of total retail sales.
- 85% of U.S. consumers shop online at least once a month.
The advantages of an online business
Who hasn’t dreamt about becoming their own boss one day? Let go of your fear of leaving behind a stable 9-to-5 job, because the creation of an ecommerce store brings its share of advantages.
Operating costs
Starting your own business at your own expense can be scary. However, this is where one of the main advantages of an online business lies. The operating costs are drastically reduced compared to a traditional retail business.
To become an online retailer, you just need to pay the fees of the platform that’ll be providing the hosting service for your ecommerce website. Furthermore, these costs tend to generally be rather small.
The benefits of web analytics
Web analytics enable companies and brands to collect various bits of information about users that visit their websites. This includes not only the general visitors but the customers as well.
The data collected can then be analyzed, providing you with details that can help you readjust your communication and sales strategy. This way, you’ll be able to target the people who are most likely to convert.
You can understand who your clients are and what they want, allowing you to better meet their needs and expectations with your products and site services.
1. Sell your creations online
Do you consider yourself to be creative? Maybe you enjoy making little crafts, beauty items, pottery, or other everyday objects.
Why not consider selling your creations on the internet? There are all kinds of things that you can make and sell online for a profit!
While ecommerce has many advantages and is accessible to all, it still requires special attention. Failure could be just around the corner if your project hasn’t been thought through properly.
So, how do you launch your ecommerce store and ensure that it generates income and is profitable?
Before determining exactly what kinds of products you’d like to sell to earn a profit for your online business, it’s essential that you understand the basic foundations for selling online.
The necessary tools
Let’s start by considering the different materials and tools that you’ll need to become an efficient, productive, and profitable online retailer.
- A computer: it all starts here! However, it’s not enough to simply equip yourself with a regular computer. The importance of choosing the right product should not be overlooked.
- A website host: if you want to sell something online, you’ll need a storefront, just like any physical store. To be able to stock your products online, you’ll need to create a website. This store should be hosted by what we call a content management system (CMS), which will allow you to create a platform that is easy to use and, most importantly, dynamic!
A great ecommerce CMS you could use to build your site to sell your product or service is WiziShop. This ecommerce solution enables you to create an online store very easily and quickly. In fact, website hosting, design templates, business coaches, features, etc. are all included in your subscription!
- A domain name: if you want people to be able to find you easily online when they are looking for the kinds of product that you sell, then you need a domain name! You’ll need to come up with an idea for your brand name and then purchase the matching domain name online.
The questions you should ask yourself before you get started
While online businesses may be less costly and profitable when run properly, they’re still businesses first and foremost. There are certain questions that you should ask yourself before you embark on your online adventure:
- Am I really interested in this project?
Will you soon get bored with this project that I’m embarking on? Are you interested enough that your motivation won’t waiver when you encounter your first problem or find that your online store isn’t selling?
- Do I have the appropriate skills?
Before starting the process of creating an online store, it’s important to take a step back and take note of the necessary skills required for ecommerce. Do you have them? Do you have enough expertise and confidence to do this on your own?
It’s worth noting that when you build your site for your ecommerce business with WiziShop, you’ll never be alone! WiziShop’s Business Coaches are here to support you throughout your ecommerce adventure, and they also offer a complete and free training course online.
- Do I have sufficient resources?
Even if you only have a small budget to get set up and running, you need to make sure that you have enough resources to keep your online store going.
- Do I have ideas that will help me stand out from the crowd?
There are millions of ecommerce businesses currently active on the internet, offering all kinds of products and services. You’re definitely not the only person to have had the idea of launching an online business.
There are already a multitude of similar projects varying in size and level of success. So how are you going to stand out from the competition and attract users’ interest?
The process for creating a business
The first thing to address when deciding to start on your entrepreneurial adventure is the legality of your ecommerce store. To ensure that your store complies with the relevant laws of your country, you’ll likely have to set up a business to sell your product online. Be sure to check out your country of residence’s legal guidelines and procedures.
How to make yourself known
In order to sell your goods and make your ecommerce business profitable, you’ll need to take a look at some web marketing techniques.
Sharing stories on your social media, creating original content like a video, developing partnerships with relevant influencers...all are good options to market your new business! To become a successful entrepreneur and make your business work, it’s imperative that you increase your visibility online with these sorts of marketing techniques.
2. Create a dropshipping store
The idea behind what’s known as “dropshipping” is that a business will sell a product without having to manage the stock.
If you want to become a dropshipper, you need to approach a supplier and then use their products for your online store. When one of your clients places an order, the supplier is responsible for sending the product to the client.
This kind of online business can be very profitable and, once again, doesn’t require a lot of investment at the beginning. All you need to do is create a website to start to sell your selected products.
With dropshipping, you make a smaller margin on the products you’re selling. However, your costs are considerably reduced. You don’t need to maintain any product stock, so there are no logistical costs!
The most important things to consider for dropshipping businesses is the selection of products and the marketing strategy that they’ll use through different platforms, including Google Ads, Facebook ads, SEO, email marketing, etc.
3. Launch your brand
With the multitude of brands that already exist in the ecommerce sector, it’s important to establish a strategy that enables your business to stand out from the crowd. You’ll want to create a brand that speaks to people in your target market.
Create your style and target your audience
First things first, you need to find your style. This should be a style that’ll be unique to your brand and create a strong sense of association as you grow. It’ll help you target your desired audience and meet their needs.
Focus on quality
Quality over quantity. This is what most customers will be looking for, so it’s essential that this is reflected in your brand and, of course, your products.
Build customer loyalty
Social media demonstrates this all too well. Talking about your daily life, sharing your story, and forging a strong relationship with your audience are good ways to guarantee long-term customer loyalty.
4. Become a freelancer
Say goodbye to the 9-to-5 world and hello to being your own boss!
Writer, webmaster, developer, accountant, graphic designer, translator, community manager…There are many professions that allow you to work as a freelancer or rather a self-employed person.
By starting this new project, you’re becoming your own boss. You can manage your hours as you wish, create your own working environment, and, most importantly, invest all of your time and energy into making your business a success!
Administrative formalities
To become a freelancer or self-employed, you’ll need to take care of a few things first. These items will of course depend on your country of residence.
Make sure that you take the time to carefully check out all the various requirements and declarations, both big and small, that you need to take care of. It’s essential that you respect all the legal obligations associated with being your own boss.
Sustainability and profitability of a freelance business
- Do a market study: Who are the competitors in the sector you’re targeting? What are the needs that customers expect? Perform effective market research to take a step back from the state of the industry you want to be involved in.
- Establish a business plan: This analysis process then allows you to have a general vision of the economic model of your ecommerce solution. Partners, necessary resources, amount of average customer expenditure, costs to be expected...all subjects are combed through.
- Take advantage of a market niche: Analyze your industry and quickly draw up a small list of a few carefully chosen prospects. Learn who to contact to generate interest more quickly so that you can more easily meet expectations and respond more easily to needs: this is the key!
5. Start blogging
Blogs are a huge trend at the moment. In fact, they’re popping up all over the internet and are proving to be super helpful for boosting businesses’ brand profiles!
Intended for those who like to write and share tips and other information, a blog allows you to start your own business without forking out money from your wallet. All you need to be successful in the blogging world is a computer and the desire to be a successful online blogger!
Create a website
The costs to be expected with starting a blog are directly linked to the creation of the blog itself. This can include, for instance, the CMS that’ll host your web platform and allow you to easily manage it along with the small cost of hosting your domain name.
Define your target audience
Before you start your blog, it’s important to define who the people in your target audience are. By clarifying this point, you’ll be able to perfectly orient your design, themes, and subjects on your blog to your target audience.
However, don’t make the common mistake of making your audience too general. On the contrary, take the time to define a precise audience that you want to target with your messages.
Find the right keywords
This research and analysis should be done well before creating your website. In order to please as many visitors as possible, choose keywords related to the themes and content of your blog and thus the topics that people will be searching for. This in turn will help to boost your SEO.
Build “customer” loyalty
The users that visit your blog are all “customers” in a sense. By generating more traffic to your blog, you’re increasing your chances of collaboration and associations, which can then generate income. So, make sure that your content is engaging and interesting so that visitors will come back and stay engaged!
You ideally also want to build up a directory of prospects. To do this, you’ll need to collect the users’ email addresses. What’s the best way to go about achieving this?
You need to anticipate the demand and go above and beyond what people can find on your blog. Entice them by offering something additional, such as a video, report, interview, etc. They’ll enter their email address to get access to this extra information or service.
6. Offer online training
If you’re going to create and market training courses online, you must guarantee high-quality content to gain credibility with your customers.
For this reason, it’s essential that before embarking on the sale of online training, you open a web platform on which you can write about your specialized subject. This platform will enable you to gain the confidence of readers. They’ll perhaps subsequently wish to purchase your training course.
7. Publish an eBook
Like we’ve seen at WiziShop, which has published an eBook providing advice and tips from ecommerce experts, the publication of an eBook can prove to be very profitable in the long run. To do this and best guarantee the profitability of the investment, make sure that you do the following:
- Choose an interesting subject with a strong theme
- Differentiate your work from other similar documents provided by your competitors
- Make it clear why this subject is important and essential
- Consider how much money creating this eBook will cost you
8. Sell your photos online
Have you got a passion for photography? Or maybe you’ve just simply created some stunning shots when you’ve been shooting your products?
Either way, you should consider selling your images online! The need for photography is constant and therefore requires the efforts of all kinds of photographers to put their services to work in order to continuously feed the various existing image banks.
Shutterstock images
Wondering how to get started with this? You can submit your photographs to one of many different photography platforms, such as Getty Images, Adobe Stock, and Shutterstock.
You’ll then be able to reap the fruits of your hard work: that is to say, a financial return once the photo is uploaded by an internet user. What better way to make your artistic endeavours profitable?
The primary objective is rather obvious. It’s to generate clicks and to get bloggers, influencers, brands, and companies to download your photo, perhaps to illustrate an article or a presentation.
To attract the interest of users, look at what the most popular searches are in the image banks. By starting with this, you’ll be able to think about the different themes and ideas you can work on.
The world of entrepreneurship has opened up its doors to you. The many ecommerce business ideas listed above are effective and profitable. In fact, there’s no limit to how much you can make in ecommerce!
However, to be successful you need to invest your time and energy into your project.
The success of an online business is the result of serious and diligent work! Know how to identify effective partners that can help you get where you need to be.
