Now you know why eCommerce is such a big deal and what makes it such a fantastic tool for making money online.
But the next question you need to answer is how you’re gonna make this work for you.
Having an eCommerce store is great in theory, but it’s what you do with it that really counts. And as it happens, there is no right way to run an e-commerce.
This video series is aimed at everyone from small business owners to hobbyists who just want to run a store as a side project.
The way that both types of seller goes about creating and running their business will of course vary.
So find the relevant heading here that applies to you and see how you can fit an eCommerce store into your existing business.
If you already have a High Street store, then the good news is that you are already in the perfect position to start taking full advantage of eCommerce.
You already have inventory, you already have a niche, and you probably already have a website. Adding eCommerce is simply the next logical step.
By creating an online store, you can give your customers the ability to order your products online, which will increase your turnover and also give you a much bigger potential audience.
What’s more is that you can use your physical store to promote your e-commerce store and vice versa.
It’s important that you do this correctly though, you’ll need an e-commerce store that will automatically synchronize with your physical store so that the inventory is updated when products are bought online or in store.
Ideally, you want to find a solution that lets you use your epos, your electronic point of sale, to automatically update the stock with no work on your part.
If you’re working and you want to try setting up your own eCommerce as a side hustle, then you’ll be starting from scratch.
The good news here is that any income you add to your existing income will be extra.
Meaning that this can be a very small scale business model and you won’t need to worry about trying to run the business on a massive scale or making a fortune from day one.
With that in mind, you can identify a type of product you want to sell, create a website and a store, and invest in a small amount of Inventory.
Or perhaps you even want to make your own products, you know, either way, you can simply invest more money each time you sell off what you have while keeping a little extra for yourself.
You can also use an eBay store and social media to help your sales and possibly run a blog to handle content marketing.
If you’re a blogger or a marketer, then you might already have an audience and a platform from which to sell your product.
This is simply a matter of adding a store to your existing business and promoting it to your email list, to your visitors, and anyone else that you can influence.
This business will start with you identifying a type of product that fits into your niche, and then choosing an eCommerce platform to suit your store.
You might decide also to remove affiliate products from your site in order to focus more attention on your own store for maximum profit.
So those are some basic models for your e-commerce stores. The next question is how you might apply them in the real world.
Now, here are some imaginary scenarios to help you visualize what this might look like.
Now, let’s look at a reseller scenario, and a very simple and easy business model if you’re looking to make money from home as a side business, is to become a reseller.
What this means is that you’re buying stock and then simply reselling it for a little more. To do that, you’ll normally be buying in wholesale.
So let’s say you choose to sell clothes from home. Now, this might mean that you buy a hundred shirts for $600, that’s $6 each, and then you sell them off at $12.
This is called Keystone Pricing, and it’s a fairly standard pricing system for a lot of wholesalers and manufacturers. Even if you only sell half, you’ve broken even.
Ideally though, you’ll aim to sell all of them giving you $600 profit.
You may choose to keep $400 of that and then reinvest $200 so that you can order $800 of stock next time for $1,600. Turnover. Over time, your pot will grow.
This then allows you to invest some money into marketing, you know, Google AdWords or Facebook ads, for instance, and to diversify your line with different types of shirt and other types of clothing.
But right from the word go, you can start making money from your store by selling to friends and also by selling some of your stock on eBay.
This is all much easier though if you try to focus on a specific niche and to give your store some kind of focus that sets you apart.
For example, you might sell shirts aimed at a particular demographic, you know, plus size, women entrepreneurs, gay men, or you might sell shirts that have something in common, you know, they’re ready to iron, or they’re light and cool, or they’re bright colors that sort of.
With some of this sets your part and helps you to appeal to a particular audience.
It’s more likely your adverts, your social media posts, and your listings will get noticed. What about if you’re a blogger with eBooks?
As we’ll see in more detail later in this series, you don’t need to limit yourself to selling physical products.
You can actually just as easily sell digital products like eBooks and even software through an e-commerce.
So if you have a blog that’s currently selling a single eBook from a sales page, you might consider branching out and selling multiple books from an online store.
This way, you’ll look like a much bigger business and people will be able to browse what you have to offer at their leisure.
This also means that you can use things like special offers, deals, and a whole lot more to promote specific books, and you can place adverts for your books around your site instead of using AdSense.
What’s more, You can even start using things like apps and plugins to sell your books in a more inventive way.
You can embed your eCommerce store right into your Facebook page, for example, for more direct monetization of your social media efforts.
No matter what your business is, though, you’re going to need something to sell. Here are some ways that you can stock up even if you aren’t fortunate enough to own your manufacturing plant.
3D Printing
This is a surprisingly viable option these days. If you have a 3D printer or you’re happy to use a website like Shapeways, which you can find [email protected], then you can sell plastic or metal objects with nothing more than a 3D model file.
This might mean that you sell phone cases, jewelry, or ornaments, or even toys.
As mentioned, you can sell products by finding wholesalers and buying in bulk.
There are other ways you can be a reseller too, such as adding value yourself by packaging products nicely, or just finding them very cheap somewhere.
If you have a skill such as painting or making clothes, there’s no reason why you can’t turn that into a business and sell through your own online store.
You might also want to try selling through etsy.com as well.
There’s no reason you can’t sell digital products from your site.
Now, this might be an online course, an eBook, or a piece of software. There’s no overheads and there’s no delivery.
Affiliate products are products that you sell for a commission.
Now, some digital affiliate products let you keep as much as 75% of the profit. Drop shipping is in many ways the ideal business model.
This means you sell a product that you didn’t create except that you’re allowed to add your brand into the product. So it looks like you did.
What’s more is that you don’t have to worry about shipping yourself. That’s also handled by the other company.
And there is pod. Now pod stands for print on demand, and often this term applies to publishing, meaning that you print books only when you sell them.
Both Amazon and Lulu have great pod publishing options. Likewise though, pod might mean printing t-shirts or printing logos onto mugs.
T-shirt stores are big money online and they’re super easy to setup. Finally, why not just outsource the creation of your product?
This is easiest for digital products, but it can work for all types of things as well.
