How To Start An Online Store

By The Hot Sauce Collector

How do you start an online store without getting side tracked by online hustlers and pyramid marketing schemes? This article is a step by step guide on how to start an online store that builds upon an earlier article I wrote for WikiHow. The barriers to starting an online store have fallen significantly over the last couple of years. With persistence, determination, a little bit of 'sweat equity', and a few helpful tips, we'll open an online store together and perhaps even make some money.


(1) Develop a tight, focused theme or product niche for your store around something fairly specific that intersects with your passions. Having passion and enthusiasm for the products you sell will give you an edge over larger online stores that are forced to be more general in their nature. By choosing a theme that you are passionate about, you will have a better chance of enjoying the experience of creating and managing an online store - which will require patience, determination, and the ability to overcome adversity. Additionally, opening an online store around one of your hobbies or interests allows you to profitably reallocate time that you would have spent on your hobby anyways.

(2) Choose a service to provide the underlying infrastructure for your online store. One free way to start an online store quickly is to open a Zlio store. A Zlio store enables you to sell products carried by Buy.com and other merchants in exchange for a commission on each sale and a percentage of the advertising revenue that you generate. Sales are driven by recommending products that people might like, writing reviews of products, focusing on a theme that is underserviced by others and/or buying things from your own store (why not buy from yourself and get a commission?). Zlio stores allow you to get started fast, but do not allow you to carry your own physical inventory. Amazon.com has started a service that is somewhat similar to Zlio -- the Amazon.com aStore program enables users to build their own free online store front that sells Amazon products in exchange for a commission, but the look and feel of the store is ugly and disappointing - I don't think Amazon takes this project seriously and is conflicted in its approach. For folks that want to sell customized t-shirts or other novelty products, CafePress could be a good choice. Another way to get started quickly is to pay Yahoo a monthly fee and open a Yahoo store front. A Yahoo store allows you to build and sell your own physical inventory of products, which will take much more work and has upfront costs but is potentially more profitable down the road if you work it hard.


(3) Build-out your product inventory by adding products to your web store. Try to be thoughtful about your product categories, and in particular, product placement. Studies have shown that consumers are drawn to products featured at the top of the page, so be careful to put the most likely sellers at the top. Put yourself in the customer's shoes with a relentless passion. Remember, people can buy from anyone; why should they buy from you? You need to make their life easier or provide some other kind of value.


(4) Promote your store - this is a very important step. Do you remember Field of Dreams? "if you build it they will come" will not apply to your new store! You must drive interest in your own site; no one cares about your online store except you. The first way to promote your store is to get relevant; submit your site to Google to be indexed. Consider adding content to your site like product reviews, subject matter articles, humor, anything to give people a reason to come to your site other than just to buy products. Content will increase your probability of becoming relevant.


(5) Manage and track your web store. Now that you've got your online store up and running, don't you want to see how much traffic you are generating and where it is coming from? Sign up for free Google analytics

Links Included In This Post:

- Zlio.com

- Google Analytics

- Google Submission

- WikiHow - How To Start An Online Store