Should you open your own online store?

The economic recovery for most is much slower than the news would have you believe. Many people ask, “How can I supplement my income so I can provide more for my family?” The perceived hot trend to achieve this goal is to do business on the Internet, but it is not as easy as it seems. Before you go out and open an online store, you need to fully understand what online stores are all about.

Online stores aren’t much different than brick-and-mortar stores, except you don’t have to worry about paying rent or having a lot of money tied up in inventory. In online stores, you still have to present the right product at the right time at the right price. You still need to be crystal clear about what you’re selling and project stellar customer service.

The first hurdle to overcome is deciding what to sell. It’s always so much easier and so much more fun to sell something you’re passionate about. That way, the long hours you spend with your online store become more engaging and less laborious. Many products are more conducive to selling online, like jewelry, clothing, or school supplies, while other products are harder to sell when you can’t see them in person, like refrigerators or leather sofas. So the questions to ask yourself about what to sell on your online store include:

• Can I sell a digital product that can be shipped directly over the Internet (like an e-book) or do I have to sell a physical product that needs to be shipped?
• Will you specialize in one category of products like pets or party supplies, or will you offer a wide selection of products?
• Do you have to stock inventory or can you find a company to ship it for you?
• Are you going to create your own product to sell? If so, will you do it yourself, or do you need to build a relationship with a supplier to make it for you?
• How will you ship your product? From your home, a storage facility, or a direct carrier from a third-party warehouse?

The second hurdle to overcome is finding the customer niche that will buy from you. You should list what sets your site apart from all the other similar sites (and don’t kid yourself, they’re out there) found online. So to find the right niche:

• Study the competition and if you can’t beat them on product, price or customer service, find another niche. Go to major marketplaces like Amazon, Wal-Mart, Sears, Rakuten, Tiger Direct, or Newegg to see who’s already selling and make sure you can do better, faster, or cheaper.
• Become the expert in what you sell. Show your passion for your products through original content that sets you apart from the rest. The more originality you add to the site, the more it will stand out
• Make sure it’s easy to buy from your site. Even if the products are similar to other online sites, it will make your site stand out by making shopping easier. The faster you can get customers to like the products until they complete the sale, the more you will stand out from all the competition.

There are many places on the Internet that can help you open the store of your dreams. “Build it and they will come” sounds good in the movies, but it doesn’t work the same with online stores. Marketing your site with search engine optimization, paid search, emails, affiliates, etc. will be the subject of another article.

Be sure to partner with a company that offers a quick and easy way to get a site up and running. A company like this will have several website templates to choose from and you will be able to sell as many products as you want. In fact, a good company will have products that are already uploaded to their site, so you can decide if you want to sell all of them or just some departments. There should be no limit to the number of pages you can create and the site should be built into a shopping cart so you can start selling in less than an hour.

We are back to the original question of whether you should open your own online store. It’s cheap to get started if you find the right store building partner and the right product provider for you. You can become a black hole if you start spending money on every marketing scheme that comes along. So like any business, it takes time to build. If you are an entrepreneur, an optimist, and a hard worker, then you should be in the online store business. If you think that if you pay for a site and all you have to do is sit back and watch an income stream, then online store is not for you. The Internet is still the Wild West. Learn how to do guerrilla marketing on the Internet with your online store, show your customers that you are passionate about what you sell and this can be a fun way to make a living.