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Q: Starting an ecommerce store from scratch

by mrdeflation
6 replies
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I have started plenty of ecom stores online with 1 product and only one product.... easy.. no big deal.


However I am looking into starting an ecommerce store that sells 100's of different products.

HOW THE HECK do you even begin to start something like that? Lets say I want to start a store selling women's clothes online. Not what I am doing but as an example.

Even if I buy as cheap as possible from alibaba, I would literally need to buy 100 pieces MOQ of 1,000 different things, have them all shipped to a fulfillment warehouse, separated, binned, upc'd and pay 1000s each month in storage fees alone.

What am I missing here? Is it even possible to open an ecommerce store selling a wide variety of products by bootstrapping or is it only possible with a million dollar investment?

Figure I must be missing something because there are plenty of small start ups that for instance open a dietary supplement online retail store carrying 100's of different products.


Please help =-(
#ecommerce #scratch #starting #store
  • Profile picture of the author JosephI
    You're missing what is called drop shipping.
    They do all that stuff for you, you just promote and sell the items, tell them where to ship after you pay them with the money you already received and you pocket the difference, although most likely meager profits.

    But heh, you didn't have to lay out an investment for merchandise, storage etc.
    I think a lot of people do it for fun because I can't see how most of them make any profit.

    Or maybe you're looking at affiliate stores, like Amazon and others?
    Cheers.
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  • Profile picture of the author amenwolf
    From someone that has dip his hands into ecommerce before and failed.
    I shall share a few pointers here.

    1.) Do market research. Before everything else.
    You want to know what are the common sizes, where's the demand at. Don't go purchasing blindly or you'll end up with stocks that doesn't move.

    2.)What you like, doesn't equals what will sell.
    I believe these 'insights' takes time to build. As your business grows you'll start knowing which products will have the potential to sell. If you're new, don't take the risks without deep pockets.
    Trying to start a trend is a 50 / 50 thing.
    Keeping up with a trend is a 80 / 20 thing.

    3.)Focus on branding. It keeps the business alive.

    4.)Target micro niches. It may start slow, but building up from there is always the safest route.
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    • Profile picture of the author Trinipirate
      Originally Posted by amenwolf View Post

      From someone that has dip his hands into ecommerce before and failed.
      I shall share a few pointers here.

      1.) Do market research. Before everything else.
      You want to know what are the common sizes, where's the demand at. Don't go purchasing blindly or you'll end up with stocks that doesn't move.

      2.)What you like, doesn't equals what will sell.
      I believe these 'insights' takes time to build. As your business grows you'll start knowing which products will have the potential to sell. If you're new, don't take the risks without deep pockets.
      Trying to start a trend is a 50 / 50 thing.
      Keeping up with a trend is a 80 / 20 thing.

      3.)Focus on branding. It keeps the business alive.

      4.)Target micro niches. It may start slow, but building up from there is always the safest route.
      Agreed. Sell what sells and factor in costs for SEO
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  • Profile picture of the author Acornia
    You don't dropship Fashion, old style market and works differently to areas such as technology. It all comes down to revenue targets, resource available, architecture, capital available, product types/sector, each sector has it's combination but not many (<5%) find the correct balance which is where you're at. The simplest is to start with what do you enjoy and work from there.
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  • Profile picture of the author jackshoes
    Before starting your e commerce you need to install a feed cart for your website because cart make your working easy and manage your listing.
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  • Profile picture of the author ShristiJohn
    Well, before starting an ecommerce business, first you should have to collect the all kinds of information regarding online business and also need to update yourself with the current tradition of marketing.
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