What's your best solution for starting an ecomm shop?

If you have money to spend and want something quick and easy to get started with, then there are plenty of good options to choose from like shopify, squarespace, wix, etc.

For me, I can setup a wordpress site with woocommerce and start selling unlimited products quickly and easily without a hefty monthly subscription. There are also plenty of opensource free ecommerce php scripts as well.

You can sign up for Shift4Shop, an actual hosted real shopping cart and pay zero each month - not even for hosting. The only catch is you have to use their payment processor (and PayPal, if you like). Their rates are the same as everyone else's, so it's about as free as you can get for a completely secure shopping cart, sitewide https and hosting.

Hello,

I think it would be good to write some things since we've been working with such systems and e-commerce for a long time. Here, actually, it's important to understand something first. You want to sell a product, but your budget is very low, and you expect to open a shop in a bad location and make sales? According to the laws of nature, this is impossible. While free systems, like WordPress, may serve you at the starting point, to make a good start, you need to use quality systems. After all, you want to sell a product, and the site needs to be attractive enough to attract the customer's interest. Places like Shopify and BigCommerce will be good for you, but you need to pay a monthly service fee for the quality of this service. Actually, making such systems requires a million-dollar budget. That's why these companies ask you for fees according to monthly plans. Actually, if we think like this, it's very reasonable. Moreover, the biggest drawback of these systems is that they provide you with the necessary tools and you have to create your own site. This alone is another challenging process. Ultimately, are you going to deal with the site or are you going to try to grow your business? I'm not even talking about payment sections, email services, speed, and design issues. Also, reaching the other side through such systems seems impossible. There may be a classic support ticket, but it's very slow, and they don't provide service through much faster channels like WhatsApp or Skype. Therefore, I recommend choosing a software company that you can reach support tickets as quickly as possible, does not have recurring payments for monthly/yearly software.

Well It sounds that you want to expand your business and its growth too. Your plan to expand it via e-commerce is really a nice choice. One can turn small business into a big one in no time with help of e-commerce. For Beginners I would recommend to firstly check & set the target audience and location according to the product your are selling. After then take help of social media and advertise it accordingly. It will totally work.

Sell winning products via Shopify on Facebook ads. Dropship from China using AliExpress.

If i was starting i would check out word press

I would recommend starting with a user-friendly platform like Shopify or Etsy to set up an online store quickly and easily. These platforms offer tools and templates tailored for small businesses and provide a good balance of simplicity and functionality.

Stay aways from a dropshipping - waste of time and money. You will never get higher discount from the supplier/distributor than someone who are investing in his own stocks. I am building a webshops since many years and see how it works. Those clients who had own stocks but also good discounts from the supplier always win. Of course there is always a risk if you investing 5-6 figures in your own stocks but many depends from your niche you want to involve ,also from my own experience works best cheap and very cheap products epecially not easily comparable in other webshops but of course I also have examples of clients for example claresa.ie one of my clients from Ireland who are selling quite popular products but he dominated his market (I mean Irish market) with those products because of the pricing strategy , selling in bulk etc. and proper purchase volume from the supplier (big discounts)

If you live in the U.S. and need guidance and mentorship, I would contact your local SBDC and ask to meet with an advisor. It is completely free of charge and they can refer you to other nonprofits that can help you get a professional website developed for FREE. I was offered website development from a local company for up to $3,800 for no charge at all. Once you have this website devloped, SBDC will help you with marketing as well. Hope this helps.

I recommend starting with a user-friendly e-commerce platform like Shopify, WooCommerce, or Etsy. These platforms offer easy setup, customizable storefronts, and built-in payment processing. You should provide clear product descriptions and utilize social media and email marketing to drive traffic to your store. You must also prioritize customer service and building relationships with your customers as this could help in positive word-of-mouth marketing and help in repeat business.