Launching Your First eCommerce Business For Less Than $50
Launching Your First eCommerce Business For Less Than $50
by Roberta Morris
Launching a business doesn’t have to require a trip to the bank to apply for a loan.
Today, owning a business doesn’t even have to require a physical storefront.
The advantage of selling your products online is that you can cut down on hiring employees to maintain your business or the extra costs of utilities and rent for an entire building.
With an eCommerce business, the checklist required to start your business may be substantial, but the overall price tag won’t be nearly as high as opening a physical storefront.
Below, we’re looking at starting an online store without breaking the bank.
Obtain A Domain And Hosting
For as little as a few dollars a month, you can purchase a domain name for your business’s website that nobody else will be able to use.
Just be sure to choose something catchy so that people can easily remember it.
As far as hosting goes, your choice will be between shared and private.
As the names suggest, shared hosting means sharing a server with other businesses and is cheaper, usually starting at around $3.50 per month, depending on your provider.
On the other hand, private hosting on a single server is recommended for businesses with a significant amount of traffic.
However, it’s usually on the higher end of the pricing spectrum.
There are many different eCommerce platforms that you can choose to use, but the most popular of them is by far Shopify.
Create Your Logo
Did you know that 60% of consumers change their minds about a business when they see that the company has a sloppy-looking logo?
It may seem superficial, but your online store’s logo represents your business. If not enough care is put into planning and creating it, consumers will usually wonder where else your company might be cutting corners.
A good business logo will capture enough attention to incite your customers to browse your stock and look for something they will want in their lives.
A logo will also help you stand out among the rest of your competition, especially if you’re talking about a business on a popular platform like Etsy.
There are free logo generators like Canva that will get the job done, or you can try to design one yourself if you’ve got artistic skills.
You can also find affordable logo designers on sites like Upwork or Fiverr and get a craftily designed logo for as little as $5 to $10.
Consider Your Inventory
If you’re starting, it’s wise to keep your stock to only as many products as you’re sure you can sell. You don’t want to be stuck with tons of products that you can’t sell as fast as you would’ve liked.
If you want to reduce your inventory costs further, you might even consider using dropshipping or selling affiliate products rather than stocking your products.
Dropshipping lets you send your orders directly to your supplier and have the items shipped directly to your customer.
There can be a few drawbacks to this option, but until you get your feet wet and grow a customer base, it is the best for your budget.
Customer Service Is Always Free
One aspect of your business that will never require capital is providing your customers with quality service and support throughout their entire interaction with your store.
If you think about customer service in the grand scheme of things, it’s priceless.
The more you can keep your customers happy with your products and the service you provide, the more likely they’ll be to come back to you for a repeat purchase.
Think about customer service as handing out business cards to your customers. If they like what they see, they’ll be more likely to pick up the phone and call you.
Create printable business cards for your eCommerce store here: https://www.businesscards.co
Launch An eCommerce Shop For $50
As we’ve mentioned, you don’t need to be a millionaire to start your own online business.
For less than $50, you should be able to buy a domain name, obtain hosting and build a website, and stock your store with a few products to get things started.
Then, as you start gaining traction, you will gradually see the need for more and more small investments to make your website better, your products look a little better, and help you reach the right people.
But for now, keep it simple and focus on getting your eCommerce store off the ground!
Hi. Thanks for your post. You can definitely start your own ecommerce business for under $50. As for hosting, I found a middle range price with Hostgator hosting company. I started with a baby plan, which at the time cost only $6.95 a month. Then, as my business got bigger, I decided to to for $16.95 a month, which gives you a lot more features. Although you can start your own online business for under $50, you’ll have to invest in other things like learning how to get traffic to your site, how to set up your social media accounts so that you can get the word out online about your products. That stuff does take more money. Thanks for your post.
Hi Shalisha, Thank you very much for dropping by and commenting. You are absolutely right about the need to learn about other aspects of a business. There is a lot of free information available on the internet, but it may not be structured, so you need to know where to look and what to look for in the right order. That´s usually where a course becomes relevant and you may need to pay depending on how quickly you would like to learn, cheers Alan