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More and more people are trying to start their own business, many through online methods. Based on sales figures coming in from the last holiday and post-holiday sales, more and more people prefer to buy from online stores than in physical stores mainly because of the variety of products that are readily available and the convenience of shopping from home According to Time.com’s consumer reports, holiday shopping alone increased by 17% over the last year for Cyber Monday, with e-retail sales going even higher for Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and then 15% more during the whole season. Data from confirms that there is an influx of online shopping from consumers, and it is for that reason that so many entrepreneurs are starting out online.
Why is starting an online store a good idea?
You can easily reach your target market online. No matter how seemingly obscure or specialized your products seem to be, there’ll be someone out there in the world looking to buy from you (if there are online stores for years-old animal parts, you can buy and sell anything online).
You can establish it right at home. There won’t be a need to open a physical store immediately (you can do that probably when you’ve made enough profit). You can sell directly from your computer—just upload photographs to your site.
Customers can contact you via your email, your business phone, or your social network page, or your site. You can create order forms directly on site for clients to fill out, making it easier to create customer order lists and databases.
You can promote your own brand. You get to control how information about your little business is spread via social networking sites, which can open doors to even more customer views. You have control of how you would like your business to be seen.
Opening a Store
Not everyone has the technical know-how to create a personal site to host a business at once, and not everyone can afford a web developer. This is why sites like Etsy and StoreEnvy were created, catering to the small independent entrepreneur who wants to create his own brand name, something that Amazon or eBay can’t give you. While these two sites were designed to merely sell for you, Etsy and StoreEnvy will allow you to customize your store site.
Etsy is primarily a space for handcrafted items and supplies. It has become increasingly popular for clothing, jewelry, accessories, and other forms of small merchandise that are designed and made by hand. It can immediately launch your creations to a crowd looking for carefully-made goods that aren’t mass produced, making everything more special.
StoreEnvy is another popular Launchpad of stores. Unlike Etsy, you don’t need an initial deposit to open a store there. You can design precisely how you would like your shop to look, giving you further control over your brand’s “appearance”. It’s a popular site for selling merchandise, clothing, and customizing services. Many young designers are starting out through this site, which already has more than 30,000 merchants to its lineup.
Starting your own business has never been this easy. Getting into the online world to launch your brand name could be a lucrative start for your company.
