3 easy retail business ideas and the steps to start it
Owning an online retail business gives you the freedom to work when you like and from wherever you are in the world. Some entrepreneurs choose to travel and work remotely; others have a physical shop that serves their local area and expands by creating an eCommerce store.
This article will provide you with details on three great ideas that can help expand your retail business or earn additional income on top of your business.
We’ll give you steps on how you can get started on your retail business ideas. Although you’ll need to invest a bit of your hard-earned cash in your business, there are many options, such as drop shipping, which have minimal start-up costs.
1. Start a niche eCommerce store
It often seems like the market is saturated, and there are hundreds of sellers all trying to market and promote the same thing. This leads to high advertising costs, often for little monetary reward.
The best thing to do when deciding to open an eCommerce store would be to find a gap in the market. Starting a niche store will make your business more unique, and it will stand out. This could be something like researching how to start a skincare business or other niche areas.
You’ll also be able to target your marketing towards a specific location or demographic that’s likely to be interested in your business’s products.
Examples of niche products include fish-shaped purses, dollhouse furniture, plant pots, or organic dog food.
If you create a niche eCommerce site, you’ll reach customers who are specifically looking for the products you sell.
Selling in a niche will help you differentiate yourself from other stores, and you’ll be able to build your client base through credibility and expertise.
You also want to consider your warehousing and order preparation processes. Great products online but poor delivery experience will inevitably hurt your brand. What can affect the delivery? Essentially, customers want their products to arrive fast and in perfect condition. This means you should plan your warehousing strategies for fast retrieval and order preparation.
You may also need to consider packing tips to ensure your products are protected during transport. If you are producing your products, this is the opportunity to add an automated packaging machine for individual packing. Combined with order packing best practices, it will help ensure all items reach their destination safely.
Build your website
After finding a supplier for the products you aim to sell, the first step to actually starting selling is to create a website.
Many different sites allow you to create a unique, customizable website where you can sell your products and write a blog. Hostinger offers a simple to use and fantastic website builder that allows business owners to easily create a website to sell their products easily, without major upkeep costs. You can overview this builder here www.hostinger.co.uk/website-builder to understand better what benefits and features the builder usage could give you.
With a little research, you’ll find additional tools and services, like Cloudflare, which can offer you free SSL protection and other tools to further improve your site.
Keep in mind that you will need to dip your toes into digital marketing. Even if you’re just providing products with local delivery, a little investment into establishing an online presence will go a long way when trying to improve conversions or get noticed.
Social media marketing
Once you’ve set your website up, you can share it with friends and family via social media. Ask everyone you know to share your site as this will help you to get free exposure.
It’s also a good idea to create social media accounts just for your business. Post regularly to showcase your products.
You may like to invest in paid Facebook ads that will allow you to reach your target market.
Write a blog
An excellent way to improve your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is by writing a blog. This will allow you to add keywords to your website, which will be found by Google when a consumer searches for products that you sell.
This will help your site to be ranked higher in Google rankings.
When writing a blog, make sure that it’s well written and relevant to your target market. It would help if you offered useful advice as this will make you seem like an expert in your field, and people will be more likely to buy from you.
Consider affiliate marketing
You may also like to do affiliate marketing through Amazon. For example, if you have a niche site selling organic dog food, you could also write a blog on pet care and recommend products such as dog bowls, leads, and harnesses from Amazon.
2. Become a handmade craft seller
If you enjoy arts and crafts, you can make your own products and sell them on sites like Etsy or Artfire. You can also create your own website and follow the above steps to market your business.
Purchase craft materials in bulk from an online craft supplier to keep the costs low. You can also consider selling at a local craft market or on handmade at Amazon.
If you have a website up and running and run into a potential client at a fair, you can always hand out business cards with your website’s domain on them.
3. Dropshipping
Running an online retail business can be time-consuming, and you can simplify the process by finding a supplier that will drop ship your products.
The supplier will send the products directly to your customers, and you won’t have to hold any inventory. This will keep your start-up costs to a minimum and will also save you time.
If something, in particular, takes off with your audience, you can ship it straight to your retail store to have it in stock. It’s a great way to check what other products or niches your current, physical customers might be interested in.
Conclusion
The first step to starting any retail business is to have some winning ideas. One of the most important things to do is find a niche that you’re interested in and identify a gap in the market. These factors will mean that your business is more likely to be a success.
Whether you’re looking for your business to provide you with a new full-time career or are looking to make money on the side by starting a part-time business, the first thing to do is come up with some ideas.
Mary is a founder and chief editor at her digital content and SEO agency PRable.org. She is passionate about digital marketing innovations. The technologies and online businesses are the engines she loves to write about.
