Tips To starting Online Store For Beginners
Like it is said, it takes more than just money to starting an online store. Only money won’t fetch you results without ideas, dedication and hard work, neither will just having an idea fetch you results. They both go hand in hand, neither of them is possible without the other.
There are a number of options available online to sell namely
- Self-hosted software
- Hosted eCommerce solutions
- Marketplaces
A full-scale financial plan needs to be developed for online selling. In most of the cases, a financial plan is normally made with varying assumptions for a period of 1 to 3 years and costing parameters for each operation.
If we talk about marketplace selling the investment is much lower than the other two options, let’s see the cost the seller has to bear in this platform.
Marketplace fee
every marketplace comes with a price these prices include shipping fee, fixed fee, and selling commission. we will discuss them in detail as follows:
- Commission fee: Marketplaces charge the sellers a percentage of each sale they make. It’s usually free to list products, but sellers incur fees as a percentage of the sales they make, which may vary based on their product categories.
- Shipping fee: Once you have sold the item, making sure it has reached safely is another type of investment and is calculated on the basis of product weight and shipping location.
- Collection Fee: There is a payment gateway for every sale; it is also called the cash collection charge with every payment made.
Warehouse cost
One of the major costs includes warehousing cost. The processes, which are integrated with it are picking the items, packaging the item, dispatching the item and at last the stocktaking. Now here we need to understand that warehousing also depends on the size of your business like how many items you are making available online e.g. the larger products would require more space for their storage whereas smaller products like jewelry would require a smaller space for storage. Thus saving the cost of warehousing as per your requirements.
Product Cost
In fact, the most important cost will be that of the product itself because it is the product you want to sell. Depending upon the category, quality, brand of the products you are selling, so your investment requirement would be calculated. Some products like jewelry (gold, silver, platinum, diamond) would require more investment than the other sort of products, which requires a small investment like mugs, umbrellas, shoes, and clothing etc.
Legal Registration
Selling on marketplaces also requires legal registration and some costs related to it depending on the country you are selling in or from. There are a certain amount of taxes involved as well as if you start selling. Legal formalities might be one time and some on a recurring basis, but while making a plan for the required investment they should take the top place as they are mandatory and keeps the seller away from any legal troubles.
Though the world of online selling may appear easy, to begin with, but the real sellers who have made it big had a vision, a plan in mind. Hence, preparing yourself and planning your initial investment is an important move in order to attain a successful online store.
