Ready to take a big leap and create your own eCommerce business? But a shoestring budget stops you from turning your dream into reality. Then you are at the right place. The advancement of technology made it easy for anyone to create an eCommerce store and sell products. Here in this post, we will discuss all aspects related to starting an eCommerce business with a low budget.

 

Business Plan and Model

This is a crucial step for an entrepreneur looking to start an eCommerce business with a low budget. If this initial step goes wrong, further efforts can go in vain. While creating a business plan, it is vital to do the market research, profit margin, and (most important) budget.

 

Similar to brick and mortar business, an eCommerce business needs a working business model too. There are two business models for the eCommerce marketplace – Single- vendor and Multi-vendor. Choose which business model and plan is the best suitable for your eCommerce business needs.

Important things to keep in mind while creating a business plan and model:

• Do thorough market research.
• Devote time in analyzing your competitors’ business model and their marketing strategies.
• Create a list of products you want to sell on your eCommerce platform.
• Define your target audience, business objective, and model.
• Create a product list, price list, promotion & advertising strategy, and target location.
• Set and allocate your budget.
• Define and Focus on your KPI (Key Performance Indicators) such as products, sales, conversions, and profits.

Choose Your Niche

It pays for a business to work a particular niche rather than focusing on a larger market area. At least in the initial set upstage. Focusing on a particular niche will surely lower down the setting up cost for your eCommerce business. 

For starters, prepare a list and find the answers to the following questions:

• Your area of expertise.
• Your marketable knowledge or skill.
• Where do those skills fit in the market?
• What type of products do you want to sell?

As an entrepreneur, you should have a sense of what kind of and how you intend to run a business. Identifying your niche products and market lowers the overall setup, marketing, and advertising cost.

Create a Niche Product List

Before you plan to create your own eCommerce marketplace, it is important to create a products list. You can target a specific audience looking for a particular product and service with a niche product list. Targeting a niche lowers the market competition and reduces the marketing budget.

Hence, it is crucial to choose the right products per your target audience and not rush to sell trending products on eCommerce websites. For budding entrepreneurs, it is advised to sell something they are passionate about and find a niche market for the product.

Build Your eCommerce Store

Your eCommerce website is the foundation on which you will build, develop and sell products online. Popular eCommerce building platforms offer the facility for users;+

• To customize your design
• Add your domain (or buy one)
• Manage inventory
• Accept and ship orders
• Accept payments and more.

There are hundreds of eCommerce-building platforms out there in the market that claim to be the best. We have handpicked a few based on how affordable they are in order to bring down the development cost. Here are some popular eCommerce store building platforms for you:

 

• Shopify

This eCommerce building platform was founded back in 2004 and is currently the most preferred eCommerce building platform. Creating an eCommerce website on Shopify is easy and allows users to even control the design aspect of the website as well. Some of its plus points are tonnes of advanced tools to change how you display products, define your brand, and market yourself.

 

The platform offers multiple subscription plans to serve a wider range of customers looking to build their own eCommerce platform. Shopify pricing plans include:

 

• Shopify Lite – $9 per month
• Basic Shopify Plan – $29 per month
• Shopify Plan – $79 per month
• Advanced Shopify Plan – $299 per month

 

While the Shopify lite is more preferred for someone who is new to the eCommerce business and looking for an affordable option, Advanced Shopify Plan is for someone looking to scale up their eCommerce platform and serve multiple locations worldwide.

• Etsy

If you are someone who is looking to give a twist to their eCommerce website and offer something unique or vintage to customers. Then, the Etsy eCommerce building platform is the perfect option for you. As a retailer, this eCommerce building platform offers many features on its ‘storefront.’

The platform is involved in the buying process, keeping shoppers in front and center. This is one of the biggest reasons for so much demand for Etsy clone development in the market. The platform welcomes any type of seller to create their platform and start their eCommerce business. 

Building your eCommerce platform on Etsy is a perfect option for someone with limited and unique items stock.

• WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a powerful plugin of WordPress with which users can convert their website into an eCommerce platform. The prime reason why this WordPress plug-in is so popular is that it is open-source, free to download, offers some unique & must-have eCommerce features. You have to download the plugin, and you are ready to start selling.

The eCommerce website building platform has over 3.8 million users worldwide, and the numbers are growing every day. However, you will face issues setting up your ideal eCommerce platform without basic coding knowledge. 

Take help from eCommerce development if you want to customize your eCommerce platform. On the other hand, you can do small customization on your own and be ready to start selling on your eCommerce store.

No Need To Hire Professionals

This may sound a bit strange. But with an eCommerce store you can save a big chunk of your initial investment by using technology. eCommerce building websites such as Shopify, WooCommerce, Etsy allows retailers to efficiently manage business aspects such as inventory, transactions, order management, and others all in one place. This means that you don’t have to hire additional staff such as accounts, store managers for handling your online store.

Free HD Images/Banners

 

When it comes to setting up an eCommerce or any business, major expenses involve branding and designing a logo. However, you can reduce the initial setup cost by using online free software like Canva. With Canva, you can create banners, design a logo, or other graphics.

 

And that’s not it. You can use the photoshop free version for creating images or banners for blog posts or website ads. Take images from Unsplash, Freepik as these websites offer free high quality, and without copyright images in various categories.

 

Final words

 

Starting an eCommerce business is all about planning every business aspect and using technology to lower down the setting up cost. Building a virtual presence for your business is now becoming vital for every business to stay relevant in the future. Building an eCommerce store is a great investment for the future of your business.

 

Take an edge over competitors and start building your virtual presence with eCommerce stores while others are still planning.