Complete Guide to Starting an Online Store Web Shop: #eCommerce in 6 Steps

Posted by Big Brand Wholesale.com on 22nd Apr 2020

One of the most popular questions we are asked is "How can I start an online business like yours?" so today I decided to put together an entire guide. Let's begin!

Before we get started, BOOKMARK this page because there is a wealth of 100% FREE Knowledge here. You will want to easily come back to this page over and over as you start your new business. Then make yourself a cup of coffee and grab a notepad and a pencil (I prefer afternoon Mimosas and felt-tip marker pens) because we have a TON to go over :)

STEP 1: THE "WHAT"

First, you gotta decide WHAT it is that you want to sell. The advice I have always given to people is "You should be able to explain your business in 5 words or less. If you can't explain it CLEARLY in 5 words, then you need to keep refining your business until you can. For example, a lot of people plan to sell "A Little of Everything"; although this is only 4 words, it explains nothing. If I want to buy a prom dress can I come to your store? What about food? Do you sell roller skates and decorative pillows? Amazon legitimately sells "Everything", and you are not Amazon. You need to start off your business with a great assortment of ONE THING so you serve a purpose and can "cross sell" customers. So, if you want to sell Mens clothing then go All-In and load up on all different kinds of Mens clothing, in all different sizes and styles. If you want to be a Womens Accessories store, then do NOT buy Mens stuff and instead stock your site with thousands of different womens accessories; purses, hair ties, headbands, wallets, luggage tags, scarves, swim wraps... you name it.

If you need help deciding what your store should be, read our article What is Best to Sell Online? How to Pick Inventory for Your Internet Store.

***If you discover that you are having trouble understanding a lot of the words in the blog posts, we created (100% FREE Blog Post) The Ultimate Guide to Wholesale Buying and Selling Terminology: Learn Every Word and make Smart Purchases Dictionary to help you out. You can also bookmark that page and whenever you come across a new term you aren't sure of, refer back to our Free Dictionary. ***

TIP: Make sure you take notes on what you find to be truly useful information because you will want to refer back to them later. This is my style of note-taking:

Did you know that drawing a little picture illustration actually HELPS you learn faster? It's true!

You can score seriously fantastic colored ultra-fine Sharpies and a premium notepad off Amazon for under $25 total:

While you are deciding WHAT to sell, there are a few more considerations to think about. For example, how much is shipping going to cost? If you want to sell Coats for the whole family, you should consider the cost to ship the larger size mens and womens coats. Will your buyers be okay with paying $40 for shipping? If you want to sell Home Decor, are you going to have the expense of buying packaging materials so glass items don't break? We created more guides to help you think of items that ship CHEAP (under $3 inside the USA). You definately want to take a peek at this blog posts:

STEP 2: THE "HOW"

Once you figure out WHAT you want to sell you need to figure out HOW you plan to obtain it; are you going to be buying wholesale directly from distributors? Are you going to buy the same items for less by purchasing Liquidations? Or maybe you want to sell used merchandise? Are you buying Pallets? The next step is to learn How Wholesale, Liquidations and Store Returns Work: How We Get Our Inventory then read the Complete guide to types of Liquidations. After you have completed these two articles, plus the What is Best to Sell Online blog you absolutely MUST read How Much is a Clothing Pallet? even if you do not plan to buy Clothing, the information in our How Much is a Clothing Pallet article applies to ALL Pallets and is super important to know BEFORE you jump into buying huge quantities., you will have a much more clear idea of what direction you want to go. Do you see why I told you to Bookmark this page and take notes? LOL!

STEP 3 & 4: THE PLAN (AND PRE-PLAN)

By this point you should know WHAT you want to sell and HOW you plan to obtain it. It would be a great idea to make some notes in your notebook about how much you have to spend on inventory and figure out how much inventory you can get for that amount. If you feel it's a decent amount of inventory to start a business, GREAT!!! You are super close to starting your new life as an eCommerce business owner!

BUT... before you start structuring your company, ordering inventory, getting a website and so on, I strongly suggest reading the 5-Part Series we wrote called Genuine Advice for New Online Sellers. In this series I give you 5 serious pieces of advice that I have learned over 15 years of selling online. If reading this series makes you feel discouraged, then starting an online store isn't right for you; instead stick to selling on eBay or other sites. However if reading the series makes you feel ENCOURAGED then you are a great fit for this career!

STEP 5: IMPLEMENTATION

Now, the time has come to officially embark on your exciting journey of starting a business. And, of course, we have a step-by-step How to Start an eCommerce guide for that too! is the Ultimate Guide to show you every single task you must complete. It is a big help to pickup a calendar or planner to stay on track. This is my current fav because it goes from summer 2020 - summer 2021 AND it has motivational quotes on every page! Plus, it's under $12 on Amazon:

Or you can grab less "fun" (he, he, he!) styles for about $17:

Ok, so now that you have your calendar, look at our Step By Step How to Start an Online Store Guide and assign tasks to days. This will help keep you on track. You just have to know that once it is written on the calendar, it is set in stone! Come hell or high water you MUST get the task done on the day you assign it. Or, you can get the task done ahead of schedule. TIP: Make sure you are not overloading your days. Since everything is new, even a simple task may require deep thought, soul searching, researching and reading. Making tons of mega-important decisions, such as a Company Name and website, can be exhausting and should never be rushed. I hate to beat a dead horse, but all of this info is in our Step By Step How to Start an Online Store Guide; if you choose not to read it, good luck.

STEP 6: STRUCTURE

If you haven't read any of the links in this article, you have to check out How to Create an Awesome Company Logo FAST and FREE because you are going to need a logo for your new business. Logo design is a SUPER BIG DEAL, so give yourself a week or multiple to finalize the perfect logo.

After you order your merchandise you want to immediately create your inventory system; read How to Shelve and Store Your Inventory! Complete Guide- I know, it sounds so stupid to worry about inventory now, but I swear on EVERYTHING, it is soooooo much easier to do it now than in the future. Creating an inventory system will also help you get organized with a quickness. Organization helps eliminate mistakes! So once again, bookmark this page if you haven't already and peep How to Shelve and Store Your Inventory! Complete Guide.

IN CLOSING

I ABSOLUTELY PROMISE YOU, if you actually take the time to read EVERYTHING in this article (and taking notes really IS a big deal because notes help you *retain* information) you WILL be leaps-and-bounds ahead of your fellow entrepreneurs who have never taken the time to LEARN. Just the fast that you are reading this now and wanting to make informed decisions already shows that being a business owner is most likely a GREAT fit for you! Most people who quit, quit because they never started with knowledge. You are so lucky to be able to start a business in 2020 when you have so many amazing resources to read, videos to watch, books to buy with the click of a mouse... you really DO have the upperhand as opposed to us, who started back in 2005 when 90% of this stuff wasn't main stream (back then YouTube just launched!). So CONGRATS to you and best of luck! You CAN do it and you WILL do it!.... now read all those articles....and take notes too. :)

Love this blog post? Check out our other Amazon & eCommerce detailed guides: