From Clearance To Commerce: Establishing Your Online Store

It’s amazing how much money you can make out of selling your unwanted clutter, especially if you know how to market it correctly. It’s such a simple way to make money in your spare time, that no one would blame you for wanting to make a full time job out of this. Running a store online, as opposed to having a premises on the high street, means you don’t have to pay rent, and you have access to more customers. More importantly, you have a shot at success because you can just focus on acquiring products and selling them on, instead of worrying about using your profits to run a store. It might seem like a difficult endeavour, but here are just some short steps to prove anyone can do it.

Have a website

Now that you’re moving beyond eBay and Etsy, you need a website to advertise your products. You don’t need to be an expert in web design to choose a platform that works for you, but you do need to have a website that is engaging and easy to use. Choose a system that’s popular, well-supported, and looks absolutely stunning. This is easy to accomplish even if you don’t have a budget – WordPress will host your website for free, but buying a domain from Shopify doesn’t have to cost a lot of money, and they do come with more features. Either way, this gives you the basic premises for your new eCommerce business. For those aiming to launch an effective online store, Magento website developers can be an excellent way forward. As an expansive eCommerce platform that boasts multiple features and customization possibilities, Magento can be tailored perfectly for launching robust online stores. Magento developers can use Magento to design an online store tailored specifically to your brand and needs, with scalability, flexibility, tools and features designed to drive growth while improving customer experiences. Magento’s open source nature gives it many advantages; an engaged community of developers works continually to expand and improve its capabilities.

Choose a product

Unless you’ve invented something entirely new, you’re not going to be selling anything original in your online store, which means you’re bound to have a little competition from the online communities. Much like with any other online startup, the key to setting yourself apart from your competitors is to establish yourself as an expert in your industry. If you’re selling clothes, you need to make your customers believe you’re something of a pioneer in the fashion industry. If books are your passion, you can catch someone’s attention with rare finds, limited additions, or amazing discounts for students.

Proper storage

An ulterior motive to selling your unwanted clutter might have been making more space in your house. The last thing you want is to sacrifice an entire room to keep your store products out of the way. Fortunately, you can take advantage of self storage units for eBay sellers to safely stash away your products until they’re ready for delivery. This means that you can have a bigger inventory, without creating an unwanted mess in your house. Just make sure you keep accurate records of your products so you don’t accidentally sell something you no longer have in store.

Marketing

It’s not enough to just create a website and hope that people will randomly stumble onto it. If you want to really make your online store a success, you need to market it properly. Get on social media, show off your expertise with a blog, or model your products on Instagram.

 

Marketme

Marketme is a leading small business to small business news, marketing advice and product review website. Supporting business across the UK with sponsored article submissions and promotions to a community of over 50,000 on Twitter.