Tips for Starting a Small E-commerce Store from Home

Starting an eCommerce business from home is an increasingly accessible and popular business idea for those who want to become their own boss or start a lucrative side hustle in an industry that is certainly booming. With more and more people turning to online shopping than ever before, there are many growing options for starting a successful small eCommerce store from home. And today, you can sell almost anything that you like online whether you plan to dropship electronics, sell items that you have handmade or source and resell second-hand luxury items – there’s an endless amount of choice to consider. Here are some tips to keep in mind if you want to start a small eCommerce store from home.

Choose the Right eCommerce Platform

In the UK, there are several different eCommerce platforms to choose from. Many of these allow you to build your own website from scratch using easy templates or drag and drop web building tools. Some such as Shopblocks offer the option for you to use blocks to create a more customised design; however, you should choose your platform based on your level of expertise if you want to do it yourself. Wix and Squarespace are well-known for being intuitive and easy to use for even complete beginners, while WooCommerce on WordPress can be a little more complicated.

Decide Where to Store Your Inventory

Even a small eCommerce store will usually need somewhere to stock items that it’s got listed for sale. Unless you are lucky enough to have access to a large spare bedroom, dry garage or a functional loft space in your home, then you will probably need to consider getting outside storage options. If you’re not planning on storing a lot of inventory at the same time, you probably won’t need a warehouse. A storage space such as those offered by Stored Away will usually suffice. Stored Away offer a range of storage space options in London including flexible business storage options that can easily grow with your eCommerce store.

Or Consider Dropshipping

If the idea of storing inventory and buying in stock is putting you off starting your eCommerce business from home, then you may want to consider starting out with dropshipping instead. Dropshipping is an eCommerce business model where all you need to do is advertise and list the products for sale on your website. You do not need to buy or store any inventory and products will be sent directly from the manufacturer to the customer instead.

Focus on Customer Satisfaction

Bear in mind that, as an eCommerce business owner, you’re going to be up against the big names like Amazon and eBay. Customer satisfaction in eCommerce is often one of the most important factors, especially as there are just so many options for customers to choose from today. Delivery time, for example, could make or break your business, especially with an increasing number of customers not prepared to wait more than a couple of days for goods to be delivered.

Starting an eCommerce business from home is an ideal venture for anybody who wants to start a side hustle or create a full-time income from selling products online.