How to open an online store from scratch

Online shopping in foreign countries has long been common. As for Russia, their popularity is growing and growing every year. Anything you can buy on the Internet: from clothing to shoes, from medicines to books, computers and phones, from food to animals, as well as tickets, tickets. Such a business brings its owner a good profit. But a logical question arises: how to organize it correctly, how to open an online store from scratch?

Online Store Benefits

Trading on the Internet has many advantages. Here you can save on renting premises for real shops, there is no need to hire a large number of employees, you can quickly respond to customer requests or quickly change the range.

In addition, the online store can be located anywhere: in Moscow, St. Petersburg or in any other city. Online stores are not geo-referenced. An advantage is that in order to open an online store, a small amount of money is enough. Exactly less than opening a real store. Well, from a legal point of view, such varieties of entrepreneurship are equal before the law. Yes, and financial statements, accounting documents do not differ. It also doesn’t matter for the tax authorities whether the store is located on the Internet or indoors: the taxes are the same, and the tax systems are also.

What to sell in the online store

In order to start this kind of business, before you open an online store, you need to decide what to sell. There are several options:

The first option is to sell standard products: books, CDs, mobile phones, gifts, and so on.

The next option is to trade in products that you are good at. For example, if you are well versed in pharmaceuticals, you can easily maintain an online pharmacy: sell medicines, medical equipment.

And the last option is the sale of new and risky types of products. You can choose such products based on a variety of studies in various markets and on your own flair. Many entrepreneurs in Russia and other countries were able to realize their plans and created a business that brings good income. But every day the undeveloped niche of entrepreneurship is declining in volume.

Types of Online Stores

Like real stores, online stores come in many types. Choosing the appropriate type will be the next step if you decide to open an online store.

The first type is a full-fledged online store. Such stores have a physical office, storage facilities, delivery service, staff, a website and so on.

There is also a type of lightweight online store. Typically, such stores do not have a physical address; they work through their website and operators who accept and place orders. By the way, there may not be any operators; in this case, purchase applications are processed through an electronic application. After receiving it, the manager purchases the specified product from other sellers and provides it to his buyer. This type of store does not imply rapid development, it is generally static and stable, does not require special customer service.

And finally, you can open an online store as an addition to the real. Basically, the sale is carried out through the official website of a real store, although often one seller has several official sites.

How to create a website for an online store

So, you have already firmly decided to open an online store, then the next step will be to create a website for it. There are also several options. The first is the creation of the site on its own: the site is created either by the owner of the online store, or by his friends and acquaintances. If these persons are not professionals in the creation of sites, then it is worth tightening to monitor both the timing of the creation of the site and its quality.

If this option does not fit, then you can contact the professionals and buy a site. Today, thanks to the same Internet, you can find the appropriate artist and order him to create a site, providing all the necessary data and design requirements. The second option is more expensive, but the owner does not have to regret it.

In addition to the cost of creating a website for an online store, you need to spend small funds on a domain name and hosting, which is about 400-600 rubles per month in total. It is inexpensive, therefore such expenses will be covered by income, but the site will always be available to potential buyers.

Online Store Employees

To open a lightweight online store, there will be enough staff of 25-30 people, a lot of experience will not be required from them. Employees can be call center operators, product managers, couriers, website IT support. In the initial stages, there is an urgent need only for operators and managers. Courier delivery can be entrusted to special companies involved in delivery and transportation, or you can use postal services. The latter option is acceptable, mainly when delivering goods to different parts of the country, but if delivery is carried out within one or more cities, it will be faster and more convenient to use the first option. In the case of the transition of the online store to full service, the total number of employees will increase from 30 to 80-100 people.