How to Build an Online Business

It seems that now most of those who want to open their first business dream of an online store. Questions are heard here and there: how to open an online store, decide on a niche, choose an engine, find a supplier, make the right advertising?

It seems to me that the craving for opening online stores is due to the fact that people have been driven into the head with a simple dream: to work little, earn a lot. Aspiring entrepreneurs sleep and see how they open an online store, and then everything goes smoothly: customers come, goods are bought, suppliers ship them from their warehouses, and the entrepreneur only accepts money and rests somewhere on the islands.

That won't work. Rather, it will turn out differently: at the cost of incredible efforts, you will create a small online store, it will bring you 50,000 rubles in good months, 15,000 rubles in bad months, you will spend all your time on it (there will be no days off), you will learn a lot of new about people (customers, couriers, phone operators).

Why does this happen most often? Usually a novice entrepreneur has little money. And online advertising is now far from being as cheap and uncompetitive as it used to be.

For example, your store operates in the mass market. Most likely, one visitor to your site, attracted through contextual advertising, will cost about 20 rubles. If the conversion of your site into sales is about 1% (well, if it is), then the client will cost you 2,000 rubles. How much will you earn from it? Are you ready to pay 2,000 for each? And if so, how much will you have left for yourself? And will there be repeat sales, and if so, how soon?

When opening a store like this, you need to know that the online sales market in Russia is tiny, much smaller than the offline market. Working in a small market, you earn less money for the same effort. In addition, online stores often sell relatively inexpensive items. This means that you will need a lot of clients in order to somehow live. You will have to spend a lot of time working with them, especially at first: constant sitting on the phone (you can’t miss the client’s call!), Constant questions with couriers (didn’t come, didn’t deliver, didn’t return the money, wasn’t polite with the client), constant running around without days off and holidays. And all for 40,000 rubles a month, which brings the average online store to its owner.

Bad advice

Usually, a novice entrepreneur has little experience. Therefore, he believes in numerous courses that do not always teach the right things.

Often there it is recommended not to go into the mass market, but to choose a niche. Yes, a niche online store has no competitors, but there is no way to make big money there.