10 Great Business Ideas - #1 Start an Online Retail Business

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On today's agenda I will be looking at the first most common business idea for beginners in the online business. In the past people used to depend on retail stores business hours to do their shopping, but with the convenience of the internet and multiple online stores, we can now do our shopping online.

More and more people are expected to go online as a first resort for anything as per speculations around the 2019 online world development. With so many people going online to buy, you have nothing to lose by opening up your own online retail business.

How to start an online retail business

There are a lot of steps and research you will have to do to start an online retail business. I will attempt to outline them all right here for your convenience.

Of course if I do leave out a step or two, please forgive me? But you are more than welcome to write your recommendations in the comments below.

  1. Decide on what you want to sell and to whom you want to sell it
  2. Decide on a store name
  3. Buy a domain with a relevant domain name
  4. Setup your site with your theme of choice and prepare it for SEO and site security with the help of WA site builder
  5. Now that you have your site, decide on a logo and slogan (if applicable)

Now that you have your website, you can now start with designing your store.

When I first researched this business opportunity, I came across Shopify which I immediately joined and started a store at. You can do that too, however, it would mean that you have to pay a monthly membership fee to remain a member of the Shopify platform.

Under normal circumstances this should be affordable, but seeing as how you are just starting out, already paying for WA membership, and probably do not have extra money to spare, I recommend that you do not use Shopify if you are a starter member with limited resources.

Instead, I recommend using Spreadshirt for your online retail business. On this site you can open a store for free and use one of their .spreadshirt site domains for your store. Yes, I know that these types of domains take forever to rank. But did you know you can set up your Spreadshirt store in your purchased domain at WA by the use of a plugin and everything will work exactly the way it should?

What plugins should I use

In the Wordpress platform, search for the Spreadshirt plugin to install and activate on your site. Once activated, you must now fill in the details of the store you opened on Spreadshirt which you now want to incorporate into your site. This means you put in the .spreadshirt domain you created to sync it with your WP domain.

Now that the plugin is activated and synced, you can add the store to your main menu by creating a custom link to your store on your domain.

What type of products are available on Spreadshirt

You can upload your own design for a logo or graphic to be incorporated with your Spreadshirt merchandise. The user functionality really is superb and setting up a store is quite self-explanatory.

Products you can sell in your store include t-shirts for men and women, hoodies, cellphone covers, mugs and even scatter cushions. There are also a wide variety of colors and sizes to choose from which makes it ideal for men and women of all sizes and ages.

The best of all is that Spreadshirt makes the prices self based on your chosen profit margin. Once an order is placed, they fulfill and deliver it to your customer. This means that you set up your store and promote it on social media to drive traffic to your store, while Spreadshirt handles all the logistics part of the sale.

Once payment is received, your profit is deposited straight into your bank account or PayPal depending on which payment option you chose.

What are you waiting for???

Knowing now how to start your own online retail store, there is really nothing keeping you back from running with this business idea.

Keep your eyes peeped for more great business ideas in this series of 10 Great Business Ideas.

If you need clarity or have any additional info to share, please do so in the comments below or send me a PM for further assistance.


**Disclaimer: I am in now way an affiliate of Spreadshirt of Shopify and am not gaining anything out of recommending these platforms. My only intention is to give advice for a business idea in online retail.

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Recent Comments

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great advice for those newbies looking to open a retail store.

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