How to open an online store of home goods from scratch

Every novice businessman, who want to try themselves in e-Commerce, the question arises, how to choose a product for an online store. Will this product be in demand, what is the margin you can put on a particular category of goods. How to open an online store without purchasing goods. Let's look at it from the start.

How to choose a product for an online store

Why home goods is a win-win? The question is actually rhetorical. Man always tries to create a cosiness in your house, whether male or female. Age range of audience is wide, from about 25 to 65 years. The goods for the house and garden is required for people with different income levels, another question, what price you can set to cover all buyers.

You have decided on a theme and direction. Now you need to think about how to choose a product for an online store, if you have no suppliers. To create a successful online store from scratch, you have to sell goods. To identify which goods are tradable, there are several ways:

1. To hire marketers to identify product demand,

2. To identify the demand with the help of keywords

The second method is much more difficult, as you must at least have basic seo skills-person. You may not cover a category of products though because it might just not be aware of new products and trends on the market (by the way, you can use the special service, a detailed review which we did in the article How to use Google Trends). But with a great desire and time demand to reveal it.

The demand revealed? Now you can roughly draw the structure of the menu, namely the main categories and subcategories. More on this story next.

Next, look for suppliers. If you still spend money on marketing, then you will have not only a ready list of tradable goods, but also competitive price. Thus, you can win by putting a price lower than the average competitors. Knowing the approximate prices on the market, you can easily find direct suppliers or the manufacturer.

If you are interested in how to open an online store without purchasing, nowadays there are a lot of terms of cooperation, e.g., distribution, buying a franchise, dropshipping. In fact the goods is from the supplier to the warehouse, you simply accept payment and issue orders.

Domain name, title, logo

So, you have already chosen a theme, found suppliers, purchased online store. It is necessary to choose a domain name. There are a few rules which are normally used when choosing a domain:

1. Choose a short domain that is easy to remember. Well, if the user will be able to establish a link between the domain and the name of your online store. Often these two names are the same.

2. If you still have no ideas for the name of an online store, you can think about the following. The goods for the house can be associated with something warm and cozy, bright and joyful. Think about what categories and products are on your site. You can take any name, such as garden lantern or truck. If service is the category with the furniture, you can choose options such as a dresser or lamp. To choose the Association to the words will help you service jeck.ru.

3. What is the Internet-store of goods for the house without the logo. The logo will largely depend on the store name. Learn more about how to choose the color and font for the logo in the article.

Successful Internet-store of goods for the home. Product categories

Returning to the develop menu, you need to think about what the menu should meet the needs of search engines and SEO, but first and foremost it has to serve the user requests.

For example, for the search engines, you can specify the products by their purpose:

• Household goods

• Dishes

• Home decor

• Lighting

• Furniture

Below, you can collect the goods according to the rooms in the house, such as products for dining room and kitchens, products for bathroom, products for the house and garden, for children's room. Don't miss the opportunity to promote page on brands. In our online stores you can create sort products by brand, color, specifications. Each page of the filter can be promoted in search engine, this will give you additional benefits.

If you do not have such a range as those of competitors you can make another knight's move: take one or more niches, but give the user a complete information assortment of special purchase conditions. For example, you work only with light. Then develop a detailed category coverage: chandeliers, sconces, table lamps, other category. Each category can be divided into several more: chandeliers with one, two, three canopy. Table lamps with shade, LED, decorative, office. To develop a more detailed menu, just go to the sites 2-3 competitors and peeped their menu items.

Niche online shops can win against the giants due to their narrow specialization. Search engines believe that you are the expert in your field and better rank your pages.

Throw one more idea to create categories. For example, you can create categories such as "Everything for holidays", "Hobbies", "To repair".

Add products in one file

To open a profitable online store, you can not lose a minute of time. Loading and updating of the goods should pass quickly. For this we developed import/export to/from excel file. Loading of goods is as follows: you download the file your vendor to finalized your categories, attributes, and characteristics, and load in the admin area. Don't forget to create a list of recommended products and add the products on stock. Practice shows that the "Promotions" page on the second place on the tour after the main.

Blog an online store of home goods

Your online store of home goods should be a blog. The blog should regularly publish useful articles. Let's give some ideas for writing content to the blog:

1. Reviews on the products of your online store

2. Life hacks for Housewives cleaning the house. Life hacks for men repair or home improvement.

3. Non-standard use of the products of your online store

4. The problems with which the client came to you and their decision

5. The blog must have the heading "How to choose" and "TOP of the most common mistakes when...". Articles of this type are most viewed.

6. The opinion of experts about this product, about the trends in the market, about trends in design or repair.

7. Photo customer reviews

8. Answers to frequently asked questions

9. Productivity statistics of your online store. This can be done in the format of news, for example, statistics of sales of our online store in January.

10. Instruction on the most sold goods

An example of one of the blogs of the Internet shop shown in the photo

Additional services

Make your online store different from their competitors need to provide all possible services. Visualize the path your customer from purchase to receiving the goods. What obstacles may occur "along the way". For example, if the order will execute girl, it is more logical to assume that she's going to need related services such as lifting of goods on the floor (if it's large cargo, furniture) and Assembly. You can hire workers on hourly pay or enter into a contract with the firm.

Ensure that orders are processed and dispatched as soon as possible. In the format of "we dispatch on Wednesdays" will lead your online store to losses. Today the customer doesn't want to wait, he wants to get your order as quickly as possible.

What to consider when opening an online store of home goods

Each project has its own payback period. To say with certainty whether your successful online store, you should wait at least the end of the payback period. To calculate the payback period and ROI will help detailed business plan for your project.

You should also carefully consider the logistics. It may be that because of the high shipping prices customers will not place orders. If the price of shipping cannot be cut, can be taken into account in the preparation margin on the product. Your resource should be cheaper than if the customer purchased it offline.

Offer all payment options: electronic transfer to a Bank card, when you receive cash, e-wallet. In the future, most online stores will pay crypto currency, think about it now. To see what payment options to better integrate in your online store in our article "What payment system to connect to your Internet store."

To stand out among the competition, you must:

• Develop a unique selling proposition for your product

• If not, then to offer additional services to your clients

• You can stand out loyalty programs and bonuses

Well, perhaps all we are told about the main aspects when opening an online store of home goods from scratch. Order a stylish online store template "Home and interior" https://solomono.net/oscommerce-templates/c-382.html#module510