Ecommerce business is booming now, and a lot of entrepreneurs are venturing into it.
Maybe you too want to know the best eCommerce business ideas that you could venture into.
Probably you know what eCommerce is, but you have limited or no knowledge to go about it.
People who knew nothing about eCommerce once asked these questions:
- What is eCommerce?
- How to start an eCommerce business?
- How to make money on eCommerce?
- What are the best eCommerce business ideas?
In this post, we will be showing you profitable best eCommerce business ideas worth knowing.
Remember that to start any business you need capital. It can be small or big and the nature of the business determines that.
So let’s begin!
Before going into full details of the best eCommerce business ideas, it is proper to know what eCommerce is all about. Don’t you think so?
What is Ecommerce?
Simply put, eCommerce is any commercial transaction conducted on the internet. Ecommerce involves selling and buying physical or digital products and services online.
The beauty of eCommerce business is that it can be done from any part of the world and your customers can be from anywhere or even in a faraway continent from you.
Most eCommerce businesses require having a website, that is an online store where to showcase the products or services.
Types of Ecommerce Business
There are 4 main types of eCommerce business models.
1. Business to Business (B2B)
This is when a business sells products or services to another business. Eg: a software company selling its software to another company in need of it.
2. Business to Consumer (B2C)
This when a business sells products and services to an individual consumer. Eg: buying a mobile phone from an online retailer.
3. Consumer to Business (C2B)
This is when consumers sell their own products or services to a business organization. Eg: selling ad space on your site to a brand for exposure to your audience.
4. Consumer to Consumer (C2C)
This is when a consumer sells products or services to another consumer. Eg: eBay and Craigslist where a consumer can auction a product to other consumers.
Benefits of Ecommerce Business
You may need to know some of the benefits of eCommerce business.
To The Business
- It reduces the cost of renting and running a physical store. You may be surprised to be told that many eCommerce entrepreneurs don’t have an on-site (physical) store. Just keep on reading as we will talk about that later.
- It eliminates geographical barriers. This makes it possible to reach consumers worldwide.
To The Consumer
- It allows consumers to have various payment options.
- It saves time and money, unlike a physical store that requires one to take a short or long journey.
- It gives consumers better options in the price comparison. For instance, a person can open different tabs on a browser and compare the price of a particular product from different stores.
Whether you own a brick-and-mortar store, it is very important to follow eCommerce trends.
It helps to know what consumers are actually interested in and wants from their shopping experience.
I think with all that is said so far, it’s time to proceed to the best eCommerce business ideas in 2024.
Dropshipping – Best Ecommerce Business Ideas
Dropshipping is a kind of eCommerce business model when an online store owner sells products at a profitable margin from a bigger store usually called the supplier and have them delivered to the buyer.
This is how it works;
The dropshipping store owner doesn’t need to have the product in stock. He simply adds the product images, description and price on his site from a supplier.
When someone makes a purchase from his store, he simply sends the buyers details to the supplier or manufacturer. The supplier then ships the product to the buyer.
Dropshipping is a low-risk business and the profit can be enormous. Why do we say so?
You don’t bear the cost of shipping the product to the buyer or damages that may possibly occur during shipping. Yes, this happens sometimes.
Talking about profit – you can add any amount to the sales price which shouldn’t be outrageous.
For example, you can dropship a wristwatch whose original price from the supplier is $10 for $15 or $20.
When the buyer makes a purchase, you pay the supplier $10 and ask for the product to be shipped to the buyer’s address provided.
You make a profit of $5 to $10 depending on the price you fix.
I believe you should have a clue now about dropshipping business.
How to Start A Dropshipping Business
Requirements to Start a Dropshipping Busines
1. Buy a domain
2. Buy hosting
3. Buy an eCommerce theme (optional)
4. Buy dropshipping plugin
5. Get the payment gateway
To start a dropshipping business, you need to have a website. It is a must because this is where you will put your products for sale.
The website will be your dropshipping store. Creating a dropshipping store is not difficult if you are already an internet guru.
If yet you can’t still figure out how to create a dropshipping store, you can hire us. Simply use the contact page and send us a message.
That aside! Let’s assume you are on your way to starting a dropshipping business or your dropshipping store is ready.
You need to add products to your store. This task can be very difficult and time-consuming if done manually.
It is much easier and faster using a dropshipping plugin.
As stated above, a dropshipping plugin is necessary for your store. There are various dropshipping plugins available.
We always recommend the alidropship plugin which is compatible with any eCommerce website built on WordPress + WooCommerce.
The alidropship plugin cost $89 and it’s a one-time payment. This means you can own the plugin for life.
Probably you must have heard about Shopify from others in the eCommerce business. They must have chosen Shopify as the best eCommerce platform for dropshipping.
We won’t be talking much about that. You can read the post on Shopify Dropshipping vs Woocommerce Dropshipping – Best Ecommerce Platform.
On Shopify, you pay a monthly fee of about $29. On WordPress + WooCommerce, there is no monthly fee.
There are alternatives for importing products to your store. You can check out Spocket.co.
Question: Where do I get the products to dropship?
Answer: You can get the products from AliExpress.
AliExpress is the most popular eCommerce retail platform for dropshipping.
Their products are much cheaper than others such as Amazon and eBay. Not only that, but the volume of orders is also exceedingly high.
The dropshipping plugin will do the product import right into your store.
Dropshipping is one of the best eCommerce businesses you can start and be making sales in no time if properly done well.
We have considered dropshipping as one of the best eCommerce business ideas in 2024.
Let’s proceed to another best eCommerce business idea.
Mini Importation – Best Ecommerce Business Ideas
I am pretty sure the world importation isn’t strange to you. Simply put; importation is the buying of goods from another country and shipped into your own country.
Mini means small, little either in size or quantity.
From the above definitions, you should understand what mini importation is.
For emphasis, mini importation is a business model where you as a seller in your own country buy goods cheaply from another country and sell at a high price in your own country.
Although, people buy products from other countries and use them for their personal needs. It is still part of importation.
For this post, we will be talking about mini importation as another best eCommerce business ideas in 2024.
If you the in-and-out of mini importation, you can make so much money from it.
How to Start Mini Importation Business
Before you go into the business, there are certain things you need to understand. Which are;
- Where to buy; countries to import from and merchant’s websites.
- How to buy; this involves how to source the goods, how to make payment and get it delivered/shipped to your country.
So let’s proceed.
To import goods into your country doesn’t require travelling to the country of the merchant/supplier.
You can sit in your house or office and place an order for the products and get them shipped/delivered to your preferred location.
People into mini importation buy their different countries but China is the biggest market of them all.
There are many eCommerce websites that you can buy from and some of them are among the best online shopping sites.
Some of the sites are 1688.com, taobao.com, banggood.com, aliexpress.com, dx.com and alibaba.com.
These websites are among the best cheap online shopping sites, so you see why it is best to import from them.
If you visit these websites and search for a particular product, for example, a brand wristwatch, you will discover that the price is cheaper compared to the ones they sell in your country.
These sellers buy them from these foreign eCommerce websites.
1688 is the cheapest all of but the most difficult to buy from because the site is in the Chinese language.
The currency is in Yuan which is the Chinese currency.
To buy from all these sites, you must first register. For 1688, you need to use a browser such as chrome to translate the language from Chinese to English.
Aliexpress and Alibaba website is written in English, so it is much easier to source the products you intend to import.
You will need an agent to ship the package down to your country because 1688 doesn’t ship to foreign countries.
Without a trusted and reliable agent, it is very risky to go into mini importation cos that will determine whether your goods will get to you or not.
A lot of people in my country are into mini importation and it is very lucrative. Selling your imported goods is very easy.
If you have an online store or a Facebook/Instagram page, you can use them to market your products.
Affiliate Marketing – Best Ecommerce Business Ideas
Affiliate marketing is another best eCommerce business you go into. A lof people already know what is affiliate marketing.
For those who have no idea what affiliate marketing is, we will help you to understand what it is and how you can get started.
Affiliate marketing is a form of business when you sell other people’s products and earn a commission for every sale made.
You put a company product for sale, someone buys the product through the company’s website. The company pays you certain money for that successful sales.
Are you wondering why we included affiliate marketing as an eCommerce business?
Well, I will tell you.
A greater percentage of those who may read this post may not be able to start dropshipping right away. This may be due to financial constraints or other reasons.
This is not enough to say they can’t get a taste of the money in the eCommerce business.
There are many eCommerce websites (Online Shopping sites) that have an affiliate program.
These online shopping sites will pay affiliates when they refer customers to their site and purchase a product.
How To Start Ecommerce Affiliate Marketing
To begin affiliate marketing in eCommerce, you must register as an affiliate. Registration is usually free.
You see that an affiliate marketing business can be started with zero capital.
Every eCommerce website (Online marketplace) has its rules, that is, terms and conditions that govern the marketing and promotional methods of an affiliate.
So before joining any eCommerce affiliate program, make sure you read and understand their terms and conditions.
What to Consider Before Joining an Ecommerce Affiliate Program
1. Check if your country is accepted. Some online marketplaces restrict some countries for reasons best known to them.
2. Check if the payment method is available in your country. Some affiliate merchants will prefer to pay via a certain payment method.
3. You must have either a website, a blog or an app.
If you join and after making money for them and yourself, and you discovered the payment method is not available to your country, your money will hang.
You will be seeing the money but won’t be able to withdraw it. I got to laugh here. I don’t know if it is funny though.
Best Ecommerce Affiliate Programs
Below are some of the top online eCommerce retailers that have an affiliate program.
- Amazon
- Alibaba
- AliExpress
- Walmart
- Gearbest
- eBay
- Banggood
- BestBuy
Amazon and AliExpress affiliate program has the best payout. Amazon pays every sixty days. Aliexpress pays every 30days.
Aliexpress has a higher percentage commission but Amazon has more products and more customers worldwide, no wonder the owner of Amazon is among the top 3 wealthiest men in the world.
In subsequent posts, we will be doing a thorough review of the Amazon and Aliexpress affiliate program
Every story must come to an end. Although, this is not a story. I know you must have benefited from this post best eCommerce business ideas in 2024.
If you have further questions, you can always contact us.
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