How much capital is needed to start an eCommerce business?

[Danvansmit]

If someone could give me a rough breakdown that would be fantastic

 

[fisicx]

What are you selling? Who are you selling to? How do you plan to market the business?

The answer could be anywhere from £1000 to £100,000

 

[Danvansmit]

What are you selling? Who are you selling to? How do you plan to market the business?

The answer could be anywhere from £1000 to £100,000

I have been toying with the idea of mens sports wear?

Marketing would be social media and paying Influencers to advertise

 

[fisicx]

£10,000 would be a good starting figure.

Might last you a month.

Seriously, you can’t just start a business selling sports gear and be successful without a ton of cash.

 

[Danvansmit]

£10,000 would be a good starting figure.

Might last you a month.

Seriously, you can’t just start a business selling sports gear and be successful without a ton of cash.

What even if you do dropshipping?

 

[fisicx]

Along with thousands of others all doing the same and not making a dime.

Do something else. This isn’t going to work no matter how much money you throw at it.

 

[Danvansmit]

Along with thousands of others all doing the same and not making a dime.

Do something else. This isn’t going to work no matter how much money you throw at it.

Thank you mate really appreciate it

 

[fisicx]

ecommerce and dropshipping can work. But you need to put in a lot of effort to make it so. Those making money have probably failed numerous times until they found the right product at the right price and then found the best way to market that product.

I knew someone who spent 15k developing a swimming product. Got a container load sent across from China and made a killing (his daughters spread the work on the swimming forums and blogs). He was then brought out. It paid off his mortgage.

 

[Mr D]

Dropshipping tends to be higher price than someone buying in the products would sell for, lower profit margins but different risks.
And one customer return can wipe out profit from multiple other sales. And you will get returns.

Why not try ecommerce with stock and also work on the markets a couple of days a week? Same stock, different buyers.

 

[Elle Rish]

If you want to start setting up a digital marketplace, the development budget may depend if you need specific functionalities or plugins to use with. But as a rough estimate:

Preliminary Initial Setup Costs:

• Basic eCommerce software and plugins - $600 to $1,000
• Setup cost (If you hire third-party developers to set up the marketplace for you) - $4,000 to $10,000

Ongoing Costs:

• Technical Operating Costs (Software and Plugin Updates + Hosting/Backups + Technical Assistance from third-party developers) - $4,000 to $8,000

 

[antropy]

I knew someone who spent 15k developing a swimming product. Got a container load sent across from China and made a killing (his daughters spread the work on the swimming forums and blogs). He was then brought out. It paid off his mortgage.

Right price, right place, right time. Alex

 

[Mr D]

If you want to start setting up a digital marketplace, the development budget may depend if you need specific functionalities or plugins to use with. But as a rough estimate:

Preliminary Initial Setup Costs:

• Basic eCommerce software and plugins - $600 to $1,000
• Setup cost (If you hire third-party developers to set up the marketplace for you) - $4,000 to $10,000

Ongoing Costs:

• Technical Operating Costs (Software and Plugin Updates + Hosting/Backups + Technical Assistance from third-party developers) - $4,000 to $8,000

Or use a third party site such as ebay or amazon. Much, much cheaper. And priced in pounds.

 

[Paul Norman]

I started three ecommerce businesses around 2009.

One was fairly niche, and didn't need much stock - I started that with £25k.

The other two I had an initial stock of £70k, rising quickly to around £250k.

I spent around £25k on marketing in year one. Plus other stuff. So the range for these businesses was £50k for the smaller business and around £300k each for the larger ones.

Of course, if you drop ship, or can find something that requires less stock, you can start with less. I could have started with less stock - although a good range of stock really helped.

I do not believe I could have spent less on marketing, though.

 

[Mr D]

I started three ecommerce businesses around 2009.

One was fairly niche, and didn't need much stock - I started that with £25k.

The other two I had an initial stock of £70k, rising quickly to around £250k.

I spent around £25k on marketing in year one. Plus other stuff. So the range for these businesses was £50k for the smaller business and around £300k each for the larger ones.

Of course, if you drop ship, or can find something that requires less stock, you can start with less. I could have started with less stock - although a good range of stock really helped.

I do not believe I could have spent less on marketing, though.

I started in 2009 with a hundred quid.
A few years later was on a hundred grand plus turnover. Some dropshipping but was only a tiny fraction of the business and for stuff I could not do otherwise. Not set up to do personalisation.

First full year of trading the company did £7k turnover, zero on marketing.
Year two the company did £25k turnover, zero on marketing.

Think it was year 4 before I spent a penny on marketing and was a small fraction of turnover.

 

[antropy]

I started in 2009 with a hundred quid.
A few years later was on a hundred grand plus turnover. Some dropshipping but was only a tiny fraction of the business and for stuff I could not do otherwise. Not set up to do personalisation.

First full year of trading the company did £7k turnover, zero on marketing.
Year two the company did £25k turnover, zero on marketing.

Think it was year 4 before I spent a penny on marketing and was a small fraction of turnover.

If you don't mind me asking how did you promote your business and gain customers without doing any marketing? Alex

 

[Mr D]

If you don't mind me asking how did you promote your business and gain customers without doing any marketing? Alex

Amazing what can be done on amazon and ebay.
Offline we did local events and markets for a while.

 

[crackerjackcommerce]

It does depend on the product and the industry. These days IMHO it is about getting the cheapest website you can so long as it delivers on security, GDPR, functionality and conversion. Then spend the rest of the money on marketing but be sure not to spend it all fast in one go, you will need to test the waters and optimise/fine tune depending on the results and feedback you get.

You need to get your product in front of the right eyes at the right time. Something which big brands spend millions of pounds on every year.

For mens sports wear I would say this is a very crowded arena, similar to generic products from China, what I mean is you will be competing with established brands with good sales rankings/reviews and good products.

Good luck with it all regardless!

Rich

 

[Crush_Digital]

As mentioned by others above, it will depend on your niche. You definitely have to do some research into the market, future trends, competitors etc. For example, there are sections of the womenswear industry hugely under served at the moment and a growth opportunity if researched and marketed correctly.

I started an online womenswear fast fashion store around the £1k mark but started small in order to test the market, see what works and then adapt /scale up from there. So I'd recommend also starting small and testing on eBay etc. Good luck!

 

[wayzgoose]

Just checked my Google Ads account and I've spent £944 since 2003 Apart from that there's probably been a couple of hundred quid in the odd adverts done as a favour.

 

[philipking2019]

If you are selling on Amazon or Ebey with some lower-cost products, I think $1k is enough for you.
If you want to build your own business blog with Shopify or big e-commerce, $2k is enough for you!

Do not stop on your thinking, just do it, you will find the answer soon!

 

[crackerjackcommerce]

Do not stop on your thinking, just do it, you will find the answer soon!

Good comment, day one is better than day none That is the beauty of starting small as you can be quick and nimble and learn as you go.

 

[KristinWongo]

Starting an eCommerce business is ever a subject of hard work and needs proper research effort. There are also some moves and choices which needs to be used and will help you to build your eCommerce business in this extremely aggressive digital marketing business.

-> Time for Choosing the Product & Business Name

-> Choose Your Website Domain Name

-> How much Monetary Involvement is required?

-> Business Structure and Registration

-> Choose Right Vendors

-> Early Marketing Strategy

-> Shopping Cart Platform

-> Take Advantage of Software

-> Know Your Competitors

-> Online Marketing