Tips to start your own webshop
When you start looking for information on starting your own webshop, you'll come across all sorts of tips on handy tools, creating your website, and shipping packages. After reading them, setting up your own webshop might not seem that complicated. But what almost nobody tells you is that the most challenging part comes when your webshop is up & running: finding paying customers. up & running is: finding paying customers.
Finding paying customers starts before your webshop goes live
From day 1 that you start working on your webshop - even if it's just coming up with webshop ideas - it's essential to think about your future customers. That's something that's not often mentioned, resulting in many starting entrepreneurs building a webshop that will ultimately not be profitable. Maybe you say, 'agh, I'm not doing it for the money.' But let's be honest, if you put all your passion and time into your own business, you'd love to make it a huge success, right?
Tips for starting your own webshop
- Always keep in mind what your product can mean for the customer and what it adds to someone's life. What's the added value of your product?
- Work out a clear cost sheet. What does it cost to purchase, package, and ship the product? What will the selling price of the product be?
- Dive into topics like online marketing and mindset. Two areas where you want to be strong when you step into the entrepreneurial life!
The facts about starting webshops at a glance
- Over 80% of online entrepreneurs have never earned a median income.
- Almost 50% of online entrepreneurs generate less than €10,000 annually.
- Almost 1/3 of webshop owners have never made a profit.
Starting a webshop, maybe not after all?
It's clear that starting your own webshop is no guarantee of success. But don't forget, there are also entrepreneurs who do achieve success. Great success. Real success. But that doesn't necessarily have to be with a typical webshop!
Starting your own webshop? Consider this!
Setting up your own webshop is a lot of work. Think, for example, about building a complete website. Not to mention the question: how do you find customers? But what if we told you that you can also become a successful online entrepreneur without having to attract customers to your webshop yourself? What if we told you that you don't even need to build your own webshop? It's possible with selling via bol.com!
Selling without your own webshop with bol.com
Bol.com is with millions of customers the largest web store in the Netherlands & Belgium. Can you imagine using the popularity of bol.com to show your products to the general public? Because that's exactly how it works! In 2019, for example, more than 23,000 online entrepreneurs used bol.com to successfully sell their products!
Selling via bol.com, why?
Maybe you're thinking now: okay, sounds interesting, but I'd rather start my own webshop. That's understandable. It's no wonder that many successful bol.com sellers, after making nice profits, decide to start their own webshop anyway. Making that webshop profitable costs money, but they've earned more than enough by then, thanks to their experience and success on bol.com.
This is precisely why it's smart to start selling on bol.com before your own webshop: it's more accessible and can be a perfect springboard to your success as an online entrepreneur.
Selling on bol.com instead of starting your own webshop: here's how you do it
If you're going to start an online business, it's a good idea to gather a close-knit community of entrepreneurs around you to bounce ideas off.
How does selling on bol.com work? Where do you find a supplier for your products? How do you outsource logistics? How do you deal with setbacks? This is just a tiny fraction of the knowledge you can gain with the right guidance.
So, what do you say? Start with your own webshop or start selling via bol.com?
