Many people feel that they can’t open an online store because it seems like a costly endeavor. But the truth is very different. We live in the internet age. Freemium business model is the go-to-market strategy for many businesses. There are many tools and guides online that can help you build a good online store with very limited investment, both in time and money. If you're on a tight budget, but really want your own eCommerce store - the following tips are for you. 

Build Your Website on Your Own

Image source

Creating a simple website is not that hard; with a bit of practice, anyone can do it. However, you will be facing a number of basic and important decisions along the way. For example, if you are not familiar with HTML, CSS and JavaScript, you should probably consider some of the free tools for website creation. There are plenty of places offering similar expertise, which can help you decide on the exact platform, payment methods and designs that you should start with for maximum impact. Yes, it's time-consuming, but nothing you can't handle after a couple of months of learning and practice.

Don't Expect It to Be a Free Ride

The essentials for an attractive ecommerce store are not expensive. It’s not too difficult to produce good content and make high quality videos with services like Shakr and CrowdContent. We're talking about a month's worth of content for under $100 for these and other similar services. Great value. Especially given that videos are having a huge impact on conversions and traffic. This also extends to other important aspects of running a store, like advertisement and management. 

So certain investments are crucial. Your job is to allocate funds wisely for these efforts.

Utilize Free Marketing Channels

You don’t have to hire a professional marketing firm to develop a marketing strategy for your business. Work on your marketing on your own. All of the social media channels open up a plethora of possibilities for a successful marketing campaign. Create accounts on Facebook, Google+, Twitter and start working on your marketing campaign without any investment. You can always browse through social media profiles of your rivals and learn a thing or two from their posts. You should also optimize your website for search engines. This is done by creating relevant links and content that attract customers, which we addressed in this article a little earlier. 

Free Web Hosting

You don’t need to pay for a pricey web hosting plan when you are just starting your online store. There are free web hosting options that should suit your needs in the beginning. Some of the web hosting providers have economy plans that can give you all the tools needed to start your online store, including domain name registration for just a couple of dollars per month. There's an abundance of free cloud hosting options. For example, AWS and Softlayer offer very competitive free hosting deals. 

Payment Flexibility

Image source

Providing your customers with more payment options on the check-out page and giving them the ability to purchase without registering an account doesn’t cost you anything. As a result, you can bring in more customers and retain your existing clientele. With solutions, like Wix, setting up multiple payment options takes minimal effort. Magento also provides a convenient multitude of payment processing options. 

Start with Simple Products

Before starting an online store, you should do some market research. We live in an age when over-saturated markets are a common occurrence. Products you choose for your eСommerce website don’t have to be sophisticated to make money. Try to penetrate a saturated market with products that are not expensive. After all, being on a tight budget yourself, can provide you with insight into what kind of products you can offer to other people on a tight budget. Additionally, creating special discounts and coupons for returning customers can help your online store experience a steady growth.

Following these tips can help you build a successful online store with minimal costs. Keep in mind that online research and reading comments/ reviews on various eСommerce platforms can help you develop your own unique ideas. So be sure to take the time and research your preferred niche. 


Nick Colakovic works for FirstSiteGuide.com. 

He’s passionate about helping other bloggers take their craft to the next level and likes to help newbies understand the joy of building an online business. 

Edited by Alex Plotnikov, CMO at MageCloud.net