How to start an online business?

There are several ways to trade online, wether it is a service you offer or want to trade products.

There are great marketplaces on the web for both services and products. The advantage of marketplaces such as Ebay and Amazon is they already have traffic of customers who intend to make a purchase. They have a vast marketing budget.

Is it worth setting up your own e-commerce website?

There are many ways to set up your own website without having to know coding. There are great sites like Wix, Godaddy and Shopify that offer wizard like solutions to create your own website. The basic Shopify plan only costs $30/month after your free trial with 2.2%+20p for transaction fees. This compares to Ebay and Amazon that can charge upto 15%.

With your own website you will need to send traffic to your website. The best form of advertising tends to be online advertising where you can measure the conversion rate.

Google Ads can be good for products that potential customers are searching for. Remember, the customers have to be looking for your product.  Facebook and Instagram Ads can be a great source of traffic, especially when your products are exciting and fun. These tend to be more suitable for products where the customer may not know they exist. Great impulse purchases.