How To Build A Kickass $100k Revenue Online Store With $0

Entrepreneurs are motivated by the idea of working their own hours and being their own boss. eCommerce has provided entrepreneurs such an opportunity to build their own $100K online businesses.

“We’re big believers in the dropshipping model … We think it’s the way of the future.”

– John Ellis, CEO of Tapiture

Dropshipping, a concept where you carry zero stocks, while selling to a global audience. Numerous eCommerce professionals establish dropshipping to be the next entrepreneurial marvel.

A brick-n-mortar business is limited by the inventory it carries. However, a dropshipping store has near unlimited inventories to sell. Even large businesses are now moving towards dropshipping.

In dropshipping, you list supplier products on your e-store. When a buyer pays & orders , you simply forward the order to the supplier (dropshipper). The supplier then dispatches the product(s) anonymously, you can now inform the buyer about delivery details.

Building a $100K Profit Online Store with Zero Inventory

Creating the perfect $100k online store while managing zero inventories firstly requires one very important characteristic, determination. Believe in yourself and your ability to succeed where others have failed.

STEP 1: Find Products to Sell

The road to building a $100,000 profit e-store begins with searching for the ideal products to sell. In depth product research is essential and must be done very carefully. There are various paid platforms like SaleHoo, DOBA etc. that provide latest product trends & research. We will although briefly look at only free methods.

The ideal place to start is Google. Conduct a regular Google Search with your product name, then scroll down to the bottom of the results. You will be presented with a list of keywords & niches to research. As the example above shows I now have 8 different keywords for T-shirt products. If you notice there are also 5 micro-niches to look into. Other sources for product research include AliExpress, Amazon, eBay, and Etsy.

Store owners must evaluate the following factors during product research:

• Product quality,
• Customer satisfaction,
• Global demand,
• Delivery times, and
• Profit margin offered.

Once you have discovered the ideal product that offers a good profit margin, it’s time to decide which platform to host your online store on.

Step 2: Build The Perfect $100K Store

You have decided which product to sell and who your target audience is, Good!

It’s now time to decide which platform to launch your store on. There are numerous eCommerce platforms that allow launching and managing e-stores, most being paid solutions. There are two prominent eCommerce platforms in the market to choose from, Shopify and Woo Commerce.

Both platforms come with a cost, where Shopify provides its service for a posh $30 per month (free & paid plugins), WooCommerce can cost north of $100 just to setup. WooCommerce is pretty expensive , since the WordPress based platform offers all paid plugins unlike Shopify which also offer free ones.

One very important feature of your store will be the theme you chose on your store. Like any physical store, the view of your store must be appealing and should encourage visitors to browse. Shopify offers a selection of free & paid themes, while WooCommerce only offers paid themes.

There are several other alternatives namely ABetterLemonadeStand, BigCommerce, Volusion, and Magento to name a few. Like I said earlier most are paid, so be ready to manage this expense for a few months.

Step 3: Finding Suppliers for Your Zero Inventory Store

If you ask me the trend of Amazon stores is now stagnant, primarily because of its expensive fees and requirement to carry inventories. However, there are two techniques to find suppliers for free and create the e-store of your dreams.

The first obviously is subscribing to a supplier directory costing from $50 & above. Directories like SaleHoo, Oberlo and Dropship Direct provide contact information, reviews, satisfaction ratings, and delivery details of leading dropshippers.

The second trick is mostly manual work that requires you to search, evaluate, and choose a supplier. The ideal place to begin is AliExpress, a platform that offers real time & descriptive analyses of suppliers. You can search for suppliers simply by clicking their name listed below the products.

This will be the step where you negotiate product prices, profit margins, delivery details and other supplier related aspects. I also did a guide on how to validate suppliers on AliExpress that you can read & watch here. This will help immensely with your search for suppliers.

Step 4: Building the 100K Audience for Your $100K Store

SO, you launched your 100k profit eCommerce store, congratulations! But, what do we do now?

It’s now time to hit social networks and communities. Marketing in the conventional space is easy since you have TV, radio, billboards, newspapers, magazines etc. Digital marketing however requires you have a certain skill set, or simple, learn by doing. Begin by creating social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, WhatsApp etc. for your store.

There are again, two ways to successfully market your brand on social media. The first, create your store profile, add followers and begin sharing content to your existing audience. This method is usually free, but takes time building up a following of 50,000 fans or more.

The second way is to find influencers with a massive following, and pay them to display your product to their followers. Depending on the hours to display or number of posts you share with the influencer they will negotiate fee. Successful influencers will have a conversion rate of about 10%, that’s 10,000 (100k * 10%) people viewing your products. You can search for leading influencers for your niche on this amazing search tool from influence.co

SEO is another very important aspect for you to look at. Maintaining Google’s guidelines, you must develop content for your store that is user friendly. This requires your store has:

• Excellent Product descriptions & titles
• Targeted keyword density – Home & Product Pages
• About Us & Contact Us pages
• A Blog (not necessary for all stores)
• Proper sized images
• Uniformity of theme & elements across the e-store, plus
• Other advanced elements

Step 5: Figure out Your Payment Methods

One very crucial aspect is choosing the ideal payment method for your $100k store. The unfortunate fact here is that you can’t have too many when you launch your store, since some come with a fee. You can sell in local markets using Credit Cards, Bank Transfers, and COD without a fee. International sales though need PayPal or Stripe as payment methods, since we are beginning at zero cost.

Do remember to read through payment processors, since they all come with their respective pros and cons.

Related Article: How to Make Money on Amazon

You’re All Set to Go!

I hope you my brief overview of how to get launch your $100,000 profit store with no inventory is a good starting point. If you like my article, share it with friends and other entrepreneurs. Do Remember, to leave your feedback for improvement and if I missed any of the steps to create a successful store. Stay tuned for more amazing guides, tutorials, tips & tricks, news and insights from the eCommerce industry.