Starting your Ideal African online store as a small scale trader

A business idea is a series of thoughts, plans, and a long-term objective of how one plans to make a living out of something. Whether it is something you are passionate about or an idea as a result of training only one thing can or may hold us back; Capital. How difficult or easy for you to source for the amount of money needed to get your idea out of your head ready for implementation is what makes the difference.

Online Business or startups contrary to popular belief do not require a colossus capital to realize to set it up. You can start an online business at home without money but with skills ( for your business), No need of staff ( you are your own boss), and the drive to take your idea to the next level.

A business idea may not be unique to you but how you want to put in practice is what will make a big difference. There are may startups that are stuck on the same level of profitability because of the same volume of clients who probably are from the same source or are introduced into the business using one marketing channel. For a start up to be able to have multiple points of in harnessing new customers it has to be where everyone is, that is the Internet.

People want to get services, buy goods or get some information about a place or an event at the comfort of their ‘taps’ ( Almost everyone taps on a phone with access to the Internet). Some of your potential clients do not even need to know that you exist, all they want is a product or a service.

You may want to make a passive income from the numerous online ventures that you can get involved as a small-scale trader or take it to the next level and be part of the virtual business world. You do not need an office to be an executive.

Being an online store executive is the simplest thing because you don’t have to build a website or a shopping cart all by yourself, there are numerous free and paid companies with ready-made templates that you can easily customize to your liking. If you are worried about marketing you can opt for the simplest strategy by using your online social media profile to promote your business. Selling is the easiest part, all you have to do is deliver the service once a client shows interests in buying.

You just need to decide on what to sell and every aspect of back store management will be taken care of by most online shopping cart systems. You do not need to worry about the transaction aspect of it because processing platforms that are free to setup will handle the payment section for you in the most secure environment,

What You Need Before You Setup Shop

Now that you already have a business plan or have an idea on what you intend to do as an online entrepreneur, I will just remind you that the following steps are vital to any kind of online startup that you want to venture in

1. The Business Plan

This should guide you on putting a framework on how you intend to achieve your objective(s). Do you need any sort of financing, marketing, advertising for your business

2. What Retail Structure Will You Adopt
This is in line with business regulations that are likely to affect your day to day operations, do you need to file tax returns? What are other legal challenges are you likely to encounter

3. What Will You Sell ( Products or Services)
Are you going to deal with one type of product or service for a particular niche or you want to open a general merchandise online shop if they are different products under what category should your business be classified, where will you source this product. Are they ready made or need further processing, will you need storage for your products. If you will be in the service category how and who will deliver the services.

Many home startups are generally resellers or drop shipping kind of business

4.Have an Inventory Tracker
Whether you will be stocking products yourself or not you need to keep track of the movement from the store to the storefront and finally to the consumer. You need to know how many products or services are moving and reclassify them either as moving or nonmoving. In our case we would not need a physical storage since most of the services rendered will be skills or the products will be sourced from suppliers only when an order has been confirmed.

5. What Name Will You Use For Store
You must get a hosting provider that will sell a hosting space for your shop. This is the point where you decide on a name that easily reflects the kind of service or product that you are selling. You can purchase a domain name ( the business name.com) and set up the site yourself or get someone who can do it for you at a cheaper price.

Remember I had told you that you can do this without capital, there are numerous websites that will provide online tools, documentation, and instructions that you can use and customize to build your own website from scratch. Some notable examples include Shopify, Bigcommerce, and Wix E-Commerce. If you already have a domain you can visit the free open cart which an open source platform that requires no technical knowledge on how to install, all you need to do is install it ( this is an automated process) and it will load the template that you selected and start an easy process of replacing the dummy data will your real data, I.e products and services via the admin panel ( see images below )

Open Cart Front view

6.Building the Site ( Your Store Front)

Since you already have a domain to host your online shop the next thing is to decide on what design or make up your website should take. Pick on colors that are attractive but can easily relate to the products or services being rendered. Most of the templates that are available for come with a structure for most shopping carts, all that you may need to do is adjust the color or a best fitting theme. Remember to keep things simple and attractive do not create a crowded page with so many things being sold everywhere.

7.The Shopping Cart ( The Most Important Step)

Always look forward to setup a hosted shopping cart instead of a self-hosted one, the reason being people tend to trust online carts that are secure and free from interruptions from third parties. Pick the most popular money transfer agents that can be embedded to your shop to make transactions easy to carry out. Kindly read more on the Shopping Cart Features that your shopping cart must have.

8. Launch, Advertise and Market

That is all you needed to implement that startup idea into a reality. You have done it at the minimal cost, lets put it this way you have your own company or business without an office ( your home could be one if need be ) and you are ready to start making money. But don’t forget the most important thing to do MARKETING & ADVERTISING!! , Remember this can be done for free through your already existing social media profile pages such as Facebook, twitter, Instagram, googlePlus, Linked in etc. Be more realistic and create social network pages that are directly linked to the new shop that you own. If you can use free online marketing resources on E – Marketing and Online Advertising and get away from the traditional clients to a new world of potential clients.

9.Running Your Business
Believe it or not, everything is running and no one will knock your door to ask for overhead costs or any other utility bills, it was as simple as that and you already know that your business will be running 24 hours a day and with a worldwide outreach. Don’t be surprised to receive an order outside your country border, Go ahead process it and ship it!
Create a conducive work environment within your online shop by creating a 24 hour contact line that can solve matters that relate to your shop in the shortest time possible.

A quick Recap
Here we have a summary of the things that you will need before you put your startup idea into something economically beneficial

• The payment plan that you should use, explore all available options
• What color should we use to brand our shop
• Domain Name to use
• Where do we get customers and Advertisement strategy
• Do we need specialized or technical help

Online Business Startup Ideas

Online platforms range from activities such as social media, advertising, communication services, payment platforms, distribution systems etc. An online platform should be able to create an interaction between you the innovator and the other users. An online platform should be power your innovation by giving clients more opportunities, competitiveness in the market and improve efficiency.

Online Stock Trading
With the increasing number of people investing in shares in the market today, any small investor who wants to invest in online share retailing may at first find it difficult but the improving economy offers an opportunity to set up an online trading platform especially at the beginning of the year or when most companies are listing their shares online. More and more people are transacting through the online platform. To be a good online retailer you need to make yourself visible to get more sales and therefore lessen the cost of operation. Let the small investors know that the platform you have has all the information that is normally reserved for big time stock traders.

Retail Store
A retail store does not need a big investment to get it started, you need a website with a preferred shopping cart. You can sell your own products, or other people’s products through advertising and earn a commission from every purchase via your platform. If you are talented in making handicrafts you can also showcase them on your website and make it available for people to buy directly from you.

Online Consultant
There are a lot of things that people need information on, you can be an online fitness instructor to sell your workout routines or offer personalized training tips. You can advise people based on your line of profession, if you are in the IT industry, you can become an online consultant by creating a website that offers tips on issues relating to the IT industry and charges a small fee for your services.

Virtual Assistant
Create a social media presence and a good website, get a reliable Internet connection and you can start working remotely and get to do day to day tasks for people who have busy schedules and need some assistance in managing their schedules. You can start with simple routine tasks such as reading and replying emails, follow up on late payments, help in creating and collecting invoices, pay bills and any other task that you can do from the comfort of your home.

Remote Accountants
If you have accounting training and you cannot find work, you can offer your services remotely via an online collaboration platform such as TeamViewer to access another computer remotely and complete the work assigned. You can alternatively have work sent to you via E-mail and when you are done you send them back.

Featured image Freepik