Creating an online store might seem expensive and overwhelming, but with a budget of just $600, you can launch a fully functional and professional e-commerce site. The secret lies in using the right tools, strategic planning, and leveraging cost-effective platforms like Shopify, which currently offers an exclusive $1/month deal for the first three months.
This guide will walk you through every step, from planning and choosing a platform to building your store and marketing it on a budget.
Planning Your Online Store
To start out, we will first need a legal business! These are pretty easy to set up in the United States, and cost around $100-$150. These will last forever, so remember to choose a generic name.
Next comes a domain name. You could theoretically skimp on this, but it’ll be the worst few bucks you save ever. Domains are essential for branding and professionalism.
So the cost of registering a domain on GoDaddy(my preference) is $12 per year, assuming it’s not a premium domain name. You can get most .com domains or .net domains for that much money.
So far, we’ve spent $12.
Next up comes hosting your website. There are a lot of choices for this – you can either host it on your own server and install an open source shopping cart, or you can sign up for companies like Shopify or BigCommerce and they will take care of hosting and the shopping cart software.
Let’s have a look at both options:
Option 1: Hosted Shopping Carts
If you are going for a hosted shopping cart with BigCommerce or Shopify, this is what you are looking at with their starter packages:
BigCommerce: $24.95 x 12(for one year) = $299
Shopify: $29 x 12(for one year) = $348 – Shopify’s $1/month deal for the first 3 months is a fantastic way to start an online store affordably.
Both BigCommerce and Shopify’s basic packages allow for up to 100 unique products.
While you are actually shelling out only the monthly fee up front, it’s always safer to calculate the entire cost of the year when planning, because it’s going to take at least a year for your store to get some traction and become self-sufficient.
Option 2: Your Own Hosting
If you are tech savvy and know a little bit of coding and graphics, go for your own hosting and install an open source cart like WooCOmmerce. Bluehost has a starting package at $3.95 per month.
Cost of hosting so far: $3.95 x 12(for one year) = $47.40
Next up comes design. Again, if you are code and graphics savvy, this won’t be a problem for self hosted carts, but if you aren’t, you will need to spend a little bit here. While it’s not ABSOLUTELY necessary, it’s recommended, because you want to give your store a little bit of personality.
You can find someone on Freelancer or Odesk to do this for you for less than $300, depending on the scale of the work. Regardless, you shouldn’t spend more than $300 when you are doing this. This should include a logo and a site design.
Cost so far: $300
If you are using a hosted solution like BigCommerce and Shopify, their out of the box themes are pretty good to start out. You will need a unique logo and some graphics, though. You can find people on places like Fiverr that will do it for you for somewhere between $5-$40.
Cost so far: $40
Think this is a lot? People have spent $5000 on their templates – and it doesn’t guarantee conversions. Stay cheap. Stay smart. Sometimes:D.
There are three final steps you need to take before your store is ready to launch. You need an SSL certificate, a payment method, and a phone number(not necessary, but good to have).
SSL certificates are available from GoDaddy at $60 per year, but for the first year, there’s almost always a coupon code that gets you one for almost 80% off.
Cost so far: About $20.
Payment methods used to cost a lot of money to set up and get going, but now that has changed. Setting up a merchant account and payment gateway usually meant set up fees upwards of $100 and then a hefty fee per month just to accept cards.
Thankfully, with solutions like Stripe and Paypal Website Payments, you can get started with no monthly fees – although the commissions they charge are a little higher, at 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.
Still, it’s better for the early stages of your store when you probably won’t be receiving so many orders to really justify the monthly fee and the savings you supposedly get from paying a lower percentage.
Finally, a phone number. This isn’t a must, but it’s good practice, and usually conveys a feeling of trust and genuinity. You can get a phone number for free with Google Voice, or you can get a toll free number for just $10 to start out.
Cost so far: $10.
That covers all of the stuff you need to pay for. All the other stuff, like email accounts, file storage, and the like can all be found for free using tools like Google Apps and Dropbox.
Calculating Overheads
Ok, so now that your store is set up and running, we need to keep the cost of running this business as low as possible. Keeping your overheads as low as possible is essential for bootstrapping!
If you are running your own hosting, life is good – your monthly costs are just $4-5 per month, if you are doing all of your marketing in-house.
If you are using a hosted package, you are looking at $30 per month if you have 100 products or less, or about $40-50 per month if you have between 100-500 products. If you have more, you are probably in over your head! Start relatively small!
Being “Smart-Cheap”
Just because your business is running on a shoestring budget DOES NOT mean you skimp on everything. When it comes to business, don’t be cheap-cheap. Be smart-cheap. Remember: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably IS.
A guy that claims to get you ranked on page one of Google overnight for $100 is, simply put, LYING!
A guy promising you instant success for $200 should have gotten his success himself and has no need for your hard earned $200.
There will be some things in the course of running your business that you will NEED to spend on. Often, we become penny wise, pound foolish. I remember thinking ten times about buying a legitimate $50 service that would really help, but pulling the trigger blindly on a $200 hit or miss gambles.
The thing is, the hit or miss gambles are always marketed more cleverly than the genuine ones. For a quick reference, here are a few money-sucking-monsters in online marketing that you should either a)avoid completely if you are really tight or b)utilize ONLY if you absolutely and truly know what you are doing.
PPC Advertising: Can make or break a business. PPC marketing is an incredibly powerful tool, but only when you know what you are doing.
If you don’t, you will flush $1000 down the toilet chasing keywords that aren’t relevant and using ad copy that isn’t appealing(like I did once). PPC advertising means Google Adwords, Bing Ads, and other search engine ads.
Cheap Ways to Market
Honestly, the best way to market your store is good old fashioned SEO. SEO is free, continuous, evergreen traffic.
Even though SEO takes time and effort to see a satisfactory result, SEO is FREE! During the 6-12 months you spend in generating organic traffic to your store, your low overheads will help you get through without breaking your bank account.
Solid on-page optimization, good keyword targeting, clean, white-hat link building, and establishing a social media presence are all free ways to drive potentially tons of traffic to your website.
While these expenses are enough to get the skeleton of your store up, you need to put in a lot of work. You need to write descriptions, create content, and do your research. Outsourcing these things will cost money – but the advantage of doing it yourself is that you learn your niche inside out.
While you can outsource each of those things, it’s always better to do it yourself. The amount of things that you will learn is amazing. On this blog, I hope to share what I have learned. For me, they were expensive lessons. For you, I hope they won’t be.
Setting Up Your Store
After choosing your platform and design, follow these steps to set up your store:
- Install the Platform
- For Shopify: Sign up, select a plan, and start the guided setup process.
- For WooCommerce: Install WordPress on your host, then download and activate the WooCommerce plugin.
- Add a Theme
- Browse the theme library (free and paid options).
- Customize colors, fonts, and layout to match your brand.
- Create Essential Pages
- Home Page: Use a compelling hero image and call-to-action.
- About Us: Share your story to build trust with customers.
- Product Pages: Include detailed descriptions and clear images.
- Contact Page: Make it easy for customers to reach you.
Adding Products to Your Store
Product pages are the most important part of your store. Here’s how to make them shine:
- Write Detailed Descriptions
Use storytelling to explain your product’s benefits. For example:- Instead of “Handmade Candle,” write, “Relax and unwind with our hand-poured soy candles, crafted for a long-lasting burn and soothing aroma.”
- Use High-Quality Images
- Show multiple angles.
- Include lifestyle images to help customers visualize the product in their lives.
- Organize Products into Categories
- Use clear categories like “Men’s Clothing” or “Home Decor” for easier navigation.
Setting Up Payment Gateways
Choose secure and user-friendly payment gateways:
- PayPal: Widely recognized and easy to set up.
- Stripe: Ideal for processing credit card payments.
- Shopify Payments: Integrated and seamless for Shopify users.
Tips for Setup:
- Test each gateway before launching to ensure smooth transactions.
- Display accepted payment methods on your site for transparency.
Conclusion
Let’s recap what we have spent.
Self-hosting: $150 for legal stuff + $12 for a domain + $3.95 for first month of hosting + $300 for basic designing + $20 for SSL + $10 for a toll-free number = $495.95
Add to that 12 months of hosting for $47 and your grand total for year 1 is…(drum roll)…$543
Hosted solution: $150 for legal stuff + $12 for a domain + $27 for first month of hosting + $40 for some design work + $20 for SSL + $10 for a toll-free number = $259
Add to that 12 months of hosting for $324 and your grand total for year 1 is…$583
Using either solution, $600 is more than enough to get you started. Of course, as your store gains traction and starts making steady sales, your store’s revenue will offset the cost AND bring you profit.
Are there any ways you can shave off more money from the process? Or something I missed? Share with us in the comments!
