Starting an E-commerce Business with Minimal Budget
So if you’re someone that’s completely new to the world of starting an e-commerce business and maybe you’ve got less than $50, maybe $30 ’till you get started, you’ve definitely clicked on the right article because I’m going to go through around four of the most important steps that you need to be aware of if you’ve got a minimal amount of money and you also want to be able to get your e-commerce business to be fully operational so that it’s going to be able to start generating sales and the four things that I believe every single one of you need to be aware of is knowing which is the best method to use as well as knowing what platform you should also be using, knowing exactly how AI is going to be able to save you money and also knowing how to get traffic to your products.
Understanding E-commerce Methods
All right so jumping straight into the first thing which is knowing the best method to use. Now when I tell method, what exactly am I talking about? Now when it comes to starting an e-commerce business, I’m sure that most of you already know how it works. You’re basically going to sell physical products to strangers on the internet, but specifically when I say the method, this is going to come down to how you’re going to fulfill the orders to the customers because there’s two main ways that you can do it when it comes to starting up an Ecom store.
Fulfillment Options: Bulk Buying vs. Drop Shipping
You can either buy the products in bulk, ship them into your country either to a fulfillment center or to your house and you’re going to be responsible for shipping out the orders every day or Monday to Friday anyway, but the second method that you can use is called Drop Shipping where you don’t really need to buy the products up front because every single time that you make a sale your supplier is going to pick, pack and ship out the orders on your behalf and you’re only going to have to pay for the product once you generate a sale.
Drop Shipping Profit Margins
So for example, if you’re selling a product for let’s say $30, what you’re going to do is find a Drop Shipping supplier that sells the exact same product for around let’s say $5, maybe $7 and the amount in between is going to be the profit that you’re going to make every single time that you make a sale. So of course if you’re someone that doesn’t really have that much money when it comes to building up an Ecom store then drop shipping is going to be your best bet because you’re only going to need to spend money once a customer gives you money and you don’t have to spend any money on inventory when you first get started which could cost you $500, $1,000, maybe even more when it comes to buying the products up front.
Choosing the Right E-commerce Platform
But in saying that, one of the next things that you’re going to need to know is knowing what is the best platform to use. So when it comes to building up a Drop Shipping business, there’s a couple different platforms out there that you can use. Now in my opinion I would say that either using eBay or Shopify is going to be your best option. Now when it comes to eBay Drop Shipping a lot of people don’t realize that this is actually a way that you can sell on eBay. There’s various different pros and various different cons.
eBay Drop Shipping: Pros and Cons
Now I would say that the main Pro is that of course you’re going to be able to get instant traffic going onto your listings because millions of people go onto eBay every single week but the main con to doing eBay Drop Shipping is that you’re going to be competing with various different drop shippers and sellers on the exact same platform so the customers that may see your listing will choose to buy from someone else if they think that the price is better, if they think that the eBay store is more professional and of course there’s other things that goes into the eBay Drop Shipping selling process but those are some of the main things that you need to be aware of.
Shopify: Customization and Traffic Challenges
Now when it comes to Shopify I’m sure that most of you already know exactly what Shopify is and how it works. It’s a platform that’s going to help you when it comes to building your own website. The main con to doing Shopify Drop Shipping is that you’re going to have to figure out how to get traffic onto your site which I’m going to speak about in a moment but the main Pro is that you’re going to be able to customize it, you’re going to be able to sell as many products that you want, you’re going to be able to run your business in whatever way that you want to as well.
Building a Shopify Store Quickly
So for the purpose of today’s video I’m going to be showing you exactly how you can use Shopify when it comes to building an Ecom website in less than 1 hour so that you’re going to be able to start generating sales ASAP which now brings me on to the third thing that I want to show you which is how you can use AI Bots that’s going to be able to save you money, save you time when it comes to getting your website up and running.
AI Bots for Shopify Store Creation
Now when it comes to starting a Shopify store in the old way of doing it you would have had to pay a lot of money when it came to getting your website developed and you would have had to have paid a lot of money when it comes to the general Shopify package but there’s certain ways that you can use AI when it comes to saving you money and there’s also certain ways that you can save money on the actual shop plan itself because there’s this new AI bot which in my opinion is revolutionary because you’re going to be able to use it for completely free once again and it’s going to be able to build a fully operational Shopify store in less than 2 minutes.
Using AI for Shopify Store Setup
This is something that I’ve shown on my channel recently and you guys seem to have really liked it and found it really helpful so I just want to break down some details that you need to know when it comes to using it in the most effective way possible. So once you’ve clicked that link and you’ve now clicked on build my free store over here, it’s super simple, super straightforward. All you need to do is fill out your name, fill out your email and pick a niche for whatever business that you’re looking to build and this is a very important step because you want to spend some time thinking about which Niche you want to put your energy and time into over the long term when it comes to starting an Ecom store.
Choosing Your E-commerce Niche
It’s not a get-rich quick scheme. You’re going to have to put your time, passion and mindset into it for you to start seeing results. So for example I wouldn’t necessarily pick fashion and apparel when it comes to building a e-commerce website because I don’t necessarily care about that. Me personally, I might pick the pet category because I grew up with two cats so because of that I’m going to be able to have a certain level of passion when it comes to selling those type of items.
Selecting a Niche Based on Personal Interest
I may also want to pick electronics and gadgets as well because this is something that I’m interested in but the point is you just want to think about which products, which category you want to put your focus into and select it. So in this video I’m going to go with Sport and Fitness. I’m going to fill out this information and then I’m going to click on build my free store.
Accessing Your AI-Generated Shopify Store
Okay perfect so as you can see the store has now been built. There’s a few things that I’m going to have to do from this point and you’re going to have to do as well if you’re following along. Now you’re going to see that it’s going to give you the email address and it’s going to give you the password for you to log into your Shopify account so all you need to do is just head over to shopify.com, make sure that you click on log in, then what you need to do is insert the email address that it gave you over here, click on continue, insert the password as well and then it should log you into your Shopify account.
Important Steps After Store Creation
Now there’s certain things that you guys need to do from this point and I’m going to quickly run through all of them because each one is very important. So straight away you’re going to notice that you’ve got one day when it comes to making sure that you select a Shopify plan. If you don’t do this then you’re not going to be able to access your Shopify account the next day so what you need to do is click on select a plan over here and then you then going to notice that there’s going to be these four different plans over here: basic, Shopify, Advanced and plus.
Choosing the Right Shopify Plan
Now the one that 90% maybe 95% of you are going to need even over the next few months is the basic plan so all you need to do is select on this and all you’re going to need to do is pay $1 for you to be able to access Shopify over the next month. You’re not going to have any limitations or anything like that. All of the features are going to be available to you and all you need to do is pay a single dollar. This is something that Shopify never used to do. It used to be a case of you having to pay $30 from day one so by doing this trial you’re going to be able to save a lot of money when you first get started and once you start to generate sales over the next few weeks or so it’s going to be easy for you to pay for the regular Shopify plan which is around $29 but whatever the case is just fill out this information over here, click on subscribe.
Transferring Ownership of Your Shopify Store
Once you’ve done that one of the next things that you need to do is come over to settings, then come over to users and permission, then click on transfer ownership and the reason why you want to put your email address, first name and last name in this section is because the details on this section over here, this is not a real email address. It’s a dummy email address that was used to create your Shopify account so you need to make sure that instantly you put your accurate email so that you can receive all of the emails that you need to from Shopify so this is fairly straightforward, just fill this information out and I’d say that there’s a couple other things that you need to do.
Setting Up Payments and Domain
For example you need to sign up for Shopify payments, just click on payments over here and click on complete account setup. Ideally you also want to make sure that you add a PayPal account as well so you can do that. If you don’t do the step over here then you’re not going to be able to receive any money. It’s also important to make sure that you buy a domain as well. This is going to be www. followed by your websitename.com. Just click on domain, buy a new domain, it’s going to cost you maybe $10, $15. This is also super important but let me show you guys the moment that you’ve been waiting for which is the store that it was able to build me.
Reviewing Your AI-Generated Shopify Store
So if I just close this down, come over to online store then come over to view my store and as you can see this is the website over here. So I would advise you that whatever store that it builds you, you use a different logo. You might want to switch up the images a little bit but I would say that the main benefit to using this AI tool is that it’s going to load the store with all of these different winning products. So as you can see I didn’t necessarily have to do anything that you can see on the screen right now.
Benefits of AI-Generated Product Listings
I didn’t have to create any of these different listings. I didn’t even have to do any research when it came to finding all of these different products. It was able to do everything automatically so this is definitely a time saver. It’s going to be able to not only save you money because it was free to use but it’s also going to save you a lot of time when it comes to doing product research because you’re going to be able to sell any one of these different products. If you want to remove any of them you’ve also got that option. If you want to add any of your own products you can also do that too but this now brings me on to one of the final things that I want to touch on which is how exactly are you going to get traffic to your store and the products that you’re selling.
Low-Budget Traffic Generation Strategies
Now if you’re someone that has a low budget there’s limited options that you have when it comes to getting traffic onto your website. Now I would say that the best option is to either use something like Tik Tok organic or even building up some sort of an Instagram page and posting short form content and the reason why this is your best bet is because it’s going to be completely free for you to do it. You don’t necessarily need to pay to use Tik Tok or Instagram and there’s certain ways that you’re going to be able to create the content for completely free as well.
Content Creation Options for E-commerce
Now you’ve got multiple different options when it comes to doing this. Option number one is that you can buy the actual item that you’re selling from a website like Amazon and make unique content and try and post one to three different pieces of content every single day so that you can drive traffic to the items that you’re selling or what you can do is use some sort of an AI tool when it comes to generating the content for you and of course this is going to be even better when it comes to saving time because you’re not necessarily going to have to make the content yourself but once again let me show you a practical example of exactly how this is done.
Analyzing Successful TikTok Product Promotions
So I’ve just jumped on to Tik Tok and I’ve typed in the search term and as you can see there’s all of these different people creating all of these different Tik toks about this particular cat product but if I just click into this one over here straight away you can see that they’ve got a crazy amount of Engagement over 300,000 likes, 3,000 comments, a whole bunch of people saving it and a whole bunch of people sharing it. It’s a very simple video that can be recreated and I’m going to show you exactly how to do it using AI in a moment but if I just click into their profile and then click on the link in the description straight away we’re going to see that it’s going to take us directly to a Shopify Drop Shipping Store where they’re selling the product over here.
Understanding Drop Shipping Profit Margins
They’re currently selling it for around $14.99 however if we jump on to AliExpress as you can see the exact same product is available for around 40 or around maybe 50 cents if you’re in America and when it comes to recreating a similar video just like this or making any video that you want to make for the products that you’re selling on your store the tool that you can use to help you is this one over here called inv video AI. This is another AI tool that’s going to save you so much time because you’re going to be able to sign up for completely free by clicking the link in my description and all you need to do is enter a simple prompt.
Using AI for TikTok Video Creation
So if I wanted to recreate the cat Ball video that I just showed you now what I’m simply going to do is type in a prompt just like this that says “create a Tik Tok video showing a cat playing with a ball. The purpose for the video is to promote a similar product I am selling. The link in BIO. Use a female American voice.” So that’s all you need to do, something simple just like that and then click on generate a video.
Reviewing AI-Generated TikTok Video
Okay perfect so as you can see within 1 to 2 minutes it came back with this fully edited video that I haven’t really had to do much to it. 99% of what you can see is basically what the AI tool was able to do but what I’m going to do is just play a little bit of it maybe all of it just so that you can see exactly how it sounds, how it looks so that you know exactly what video you’re going to be able to go away and make yourself if you also wanted to use nid AI so let me just play it right now.
AI-Generated Video Script
“Behold the joy of a feline friend engaged in a simple yet captivating dance with a small plastic ball. Watch as curiosity and Instinct blend into an enchanting ballet. This isn’t just play, it’s poetry in motion brought to life by a humble yet irresistible toy. Want to bring this magic into your own home? Your wish is our Command. Find the key to endless feline fun in the biolink. Unleash the playful spirit of your pet today.
Evaluating AI-Generated Content
Okay perfect so that’s basically the video right there and it was really well done if you ask me. The AI voice was good, all of the different stock videos that it used was also good as well and the good thing about this tool is that you’re going to be able to generate multiple pieces of content which is going to allow you to publish videos on Instagram and Tik Tok which of course is going to help you drive traffic to your stores and bear in mind that when it comes to doing Tik Tok organic the aim of the game is to generate a couple sales, try and earn some revenue and then from there you’re going to be able to reinvest that money back into your business for you to find a more sustainable way of generating sales and bringing awareness to the products that you’re selling in the form of using paid ads but I would say that these are some of the main things that you need to know when it comes to starting an Ecom store with next to no money.