Nowadays, Internet business is a real opportunity to make money. A large number of outlets "moved" from real stores to sites and Internet sites. The budget for the promotion of an Internet business is much more modest than for its "live" counterpart.
After analyzing the commercial sector of life, we come to the conclusion that children's goods occupy a rather solid place in it. The profitability of this sector should also not be in doubt. Products for children will be in demand as long as there is reproduction of the human race.
The development of a business plan and the definition of the main stages and directions of the online store is the purpose of this article. We will try to consider in detail the points that should be focused on when opening a virtual business.
What to sell?
To determine the specific direction, you should carefully study the market. The competition in this area is quite large, but there is always the opportunity to analyze information and choose your own unique direction.
Having studied more than one site of children's products, you can notice some gaps in the assortment. In addition, take note of the original ideas for design and interface. What areas should I look for?
- Age category. This is the easiest way - there are products for newborns, kids 1-3 years old, preschoolers, beginners and for teenagers.
- Product specialization. You can take as a basis several directions at once. For example, clothes and shoes, sports attributes and toys, children's interiors and home furniture, school supplies and accessories.
- Brand You can choose one specific manufacturer. In this case, it is worth considering participation in network trading. Or become a seller of several of the most popular and sought-after brands. You can also work with a franchise of Chinese manufacturers or take risks and choose a little-known but high-quality supplier as the basis.
In addition, explore the different interface options for the site. You need to have an idea of how best to present information about products, how to place them in catalogs, how to group by categories. To do this, it is useful to read the forums of owners of children's goods sites. But the basis for starting your own business should be a business plan.
Business plan for an online store of children's goods
The basis of any business, including virtual, is always profit. It is she who acts as an indicator of the success of the project. It is important not only the fact of its receipt for the results of the reporting period, but also the amount of profit. In order to calculate income, you need to compare the estimated revenue from trade and the amount of expenses.
Costs
The business plan of the online store of children's goods includes the following list of expenses:
- website creation (domain, hosting, copywriting, SEO, web designer services);
- payments for communication services;
- salary to employees;
- cost of equipment used;
- fare;
- taxes
- interest on the use of payment systems;
- advertising;
- retail value of goods;
- force majeure (defective delivery delay).
This is just an indicative list of expense items.There may be more or less, it depends on what specifics of the product you choose. The cost of services is determined based on the specific region where the business is planned to open.
Revenues of the online store will consist of the sale of advertising space and paid courier delivery, margins for the goods.
Having assessed the above factors, you can determine the profitability of online stores and understand whether it makes sense to do the chosen direction at all or to look for other options better. If the decision is positive, you need to start by drawing up a project description, setting goals (actual profit) and a plan for further growth.
Scheme of work
Practice shows that an online store can be not only a full-fledged trading system where the goods are ordered exclusively on the resource, but also be a showcase where the purchase occurs after the customer has contacted the manager or site administrator by mail. The first option is attractive to the buyer, and the second is easier and more convenient when creating a resource (it is worth mentioning that this parameter affects the choice of hosting).
The same can be said about the placement of information on the availability of goods and their value. Many site owners neglect this factor, and this repels visitors. An order that is executed by sending an application to the administrator's mailing address is effective only with a small assortment of goods and its high cost.
Technical details
Each business plan of an online store of children's goods should take into account the type of placement of commodity items. This is a manual or batch download. The first type is better, but when working with a large assortment it will take a greater amount of time.
Payment
Today, purchases can be paid using bank transfer in the online store or in cash upon receipt of the goods. The second option is the most common payment system. This allows buyers not to worry about their money, but may cause some difficulties for the seller.
Bank transfer is convenient for both the buyer and seller. This is explained by the fact that most of those who use the services of online stores have access to online banking or to accounts in various payment systems. A similar scheme is a little more difficult to establish. But this may be an option to expand the online store, even if at the initial stage you are not interested in cashless payments.
Delivery
Before organizing the delivery of an online store, decide how it will be implemented. It can be performed using postal services or using courier services. There is the possibility of pickup if the store is in the same city as the buyer.
Delivery should not be an expense item. If you plan to carry it out for free, then all transport costs, postal services or couriers should initially be included in the price of the goods. This is possible when the purchase price is much lower than the retail price.
Particular attention should be paid to the issue of delivery if you are developing a business plan for an online store of children's goods selling clothes and shoes. In this category, as it is right, there is always a high percentage of probability of exchange or return, since it is not very easy to guess with the size of this category of goods.
To reduce the cost of delivery, many online stores enter into contracts with specific mail services and provide them with exclusive rights to their customers, while receiving certain discounts in return. High-quality and fast delivery is not only convenience, but also the opportunity to distinguish yourself from your competitors.
Suppliers
When you decide what products for the online store will be sold on your resource, you should think about where and at what price to buy them. It’s easy to find a supplier today.They can be foreign and domestic manufacturers or other, larger, online stores (for example, Chinese, which, as you know, offer products at low prices). It is important to remember that the smaller the supply chain, the higher your profit.
Suppliers for online stores of children's goods can cooperate in two ways: work for a commission (that is, the goods are offered on the resource on behalf of the manufacturer, and its owner makes a profit on the amount of sales) or the purchase of goods in a certain amount and its further sale with a certain margin. In the first option, no initial capital is needed and there is no need to rent storage facilities, there is also no risk of not selling the goods. But you need to know that delays in deliveries and an increase in the cost of products are possible.
When working in the second option, you will be independent of the supply of the manufacturer, you will be able to clearly control the quantity of available goods and not depend on inflation. But it should be remembered that money is needed for the purchase of goods in a certain amount. In addition, we need storage facilities for storing products. There are risks of damage or theft of the goods, as well as the likelihood that the purchased product will not be sold out or morally obsolete.
Employees
Whether you will work alone or hire additional staff are issues that must be resolved before opening an online store. No one will be engaged in accounting, administration or working with clients for free, so payroll should be included in the expense item.
Of course, at the first stages you can do all the things yourself, but with a good development of events you will gradually come to the conclusion that such work on the network requires helpers. There should be not only a site administrator, but also a courier, accountant, and suppliers and customers managers. Some posts can be combined, but at high workload this can negatively affect the results.
Buyers
One of the important components of a business plan is the determination of the target audience and visitors to the Internet portal. Having decided on the subject of goods, you should clearly think over the age category of potential buyers, social and marital status, gender, tastes and preferences. The online store of children's goods should be designed for both adults and children.
Documentation
After the business plan of the project is approved, you need to draw up the necessary documents.
- You can become a representative of entrepreneurial activity by registering online trading with real profit in the tax service.
- After the site for children's goods is created, it needs to be legalized, that is, to draw up documents for the property.
- It is necessary to conclude agreements with courier or postal services.
Online Store Profitability
Today, the demand and popularity of online stores is growing every day. Many entrepreneurs prefer this type of business to “live” outlets. Children's stores, whose profitability is about 20-30%, can bring profit of about 60-120 thousand rubles a month. Small investments and demand for this type of product on the market makes the business attractive and popular.
