01Step 1: Pick a product and a specific customer
Most failed stores sell something generic to everyone. Successful small stores usually start with a product the founder understands and a customer they can describe precisely: "handmade leather dog collars for owners of large breeds" beats "pet accessories".
The market is big enough for niches. US e-commerce was 16.9% of total retail sales in the first quarter of 2026, according to the Census Bureau's quarterly report, growing faster than retail overall. That growth also means more competition for generic products.
- Make: you produce it (crafts, food, art, apparel).
- Buy and resell: you buy stock wholesale and ship it yourself.
- Print on demand: designs printed and shipped by a partner when ordered.
- Dropship: a supplier ships directly; is dropshipping worth it? covers the trade-offs.
- Digital: downloads, templates, courses, with no shipping at all.
02Step 2: Check people will pay before you build
Building a store is now quick; finding out nobody wants the product is slow and expensive. Test demand first: sell to friends of friends, take pre-orders through a simple page, post the product in communities where your customers spend time, or list a few items on a marketplace. A handful of real orders is worth more than any amount of research.
A simple landing page with a "notify me" or pre-order button is enough for this. What should a landing page include? covers how to make one convert.
03Step 3: Choose where to sell
There are three broad routes, and many stores use more than one. The right choice depends on whether you want built-in traffic, full control or the lowest fixed cost.
| Route | Examples | Good for | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marketplace | Etsy, Amazon | Built-in shoppers from day one | Fees per sale, less control, competitors on the same page |
| Hosted store | Shopify, Wix, Squarespace | Your own brand and customer list | Monthly fee; you bring the traffic |
| Self-hosted | WooCommerce on WordPress | Full control, no platform fee | You manage hosting, updates and security |
04Step 4: Set up payments, shipping and taxes
Hosted platforms include payments; elsewhere you will connect a processor such as Stripe or PayPal. How to accept payments on a website explains the options and Stripe vs PayPal compares fees.
Shipping is where many first stores lose money. Weigh and measure your packed product, compare carrier rates, and decide whether to charge shipping or build it into the price. Extra costs at checkout, shipping included, are the top reason shoppers abandon carts after browsing, according to Baymard Institute research. Sales tax rules depend on where you and your customers are; most platforms can calculate it, but check your obligations.
05Step 5: Build a small store that sells
A new store does not need dozens of pages. It needs a few things done well.
- 1A homepage that says what you sellA clear headline, your best product and one obvious way to shop.
- 2Product pages that answer questionsSeveral real photos, size and material details, price including shipping, delivery time and returns.
- 3A short about pageWho you are and why you make or choose these products. Trust matters for small stores.
- 4PoliciesShipping, returns, privacy and contact details, linked in the footer.
- 5A simple checkoutGuest checkout, few fields and familiar payment options.
06Step 6: Launch and find your first customers
Launch is the beginning of the work. Tell everyone you know, post where your customers gather, reach out to small creators in your niche, and ask your first buyers for reviews and photos. Paid ads can work, but only once you know your margins and which products sell. How to get your first sale online covers what tends to work for brand-new stores.
What people who tried it say
Store owners on Hacker News and Indie Hackers consistently say the store itself is the easy part; getting the first sales, handling marketing and keeping healthy margins after fees and shipping are the hard parts.
- How to start an e-commerce store that doesn't dropshipHacker News
A store owner who buys, holds and ships his own inventory shares the tools he uses; commenters push for profit rather than revenue figures, and he says he aims for 25-35% of gross depending on shipping costs.
- I run an ecommerce store from Shopify which fulfills orders by drop-shippingHacker News
A Shopify store owner describes marketing, content and advertising as the hardest part of running a store, more than the technical setup.
Looking for more first-hand opinions? Search Reddit for “how to start an online store”. We link the live threads rather than summarizing them, so you read them in full.
Our take
spend a weekend on the store and a month on finding customers. Most new store owners do the reverse, polishing a site nobody visits.
Where this falls short
Tax, licensing and consumer-protection rules vary by country and state, and some products (food, cosmetics, children's items) carry extra regulations. This guide covers the general steps, not legal requirements for your situation.
If you want your store's homepage and brand pages to look designed rather than templated, Orlume builds them from a description and publishes them in one click; pair it with a commerce platform for checkout.
Free to start · No card required · Live in one click
Sources
- 1.Quarterly retail e-commerce sales · US Census Bureau
- 2.Cart abandonment rate statistics · Baymard Institute
- 3.Shopify pricing · Shopify
Researched and written by the Orlume team · Updated October 2026
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