How to Make an Ecommerce Business Plan for Your Startup

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Darren DeMatas

January 30, 2024

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So you’ve decided that you want to quit your day job and start your very own ecommerce empire. That’s great!

But before you become the next Jeff Bezos  (and definitely before you quit your job!), it’s worth spending some time thinking about a business plan. In this article, we’ll dive into the key elements of an ecommerce business plan, which is very different than writing traditional business plans.

Ecommerce Business Plan 2020

Why You Should Create a Business Plan

We know that starting an ecommerce business is exciting, and it can be tempting to jump right in without constructing a business plan. READ: PLEASE DON’T DO THIS.

If you haven’t put your ideas, questions and concerns on paper, then you haven’t given your business model enough thought .

Taking the time to write a business plan might seem like a lot of work, but it can save you a lot of time and money in the long run by better preparing you for potential challenges and opportunities that you’ll face as a first-time entrepreneur. Think of it as a roadmap for your new business venture.

It’s exciting to start your own ecommerce business. However, you want to be well prepared and not jump into anything without having a solid, foolproof ecommerce business plan in place.

After all, you wouldn’t jump out of a plane without a parachute, so why start a business without a safety device in place? That safety device is your business plan.

Quote 5 Jeff Bezos Retail Is Details

The business plan is the brainstorming process that ensures your concept and goals are realistic.

This is more than just mental notes. True business plans take your ideas , questions, and concerns and put those in writing.

As you start creating your business plan, you’ll soon understand that it’s more than a single piece of paper with handwritten details on it. It’s a clearly constructed format of how your business will be created, how it will operate, and what you hope the future holds in terms of a successful ecommerce business.

When you write your business plan, be sure to have a target audience in mind. Are you going to look for investors or put a Kickstarter campaign into motion and use this as your descriptive platform? If so, make sure that your business plan contains everything the audience would want to know about your business (and more!). Many traditional funding solutions require a business plan in order to give you capital. However, there are alternative solutions, such as  Payability  that specialize in ecommerce and don’t require credit checks, a business plan, or any complicated paperwork. They can also get you approved in as little as 24 hours.

When your business plan is completed, you should have achieved the following goals:

  • Knowledge:  A greater sense of knowledge of the business aspects.
  • Resources:  The resources you’re going to need to make your business successful, such as partners, money, employees, etc.
  • Road Map: Have clear set goals to take you from the very beginning of your business and onward.
  • Viability: In other words, is your business possible? Will you have enough profit margins to keep the doors open long-term?

Now that you know why you should create a business plan, it’s time to move on to how you can create your business plan and get started putting your ecommerce business into motion.

How to Start an Ecommerce Business Plan

At the very beginning of the planning stages, it’s a good idea to develop a framework for your business model. This business model will continue to evolve as you create each section of your ecommerce business plan, so don’t strive for a perfect completed plan on the first try. You will be making tweaks to the plan of certain steps along the way.

There are many ways to sell products online and different business models  to pursue. Research and learn from successful ecommerce business examples in the market. The exact business model you follow will be one that makes the most sense with your resources, skills, and interests.

In order to create the best online business plan with your product in mind, you need to figure out the following things:

What are you selling?

The first step to creating an online business is to learn the absolute basics of what you can sell.

  • Physical products: Clothing , shoes, home goods
  • Digital products: Software as a Service products, ecourses, ebooks
  • Services: Consulting services, home cleaning

Who are you selling to?

  • Business-to-Business (B2B): You are selling to organizations, corporations, and non-profits rather than individual customers
  • Business to Consumer (B2C): This means you are selling to individual consumers rather than businesses
  • Marketplace: You are acting as a middleman by bringing businesses and (B2B or B2C) customers to one website.

How are you sourcing your product?

  • Manufacture in-house: You make your product or service in-house
  • Third-party manufacturer: You outsource the manufacturing of your product or service to a third-party manufacturer
  • Dropship: You partner with a dropship manufacturer. Basically, this means that they make your product, package it and ship it directly to your customer while your company handles the entire customer relationship.
  • Wholesale : You buy goods or services from other companies in bulk and re-sell those products on your online store

Additional References

  • Entrepreneurship: Business & Marketing Plans
  • Small Business and Entrepreneurship
  • Entrepreneurship Resources
  • Business Plan Resources

Executive Summary

Ecommerce Business Plan Template Executive Summary

The executive summary will be written according to your goals, and it’s recommended that this is done at the very end of your business plan completion. This will ensure that you include all of the important factors about your business and present your ideas in a concise and complete way.

Some of the features you’ll include in the executive summary include information showing that you’ve done your research, you have concrete sales forecasts, and the main details about your brand.

Business Model

When you’re figuring out your business model, you have to consider four different areas:

  • Monetization strategy
  • Product/industry
  • Target market
  • Sales channel

Monetization Strategy

The monetization strategy delves into the methods you are going to use to sell your products.

This strategy will look at different product monetization methods, including white label, private label , affiliate marketing, wholesale, dropshipping, and even selling ads.

Product/Industry

The product industry section is where you summarize your main niche.

For example, “Vegan Skincare Products.”

Target Market

In the target market section, you will write a sentence or so on who your target market, or ideal customer, is in the community.

If you’re selling vegan skincare products, your target customers might be women who embrace the vegan lifestyle and use natural skincare products in their daily beauty regimen.

Sales Channel

The sales channel refers to where you’re going to sell your products.

For example, you might be selling your products on your own website, and this should be entered in this section.

Business Overview

Ecommerce Business Plan Template Company Overview

This next section covers your company overview.

This section of your business plan will cover various features of your company, including the following:

  • Company type
  • Domain name
  • Value proposition
  • Brand traits

The brand name section lists your business name or brand name.

This is an extremely important aspect of your business plan as it’s what will set the tone for everything that follows.

Pick a brand name that’s simple yet unique and is something that can be used in a wordplay manner, if desired, but not pun-worthy.

Company Type

The company is how your business operates. For example, you might label your business as an LLC, S-corporation, sole proprietor, or some other type of business organization.

The best way to determine how you should categorize your company is to speak to your accountant. There are various tax and legal aspects to forming your business in a certain way.

Speak with the professionals in the company and corporation formation field to determine how to label your company and which company type best benefits your business in a variety of ways.

Domain Name

This section is where you list your domain name.

Choose a domain name that is memorable and embraces the overall traits and features of your business.

And, when choosing a domain name, be sure to think of SEO aspects when doing so. You’ll find out just how much all of these things tie together and ensure a frequently-visited website is the end result.

Keep in mind that with ecommerce, the domain name is just as important as the brand name. Maybe even more so!

Value Proposition

A value proposition is a short, crisp statement that will gauge how clear your idea is. Write this section as if you had one minute to explain your business to a potential investor or customer and then practice it over and over again.

The value proposition can be used on your ecommerce store as your company description.

Here’s a good example: Say you’re looking to start a hiking company called Atlas Hiking Co. which sells premium performance hiking shirts. A possible company description could be the following:

Atlas Hiking Co. is a lifestyle hiking company that produces high-performance hiking shirts for outdoor lovers. Our proprietary SPF40 fabric is one of the lightest fabrics on the market, providing mountain lovers with maximum comfort, both from a breathability and sun-protection standpoint. Our product is made in the U.S.A. and a portion of our profits are donated to preserve national parks around the country.

Pay special attention to all the sensory words !

The mission statement in your business plan is the “why” of it all.

For example, why you started the business, why you are selling the products you are selling, etc., can all be added to this section of your business plan.

You can make this portion as simple or detailed as you like. Just make sure to properly and clearly explain your business mission.

The vision part of the business plan is your “how” in the grand scheme of things. It is the dream you have for your company and the path you’re going to take to realize that dream.

When you write the vision portion of the business plan, think long-term. What are you hoping to achieve, not just in the near future but for the long haul of the life of your business?

Look into the future and plan out where you see your business in 5, 10, even 20 years from now.

This will help you construct the rest of your business plan if you know where you want your business to head, now and in the future.

Brand Traits

The brand traits section is a short section in your company overview.

Basically, in the brand traits section you’re going to want to list three to five words that describe your brand.

Think of your brand personality and describe it using a few separate powerful words.

The personnel section lists all individuals, including yourself, who will be involved in the daily operations of your business. You can create a separate section for a full operations plan or add that later.

Some business owners choose to handle all duties on their own or with a partner, while others will hire individuals to fill the following roles:

  • CEO (usually the business owner)
  • Management team
  • Customer service/logistics
  • PR/Social media specialist
  • SEO manager
  • Advertising manager

Competitive Market Analysis

Competitive Market Analysis

Here’s a fact you can bank on: there has never been a successful e-commerce entrepreneur that didn’t understand his/her target market cold.

That’s why this section is one of the most important in the entire business plan. It will force you to understand the industry in which you operate, the overall industry analysis and outlook, the existing competition, and your target customer demographic.

Market Segment

The market segment portion of the business plan will help you to put your ideas down on paper, make them more focused, and get your team together.

This area will include your niche selection, target market, and competitive analysis.

Niche Selection

The niche section  provides an overview of your niche, why you selected it, whether there’s a micro niche included, and the type of niche you’ve chosen.

The purpose of this section is to crystalize the ideas that you have and make sure they are understandable and viable.

The target market section covers an overview of your target market plus describes your market segments.

Ask yourself who your  target customer  is (population size, age, geography, education, ethnicity, income level) and consider whether consumers are comfortable with buying your product category online.

When listing the target market information, make sure to mention your target audience size as this is important for ensuring that your audience will be adequately covered.

Facebook Audience Size

Competitive Analysis

With the competitive analysis portion of your market analysis, you want to list your market leader and direct and indirect competitors.

After you mention who these entities are, you need to list the characteristics of each one, such as domain name, business model, monthly traffic, and pricing range.

However, before you even get started in writing this section, you need to spend several hours researching your target market.

Here are some of the most efficient ways to research a particular market:

Industry reports

Google is your best friend. Look for any recent industry reports on your market of choice. This will give you a good sense of how much growth the industry is experiencing, why this growth is happening, and what are the largest customer segments. In our example of Atlas Hiking Co., we should research the outdoor apparel market.

Outdoor apparel kids hiking hiking gear Google search Trends worldwide 2004-present

Let’s say that through our research of the outdoor apparel industry, we discovered that there was a huge boom in youth hiking apparel. Perhaps parents were increasingly concerned about their kids’ exposure to UV rays while hiking, so they began to spend more money on their kids. We could use this valuable information to guide our business strategy.

There’s only so much you can read online. Go to a nearby store that sells similar products to yours and interview the store representative. The store rep has interacted with hundreds of interested customers, which can lead to thousands of valuable insights! It’s amazing how these insights can translate into a meaningful business opportunity.

Here’s an example:

If I were going into Billy’s Outdoor Store to research the outdoor apparel market, I would probably ask Billy the following:

  • What are your best-selling products?
  • What are your worst-selling products?
  • Find products similar to yours and ask the representative his/her favorite features on products similar to yours.
  • How much are customers generally willing to spend on these types of products?
  • Do customers make repeat orders of any of these products?
  • Do you get a lot of customers that are looking to buy last-minute hiking gear before they go on a hike?

Competition

Create an Excel spreadsheet of all of your competitors. In your spreadsheet, you should have the following columns:

  • Competitor Name
  • Price point
  • Product Description
  • Key Features (e.g., fabric, waterproof, slim fit, etc.)

What is the competition missing? Is there a gap in the offering? Where you can add some additional value?

After conducting the competitor analysis, Atlas Hiking Co. might find that the competition’s hiking shirts offer very few features at a low price point, but no one offers a luxury hiking shirt with additional features at a higher price point.

This is just an example of the types of insights one can gain from market research which can drastically alter your business model.

Keyword Research

By using Google’s keyword planner  and trends pages, you can get a good sense of how in demand your product is and whether it’s trending upward or downward. Google is great for a general idea, just don’t bank on it.

Some other keyword tools you can use for keyword research include Ahrefs, JungleScout, and Viral Launch. Check out this list  for more ideas.

Trade shows

Are there nearby trade shows that you can go to? Again, creating connections with other people in your industry is a surefire shortcut to countless hours of reading on the internet. Trade shows are also a great opportunity to talk to competitors, meet manufacturers, and better understand where things are heading in your industry.

Once you finish researching the relevant industry, you should summarize your findings by answering the following questions:

General Industry

  • How big is the overall industry?
  • How big is the specific sub-industry in which you intend to operate?
  • Where has most of the historic growth in the market come from?
  • Why is this the right time to enter this market?
  • What are the sub-segments that are poised for future growth (e.g., youth apparel)?
  • How crowded is the product category with competition?
  • How is your competition distributing its product (online, retail, wholesale, etc.)?
  • What’s missing from the competition’s product offering?

Products and Offers

Ecommerce Business Plan Template Products and Offers

So we know we want to sell hiking shirts, but how do you research specific products?

But for some of us, we’re not quite sure what we should sell. To succeed in online retail, you need a product that is trending upwards in a growing niche.

Different types of products

Some of the different types of products include the following:

  • Convenience products: Frequent purchase products, little effort on buying
  • Shopping products: Less frequently purchased in between purchases, little more effort and planning, shop around
  • Specialty products: Strong brand preference and loyalty, will buy no matter what the price

The various types of niches include the following:

  • Hobby niches
  • Lifestyle niches
  • Problem niches
  • Weird/embarrassing niches

Existing products

Come up with detailed specifications for each product or service you intend to sell. If it’s a hiking shirt we’re selling, we would want to have:

  • Detailed sketches of the shirt
  • Fabric weight, materials, type
  • Key features (e.g., pre-shrunk, water-proof, SPF 40)

Future product pipeline

What are other products that you have in the pipeline? Perhaps once you’ve successfully sold hiking shirts, you’re able to leverage your manufacturing relationships to provide hiking socks and shorts. Include that information in this section.

The products and services section will cover the various selling categories of items.

These product offerings will include the following:

  • Core product

Each product group will have its own purpose in your sales catalog. For example, tripwire is the product that brings customers to your ecommerce store or online marketplaces  while the core product is your main seller.

Knowing what products you’ll include within each section allows you to have a firm grasp on what your main product will be and how the other types of products will work alongside your main product.

This section will also cover the search volume and Amazon pricing range.

You’ll need to calculate your true costs. You have to make sure you don’t overestimate your margins.

To tabulate your total true costs, you need to write down the costs in the following areas:

  • Target price
  • Supplier cost of the product
  • Total cost per unit
  • Net profit per unit
  • Profit margin per unit

Once you complete the pricing portion, you’ll have everything on one sheet and readily accessible whenever you need it.

Marketing Plan and Operations

Ecommerce Business Plan Template Marketing

So, now you’ve concluded that you have a great business idea, and it’s in a growing market. That’s fantastic – but how are you going to drive traffic to your ecommerce website and get customers to buy it ? And how much can you afford to spend on your product?

Marketing  is everything. It’s important that your marketing efforts match your business model.

If you have a website and no marketing, your site won’t have any visitors. With no visitors, you will make no sales. Then how do you grow and sell your ecommerce business (if that’s your long-term goal)? Even with the best possible products, nobody will buy them if they aren’t directed to them in some way.

In order to come up with a marketing strategy, you need to first know your customer inside out. You should be able to answer such questions as:

  • How old is your customer?
  • Where does your customer live?
  • What is the population of your customer base?
  • What is their education level?
  • What is their income level?
  • What are your customer’s pain points?

With so many channels to reach your customer, which one is best for you?

Once we know pretty much everything there is to know about our target customer, we can shift focus to our marketing strategy. You want to choose marketing strategies that equal positive conversion rates. What channels should you use to grab the attention of your customer demographic? Some of the key marketing channels include:

Paid Marketing

  • Pay-per-click – this online marketing typically involves using Google Shopping campaigns  and managing a product data feed.
  • Affiliate sales networks – Allowing other blogs and websites to sell your product for a cut of the revenue. List the different affiliate sale networks that you plan to promote through.
  • Facebook ads ⎯ Ads posted on Facebook to draw in buyers through social media means.
  • Influencer marketing ⎯ Hiring industry influencers to get the word out about your product through their social media platforms and contacts.

Organic Marketing

  • Social media (Facebook, Instagram , Pinterest, etc.): What is your strategy for social media, and where will you dedicate your attention?
  • Search Engine Optimization : Create and promote awesome content so people find your product organically through search.
  • Content marketing: Figure out how you’ll use content marketing in your business. Consider various article topics that will persuade your target audience to buy your products.
  • Blogger networks: could be organic or paid through affiliate sale programs.
  • Key bloggers: Develop a list of the key bloggers in your product category. For Atlas Hiking Co., this might be an influencer that blogs about the best hiking trails in America.

Finding the optimal mix of these advertising tools depends 100% on your customer segment as well as your product type. For example, a SaaS product targeting millennials will require an entirely different marketing strategy than an e-commerce physical product targeting baby boomers. Perhaps that should be a post on its own for another day!

How much should you spend to acquire a customer?

In order to understand this, we need first to discuss a concept known as customer lifetime value or LTV. In essence, this is a formula that helps you better understand how much an average customer will spend over time.

Here’s  a good read on how to calculate LTV.

It’s important to remember that for new businesses, you don’t have a lot of data on customer purchase habits so it’s a good idea to be more conservative with your assumptions in calculating LTV.

Let’s say, for Atlas Hiking Co., I determine that the average LTV per customer is $300. This means that over time, the average customer will spend $300. Let’s say, on average, if I receive $300 in revenue, $100 of that will translate to gross profit before I factor in my marketing costs (basically, I’m just subtracting the cost of making the shirts).

Knowing that my gross profit is $100 per shirt is a critical piece of information because it tells me that I can spend up to $100 in marketing to acquire a customer and still be profitable!

Some of the marketing options include social media marketing and content marketing.

Think about your business model and then line up your marketing budget. Your marketing budget may include the following items:

  • Sales/branded content
  • SEO/blog content
  • Facebook/Instagram ads
  • Influencer marketing
  • Marketing tools
  • Niche advertising

Choosing The Right Technology

With so much technology and SaaS products out there, it’s important to understand the various moving parts and diagram how they all integrate with one another.

Some of the different elements include:

  • Shopping Cart Platforms  – e.g., Shopify , BigCommerce , WooCommerce , or any open-source platform
  • Hosting – Nexcess , BigScoots , Kinsta , WPX
  • Payment Processo r – e.g., Stripe, Paypal
  • Fulfillment Center – e.g., Amazon, ShipBob
  • Apps – e.g., Zipify, BuildWooFunnels, Gelato
  • Accounting & Taxes  – e.g., Quicken, Xero
  • Marketing Automation – e.g., Klaviyo , Mailchimp
  • Marketing Tools – e.g.  Buzzstream, Ahrefs
  • Customer Loyalty Programs  – e.g., Antavo, Smile

Come up with a detailed list of the different products and services you need to run your business as well as the monthly and per-transaction cost of each of them. This will be important in understanding the impact of these services on your margins.

Matching your business model to your technology is essential, too. Certain website platforms are better suited for specific sales models.

Email marketing is another type of technology that should be carefully considered and matched up correctly with your business model.

Keep in mind that it takes, on average, 6-7 interactions with a brand before someone makes a purchase, so you need to keep using technology to get them back to your website.

As you explore the technology options and find out ways to draw potential customers in and keep them happy while they’re there, here are some key points to keep in mind:

  • What you say about yourself and your products with your website content
  • How you respond to questions on live chat and email support
  • How to make use of chatbots
  • How you connect on social media
  • The information you send through email marketing
  • What bloggers and influencers say about your brand
  • How existing customers review your company
  • How you advertise
  • How you establish loyalty beyond sales

After you figure out your technology methods, you have to come up with a technology budget.

The business plan must also include the operations side of things. Determine who will be your manufacturer, secondary manufacturer, and shipping and fulfillment  provider.

When looking at supply chain costs and options, ShipBob  is an ecommerce fulfillment provider you can consider.

Financial Plan

Ecommerce Business Plan Template - Financial Plan

When figuring out your financial plan, evaluating and pinpointing your startup costs  is essential.

The focus of the financial plan is how long it will take for you to make your money back. You also need to figure out if you need a business loan .

Traffic and conversion rates will help you determine how long it will be until you start making money back.

You’ll also want to use an income statement to detail financial information.

This section is used for financial projections, such as forecasting sales, expenses, and net income of the business. Ideally, you’ll want to create a monthly Excel balance sheet showing the following:

  • Projected revenue:  First, come up with your projected number of units sold and then come up with your projected revenue (Projected Revenue = # of Units Sold * Average Sales Price).
  • Fixed expenses:   these are expenses that are fixed no matter how much you sell. Typically, these relate to monthly SaaS subscriptions, employee salaries, or rent.
  • Variable expenses  – these expenses change in direct proportion to how much you sell. Common examples include the cost of goods sold and credit card payment processing fees.

This helps business owners better understand what they need to achieve to hit their profit goals. In reality, projections are usually always off the mark, but it’s good to give yourself some measurable goals to strive for.

This section should aim to answer the following questions about your product offering:

  • How much product do you need to sell per year to meet your income goals for the business?
  • What are the margins on your product? If you sell one hiking shirt for $50, how much do you make after paying your supplier, employees, and marketing costs?
  • What is the lifetime value of a customer?
  • How much can you spend to acquire customers? If you conservatively project that the average customer will spend $300 over time on your shirts, then you can afford to spend an amount less than $300 to acquire that customer using the paid marketing channels described previously.
  • Do you have any big capital expenditures early on that would require you to need to bring in investors?
  • Can you improve gross margins by making bigger orders from your suppliers?

There are various acquisition channels that will help your traffic to convert including:

Your revenue plan will contain a 12-month revenue forecast plan to help you map out each month of earnings.

There are different business earning models you can go through to determine how much you can make with your business.

You want to calculate how much traffic costs. This all depends on the methods you use to gain traffic to your site.

As you determine what your profit might be with your ecommerce business  or ecommerce businesses, there are certain math formulas to use:

  • The profit equation
  • Break-even analysis
  • Units needed to achieve the profit target

You should also consider how you will use fintech companies in your ecommerce business.

What are the key elements of an ecommerce business plan?

The main components of an eCommerce business plan include the executive summary, company description, market analysis, organization and management structure, product line or service, marketing and sales strategy, financial projections, and funding request, if applicable.

How do I create a budget for my ecommerce business?

Start by estimating your initial startup costs and ongoing expenses. Consider costs like website development, inventory, marketing, shipping, taxes, and any necessary licenses or permits. It’s also important to factor in a contingency plan for unexpected costs.

How do I find the right product to sell?

Research is fundamental. Look at market trends, customer needs, and competitor products. Use tools like Google Trends or social media platforms to understand what customers are currently interested in. Always consider your passion and knowledge about the product too, as this can drive your business forward.

How can I differentiate my product from competitors?

Differentiation can come from unique product features, superior customer service, better pricing, or a compelling brand story. Understand what your competitors offer and how you can do it differently or better.

Wrapping Up Your Business Plan

Careful planning is crucial to get your e-commerce business from the planning phase to the launch phase and to ensure its successful future.

Going through the exercise of writing a business plan will cement your own understanding of your business and your market. It will also position you to take advantage of lucrative opportunities while mitigating harmful threats to your business down the line.

Your turn! Have you written a business plan for your online store? Do you have anything to add? Tell us about it in the comments below!

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How to Write an Ecommerce Business Plan [Examples & Template]

Kayla Carmicheal

Published: January 11, 2024

If you have a promising idea for an online e-commerce business , it’s important to create an e-commerce business plan to ensure your vision has enough stock to be profitable.

business plan site e commerce

Having a business plan for your online store will help you define your target market, establish your monthly and quarterly sales goals, and increase the likelihood of long-term e-commerce success.

In this post, we’ll go over an online store business plan and how you can create one for your e-commerce startup. Let’s get started.

→ Download Now: Free Business Plan Template

What is an e-commerce business plan?

An e-commerce business plan is a document that outlines your business and its goals, analyzes your industry and competitors, and identifies the resources needed to execute your plan. It also lists the e-commerce retailers you’ll use to distribute your products and the marketing strategies you’ll use to drive sales.

Whether a company operates as a startup or has years of operations and growth under its belt, an e-commerce business plan is essential for evaluating a business and determining areas of improvement.

An e-commerce business plan is essential, with increasing numbers of shoppers conducting business online. It's estimated this number has reached over 2 billion . An e-commerce business plan keeps you organized and is useful when seeking investors who need to understand your company.

So, let’s dive into some examples of e-commerce business plans and what goes into writing one using our free template .

business plan site e commerce

Free Business Plan Template

The essential document for starting a business -- custom built for your needs.

  • Outline your idea.
  • Pitch to investors.
  • Secure funding.
  • Get to work!

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

E-commerce Business Plan Template

business plan site e commerce

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Ecommerce Business Plan Template

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Growthink Ecommerce Business Plan Template

Over the past 20+ years, we have helped over 10,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans to start and grow their ecommerce businesses. On this page, we will first give you some background information with regards to the importance of business planning. We will then go through an ecommerce business plan template step-by-step so you can create your plan today.

Download our Ultimate Ecommerce Business Plan Template here >

What Is An Ecommerce Business Plan?

An ecommerce business plan is a detailed and comprehensive document that outlines the strategies, objectives, and operational blueprint of an online business. It serves as a roadmap guiding the company’s operations and growth within the dynamic and competitive digital marketplace. The plan typically covers various aspects, including market analysis, target audience identification, product or service offerings, marketing and sales strategies, competitive analysis, financial projections, and risk assessments.

Why You Need an Ecommerce Business Plan

Growthink.com ecommerce

Source of Funding for Ecommerce Businesses

With regards to funding, the main sources of funding for an ecommerce business are bank loans and angel investors. With regards to bank loans, banks will want to review your business plan and gain confidence that you will be able to repay your loan and interest. To acquire this confidence, the loan officer will not only want to confirm that your financials are reasonable. But they will want to see a professional plan. Such a plan will give them the confidence that you can successfully and professionally operate a business.

The second most common form of funding for an ecommerce business is angel investors. Angel investors are wealthy individuals who will write you a check. They will either take equity in return for their funding, or, like a bank, they will give you a loan.

Venture capitalists will fund an ecommerce business but not in its infancy. You will need to first achieve sales traction. Once you do that venture capitalists might invest $2 million to $100 million into your business over time.

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Below are the 10 sections a sample ecommerce business plan should include:

Executive Summary

Your executive summary provides an introduction to your business plan, but it is normally the last section you write because it provides a summary of each key section of your plan.

The goal of your Executive Summary is to quickly engage the reader. Explain to them the type of ecommerce business you are operating and the status; for example, are you a startup or do you have an ecommerce business that you would like to grow further.

Next, provide an overview of each of the subsequent sections of your plan. For example, give a brief overview of the ecommerce business industry. Discuss the type of ecommerce business you are operating. Detail your direct competitors. Give an overview of your target customers. Provide a snapshot of your marketing plan. Identify the key members of your team. And offer an overview of your financial plan.

Company Analysis

Growthink ecommerce businessman

For example, you might operate one of the following types of ecommerce businesses.

Ecommerce businesses based on businesses model:

  • Drop Shipping: you sell the product on your website and the product’s supplier fulfills it
  • Wholesaling And Warehousing: you sell the product on your website and the fulfill it yourself (through your own warehouse and systems)
  • Private Labeling And Manufacturing: you sell the product on your website and you manufacture it yourself or have someone manufacture it for you
  • White Labeling: you sell the product on your website and have someone manufacture it for you (but unlike private label, your product is not unique; the manufacturer is also creating the product under other brand names)
  • Subscription: you sell the product or service on your website on a subscription basis (customer pays you every week/month/year)

Ecommerce businesses based on customer model:

  • Business-to-Business (B2B): your business is selling to other businesses
  • Business-to-Consumer (B2C): your business is selling to consumers
  • Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C): your business provides a platform for consumers to sell to other consumers (e.g., ebay)
  • Consumer-to-Business (C2B): your business provides a platform for consumers to sell to businesses
  • Business-to-Government/Administration (B2A): your business is selling to governments or administrative agencies
  • Consumer-to-Government/Administration (C2A): your business provides a platform for consumers to sell or communicate with governments or administrative agencies

In addition to explaining the type of ecommerce business you operate, the Company Analysis section of your business plan needs to provide background on the business.

Include answers to question such as:

  • When and why did you start the business?
  • What milestones have you achieved to date? Milestones could include sales goals you’ve reached, customer milestones, etc.
  • Your legal structure. Are you incorporated as an S-Corp? An LLC? A sole proprietorship? Explain your legal structure here.

Industry Analysis

ecommerce business

While this may seem unnecessary, it serves multiple purposes.

First, researching the ecommerce business industry educates you. It helps you understand the market in which you are operating.

Secondly, market research can improve your strategy particularly if your research identifies market trends. For example, if there was a trend towards subscription businesses, it would be helpful to ensure your plan calls for offering subscription options.

The third reason for market research is to prove to readers that you are an expert in your industry. By conducting the research and presenting it in your plan, you achieve just that.

The following questions should be answered in the industry analysis section of your ecommerce business plan:

  • How big is the ecommerce business (in dollars)?
  • Is the market declining or increasing?
  • Who are the key competitors in the market?
  • Who are the key suppliers in the market?
  • What trends are affecting the industry?
  • What is the industry’s growth forecast over the next 5 – 10 years?
  • What is the relevant market size? That is, how big is the potential market for your ecommerce business. You can figure out your relevant market size by multiplying the amount of target customers by the amount they might spend on a product or service like yours each year.

Customer Analysis

The customer analysis section of your ecommerce business plan must detail the customers you serve and/or expect to serve.

The following are examples of customer segments: college students, sports enthusiasts, soccer moms, techies, teens, baby boomers, manufacturing plants, state government agencies, etc.

As you can imagine, the customer segment(s) you choose will have a great impact on the type of ecommerce business you operate. Clearly baby boomers would want a different offering and branding than teens or government agencies.

Try to break out your target customers in terms of their demographic and psychographic profiles. With regards to demographics, include a discussion of the ages, genders, locations and income levels of the customers you seek to serve.

Psychographic profiles explain the wants and needs of your target customers. The more you can understand and define these needs, the better you will do in attracting and retaining your customers.

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Competitive Analysis

Your competitive analysis should identify the indirect and direct competitors your business faces and then focus on the latter.

Direct competitors are other ecommerce businesses.

Indirect competitors are other options that customers have to purchase from you that aren’t direct competitors. This includes offline stores or other ecommerce companies that offer similar products or services. You need to mention such competition to show you understand that not everyone who needs the products or services you provide will frequent a business like yours.

With regards to direct competition, you want to detail the other ecommerce businesses with which you compete. For each such competitor, provide an overview of their businesses and document their strengths and weaknesses. Unless you once worked at your competitors’ businesses, it will be impossible to know everything about them. But you should be able to find out key things about them such as:

  • What types of customers do they serve?
  • What products do they offer?
  • What is their pricing (premium, low, etc.)?
  • What are they good at?
  • What are their weaknesses?

With regards to the last two questions, think about your answers from the customers’ perspective. And check product review websites to learn what your competitors’ customers like most and least about them.

The final part of your competitive analysis section is to document your areas of competitive advantage. For example:

  • Will you provide superior ecommerce services?
  • Will you provide ecommerce business products/services that your competitors don’t offer?
  • Will you make it easier or faster for customers to acquire your products/services?
  • Will you provide better customer service?
  • Will you offer better pricing?

Think about ways you will outperform your competition and document them in this section of your plan.

Marketing Plan

ecommerce business plan marketing

Product/Service : in the product section you should reiterate the type of ecommerce business that you documented in your Company Analysis. Then, detail the specific products and/or services you will be offering.

Price : Document the prices you will offer and how they compare to your competitors. Essentially in the product and price sub-sections of your marketing plan, you are presenting the menu of items you offer/will offer and their prices.

Place : Place refers to the location of your ecommerce business. In general, the place for an online business is well, online. But if there is a physical component to your business, document that here.

Promotions : the final part of your ecommerce business marketing plan is the promotions section. Here you will document how you will drive customers to your location(s). The following are some promotional methods you might consider:

  • Search engine optimization
  • Search engine marketing
  • Traditional public relations
  • Reaching out to local bloggers and websites
  • Advertising in physical newspapers, magazines, radio and television
  • Partnerships with other websites and/or organizations

Operations Plan

While the earlier sections of your business plan explained your goals, your operations plan describes how you will meet them. Your operations plan should have two distinct sections as follows.

Everyday short-term processes include all of the tasks involved in running your ecommerce business such as warehousing, invoicing, serving customers, procuring supplies, etc.

Long-term goals are the milestones you hope to achieve. These could include the dates when you expect to serve your 10,000th customer, or when you hope to reach $X in sales. It could also be when you expect to hire your Xth employee or launch a new product or service.

Management Team

ecommerce management team plan

Ideally you and/or your team members have direct experience in the ecommerce business. If so, highlight this experience and expertise. But also highlight any experience that you think will help your business succeed.

If your team is lacking, consider assembling an advisory board. An advisory board would include 2 to 8 individuals who would act like mentors to your business. They would help answer questions and provide strategic guidance. If needed, look for advisory board members with experience in ecommerce businesses and/or successfully running retail businesses.

Financial Plan

Your financial plan should include your 5-year financial statement broken out both monthly or quarterly for the first year and then annually. Your financial statements include your income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statements.

Income Statement : an income statement is more commonly called a Profit and Loss statement or P&L. It shows your revenues and then subtracts your costs to show whether you turned a profit or not.

In developing your income statement, you need to devise assumptions. For example, will you serve 100 customers per day or 200? And will sales grow by 2% or 10% per year? As you can imagine, your choice of assumptions will greatly impact the financial forecasts for your business. As much as possible, conduct research to try to root your assumptions in reality.

Balance Sheets : While balance sheets include much information, to simplify them to the key items you need to know about, balance sheets show your assets and liabilities. For instance, if you spend $100,000 on building out your ecommerce business, that will not give you immediate profits. Rather it is an asset that will hopefully help you generate profits for years to come. Likewise, if a bank writes you a check for $100.000, you don’t need to pay it back immediately. Rather, that is a liability you will pay back over time.

Cash Flow Statement : Your cash flow statement will help determine how much money you need to start or grow your business, and make sure you never run out of money. What most entrepreneurs and business owners don’t realize is that you can turn a profit but run out of money and go bankrupt. For example, let’s say a company approached you with a massive $100,000 contract, that would cost you $50,000 to fulfill. Well, in most cases, you would have to pay that $50,000 now to fulfill the contract. But let’s say the company didn’t pay you for 180 days. During that 180 day period, you could run out of money.

In developing your Income Statement and Balance Sheets be sure to include several of the key costs needed in starting or growing an ecommerce business:

  • Website and technology buildout
  • Payroll or salaries paid to staff
  • Business insurance
  • Taxes and permits
  • Legal expenses

Attach your full financial projections in the appendix of your plan along with any supporting documents that make your plan more compelling. For example, you might include agreements you’ve negotiated with developers, manufacturers and/or employees.

Ecommerce Business Plan Summary

Putting together a business plan for your ecommerce business is a worthwhile endeavor. If you follow the online store business plan template above, by the time you are done, you will truly be an expert. You will really understand the ecommerce business, your competition and your customers. You will have developed a marketing plan and will really understand what it takes to launch and grow a successful ecommerce business.

Download Our Ecommerce Business Plan PDF

You can download our ecommerce business plan PDF here . This is a business plan template you can use in PDF format.

Ecommerce Business Plan FAQs

What is the easiest way to complete my ecommerce business plan.

Growthink's Ultimate Ecommerce Business Plan Template allows you to quickly and easily complete your Ecommerce Business Plan.

Where Can I Download a Free Ecommerce Business Plan PDF?

You can download our ecommerce business plan PDF template here . This is a business plan template you can use in PDF format.

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Since 1999, Growthink has developed business plans for thousands of companies who have gone on to achieve tremendous success.   Click here to see how Growthink’s business plan advisors can give you a winning business plan.

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How to Start an E-Commerce Business in 2023: A Step-by-Step Guide

Rosalie Murphy

Many or all of the products featured here are from our partners who compensate us. This influences which products we write about and where and how the product appears on a page. However, this does not influence our evaluations. Our opinions are our own. Here is a list of our partners and here's how we make money .

Table of Contents

1. Define your e-commerce business idea

2. set up your business, 3. source or develop your products, 4. set up your e-commerce website, 5. figure out order fulfillment, 6. market your e-commerce business, how much does it cost to start an e-commerce business, tips for starting an e-commerce business .

An e-commerce business sells goods, services and funds over the internet. Starting an e-commerce business is a lot like starting any company: You’ll need to create a business plan, get licenses and permits and set up dedicated finances. You’ll also need to choose an e-commerce website builder , source your products and market to online customers.

Follow these six steps to get your e-commerce business up and running.

Square

The first step in starting any business is to hone your idea. Online business ideas can include selling physical or digital products as well as professional services. Whatever you choose, you’ll want to define your e-commerce business model and write a business plan that outlines your niche.

During this process, you’ll start to ask a lot of questions: How will you get your products or services to your customers? What sort of licenses or permits do you need? How much will it cost to get your business up and running — and how will you foot that bill? Your business plan should answer these questions and provide a road map for the coming months.

More resources to help shape your idea:

What is e-commerce? Understanding how it works  

Our picks for the best business plan software

Can your business idea actually make money?

Once you've solidified your e-commerce business idea, the next step is to set your company up for success.

Bizee

This includes back-office steps like:

Choosing a business structure . There are benefits and drawbacks to each of these entity types, so talking to an attorney may be helpful as you choose the one that’s right for you.

Naming your business. Consult your local secretary of state's website as well as the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to ensure that you're not choosing a name that belongs to another company. Check to see if your potential business domain name is available as well.

Applying for an employer identification number (EIN) . You can get an EIN from the IRS for free online or by mail, fax or phone. Not all businesses need an EIN, but having one can help you separate your personal and business finances.

Opening a business checking account . NerdWallet recommends all business owners have a dedicated bank account for their business.

Getting licenses and permits your city or state requires. This probably includes a business license, and if you perform services, you may also need an occupational license. Check your state or local government website for requirements for your area.

Answers as you set up your business:

Do you need a business license to sell online?

What’s the difference between an LLC and a sole proprietorship?

Our picks for the best free business checking accounts

Next, you'll need to source the products you're going to sell. If you’re selling physical products, you may need to make them yourself or work with a manufacturer.

A key decision at this point: Are you going to order products in bulk and keep inventory in stock? If so, you’ll need to think about storage space and raising capital to order goods upfront. However, you’ll have the power to ship items yourself.

Other businesses choose to rely on dropshipping , in which products are manufactured or sourced at the time the order is placed. In general, dropshipping may keep your overhead costs lower, but it can be more difficult to manage since inventory levels and shipping will be out of your hands.

Other options for sourcing e-commerce products include:

White-labeling, or ordering items in bulk from a manufacturer and then branding them with your company’s identity.

Print-on-demand, or paying a third party to print your company’s designs on merchandise like T-shirts, mugs and posters. Print-on-demand normally functions like dropshipping, in that a customer places their order, then the manufacturer creates the product and ships it directly to the customer.

Retail arbitrage, or buying discounted items from retail sellers and listing them in your own store at a markup. 

If you're selling professional services, you might just have to describe and list what you offer on your business website. Still, you’ll need to figure out how much to charge and decide how many clients you can see each day or week.

More to help you develop products:

16 e-commerce business ideas

How to find products to sell on Amazon

How to make money on Shopify

Your e-commerce website will be your storefront. It’s where your customers will learn about you and your business, browse your products and make purchases.

The easiest way to set up a website is to use an online store builder . These platforms can walk you through the process of launching your website, from buying a domain name to managing your inventory to taking credit card payments.

Popular e-commerce website builders include Shopify , Squarespace , Square Online and BigCommerce .

If you’re a very small business or just experimenting with online sales, a free e-commerce website builder may be a good place to start. But to list unlimited products and access more robust suites of tools — which can help with things like shipping label printing, order management and sales analytics — you’ll typically need to spring for a subscription.

In general, many online store builders should be simple enough for someone without web development experience to navigate. But most offer the option to pay a professional designer or developer if you don’t want to build the website on your own.

The best e-commerce platform for you fits into your budget and is appropriate for your skill level.

Choosing the right website builder:

Our picks for the best e-commerce website builders

Wix vs. Squarespace: Head-to-head comparison

Shopify vs. Square Online: Head-to-head comparison

Order fulfillment is the process of getting customers’ purchases in their hands.

Most e-commerce website builders offer shipping label printing, which is the first step in the fulfillment process. Some also offer the ability to add shipping costs onto customers’ orders at checkout.

If you choose to handle order fulfillment yourself, research shipping rates so you have a sense of how much it’ll cost. Look for an online store builder that can help make the shipping process easier or research shipping software providers like Shippo .

Note, too, that e-commerce may connect you to customers across the world. If there are places you’re not willing to ship to, make that clear on your website.

If you don’t want to manage order fulfillment, you can outsource it to an e-commerce fulfillment center or use a service like Fulfillment by Amazon. Fees for fulfillment services vary depending on the size of your products, how far they’re traveling and how much you’re shipping.

More to help you manage orders and inventory:

Our picks for the best inventory management software

What is just-in-time inventory?

Shipping services that integrate with WooCommerce

Now that you've started your online store , you're ready to start serving customers — as long as they can find your products.

Your small-business marketing strategy might include:

Omnichannel commerce , in which you list your products on third-party marketplaces like Amazon and Instagram. Some e-commerce website builders can help facilitate this.

Influencer marketing, in which you pay popular social media creators to plug your products. 

Social media content or paid social media ads.

Optimizing your business website for search engines.

Sending email campaigns to past and future customers.

Many e-commerce website builders include some marketing features, which can help you do things like create social media ads or send emails to customers when they’ve abandoned their carts.

But if you want to develop more sophisticated campaigns, consider investing in marketing software . These tools can help you create email templates and campaigns, text customers, keep track of how individual customers are responding to your emails and more.

More help with marketing:

20 free marketing ideas for small businesses

Online marketing strategies and tips

Content marketing for small businesses

The cost of starting an e-commerce business can vary widely depending on what you’re planning to sell and in what volume. Your expenses may include:

Your e-commerce website. Subscription plans for online store builders generally start around $25 to $30 per month when billed annually. You may also need to spring for a domain name if your e-commerce website builder doesn’t include one — and make note of annual fees to keep your URL registered. 

Payment processing fees. In general, the company that provides your payment processing will take a cut of around 3% from each online sale. 

Stocking up. If you plan to order inventory in bulk, be prepared for significant upfront costs — even before you’ve started generating revenue. Inventory financing may be able to help you bridge the gap.

Order fulfillment. In general, you’ll pay a third-party service to fulfill each order, with rates varying depending on item size and weight. The more customers buy at once, the less you’ll have to pay per item. Order fulfillment services may also include warehousing, for which you’ll pay a per-item storage cost. 

Warehousing. If you’re buying more inventory than you can keep in your home or garage but not using an order fulfillment service that provides storage, you may need to spring for warehouse space of your own.

General costs of running a business. These could include monthly or annual fees for accounting software , business insurance , any employees or contractors you plan to hire and more. You may also need to set aside money for small-business taxes .

As with launching any business, starting an e-commerce business can feel overwhelming. Here are some tips for managing the transition.

1. Start simple

If you’re not certain e-commerce is the right path for you, set up an online store with low overhead first. This may mean starting with the free version of an e-commerce website builder, ordering a small amount of inventory or selling only one or two types of products. 

Starting small can limit how much startup funding you need and make it easier to pivot if your first idea doesn’t land. As your business starts to get traction, you can trade up to a more robust e-commerce platform and expand your product line.

2. Cultivate a loyal customer base

Your e-commerce business needs customers who appreciate your products enough to buy them more than once and, ideally, customers who will promote them to their networks.

Establishing a strong brand presence on social media can help you build a following. But the more information you can gather from your customers, the more you can market directly to them, whether that means creating an email marketing campaign, sending discount codes through text message or letting them know where your booth will be at an event in their region.

3. Invest in multichannel selling

Loyal customers may be willing to visit your website frequently. But to reach new ones, you might have to meet them where they are — which might be on Amazon, Instagram, TikTok or elsewhere. Start with the platforms where your customers are most likely to be, launch those integrations and then see how they perform. You can add platforms later if they fit into your business strategy. 

Keep in mind that selling in person is a channel, too. Craft fairs, local shops and industry or trade events may help you connect with new customers while generating some revenue.

A version of this article originally appeared on JustBusiness, a subsidiary of NerdWallet.

On a similar note...

May 24, 2022 | 9 min read

How to Write an E-Commerce Business Plan (Step-by-Step)

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Dream of being your own boss? So do lots of other people, including 64 percent of the UK workforce and 65 percent of Americans . And I’m sure you’d see similar figures across a bunch of other countries.

I get it—after all, I did it myself.

But sadly, not every business is destined to become the next Amazon, Google, or Sleeknote.

Much-quoted data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics show that about one in five new businesses survive for 12 months or less , while only half make it to the five-year mark:

Survival Rates of New Businesses

So what separates the successes from the also-rans and the never-weres?

While some people will tell you the secret to “making it” lies in adopting a rise-and-grind mentality , truth is there is any number of reasons why some businesses thrive and others fail. 

But I can categorically tell you there’s one thing every successful startup has in common, and that’s a killer e-commerce business plan.

Basics of Writing an E-Commerce Business Plan

What is an e-commerce business plan, why do i need an e-commerce business plan, how to write an e-commerce business plan.

E-commerce business plans are roadmaps that plot the route to achieving your business goals. They set out who you are, what products you sell, and how you plan to operate (among many other things).

Just like a real roadmap, e-commerce business plans also highlight potential hazards, helping you plot alternate routes well in advance.

No one expects you to stick precisely to your original plan throughout the entire lifespan of your business. But by gathering business-critical information like cash flow, sales projections, and marketing budgets in a single place, your business plan can help you build a persuasive pitch to win backing from investors, which can be absolutely vital at the start of your journey.

And even if you’re not looking for external funding, figuring out your strengths, weaknesses, and objectives early on will save you a lot of pain down the line.

I know what you’re thinking: “I’ve got a to-do list as long as my arm; why should I spend days or weeks writing a business plan? Why can’t I just get on with it?”

You’re not completely wrong. Honestly, if you think buying a house or having a baby is stressful, try starting a business.

One study claims the biggest challenge founders face in the first three months is building a customer base, but there are countless others.

Challenges of Business Founders Statistics

From dealing with suppliers to building a website and chasing invoices, it’s one headache after another, and you never feel like you have enough time to give each problem your full focus.

But you really can’t afford to overlook your e-commerce business plan. Here are five benefits to creating one.

1. Understanding the Competitive Landscape

You might like to think of yourself as a visionary, but I can pretty much guarantee that someone, somewhere has had a similar business idea to yours.

They might have been doing it for years, or they might be gearing up to hit the market at the same time as you.

Either way, you need to know about them, and the research you carry out while building a business plan will naturally help you do that. Which means you’ll be better placed to differentiate yourself through marketing.

2. Getting to Know Your Audience

Another key element of creating a business plan is assessing the market you’re trying to reach. That means digging into who you’re selling to, where they hang out online and “in real life”, and what they’re looking for in a product like yours.

Why would they buy it? When would they buy it? How much would they spend on it?

All of that will help inform your messaging .

3. Locating Potential Investors

Unless you have a metaphorical (or literal) gold mine to fall back on, money is definitely going to cause you a few headaches in the early days of your business.

Even successful e-commerce companies struggled to keep the lights on when they were just starting up.

Building a business plan will help you identify potential sources of financial backing, like angel investors, business loans, venture capitalists, or wealthy business partners.

4. Finding Your Niche

There’s a reason Amazon started out as an online bookstore, rather than immediately selling every product you could ever imagine.

As an e-commerce startup, you need a niche . Ideally, you need to go further and find a niche within a niche. Rather than founding a womenswear e-commerce site, launch one that’s 100 percent sustainable and carbon-neutral. Or instead of selling regular sunglasses, sell sunglasses made from hemp (I don’t know, I’m just spitballing here).

My point is, all the other research you’ve done at this stage—studying your competitors, understanding your audience, figuring out your pricing strategy—will naturally guide you toward the best niche with the biggest opportunities.

5. Sourcing Fresh Talent

Admittedly, recruitment might not be on your immediate agenda.

But if things go well, you’re going to need a little help in the not-too-distant future. You might need people in the warehouse, a customer success agent or two, a marketing team, a developer, someone to handle the finances… The list is huge.

Problem is, a lot of other businesses want to get their hands on those people, too.

If you don’t want recruitment to constrain your growth, start reaching out to potential candidates early, using the information in your business plan to get them bought into your project.

Hopefully, by this point, I’ve demonstrated the value of creating an e-commerce business plan. Now, let’s dive into how to do it.

There are no hard-and-fast rules to how long a business plan should be. The more complex the business, the more in-depth the plan. But as a minimum, your business plan should include these seven sections:

  • Executive summary
  • Company overview
  • Market analysis
  • Products and services
  • Marketing plan
  • Logistics and operations plan
  • Financial plan

You might want to add a few more too. For instance, if you’re entering a largely untapped niche, you might want a section dedicated to the audience you’ll be targeting.

But for most e-commerce businesses, those seven categories should do the job.

Section 1: Executive Summary

Think of this as the “elevator pitch” element of your business plan.

Your goal here is to sum up the rest of your business plan in no more than one page, communicating key information to time-poor reviewers, and (hopefully) tempting them to read on.

Generally, you should look to answer the following questions:

  • What does your business do?
  • What do you want to achieve?
  • What do you sell?
  • Who will you sell it to?
  • What sets you apart from the competition?
  • How will you raise awareness among your target audience?
  • What is your current monthly/annual revenue?
  • What is your projected revenue for next year and the following years?
  • Who’s currently on your team?
  • What are their backgrounds and skills?
  • How much money are you asking for (if you’re looking for financial backing)?

Section 2: Company Overview

Again, heed the word “overview”. Like the executive summary, this is a concise section that demonstrates who you are, what you do, and why people should care.

Whether you’re seeking investment or planning your e-commerce marketing strategy , it’s vital you get all this information down in one place. Make sure to include your:

  • Company name
  • Business structure (e.g. sole proprietor, partnership, LLC)
  • Vision, mission statement, and value proposition
  • Product or service
  • Business model (e.g. direct to consumer, dropshipping, wholesale)
  • Team members, including their roles, backgrounds, and salaries
  • Short and long-term business objectives

Section 3: Market Analysis

A bad product in a good market stands a chance of success.

If you don’t believe me, check out your own purchase history—if you’re anything like me, you’ll have bought your fair share of useless products that sounded amazing when you saw them online.

But a good product in a bad market doesn’t have a cat in hell’s chance. You might be completely changing the game; solving a problem that’s never been solved before. But if no one’s prepared to spend money on it, you’ve not got a business—you’ve got a hobby.

The market analysis stage of your e-commerce business plan should help you find the right market: one with lots of customers who have an immediate need for the “thing” you’re selling (and enough money to buy it). Your market analysis should incorporate the following elements:

The Size of Your Market

It’s impossible to come up with a meaningful financial projection without first estimating the number of people who are potentially interested in buying your product.

Of course, to do that, you first need to figure out who your customers are.

The more demographic and psychographic information you have on them, the more accurately you’ll be able to gauge the scale of your market.

At the same time, remember to factor in broader industry trends. If you’re starting an e-commerce store that exclusively sells gas cans, you might have some early growth potential, but bear in mind there’s a good chance we’ll all be driving electric cars within a decade—in which case your whole market will have dried up.

Your Competitors

No e-commerce brand is an island.

To stand out against the competition, you need to find some way to differentiate yourself. That could be through:

  • Segmentation: Focusing on a very specific (and, ideally, underserved) niche within a larger market.
  • Pricing strategy: Do you plan to undercut your rivals? Or create demand through exclusivity by pricing yourself higher?
  • Distinctiveness: Ideally, there’ll be something unique that distinguishes you from the current market leaders.

SWOT Analysis

SWOT analyses are about assessing your business’s:

  • Strengths: The things you do best.
  • Weaknesses: The things you’re not so good at.
  • Opportunities: Gaps and advantages in your market.
  • Threats: External challenges you need to tackle.

Typically, a SWOT analysis is presented as a simple, four-section grid, with bullet points under each heading. Here’s a beautifully presented example from the creative geniuses at Asana :

SWOT Analysis Example from Asana

Section 4: Products & Services

In a sense, your whole e-commerce business plan will be centered on your products and services.

However, given their importance to your business prospects, a section of your plan should be dedicated solely to outlining what you’re selling.

If you only sell one product or plan to launch with a very small range, give plenty of detail on each. But if you stock a wide selection of products, stick to general features and benefits such as price, unique selling points, and materials.

Additionally, be sure to reference any new products you’re planning to launch in the near future, along with any intellectual property you own.

Section 5: Marketing Plan

We know who you are and what you’re selling.

Now’s your chance to explain how you’re going to sell it.

As a marketer, I’m well aware that a marketing plan could easily run to thousands of words, and it can be hard to know where to start—you’ve likely got a lot of ideas about positioning and messaging. To make your life a little easier, use the so-called “four Ps of marketing” as the backbone of your marketing plan:

  • Product: How does it meet the needs of your customers? What are its unique selling points?
  • Price: How much does it cost? What is its value?
  • Place: Where are you selling it?
  • Promotion: Which channels will you use to reach your target audience? What messaging will you use?

Discuss the first three relatively briefly, as you’ll cover them in greater depth in other parts of your e-commerce business plan.

Reserve the most detail for that final “P”: promotion. That’s the real meat and drink of your marketing strategy.

Section 6: Logistics & Operations Plan

This might not be the “sexiest” part of your e-commerce business plan, but it’s important to discuss the systems and processes that will help you reach your goals. Specifically, you’ll want to cover:

  • Suppliers: Who are they and where are they based? What are their payment terms?
  • Production: Are you manufacturing your own products, using a third party, or going down the dropshipping route? Can you efficiently scale up or down to cope with changing demand?
  • Shipping and fulfillment: Are you handling fulfillment in-house or using a third party? Will you ship internationally? How long will it take for products to reach customers?
  • Inventory: How much will you keep, and where will you store it? How will you manage and track it?

Section 7: Financial Plan

Whether you’re seeking backing from an external investor or simply trying to understand your projected revenue and costs, a financial plan is a crucial element of your e-commerce business plan. Most are broken down into three elements.

Income Statement

Designed to demonstrate your revenue sources and expenses over a month, quarter, or year, the income statement also highlights your all-important bottom line. Subtract expenses from revenue and you’ll see whether you’re in profit or loss.

Of course, if you’re yet to launch your e-commerce business, these figures can be projected.

Balance Sheet

The balance sheet is used to calculate the level of equity in your business—that is, the amount you’d be left with if all debts were paid and assets cashed. To work it out, subtract liabilities (things like loan repayments, wages, and accounts payable) from assets (such as stock and equipment).

Cash Flow Statement

Lastly, your cash flow statement is like a real-time version of your income statement. That’s because it takes into account when cash goes in and out of your business, based on when payments are received and debts settled.

Calculating and projecting cash flow should help you identify periods when you’re likely to be in surplus or short on money, which gives you time to prepare.

Sure, an e-commerce business plan requires a whole lot of work.

But as Abraham Lincoln supposedly said: “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”

All that time spent analyzing your audience, honing your messaging , and crunching the financial numbers will give you a better chance of making it through those tough early days and scaling effectively when the time is right.

And honestly, no one ever said starting a business is easy.

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Emil Kristensen

Emil is the CMO of Drip. When he’s not busy writing awesome content and building the Drip brand, he spends his time reading blog posts and listening to podcasts.

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Home » Building Online Stores » Ecommerce Business Plan Template: How to Make a Business Plan

Ecommerce Business Plan Template: How to Make a Business Plan

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As the Benjamin Franklin quote goes, “by failing to plan, you’re planning to fail” – and it’s a sentiment that’s just as relevant today just as it was in the 1700s.

Particularly if you’re an ecommerce business.

After all, one research project (a collaboration between Forbes, Huffington Post, and Marketing Signals) suggests that a whopping 90% of ecommerce businesses fail in the first 120 days of their existence. So how can yours avoid being part of that short-lived majority?

With an ecommerce business plan, that’s how.

So read on – we’re walking you through what ecommerce business plans are, and why you need one. You’ll find a complete ecommerce business plan template below, too – so you can start planning for your own online enterprise’s future, today.

What is an Ecommerce Business Plan?

An ecommerce business plan is a document that outlines your online business’s objectives and strategy. That’s a summary of both your goals and how you plan to achieve them.

A good ecommerce business plan should identify all the potential challenges your online enterprise will face as you chase profitability, scalability, or simply sustainability. They’ll lay out the groundwork, too: including an analysis of the market you’re planning to enter, and the customers you’re intending to target.

And, of course, an ecommerce business plan should get specific. How will you source your products? Which tactics will you use to market them? How will you fund your fledgling business, and maintain cash flow when times get tough?

Though they’re also useful for keeping you on track with your goals, ecommerce business plans are vital for attracting and securing outside investment, too – so it’s important you get yours right.

Food products are an excellent option for selling online, and you find a list of examples here . But remember, you need to factor regulations and food safety requirements into your business plan.

Why Create an Ecommerce Business Plan?

There are plenty of benefits to creating a comprehensive business plan for your online store:

  • Gaining a deeper understanding of your business – your blockers, biggest assets, and most lucrative opportunities.
  • Understanding the state of the market, and where you want to position your ecommerce store within it.
  • Planning for what’s ahead – getting to grips with industry trends, and how they might affect your burgeoning business.
  • Testing how viable your ecommerce store’s idea and concept is, and any weak points inherent in the premise.
  • Assessing the outlay required – be it time, effort, or money, this is useful for understanding the scope of the work that lies ahead.
  • Obtaining funding – business plans are, after all, super useful for selling the idea of your online store to potential investors.
  • Clarifying your strategies for marketing, logistics, and finance, as well as exactly who your target audience is. Making your business idea a little more tangible – it’s starting to feel real now!

Ecommerce Business Plan Template

Ready to start penning your plan?

Read on – the ecommerce business plan template below offers a handy framework to get you started.

Executive Summary

Like a blurb on the back of a book or an abstract at the start of an academic article, an executive summary is designed to give time-poor readers a concise, compelling overview of your ecommerce business plan’s contents.

While your executive summary should take pride of place at the top of your business plan, you shouldn’t write it until the end. That’s because you’ll figure out more about your ecommerce store’s plans, ambitions, audience, and strategies as you flesh out your plan – and you’ll want these to be reflected in that punchy, persuasive first statement.

So what should an executive summary include for an ecommerce business, exactly?

Here’s a quick (non-executive) summary:

  • What your business does
  • What goals you want to achieve
  • What product or service you’re selling
  • Where you’re selling
  • Who you’re targeting
  • Who your competitors are
  • How you plan to make money
  • How you’ll implement the business plan that follows

Remember, an executive summary needs to be crisp, clear, and to the point. Don’t waffle on with overlong or unnecessary analysis – you’ll lose your reader’s interest!

Company Overview

With your reader now hooked, it’s time to explain exactly who you are, what you do, and why you do it.

A company overview should include:

  • Details of your products/services – what are you planning to sell?
  • Your company’s key details – your name, tagline, logo, and any top-level branding information.
  • Your key individuals – your founder(s), CEO, and COOs.
  • Its legal structure: have you set up as a partnership, or a Limited Liability Company (LLC)?
  • Your vision, mission , and values. Beyond making money, what does your ecommerce store stand for? What do you believe in – and what higher purpose gets your staff up and out of bed in the morning?

Market Analysis

Next up in your ecommerce business plan, you’ll need to provide a detailed analysis of the market you’re entering into. This is crucial – after all, if there aren’t any existing market gaps for your business to service, it’ll struggle to make an impact.

Your market analysis should include an exploration of:

  • Market size
  • Current competitors
  • Any gaps, opportunities, and threats

To do all this, a SWOT analysis is a pretty good place to start. It stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. It’s a form of situational analysis that can help you understand the nature of your business vis a vis the competition.

Customer Research

Who are you planning to sell to? It’s a key question you’ll need to know – and that any potential investors will demand to know – before your ecommerce business gets off the ground.

So, your ecommerce business plan needs to get specific about that sweet slice of the pie you’re targeting. That includes a deep dive into the demographics – specifically, your prospective customers’:

To gain this info, you can conduct market research into the portion of the market most interested in – or most likely to buy – your products or services. That could involve running focus groups, or sending out incentivized surveys.

Advice from the Experts

Top tip: for an even more granular way of conceptualizing your potential customers, create buyer personas . these are fictional depictions or real consumers, with pain points, goals, likes, dislikes, and demographic info all fleshed out..

By tailoring all your messaging to one or more of these personas, you can increase the effectiveness of your comms.

Marketing Plan

Next up? Details about how you plan to spread the word of your business.

This will include which communication channels you intend to prioritize, which marketing strategies you’ll implement, and which milestones and metrics you’ll use to measure it all.

Your marketing plan should make clear:

  • Your marketing goals
  • KPIs: such as engagement rates, traffic, conversion rate
  • Key channels: email, SEO content, paid SEM marketing
  • Your key marketing tactics: will you focus on social media, or plow your resources into influencer marketing? Perhaps a blend of both?

Need some digital marketing tips to add clarity and clout to your marketing plan? Our comprehensive guide has you covered.

Logistics Plan

You know how you’re going to entice your customers to buy from you – but how will you actually get your products to their doorstep once they do?

This is what your ecommerce business plan’s logistics section aims to explain. It’ll include:

  • Where you’ll source your products
  • How (and where) you’ll store those products
  • How you’ll deal with orders
  • How you’ll fulfill orders – in-house, or via a 3PL (third-party logistics) supplier?
  • How you’ll handle deliveries, and which shipping provider you’ll partner with
  • How you’ll deal with returns

3PL suppliers like ShipBob store, sort, pick, pack, and ship your goods – so they can be a fantastic option if you’re a growing business, and outsourcing the fulfillment process makes sense.

ShipBob screenshot

Financial Plan

As it so often does in the world of commerce, your business plan all boils down to this –  the money .

Your financial plan describes how you’ll first fund your business, then keep it afloat. Here, you’ll set out your fiscal stall with a series of projections around cash flow and income. The goal? To convince investors (and, on some level, yourself!) that your business has legs.

Your ecommerce business plan’s financial chapter should include:

  • How you’ll fund your store’s start-up costs
  • How you’ll price your products
  • How much profit you’ll make on each product sold
  • Financial projections
  • Income statement
  • Balance sheet

Do I Need a Business Plan?

Yes. Yes, you do.

It can be easy, as a business that only exists online, to get complacent – to assume that you don’t need a business plan.

‘Business plans are a traditional document,’ you think. ‘They don’t have a place in the world of modern ecommerce businesses.’

Well, guess what? They do – regardless of what you call, or how you classify, your business. But there are certain types of ventures where a comprehensive business plan will be especially useful. Among these are:

  • New ecommerce stores
  • Businesses seeking investment
  • Businesses looking to expand into new markets
  • Ventures attempting to increase their share of an existing market

Even if your ecommerce store falls into none of these categories, a business plan is always a good idea. It’ll clarify and crystallize your professional goals, hold you accountable to your ambitions, and keep you on track to making your dreams a reality.

In this article, you’ve learned exactly what a business plan is, and why it’s vital for commercial success – particularly for brands of the ecommerce persuasion.

You’re also well-versed in the structure and contents of an ecommerce business plan:

  • Executive summary
  • Company overview
  • Market analysis
  • Customer research
  • Marketing plan
  • Logistics plan
  • Financial plan

What now? Well, it’s time to get researching and writing. So remember – keep it simple, keep it tight, and make sure it reflects the heart and soul of your business (and all that passion you feel for it, too!).

Putting together a business plan is exciting. It’s that tangible, real expression of your goals and vision for your ecommerce store – so it shouldn’t be a chore. Go enjoy it!

How can I write an ecommerce business plan?

Can i hire someone to write my ecommerce business plan for me.

Hiring someone to pen your ecommerce business plan for you will cost anywhere between $5,000 and $25,000. You can recruit them from most of the platforms where creatives dwell: such as Airtasker, Fiverr, and Freelancer.com.

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Ecommerce Business Plan

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So apparently everyone is jumping in to start an ecommerce business. Considering you already have your star product or service ready, you must be very thrilled to launch your business and make your first sale.

However, wait. Is your business plan ready? If you haven’t marked writing a business plan as the most important task on your checklist, you need to do that right away.

We know writing an ecommerce business plan is challenging. As a business owner of this new challenging enterprise, you don’t have much time. But this detailed guide with step-by-step procedures is likely to make the entire process of writing easier for you.

Don’t waste a minute further. Let’s dive right into the topic.

Key Takeaways

  • Elements like executive summary, product or service, operations, marketing and sales plan, management team, and financial plan come together to make a compelling business plan.
  • Determine marketing strategies for your ecommerce business and lay a clear action plan for building a solid brand image.
  • Clearly establish your value propositions, business goals, and objectives to form relevant strategies for your ecommerce company.
  • Make financial projections and consider various progressive and aggressive scenarios to establish the feasibility of your business idea.
  • Identify the gaps and loopholes in your planning and make changes to your business idea accordingly.

Why do you need an Ecommerce business plan?

A business plan has many more advantages apart from helping you get approved for a business loan. Here are a few potential benefits of having one for your ecommerce company:

  • Goals fulfillment: You will have to juggle multiple roles while running your ecommerce store. A well-crafted business plan will offer a roadmap to your business while helping you realize your business goals.
  • Business strategies: A  business plan simplifies your business strategy and helps put the strategies for sales, marketing, and operations in perspective.
  • Market analysis: A business plan strengthens your stand in the market by compelling you to conduct a detailed market analysis of the industry, competitors, and potential customers.
  • Test ideas: An ecommerce plan will help you realize the gaps and errors in your planning. This allows you the luxury to make changes in the business model before investing your money in it.
  • Simplifies the finance: A well-structured business plan lays a clear financial plan for your ecommerce business. The figures will help you understand the profitability, costs, and expenses of the company and its viability in monetary terms.

There’s much more to it. A business plan is like a beam of bright light that will make walking through the woods easier. It’s a living document that will evolve as the business grows.

Key components of an ecommerce business plan

Wondering what goes into making a perfect ecommerce business plan? Well, these are the key components you shouldn’t be missing.

  • Executive summary: The executive summary will highlight the key details of your entire business plan.
  • Business overview: This section will include a brief business overview along with its value proposition, objectives, mission, and vision statement.
  • Market analysis: This section will define your potential customers and competition. A detailed industry analysis and competitors analysis will lay a foundation for important business strategies.
  • Products and services: Define the products and services you will sell to your ideal customer. Also, offer a brief description of each product.
  • Sales and marketing strategy: Highlight your sales and marketing plan to attract your potential customers. From content marketing to social media- include every detail of your strategies here.
  • Operations plan: A well-defined plan that will help you run a smooth online business. Clearly defined process for inventory, order fulfillment, sales, storage, etc.
  • Management team: A brief introduction of your company’s management team and their expertise in the field.
  • Financial plan: Includes detailed financial forecasts and key reports like balance sheet, cash flow, P&L, and investment plan.

There is no definite format for business plans. However, a comprehensive plan accounts for all these components and makes it effective.

How to Write an Ecommerce Business Plan: A Complete Guide

From undertaking thorough market research to creating a marketing plan- uncover every detail on writing an effective plan for your online business with this guide.

1. Get an Ecommerce business plan template

Crafting a stellar business plan is a challenge. However, it can be the most precious reward for your business if you manage to write it comprehensively.

The process of translating your business idea into a business plan is lengthy and time-consuming. One is likely to leave behind an important detail or two without any definite format.

This is why you need an Ecommerce business plan template to write your plan in a structurally organized format. A template will help streamline your thoughts, organize the vision, and bring your ideas to life effortlessly.

Let’s not look elsewhere for a perfect template. Upmetrics business plan template is intuitive and is enriched with relevant examples that can be easily used as a reference while writing your plan.

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2. Write an executive summary

Executive summary is a concise rundown of key points that summarizes your business plan. Though presented at first, it should be written in the end after you have walked through all the other aspects of planning.

Consider it as a document that will offer a brief insight into your overall business. Investors will read this part and gauge the viability of your business idea. If they find it fascinating and intriguing enough they will read it further in detail.

Add brief details of your ecommerce business, target market, problem, solution, service model, business goals, and financial figures in this section.

Adapt a narrative tone to make it interesting and keep it highly informative. And, most importantly keep it within a limit of 1-2 pages.

Say goodbye to boring templates

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business plan site e commerce

3. Create a company overview section

As the title suggests, this section offers a brief company description of your ecommerce business. You must also include brief details about the company’s history in this section if it’s not a new venture.

So what does this section include?

  • Name and location of the business , i.e. location of your warehouse, back end office.
  • Type of your Ecommerce business , i.e. B2B, B2C, D2C, C2C, etc.
  • Business structure of your e-commerce brand , i.e. sole proprietorship, Partnership, LLC, limited partnership, etc.
  • Business goals : Highlight milestones such as sales or revenue goals.
  • Mission statement : Describe the fundamental purpose of your business explaining why the business exists. For instance, the mission of First Cry is to offer eco-friendly baby care and maternity items to conscious buyers through its website and listings on a third-party platform.
  • Vision statement : It is a declaration of what you want to achieve with your ecommerce business. For instance, First Cry wants to become the preferred brand for baby care products in the markets of North America, Asia, and Europe.

4. Conduct a competitive and market analysis

In this section of competitive and market analysis, you will dive deep into the study of the target market, industry trends, and your competition. Only a thorough understanding of these key elements will help you build a resilient business.

Target market and market opportunities

Begin by determining the Total Addressable Market (TAM) for your products and services. This part of the market analysis will offer a realistic idea of your market size.

Further, strengthen the understanding of your target market by identifying your target audience. Create a buyer persona by considering the psychographic and demographic details of your ideal customer.

Collect data from US census boards, government websites, and industrial publications for solid and foundational market research.

Lastly, identify the market trends and highlight your business strategy to fill the gaps in the existing market.

Competitive analysis

Ecommerce companies operate in a severely competitive marketplace. Understanding your competition will help you safeguard the business against potential threats and risks from your direct and indirect competitors.

Collect the data and analyze your competitors on the grounds of prices, services, quality, product offering, target market, and market size to make conclusive points. Evaluate their strengths and weaknesses using methods like SWOT analysis.

Now, detail the competitive advantage of your products and service offerings. This analysis should reflect that your business idea has a solid advantage over competitors’ offerings.

Focus on quality research. The study of the target market and competition will lay a foundation for crafting efficient business strategies.

5. Detail your products and services

After completing your market analysis, you will create a detailed section for your products and services.

Highlight all the product lines that your online business will offer. Also, mention the products within each product line and the product source.

If you are amongst the ecommerce businesses that sell digital products or services, mention those and explain how the customers will access them.

For instance, an OTT platform offers streaming services to its clients through an application.

Keep this section detailed by adding a brief description of each product and its pricing.

Consider this as a checklist of questions you must answer within this section:

  • What are the products of your online store?
  • Will you manufacture the products or source them from vendors?
  • How will your customers buy the product- Website, application, shopping platforms, etc.
  • What will be the pricing of your product offerings?

ecommerce business plan products and services

6. Develop a sales and marketing plan

By now, the readers are aware of the products and services that your online business will offer. It’s now time to tell them your sales and marketing plan.

Millions of ecommerce businesses start every year. But very few manage to crack their desired sales.

In this section, you will make sales strategies to ensure that your desired sales become achievable.

Try answering the following to form an efficient sales plan:

  • Sales channels: website, application, ecommerce platforms, subscription box platforms, flash sale sites, etc.
  • Sales method: Inbound methods or outbound methods
  • Sales personnel: Who will be responsible for product/service sales
  • Sales tools: CRM

The decisions you make here will influence the marketing strategy of your online store.

Marketing strategy

Now you need a well-rounded marketing plan to market your online store. After all, marketing is crucial to developing a brand, reaching your target customers, and acquiring sales.

In this section of a business plan, you will highlight the marketing plan for your ecommerce business. Identify the marketing channels that will be most effective for your target customers and design your strategies accordingly.

Here are a few prevalent marketing methods that can help you grow your online store:

  • Content marketing: Start writing informative and useful blog posts for your target audience. Focus on principles of SEO and keyword research to grow your reach organically. Also, post guest blogs on websites to increase your chances of reaching a wider audience.
  • Social media marketing: Identify the social media platforms that are used the most by your target audience and dedicate your marketing efforts accordingly.
  • Email Marketing: Email marketing is the most rewarding marketing channel for thousands of ecommerce businesses out there. Explain how you will build your Email list and draw conversions through them.
  • PPC: Design strategies for running paid ads on Google, Facebook, and other platforms and determine your budget for the same.
  • Traditional PR: Traditional methods of publications can also help you market your product effectively. If you will be using such methods, highlight the details regarding the same.
  • Influencer marketing: Will you hire or barter with influencers to promote your product? If so, define your strategy for the same.

All in all, the marketing plan should clearly define a roadmap to reach your target audience. Also, highlight different marketing tools you will use for your online business.

marketing strategy for ecommercre business

7. Introduce your management team

Having the right team will help you build a successful ecommerce business. So take your time and figure out the manpower needs for your business.

In this section of your business plan, you will introduce the key management members at your ecommerce store. Define their role, responsibility, experience, expertise, and achievements to prove their suitability in your organization.

Outline the organizational structure of your online store and explain how these people will be responsible for the smooth functioning of your business.

8. Outline your operational plan

Running an ecommerce store is not an easy task. From managing the backend to offering timely deliveries- a lot goes into ensuring smooth business operations.

A solid business plan cannot be complete without a detailed section of operations in it. So take your time and set your operations in line before you start with the store.

Here are a few things that most ecommerce business plans have in common. Consider adding them to your operations plan as well.

  • Order fulfillment process: Everything from getting an order to delivery, managing returns, shipment, packaging, exchange, and tracking is defined at this step. Explain how the order will be fulfilled at your online store.
  • Manufacturing and quality control: If the products will be manufactured in-house, what will be the manufacturing process? How will you ensure quality? Where will the goods be manufactured? What machinery will you use?
  • Suppliers: Who will be your supplier for products and services? What will be the purchase terms? Will there be an agreement or contract? What would be the contingency plan in case of casualty?
  • Storage: Will you dropship the products or store them in a warehouse? Where will be the storage located? How will you manage stock? What methods will you use?
  • Technology and payment processors: How will the customers pay for online shopping? What payment methods are available for them? What technologies will you use to facilitate payments? How will you secure their personal information?
  • Customer service: How can the customers reach you? What will be your order policies? Will there be any customer service team?

The logistics and operations plan will serve as a policy book for your organization. It will answer every query and doubt regarding the process.

9. Prepare financial projections

Now comes the most taxing part of creating a business plan- preparing a financial plan.

A financial plan is crucial because it will help you determine the feasibility of a business idea. Moreover, if you plan to seek funding for your online business, the projections in this plan will compel potential investor’s interest in your business.

Here are a few things to include in your financial plan:

  • Startup costs: Estimate the startup costs for your ecommerce business . From website development to inventory costs, licensing fees, security, and software charges- include every cost that will go into establishing your online business.
  • Funding source: Determine your funding requirements and what sources will you use to acquire the funds, i.e. business loans, angel investors, friends and family, etc.
  • Pricing strategy: Include your pricing plan for the products and services. Consider various overhead and operational costs to determine the final pricing.
  • Sales projections: Include your monthly, quarterly, and annual sales projections through different sales channels and also estimate your revenue.
  • Income statement: Also known as profit and loss statement, in this key report you will forecast the company’s profit and loss for the next 3-5 years. The difference between a company’s revenue and expenses will give you gross profits and net profits.
  • Cash Flow Statement:   A clear documentation of cash that is generated and spent in a business. This will help potential investors understand whether your business will make or lose money.
  • Balance sheet: A key summary of your business assets and liabilities that indicates your net worth. Calculate your equity in the business by deducting all the liabilities from your assets.
  • Break-even analysis: Break-even will help you evaluate how long before the business will start making money.

Too much of calculations right? Not with the financial forecasting tool from Upmetrics. Simply enter your numbers in the tab and the tool will do all the detailed calculations for you. Import the data from Excel sheets and before you know your projections will be done.

financial highlights for ecommerce business plan

Ecommerce Industry Highlights 2023

Ecommerce is a trillion-dollar industry. It’s indeed a rewarding market for anyone who wants to start an ecommerce business. But before that, you must check out these latest industry highlights of 2023.

  • Global market size: The global Ecommerce market size is expected to reach 6.3 trillion dollars in 2023. There is ample room for new businesses to venture into this market.
  • Online marketplace : According to Forbes , 24% of total retail purchases will be made online by 2026.
  • Market leader: Amazon accounts for 37.8% of Ecommerce sales , which is far more than other ecommerce businesses.
  • Cart abandonment: 48% of online shoppers abandon their carts because of extra costs on shipping and taxes. You are likely to lose your potential customers if you fail to consider these aspects.
  • Frequency to shop: 79% of online shoppers will shop for something or the other at least once a month. Considering the customer segments, nearly 96% of Gen Z shop at least once a month online.
  • Social media commerce: If you think websites and platforms are the only way to reach your potential customers, you are wrong. 96.9 million people in the USA are reported to shop on social media.

The US online marketplace is expected to reach 940.9 billion by 2023 end. There is enough scope for new businesses to emerge and grow in this competitive market space.

Related Ecommerce Resources

  • Creating a Successful E-commerce Marketing Plan
  • E-commerce Industry Statistics
  • Calculating Your Online Store Startup Budget
  • How To Open n E-commerce Business

Download a sample ecommerce business plan

Looking for help to write your business plan? Well, we have something absolutely perfect for you. Download our ecommerce business plan sample pdf and get a detailed guide to write a plan along with relevant examples.

Upmetrics business plan templates are designed specifically for entrepreneurs and business owners who want to write their own business plans. Our templates are modern, intuitive, and easily available to kickstart your plan writing.

The Quickest Way to turn a Business Idea into a Business Plan

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All set to start your own ecommerce business? Let’s simplify the entire business planning process for you with Upmetrics. We have more than 400+ customizable sample business plans suited for varying different businesses. With features like AI assistance and financial forecasting, you can bring together an actionable business plan in easy steps.

So whether you are aiming to start a business-to-business or business-to-customer or any other type of ecommerce business, you are well equipped to write the most stellar plan with our business planning app .

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Frequently asked questions, can i get expert help to draft my ecommerce business plan.

Of course, you can. Writing a business plan is not an easy task. You may lose context or can leave behind an important detail while writing. A plan writer can translate your business idea into a plan efficiently with his compelling skills. If not, you can take the help of online tools and search for relevant templates to write your own business plan.

Can I customize my ecommerce business plan as per my business needs?

Absolutely yes. No two ecommerce businesses are the same. The very purpose of a business plan is to address the unique concerns, ideas, and questions relating to your ecommerce business. From executive summary to a financial plan, customize every aspect of your plan with Upmetrics business plan builder.

What are the common mistakes to avoid while crafting an ecommerce business plan?

Here are a few mistakes to avoid while drafting a business plan for your new business:

  • Lack of market research
  • Inadequate financial planning
  • Overlooking the competition
  • Not having a clear value proposition
  • Undermining the technology needs
  • Not considering casualties and emergencies
  • Using complex language

Can I create an e-commerce business plan on my own, or should I hire a professional?

Ideally, you should be the one drafting your business plan. This is because no one knows your business better than you yourself and your business partners. So instead of hiring a professional, take the assistance of plan builders and step-by-step guides and create a compelling plan. Upmetrics AI assistant will simplify the writing process by helping you put together a cohesive write-up.

What are some emerging payment technologies to consider in your e-commerce business plan?

If you are planning to start a competitive ecommerce brand, you need to offer a bunch of payment solutions preferred by your target audience. Here are a few payment technologies you must definitely have in your business:

  • QR code payments
  • Mobile wallet
  • Contactless payment
  • Real-time payments
  • Buy now pay later solutions

About the Author

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Upmetrics Team

Upmetrics is the #1 business planning software that helps entrepreneurs and business owners create investment-ready business plans using AI. We regularly share business planning insights on our blog. Check out the Upmetrics blog for such interesting reads. Read more

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How To Make an E-commerce Business Plan

Disclosure: Our content is reader-supported, which means we earn commissions from links on Digital. Commissions do not affect our editorial evaluations or opinions.

Every e-commerce business needs a plan. As the old saying goes, “failing to plan is planning to fail.” The rise in easy-to-use and affordable  e-commerce platforms  has facilitated a huge increase in the number of successful online businesses. But that’s not all your business needs to thrive.

A profitable and long-lasting online store requires forward planning, and an e-commerce business plan is essential in helping you lay the foundations for your business’s future growth and success. In this article, we’ll go through:

  • What an e-commerce business plan looks like
  • Who needs one
  • Why you need one
  • Everything you need to include in your own plan

What Is an E-commerce Business Plan?

Man leaned back looking up at various graphics.

An e-commerce business plan is a written document that details and outlines your business, your business goals, and how to achieve them. It also describes how you plan to maintain and scale your business, financial plans, customer base, and many other details that help you manage the direction of your e-commerce business.

Why Is an E-commerce Business Plan Important?

Far from just another task on your to-do list, an e-commerce business plan plays a crucial strategic role in the success of your venture. Below are just a few ways an e-commerce business plan helps you achieve your business goals, highlights your pain points, and helps you to plan for the future.

Helps You Develop Your Value Proposition and USP

A common problem for e-commerce business owners is how to differentiate their stores from the hordes of others that exist. However, even if you don’t have an e-commerce niche, it’s still possible to distinguish your store from the rest by developing a solid value proposition and unique selling proposition (USP).

When you start to put pen to paper about what makes your business unique, you’ll begin thinking about factors you haven’t thought of before. Much like a mind map, you’ll start small, and expand on your original ideas and goals. You’ll be surprised how much an e-commerce business plan can help you evaluate, clarify, and refine your value proposition and USP and, in turn, understand the scope of your business.

Helps You Establish Business Goals

Making a profit is a priority when it comes to business goals, but an e-commerce business plan helps you outline exactly how you’ll achieve that. Getting a plan down on paper helps you create realistic goals, separate your short-term goals from the long-term ones, and specify exactly what you can do to achieve them.

Helps You Avoid Making Mistakes

E-commerce business plans not only help you realize what you need to do to achieve your goals but also what you should avoid doing. Your business plan will help you identify common mistakes that you may be at risk of making before it’s too late. For example, targeting the wrong customer base, choosing the wrong e-commerce tools, or not doing enough research into  dropshipping  options.

Helps You Identify Opportunities

Usually, when you embark on your e-commerce venture, your product is front and center of your mind. However, an e-commerce business plan helps you identify opportunities to promote your product, expand and differentiate your business, and build any relevant partnerships.

Helps You Evaluate Your Competitors

Once you get stuck into your e-commerce business plan, you also get immersed in what your competitors are doing well, what they’re not doing well, and any opportunities you have to plug gaps you may not have explored.

Who Needs an E-commerce Business Plan?

Illustration of a person pushing a shopping cart across a laptop.

No matter where you are in your e-commerce journey ― whether you’re just started out, are looking for investors, or have been running your online store for a while ― everyone needs an e-commerce business plan. Every stage of your online business needs a plan to be successful.

At the beginning of your e-commerce venture, an e-commerce business plan helps you put your goals into action and estimate how much time and money you’ll need to make these goals a reality.

When you want to attract investors, an e-commerce business plan helps you outline why your business is worth their investment. When you want to grow your business, you need a plan to help you work out how exactly to take your business to the next level.

What To Include in Your E-commerce Business Plan

Your e-commerce business plan is the cornerstone of your business. It lays out clearly the how, why, what, when, and where of all of your business goals, which can sound quite complex.

This level of information can feel overwhelming. To make writing your e-commerce business plan simpler, we’ve broken down the main sections you’ll need to address into digestible sections.

Business plan outline example.

Executive Summary

Like the synopsis of a book, an executive summary gives anyone who reads your business plan a high-level understanding of what your business does, what your goals are, and how you’re going to achieve them.

Even if you’re creating a business plan for your eyes only, an executive summary helps you reaffirm your business concept and ideas. An executive summary should be a one-page document that outlines:

  • The business concept
  • Your products and services
  • Vision and goals
  • Current and future financial state
  • Your expected growth trajectory
  • Your marketing strategy

Your Product and Services Plan

In this section, you’ll highlight exactly what products and/or services you will sell. This is your chance to think about how your products serve customers, what makes them unique, and why they’re worth a certain price point.

You’ll also expand upon how your products are sourced, manufactured, and stored, how much they cost to produce, and what the life cycle of your product or service is. If you sell multiple products or services, highlight the key, high-level features of each.

Ecommerce graphic with various symbols including a credit card, shopping cart, coins, purse, and a globe.

Market Analysis

Any successful e-commerce venture starts with knowing your specific market inside and out, which requires an in-depth market analysis. This section will outline:

  • Industry trends and growth:  Think about where there are opportunities in the industry, where the market is saturated, and how you can exploit any gaps in the market.
  • Competitor analysis:  Who are your main competitors and how can you compete with them realistically? What will you do differently? What will you do better?
  • Buyer personas:  Who will buy your product or services and why? What key demographics will you serve and how will you make your product or service attractive to them?

Customer Profile

Building on your buyer personas, this section helps you delve into the personality, habits, and lifestyle of your target customers. This benefits you when creating your marketing plan since you’ll know who to target and how. Include information like:

  • Where they live
  • Their age bracket
  • Their job title
  • Their income level
  • Their lifestyle choices
  • Their shopping patterns

Marketing Plan

Customer profiles are the bedrock of every marketing plan. They’ll inform how, where, why, to who, and when to market your products or services.

Your marketing plan section should be as detailed as possible since it will form the basis of how you’ll get the eyes of potential customers on your product. At the very least, your marketing plan should include:

  • Information on pricing points:  How much does your product or service cost? Why does it cost this much?
  • The product or service:  Again, how does your product or service stand out from the crowd, and how can you showcase its originality?
  • Where you’ll market your product or service:  Which sales and marketing channels do you use to promote your products? Why are these channels a priority?
  • Financial information:  How much will you spend on your marketing efforts?

Financial Plan and Projections

Of course, the success of your e-commerce store hinges on how well you manage and plan your finances. Most financial plans include:

  • An income statement
  • A balance sheet
  • A cash-flow statement

If you haven’t yet launched your store, it’s best to focus on your financial projections for the first six months of your business. Your projections will take into account your proposed customer base, marketing plans, expected expenses, and potential profit.

Prioritize Your E-commerce Business Plan and Set Your Store Up for Success

Every successful business venture starts with a solid foundation and creating an e-commerce business plan gives you the chance to:

  • Identify opportunities
  • Assess any potential risks
  • Gauge how viable your e-commerce business is
  • Overcome future hurdles
  • Learn about the aspects of the business you’re unfamiliar with

An e-commerce business plan isn’t just another pile of paperwork, but a vital step in securing the success of your business.

What Should You Do Next?

A thorough and well-researched business plan is paramount to bringing your e-commerce business from the planning phase to the launch phase. Choose the  best e-commerce platform  that allows you to manage your e-commerce website, products, sales, marketing, and inventory, all in a single location.  

Evaluate your KPIs  (key performance indicators) as often as possible. It assesses your e-commerce business’ growth if it’s still on track in reaching the goals you set out in your business plan. The best KPIs provide meaningful and actionable insights to grow your e-commerce business. Use the insights to optimize your customer experience across the buyer’s journey. 

A good e-commerce business plan is driven by research and data. To keep it smart and realistic, update your forecast by identifying what works and what doesn’t. Seek opportunities to sustain the financial growth of your e-commerce business, and your growth as an e-entrepreneur. Good habits help you grow faster, keep on learning, and expand your knowledge on how to thrive as an e-entrepreneur.

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6-Part Ecommerce Business Plan (Template Included)

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Shayla Mars

Last Updated Apr 23, 2019

Your ecommerce business plan is a living document. As your company develops, so will your document.

However, there are six basic sections your business plan should include:

1 Problem And Solution 2 Market Research 3 Business Model 4 Business Costs vs. Potential Revenue 5 Proof Of Concept And Beta Testing 6 Market Your Product

Problem And Solution

While there are simple ecommerce businesses that rely on gimmicks, like Ship Your Enemies Glitter (which sold for $85,000 in 2015), the real opportunity for revenue is in solving other people’s problems or your own.

Lindsay McCormick, founder of BITE Toothpaste Bits, wanted to solve a problem that directly affected her. As a traveling TV Producer for HGTV, she used too much travel-size toothpaste for her liking and was tired of the tubes exploding in her luggage. She did her research and found that one billion toothpaste tubes ended up in landfills. When she was unable to find a viable alternative, she decided to start BITE , and create her own toothpaste.

Screenshot of a webpage about a product about toothpaste bites

Here’s how you can start brainstorming your own product idea:

#1 Create a list of products or services that could potentially solve a problem. Speak with others about your ideas.

What’s something that’s bothering you or something you believe could make life easier? Hold a solo brainstorming session where you write out your ideas. If you already have an idea (or several!) skip to #2.

Don’t worry right now if you have the skills to bring your idea to life. Lindsay wasn’t a chemist, but that didn’t stop her from following through on her idea.

#2 Once you have a list, get together with your friends (or even start a Facebook thread) to discuss your ideas.

Ask them the following questions:

Is this something that can improve your life?

Does something like this already exist?

If yes, what do you think is lacking?

If no, why do you think that is?

This line of questioning will help you figure out what hurdles may come up in bringing your idea to fruition (and if your idea meets the initial criteria stated of being needed and useful). Take notes and listen with an open mind. After speaking with your friends, select the idea you feel most passionate about.

Passion will help keep you motivated to succeed when the hurdles pop up. Just like Lindsay, there’s nothing you can’t learn.

Use This Ecommerce Business Plan Template To Define Your Problem And Solution

Market Research

#1 understand your tam, sam, and som.

You don’t want to build a company that doesn’t have a market, or the market size is too small to generate any meaningful revenue. Knowing your market size is key to understanding other aspects of your business, such as costs (how much you would have to spend to reach your market, how much you would have to produce to penetrate the market, etc.). Correctly estimating your market size and how much market share you can corner is a key element in any ecommerce business plan.

There are three important elements in assessing market size: [ * ]

Your total addressable market (TAM)

Your serviceable available market (SAM)

Your serviceable obtainable market (SOM)

A picture showing multiple circles in another bigger circle

The  total addressable market is the total revenue opportunity for your product or service. The serviceable available market is the market size that is geographically and/or politically available for you. The serviceable obtainable market is the market size that your product can realistically capture.

When thinking about internet and mobile penetration, to get an idea of how many people could access your ecommerce store, remember:

54% of the world’s population has internet access [ * ]

96% of the U.S. has internet access [ * ]

73% of U.S. mobile phone users accessed the internet with their mobile device [ * ]

#2 Calculate your TAM using Industry Reports

When Christine Souffrant Ntim, founder of Vendedy, wanted to launch a business that connected travelers to global street vendors, she needed to know how many people and how much money existed in this industry. [ * ]

A simple Google search using industry-specific keywords can yield big results. Her search words were: Street markets, street vending, street market industry. Her searching led her to this piece from foreignpolicy.org:

Screenshot of a news article

Christine started traveling the world in 2008 and knew that street vendors were referred to as working within a black market economy. When she took her business live in 2014, this article gave her data points to pull from. She gained insight about the tourism industry from World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), Neilson, and Deloitte. She concluded that there were, on average, 1 billion global tourists traveling annually. She used this figure for a rough guess at her TAM.

#3 Calculate Your SAM using Your TAM

Continuing our example with Christine, she used her TAM (1 billion tourists) to calculate her SAM. One billion represented tourists from around the world. She first wanted to focus on the U.S. market. Using a report from the National Travel & Tourism Office, she found an estimate of how many Americans were traveling abroad and their destinations. At the time of her research in 2013, there were between 12 and 16 million Americans traveling around the world.

#4 Calculate Your SOM by Comparing Competitors Market Size

No company has 100% market share in any industry. Your SOM is a realistic guess of how much market share you can acquire. This guess is based off trend predictions for your industry. By making a list of all your competitors (direct and indirect) and their trend predictions you can deduce what needs are being met and where your company can make a profit. [ * ]

Your product or service does not have to have a direct competitor, but can be an addition to a product/service that already exists.

Cameras on cell phones have gotten fairly advanced, but the video capabilities are lacking. There’s a viable market for detachable mobile phone camera lenses. Moment, a cell phone lens company, raised over $1.5 million and was featured in several digital publications.

Screenshot of a pre-order landing page for a filmmaking device

This kind of success is one outcome of understanding the market and standing out from your competitors. Moment and it’s direct competitors (Olloclip, Ztylus and Easy-Macro) are private companies, so finding their exact market share and revenue is tricky. 

To find your SOM, use industry websites to find estimates of revenues and market share for businesses in your industry. Some websites you can use to find different industry data include:

Industry specific sites such as: World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) for example

Use This Ecommerce Business Plan Template To Enter Your TAM, SAM, And SOM

Business Model

An effective business model is paramount to profit creation. Your business model is the framework of how you plan to capture a share of the market. It outlines how you plan on selling your product or service to buyers. There are several models:

A picture of boxes stemming from a bigger box

Business-to-Business (B2B) means you sell your product to other businesses instead of individual customers. A B2B company can be a service provider, but it can also sell a physical good such as an office furniture supplier.

A picture of boxes stemming from a bigger box

Customer-to-Customer (C2C) means you provide a platform for customers to trade or sell with each other. You generate revenue by charging a fee, such as eBay.

A bunch of boxes stemming out from another box

Customer-to-Business (C2B) is similar to the C2C model. You are still providing a platform for customers to trade and sell, but they are trading and selling to businesses.

A picture of boxes stemming from a bigger box

Last is B2C, which is common among ecommerce businesses. You as the business sell directly to an individual consumer. If you are selling a physical product, outline your product acquisition and delivery process. Amazon is an example of a C2C model and a B2C model because they sell their own proprietary products under the name “Amazon Basics”.

If you choose a B2C or B2B model, some follow-up questions to consider:

How does someone place an order?

How is the order received?

How is the order fulfilled?

How is the order shipped to the customer?

How do you ensure this process is repeated with all orders?

Be sure to state where and how you are storing inventory, as well as how long order completion takes. If your product is custom-made, note how long custom jobs are expected to take and how you will space out orders.

Use This Ecommerce Business Plan Template To Enter Your Business Model

Business Costs vs. Potential Revenue

Your potential revenue is derived from your SOM. Knowing you won’t take 100% or even 10% of a market will help you estimate a realistic financial overview for your industry choice. Even if you've got something that could be huge, it won't start out that way. While Airbnb is known as a disrupter, according to an STR Report (“STR is the source for premium global data benchmarking, analytics and marketplace insights”) from July 2016 (8 years since being in business), it’s share of market demand and revenues was still below 4% of the total accommodations market share for 13 regional markets. [ * ]

Screenshot of graphs that show airbnb

#1: Determine Your Startup Costs

Your startup costs are the sum of the expenses your business incurs before launch.

Costs can be broken down into three categories: one-time, fixed, and variable.

Detail your costs in a list

In column one, list one-time costs. This may include hiring a consultant, incorporating your business, or buying a laptop.

In column two, list fixed (constant) monthly costs associated with selling your product. While this includes rent, it also includes the cost of your internet, website hosting, ecommerce software, etc. 

In column three, list all variable costs. Credit card processing costs will vary based on the amount you sell each month, utilities will change based on usage and the season, raw materials can fluctuate based on the market, and labor costs can change based on production needs. One method is to try to estimate the costs for a year and divide the result by 12 for a monthly cost.

Pro Tip: Set up an emergency fund for unknown costs. This can be an extension of your “runway fund.” “Runway” is a startup term that reflects how long your company can remain afloat if income and expenses are steady. A “runway fund” is the money you have to ensure your business remains operational pre-profit.

Screenshot of a spreadsheet showing startup costs

Use This Startup Costs Spreadsheet

#2 Set Your Price

How much you sell your product or service for depends on a number of factors. The value of anything is what people are willing to pay for it. Using your market research, you can apply a value that makes sense for your market. Here are two pricing strategies you can use:

Pricing Strategy 1: Market-Oriented Pricing

If you are selling machine-made diamonds, you have to consider the cost of creating the diamonds and how much customers are willing to pay for machine-made diamonds. Given that diamonds are in a luxury market, whether they are man-made or natural, you have several ways to price your product. 

You can use a higher price point than average, copy the market average, or undercut your competition by pricing lower than the average. This is called market-oriented pricing. It compares your product or service to the competition in your market.

Create a spreadsheet that identifies your direct competitors’ pricing of products you intend to sell. Using your market research and factoring in your costs, you can make an informed pricing decision.

Screenshot showing two different methods of pricing

Pricing Strategy 2: Keystone Pricing

Keystone pricing is when an item is priced twice as much as it costs you to make or buy. Keystone pricing has been associated with the retail industry specifically, but it’s not a standard by any means.

The pro of keystone pricing is that you can test your market and see if they’re willing to pay that price for your product. Sticking with our diamond example, if it cost you $500 to make a diamond ring, will someone be willing to pay $1000 for it? On the upside, you’ll have a gross margin of 100%.

The con of keystone pricing is that your price will be uncompetitive if your competitors have all decided to accept a lower margin — marking up a computer by 100% would not get you any sales or much interest in your business plan. 

To read more about market-oriented pricing, keystone pricing, and other pricing strategies, click here .

Remember: The price you set now can be changed later; however, you don’t want to price your item too low where you don’t make a profit, nor too high where no one wants to buy it.

Use This Ecommerce Business Plan Template To Enter Your Pricing Model

#3 Create Your Sales Forecast

As a new ecommerce business, your sales forecast is a prediction of your sales and revenue based on educated guesswork about your product or service, and the market. You will compare your forecast to actual numbers when you have them.

Calculating Revenue Projections

You want to create a five-year projection. First, create a spreadsheet that outlines your projected sales for each month of year one. Then add years two through five to the spreadsheet to demonstrate annual projections.

Create a spreadsheet that outlines the following:

Price Per Unit

Sales Revenue (Units Sold ✕ Price Per Unit)

Unit Cost (Sum of material, labor, fixed and variable costs, and overhead to create one unit) *Note: Overhead generally refers to non-labor costs for running your business 

Cost of Sales (Units Sold ✕ Unit Cost)

Profit (Sales Revenue minus Cost of Sales)

Screenshot of an empty spreadsheet, with the title

#4 Calculating a realistic sales forecast

There are two approaches startups and small businesses can take when creating a sales forecast.

A picture showing two boxes with different captions

The Top-Down Approach

This approach uses your knowledge of the market to make an assumption that you can capture a certain percentage of the market within your first year of business, and increase that percentage each year. This may give you an optimistic forecast that may be unrealistic to investors. The forecast could also hinder your business decisions when actual numbers come in.

Hypothetically, if you make candles, then your market research will tell you candles are used in seven out of 10 households in the U.S. There are 126.22 million households in the U.S. according to the 2017 Census, so that's 88 million households that buy candles. [ * ]

Let’s say each household buys at least one candle a year. Since you are a new business, your conservative guess is that you can capture 1% of that market, giving you 880,000 customers.

At first glance, this seems optimistic. Why? You have not factored in your business model — how many salespeople do you have? Can you sell to the entire US or should you maximize a specific region? Can you make 880,000 candles in a year?

The Bottom-Up Approach

This approach will give you a smaller forecast, but more realistic figures as it takes into consideration actual numbers and your own output capacity.

Pro tip: Check public company annual reports and filings to help determine financial and product information about potential competitors. Comparing competitor information against your own business model will give you more insight.

Back to our candle example: You know you can produce 100 candles a month. You know the average mass-produced candle sells for $1.99, but handmade candles retail between $8 and $15. You decide to price your candles at $10 each. You set a modest goal to sell 25 candles a month, increasing to 50 candles a month during the holiday season (October through December).

Spreadsheet showing the sales forecast for a product for the 1st year

With this model, $3,000 is the profit from one year of business, using modest projections. You can then increase your units sold, and price in the following 2-5 years at an incremental rate. So in year two, you sell 50 candles off-season and 75 during the holiday season. By year three, your ability to produce could increase by bringing on a second maker or dedicating more time to candle creation.

You will outline this in your sales forecast section to show why you believe your output, sales, and pricing will increase over time.

Use This Spreadsheet To Forecast Your Sales

Proof Of Concept And Beta Testing

Before writing your business plan, you want to develop a proof of concept. You want to have these steps completed so you can write up your findings and how your business is going to succeed.

Proof of concept, also written as POC, precedes your prototype and beta testing. It answers the question: Is your idea feasible? Two questions to ask yourself is:

Has this idea been done before/ Does your imagined product already exist? (Which you’ve already answered)

Who are your competitors? (Which you’ve already identified) 

Back to our diamond example. Creating manufactured diamonds has been done before, you can get access to the machinery that can create the diamonds, you can gauge for quality and so on. Your POC is sound; however the challenge is finding what will make your product stand-out from your competition.

A detailed graph showing how you can ask questions to get to the proof of concept

For an idea or product that hasn’t been done before, you will need to collect significant data to prove feasibility. Some ideas are ahead of their time, such as Charles Babbage’s first stab at a machine that could be programmable (the computer). He was able to produce a POC based on the knowledge of computing that existed at the time, and marrying that without engineering capabilities. [ * ]

Then we enter the prototype phase. Once all aspects of feasibility have been addressed, you can then design an internal version of your idea for you and your team to test (known as alpha testing). When it is ready for the public (doesn’t have to be perfect), then you enter your beta testing phase. 

NOTE: If your product has a unique mechanism that you created, you may want to patent it — you can start your patent application online. Once you get the “patent pending” green light, you are free to share your product via beta testing without risk of it being legally copied. [ * ]

Patenting a product before you’ve pre-sold or sold it to anyone can be risky. We recommend validating you can sell your product before worrying about the patent process. Focus on your velocity to $1 like AppSumo did when they started. 

Screenshot showing how a product is going to progress to its final version

#1 Be Creative — Offer Incentives for Beta Testing

Whether your product is an app or a tangible item, you want to test it on a subsection of your target demographic. Some beta tests are used to gain feedback on usability, errors, or malfunctions. Decide what you are using beta testers for before you go looking for them.

You want your beta testers to give you accurate and actionable feedback, so you have to give them clear and detailed instructions. Maintaining ongoing communication is key to success.

Incentives help prompt that feedback. Incentives can be a free item, a discount on the product, raffle prizes, or gift cards. If you have the funds, you can hold a launch party and reward beta testers with invites.

FitStation Tribe is offering one year of free access for beta testers.

Screenshot showing an instagram post by fitstationtribe

EarBuds, a social music app, is running an Instagram social media campaign where they shout out their beta testers.

Screenshot of an instagram post by earbudsmusic

NOTE: Beta testing is not for prototypes. 

#2 Get Influencers to Beta Test Your Product

The best part about beta testing is that you are marketing your product at the same time. The rise of influencer marketing allows a potential customer to test your product and amplify your message. Whether you have to pay an influencer depends on their personal brand; some influencers may test your item because they think it’s cool, while others may charge. It doesn’t hurt to ask.

In 2016, a custom jewelry startup, Jevelo, worked with influencer company, Activate, to hire 12 influencers to beta test their app. Each influencer used the Jevelo app to make their necklaces and showcased the final product in photos on social media. Some of them wrote blog review talking up the product.

Screenshot of an instagram post by oliamajd

According to Activate’s case study on the campaign, the influencers generated 14,594 organic engagements on Instagram. Using a mixture of social media posts and blog reviews, Jevelo’s 12 beta testers had a combined reach of 3.6 million. [ * ]

#3 (Gently) Plug Your Product in Blogs, Forums, and Other Online Spaces

Using your market research, you can find your target demographic online. If your product is food related, you can drop some savvy copy in blog comments, Facebook groups, and Instagram comments. You can email food bloggers directly as well. The sky’s the limit on how to find your potential customers and pique their interest.

List the tactics you are going to use in your business plan.

Use This Ecommerce Business Plan Template To List Your Beta Testing Tactics

Market Your Product

While we discussed combining finding beta testers with marketing, you still need to create a stand-alone marketing strategy. You need to detail where your potential customers live on the internet — after all, you are an ecommerce business. Be detailed when it comes to your marketing strategy. If you plan on launching a social media campaign, write it out. If you plan on hosting a booth at a conference, write it out. If you’ve already implemented marketing campaigns, be sure to include results in your business plan as well.

#1 Create Customer Profiles via Beta Testing and Earlier Market Research

Your product or service will not be for everyone, and that’s OK. You want to target a specific demographic. As you get more feedback from your beta group, you’ll learn which groups enjoy your product the most. Honing in on buyer personas and using your earlier market research will allow you to craft specific campaign ads and messages.

#2 Create a Robust Email List and a Landing Page

As an ecommerce business, you will be selling your goods via a website. Instead of stressing over coding a landing page to get email signups, use Sumo’s new Grow Email List Shortcut to display a perfectly timed offer to your website visitors. You can try it free by clicking the button below.

Not on Shopify? Sign Up Here

Hemper used a Swag Bundle offer and 10% discount to grow their email list: 

Screenshot of a promotional popup aimed to collect emails

The average Sumo email list building popup converts website visitors into email leads at 2.3%, but Hemper was able to generate an 11.8% conversion rate, and 29,062 new email subscribers. To see a detailed breakdown on how they achieved a conversion rate 5x the average, click here .

6 Key Sections You Need In Your Ecommerce Business Plan

Including these six key sections in your business plan will create a starting road map for your business.

While there are other components to a business plan such as your executive summary and team bio, this has everything you need to hit the ground running.

Download our Ecommerce Business Plan Template today to start planning your next business idea.

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How to write a persuasive email that will increase your revenue, the 5 biggest mistakes you’re making with infographics, how to tweak your email campaigns for the new normal.

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Ecommerce Business Plans

Did you know each of these plans was created in LivePlan? Learn More

Children's Website Business Plan

InteliChild.com is an Internet-based start-up company focused on offering a bright and intelligent website where kids ages 8-12 can play and learn at the same time.

Cigar Manufacturing Business Plan

Cigar World is an ongoing business offering a line of premium cigars at reasonable prices.

E-commerce Internet Business Plan

FireStarters' e-commerce website will offer distinctive cutting-edge urban fashion clothes and products to the youth of small-town America.

E-Commerce Retailer Business Plan

Nature’s Candy’s mission is to provide the finest in natural supplements using the Internet to lower the consumer’s cost.

E-Commerce Start-Up Business Plan

NoHassleReturn.com strives to position itself as a strategic partnership between online merchants, Web hosting companies and portals, shipping companies, and online payment agents such as credit card issuers.

Ecommerce Fabric Store Business Plan

Gaian Adventure Fabric and Notions is a retail and online fabric store specializing in materials and accessories for sewing outdoor equipment, gear, and clothing.

Fish Breeder Business Plan

Candlelight Cichlid Breeders is a start-up tropical fish breeding center.

Home, Garden Gifts Online Business Plan

Country Crockery offers home and garden accessories online and at local craft shows. The owner is seeking funding to renovate her storage space for inventory management.

Horse Reseller Business Plan

Gfx: Gravestat Farm eXchange is a home-based start-up business that will utilize e-commerce to represent and sell a complete line of horse products, including the horse itself.

Mail Order Returns Business Plan

QuickReturns is a start-up company offering e-tail returns and reverse logistics services.

Maternity Clothing Online Business Plan

ExpectingU is a new dot-com Internet business that will sell a line of collegiate maternity wear for expecting mothers.

Etsy Shop Business Plan

Artisan Treasures offers exclusive, high-quality, handcrafted goods that are more durable than those from other online marketplaces. Our unique and sturdy products are crafted with care and meticulous attention to detail, ensuring that customers receive a beautiful and functional piece that they can cherish for years to come.

Amazon FBA Business Plan

ModHome simplifies home supply shopping with handpicked cleaning and cooking bundles that prioritize quality, sustainability, and affordability. You’ll never have to worry about finding the right products for your kitchen because we’ll do it for you.

Online shopping is now a normal part of everyday life and it seems like a new online store or eCommerce product pops up every day. But there’s still plenty of opportunity to make your mark with an eCommerce shop of your own. Have a faster shipping method, exclusive product line, or idea to bring traditional retail items into an online store? Check out our eCommerce sample plans and successfully get your online shop up and running today with a refined business plan.

If you’re looking to develop a more modern business plan, we recommend you try LivePlan . It contains the same templates and information you see here, but with additional guidance to help you develop the perfect plan.

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Business and Plans

How to Create an E-Commerce Business Plan

by I.J. Karam | Nov 30, 2020 | Business Plans

How to create an e-commerce business plan

So you have an awesome business idea , a superb product to sell online, and the will to launch your e-commerce startup. You may be tempted to set things in motion right away, without a formal e-commerce business plan. But don’t — because that would be a BIG mistake.

Many ecommerce stores shut shop not because they didn’t have a great idea but rather because they didn’t take time to write a formal business plan.

Before we get started, you might be interested to check out our Ready-made eCommerce Business Plan Template with pre-written text and automatic financials which you can easily customize and adapt to your own project, no financial expertise required .

Why is an e-commerce business plan so important?

Glad you asked.

For starters, you can’t dream of getting capital (if you need it) without a thorough ecommerce store business plan. No investor worth his salt would give you the time of day if you approach him without a formal plan.

Secondly, and no less importantly, a well-thought-of business plan serves the function of a roadmap, showing you whether you are heading in the direction you want and with the speed you want — regardless of whether you’ve launched your online store with your capital or investor’s money.

Also, an e-commerce business plan compels you to think about each component of your online shopping website thoroughly. This, in turn, allows you to spot any big problems beforehand and avoid them. Your ecommerce business plan will act as the cornerstone of how you budget your expenses, how you spend money, what products you sell, who your customers will be and much more.  

In a nutshell, launching an ecommerce startup without a business plan is a recipe for failure. Don’t want that? Put in the effort and time needed to create a comprehensive business plan.

How long an e-commerce business plan should be?

A formal business plan for an ecommerce store, for the most part, is quite similar to that of a restaurant , a brick and mortar shop, or a big company. How much detail you provide for every point may vary, and there’s nothing wrong with it. Some people go for 100-page long business plans that cover each and every possible circumstance or detail. Some others, on the other hand, compile only a 15-page plan that establishes a basic guide or rubric to follow, and that’s fine too.

In a nutshell, your ecommerce business plan should be manageable, creative, and helpful. You don’t have to transform into an intimidating project just to make it a certain number of pages long!

In case you are seeking funding or applying for a loan, most experts recommend a 25 to 40 pages plan. If outside funding is not the goal, starting small may be the best thing to do — something like a couple of paragraphs for every bullet point.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you can start your business plan by tackling the section you like. If you are a marketing wizard, start with the marketing plan section first. If accounting or finance is your thing, start with the financial plan. That said, avoid taking up the executive summary upfront (even though it is the first chapter of your business plan) as it provides an overview of all sections. It is best to tackle it last.

Writing a Formal Business Plan for Your E-commerce Store

In this section, we are going to cover the broadest aspects, as well as all the important details, of your ecommerce business plan.

Executive Summary

An executive summary, while usually written in the end, frames the entire plan. It is the “book jacket” for your ecommerce business — highlighting key elements and demonstrating your passion to pursue such a business.

The must-have sections of an executive summary are as follows:

Mission Statement

Your mission statement must be goal-oriented and answer the following key questions:

What purpose will your ecommerce store serve?

Who are your clients?

How does it address a pain area experienced by your target audience or how will it improve some aspect of their lives?

The mission statement provides you with an opportunity to explain the positive impact of your online shopping business. Don’t take your mission statement lightly; it will heavily guide your decision-making in the future. For instance, does the marketing strategy adopted further your mission? And what about the products you are selling online?

Your ecommerce store serves a purpose – your mission – and giving prime importance to that purpose will reinforce your drive, improve communication, and help define the positioning of your online business.

While quite similar to your mission statement, your objectives are more goal-oriented and a slightly less high-level. In case you are launching an online fitness store, you may have a mission statement like “help people realize their fitness goals.”

One of the objectives of your team could be “to establish the store as the first place people think of when they are searching for any fitness equipment, clothing, or accessory.”

Here are a couple of pointers to keep in mind:

Try to write multiple objectives (This will give you a better direction)

Make sure all your objectives, regardless of how many, should be funneled in the direction of the main goal defined in the mission statement

Founders, Key Players, Start Date

Describe in brief the founders, their previous experience, your key team members, and the start date.

Products Overview

Offer a brief summary of your products and link what you sell with the mission statement of your organization.

Differentiators

What will make your ecommerce shop stand out in the crowd? What is special about your company? How are your products different from your competitors’?

Growth Summary

Have you sold anything online previously? Maybe through your Instagram account before developing your shopping website? If yes, talk about those accomplishments. It could be on the lines of something like “sold X number of orders in 6 months on Y platform” or “Created a strong page following of 100,000+ on Facebook in 1 year.”

Company Description

Begin with the basics. Give an overview of the business, listing high-level goals first and then sharing the details regarding what makes your e-commerce business stand out from the crowd.

You may also include a business ownership section — where you talk about the main partners behind the business.  

Product Description

This is the section where you describe in detail your products and what you actually sell online. Begin by describing the products you will offer initially along with those you plan to add later on, focusing on the benefits and specifications of these products.

Main Product Lines – Start with summarizing the main product lines of your ecommerce store. You don’t have to mention all products in the catalogue; instead focus on broad categories, such as “yoga props” or “gym equipment”.

Stress on the competitive advantages or benefits of the product lines you offer. It is always a good idea to describe in brief what makes your products so special and then dive into details a little bit by covering these aspects:

Differentiators – There’s no shortage of yoga props, so what features make yours stand out? Perhaps they are made of superior material or maybe you are offering new types of props that others don’t offer.

Product Sourcing – What are your product sources? Where are your storage facilities located? Include answers to questions such as these.

Costs & pricing – Give a brief overview of the cost of your products and their selling prices.

This is the section where you cover the ‘moving parts’ and logistics of your online business. How will you procure products from manufacturers? How will you get these products to your customers?

Points to include here are as follows:

The location of your business. In addition to your headquarters, list all the spaces you will rent for storing goods or for setting up regional offices. List the management and staff team involved in running the day to day operations. List the product suppliers and the shipping providers. Are you going to use any third-party service providers, such as subscription-based ecommerce tools, ecommerce provider, payment gateways…etc.? If so, list them.

Describe in brief your shipping process, as well as payment collection process.

Market Analysis

This section is divided into three sections:

Industry Analysis – What’s the outlook for your specific industry? How has it grown over the years? What factors have had the biggest impact on in the recent past and do you expect the same factors to play an important role in future as well? This is one subsection that requires extensive research. Fortunately, plenty of research material is available on all industries, so if you put in the time, there’s no reason why you will not be able to answer these questions in a comprehensive manner. Make sure you talk about global trends and local trends to make your case.

Audience Segmentation – List all the demographics you plan to serve in this section. Include as much information as possible about your target audience — their age, location, average annual income, and preferences. It would be best if you can create a “buyer persona” for each demographic set.

Competitive Analysis – Start with an overview of your main competitors in the broader sense (that is, “online shops that sell fitness products such as props, apparels, diet supplements, etc.”) and then mention the names of the most important competitors. Describe the key strengths as well as weaknesses of your competitors and focus on areas where you outshine them, i.e. cite your competitive advantages.

Marketing Plan

Having a well-thought-of marketing strategy is paramount for success. If you can’t woo customers, all other planning remains pointless. Your marketing strategy should clearly define how will you acquire visitors, convert them into paid customers, and turn first-time customers into loyal customers.

Your e-commerce business plan should include a marketing strategy that develops these points:

Content Strategy – Even though your content plans are going to be an integral part of the broader SEO strategy, we have chosen to list it separately because it is the most important part of your online marketing strategy. What messaging are you going to employ in your copy? Are you going to have a blog section? Will you regularly post contents on social media platforms? Will you outsource content? How often will you publish new content?

SEO – Will you do SEO in-house or outsource it? If you plan to do SEO in-house, what tools do you plan to use? What is your keyword strategy? What are you plans for on-site and off-site SEO?

Paid Search – Do you plan to run a PPC campaign? If so, what is your budget? And how long do you plan to use paid ads? What value will PPC add to your business?

PR – What’s your strategy for getting the word out there about your ecommerce site? Are you going to pen guest posts? Will you offer bloggers product samples for writing reviews?

Social Media – Which social media platforms are most popular with your target audience? How do you plan to use each of these social media channels?

Email Marketing – Email marketing can help ecommerce stores get the word out there, win new customers, retain old ones as well as generate sales. How are you going to encourage email signups? How often you will send promotional emails? How do you plan to segment the email marketing list to target different groups differently to drive maximum ROI?

Financial Plan

For most people, this is the most boring part, but there’s no way you can skip it, regardless of whether you are seeking funding or not. If you want to raise capital, give all the more importance to this section. Investors want to know how you will use their money and how much will be the return on investment.

Your financial plan should include at least the following sections:

Cost and revenue forecast Projected profit and loss Projected cash flows Projected balance sheet Gross and net margin analysis

You can go even further by forecasting your Customer Acquisition Cost and Customer Lifetime Value.

Wrapping Things Up

A well-written e-commerce business plan is critical to the success of your online store even if you are not seeking funding. And if you are looking to raise capital, you can’t expect a positive response from investors unless you show them a detailed and compelling business plan. As you have seen, writing a business plan does require effort and time, however this is not something extraordinary difficult. Just follow the tips we’ve discussed in this post, and you will be able to write a powerful and effective ecommerce business plan.

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AllBusiness.com

Building an E-Commerce Website: 11 Experts Offer Best Practices

By Brett Farmiloe

A website is a crucial part of your e-commerce business , so what is one key step that's necessary to build a successful e-commerce site? We posed that question to entrepreneurs and small business owners to find out their best advice. From investing in AI chatbots to optimizing the checkout process, here are 11 best practices for building a successful e-commerce website.

How to build a successful e-commerce website

1. invest in ai chatbots.

“[Including] AI chatbots in your digital marketing strategy helps foster communication with customers, leading to quicker conversations. While conversational marketing has become essential for any business, it's the speed of that conversation that fastens the sales process and keeps leads from jumping to your competitor's website.

“AI chatbots use data mining to understand your leads' preferences and tastes in seconds. This feature enables them to immediately serve up the most appropriate answer or content, reducing the time a user spends searching for information themselves. And because an AI chatbot can drill through billions of documents and social media conversations at a pace impossible for human teams, they can guess each customer's needs and preferences. This hyper-personalization results in better user engagement and higher conversion rates.

“And, since chatbots don't require a salary, they are a one-time investment for your business.”

—Chris Gadek, AdQuick

2. Prioritize SEO

“If e-commerce brands want to be successful, they should start prioritizing their SEO strategy. You can get started by prioritizing keywords which you can easily create great content around. Pick several keywords that are all related and create a blog post. When selecting keywords, it’s important to consider the user’s intent when they are searching with those keywords. Along with this, having the keywords chosen beforehand will allow you to include them in your sentences in a natural sounding way.”

—Maegan Griffin, Skin Pharm

3. Continually test your website's user experience

“A/B testing should really stand for "always be testing." But testing a button color here and a font size there can be tedious—not to mention time-consuming. This is where A/B testing tools can take the pain out of optimizing your website.

“Tools like Optimizely and VWO offer easy-to-use and robust platforms that enable you to perform split tests and see the differences side-by-side. You can even run dozens of tests at once. Point-and-click visual editors allow you to edit any element for testing without needing a developer, enabling you to test, analyze, edit, and target campaigns more frequently.

“Heatmaps and funnels provide actionable insights into how visitors interact with your page and where they drop off. Data visualizations generate deep insights that take the guesswork out of website optimization.”

—Jason Sherman, TapRm

4. Utilize a reliable backup service

“Continuity of service is critical, and even the most reliable platforms have disruptions, which is why it is critical as a part of the process of building a successful e-commerce site to use a reliable backup service. If a site outage occurs, there is a possibility that data could be lost, making your website non-functional and costing your business tremendous financial loss in the ensuing hours, and possibly days, to get it running again if not prepared.

“By backing up your website periodically, if an outage occurs, you will ensure little disruption of service, recovery of e-commerce templates, data retrieval, information collection maintenance, as well as avoiding the need for full site reconstruction. In addition, customer information will also be secured and protected, providing your customers with peace of mind.

“By taking preventive measures to back up your e-commerce site, you can ensure continued success even with unexpected circumstances.”

—Adelle Archer, Eterneva

5. Have the mindset of "people, product, profit"

“To set up an e-commerce site for success, you need two things: products with healthy margins and a large enough audience within your niche.

“Starting with your audience, you need to know exactly who you serve. This information helps you build detailed buyer personas and craft marketing materials which capture the attention of your target audience and convert them into long-term customers. If your content is too generic, you'll reach more people but attract far less. By being specific about the group of people you're looking to serve, you can tailor everything from the ads you produce to the style, colors, and branding of your store.

“As for your products, be specific about what problem your store solves. It's better to be a market leader in one industry than to be forgettable in all of them, so choose wisely and vend profitable products that you believe in.

“These factors can all but determine your store's success before you even launch.”

—Aaron Gray, NO-BS Marketplace

6. Thank your best customers

“Thanking your best customers is a great way to show them that you appreciate their business. It also helps to motivate them to continue shopping with you, and may even lead them to refer their friends and family members to your site.

“There are many ways to thank your customers, such as sending them a special offer or discount, or writing a personalized thank-you note. Whatever method you choose, be sure to make it personal and unique to each customer. This will show that you took the time to appreciate their business and went above and beyond what was necessary.”

—Rick Elmore, Simply Noted

More articles from AllBusiness.com:

  • 9 Ways to Use Facebook Chatbots to Grow Your Business
  • Contact Forms Are Dead—Here Are 3 Better Ways to Collect Prospect Info
  • Top 7 Ways to Improve the Live Chat Experience for Your Customers
  • 5 Hot Social Media Trends Every Marketer Should Be Aware Of
  • How to Leverage Social Media Automation to Save Hours Per Week

7. Ensure easy navigation

“Your e-commerce site must be easy to navigate, so customers can find what they’re looking for with as few clicks as possible. The fastest way to lose a customer is to make it difficult for them to find what they are looking for. If a customer can't find the product they are looking for pretty much right away, they will hit the back button and visit your competitor's site. Make your products easy to find and easy to buy, and you'll have much higher conversion rates.”

—Mark Daoust, Quiet Light

8. Select a keyword-rich domain name

“One of the first steps that businesses should take when looking to build a successful e-commerce website is to thoroughly explore available domain names. They should conduct keyword research to identify commonly searched for terms related to their product, and then crafting a domain name that somehow incorporates the most relevant term.

“This is particularly beneficial for e-commerce businesses in highly competitive niches, as a powerful and authoritative domain can often boost rankings, drive traffic, and increase trust in a brand. Whilst only forming a small part of the overall SEO puzzle, the selection of a relevant domain name will provide any e-commerce website with a solid foundation for future success.”

—Clare Jones, OfficeSpaceAU

9. Attract subscribers with a unique "coming soon" page

“Get a jump start with an engaging 'coming soon' landing page that will entice customers to sign-up to your mailing list prior to official launch. Add fun audio, like Racket Media , to said page by playing testimonials in the background. Incentivize early sign-ups with a contest, like digital marketplace Lemon Squeezy did with its MacBook Pro giveaway. Use memorable language in your CTA, like social media game site Gowalla does with its 'sign up for your passport' waitlist.

“Getting people excited about your e-commerce site before it’s up and running will not only help you gain loyal subscribers, but spark social media buzz about what’s to come!”

— Jeff Goodwin, Orgain

10. Choose the right platform

“A key step to building a successful e-commerce site is choosing the right platform. Your e-commerce platform will either be an automated sales machine or an obstacle to overcome. Before you start, make sure your online shop is built on a platform that is futureproofed, flexible, easy to use, and fast. Steer clear of 'beginner' platforms, like Wix or Squarespace, as they may be 'easy to use,' but they are extremely limiting. You want a platform with features that will allow your business to grow. Here are platforms to use: WooCommerce , Shopify , BigCommerce , and Adobe Commerce (formerly Magento).”

—Nick Robb, Design Hero

11. Optimize the checkout process

“An e-commerce site is only as successful as its sales, and business owners should prioritize optimizing the checkout process. Customers should have access to their shopping cart and checkout on all pages of the website—most websites have it in the upper right corner.

“The checkout screen should allow for multiple payment options. Credit cards and direct debit are must-haves; they are the most popular purchasing methods. Aside from these options, a business should also permit alternative payment methods, such as PayPal, Google Pay, Apple Play, etc.

“In past years, buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) services have become increasingly popular. These services allow customers to commit to paying off their purchases over several weeks or months, making a business's products/services more affordable to a larger demographic. Examples of these sites include Klarna and Afterpay .

“The newest payment method is cryptocurrency. This is less preferred currently but may gain popularity in the future.”

—Roy Morejon, Enventys Partners

RELATED:  The Fundamentals of E-Commerce UI Design

About the Author

Post by:   Brett Farmiloe

Brett Farmiloe is the founder and CEO of Terkel , a Q&A site that converts insights from small business owners into high-quality articles for brands.

Company: Terkel

Website: www.terkel.io

Building an E-Commerce Website: 11 Experts Offer Best Practices

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Best free e-commerce platforms in 2024

Mehdi Punjwani

Sierra Campbell

Sierra Campbell

“Verified by an expert” means that this article has been thoroughly reviewed and evaluated for accuracy.

Published 7:23 a.m. UTC Feb. 14, 2024

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Selling goods and services online is easier than it’s ever been, and it shows – revenue from the United States e-commerce industry is forecasted to exceed $1 trillion for the first time in 2024. This number had yet to reach $500 billion in 2018 and helps demonstrate the rapid growth of e-commerce in the U.S. over the last half-decade in particular.

Helping people all over the U.S. and the world start selling online are the various platforms that allow you to build and publish your own online store in minutes. While there are few truly “free” e-commerce platforms – many only offer free trials or free store-building while only offering selling behind a paywall – it’s not impossible to keep costs to a minimum. Our experts have reviewed free plans from some of the best e-commerce providers of 2024 on the market to find the best ones for your business.

Featured website builder offers

business plan site e commerce

Via Wix’s website

Monthly fee

Free domain

For one year

Drag-and-drop builder

business plan site e commerce

Via Shopify’s website

Squarespace

business plan site e commerce

Via Squarespace’s website

Best free e-commerce websites

  • Shift4Shop : Best for integrated payment processing.
  • OpenCart : Best for third-party integrations.
  • Square Online : Best for physical shop owners selling online.
  • Weebly : Best for startups.
  • Big Cartel : Best for creatives.
  • PrestaShop : Best for small businesses with tech experience.
  • Ecwid : Best for plugging into existing websites.

Why trust our small business experts

Our team of experts evaluates hundreds of business products and analyzes thousands of data points to help you find the best product for your situation. We use a data-driven methodology to determine each rating. Advertisers do not influence our editorial content. You can read more about our methodology below.

  • 15 companies reviewed.
  • 39 products reviewed.
  • 2,028 data points analyzed.

Best for integrated payment processing

Shift4Shop

Drag and drop editor

What you should know.

Formerly known as 3dcart before its takeover by Shift4 Payments in 2020, Shift4Shop is a capable, if simplistic, online shop solution with plenty of useful e-commerce features. It’s free forever so long as you use Shift4Shop’s payment processing system and process at least $500 per month in transactions. However, if you want to use another payment processor, you’ll need to pay – and while plans start at $29 per month if you use PayPal, there is little transparency with other pricing models.

While not as advanced or customizable as other platforms without coding knowledge, Shift4Shop’s e-commerce features are fairly robust. You’ll get unlimited products, product variants, product images and categories, a secure shopping cart, product and Google customer reviews, dropshipping, upselling and cross-selling. If you’re willing to use its integrated payment solution, then Shift4Shop could be a viable free e-commerce platform for your business.

Pros and cons

  • Free forever if you use Shift 4 Payments.
  • Wide array of e-commerce features.
  •  Unlimited products on all accounts.
  • Limited freedom to customize your website.
  • Pricing isn’t clear for payment processing.
  • Must clear $500 per month in transactions for free e-commerce.

Best for third-party integrations

OpenCart

OpenCart is entirely free and open source, and alongside its built-in e-commerce features, you’ll have access to over 13,000 third-party integrations to boost your online shop. As it’s open source, it’s extensively customizable – but it will require a bit of learning to fully take advantage. As far as e-commerce capabilities go, OpenCart claims to offer unlimited everything, so you’ll get as many products and product categories as you need.

While customizing every detail might take some time, OpenCart’s e-commerce features are user-friendly and accessible to beginners. However, you’ll need to pay for hosting, as OpenCart doesn’t offer it – although it does have recommended partners listed on its website. Note that for extra functionality, you might need to pay for certain extensions on its marketplace.

  • Free forever and open source e-commerce.
  • Unlimited products and categories.
  • Over 13,000 extensions on the marketplace.
  • Limited customer support.
  • OpenCart doesn’t provide hosting or maintenance.
  • Learning curve to fully take advantage of customization.

Best for physical shop owners selling online

Square online.

Square Online

Square Online is a powerful free e-commerce platform that integrates seamlessly with Square’s POS system – so if you run physical locations using Square, it makes sense to stick with them when you take your business online. All transactions automatically sync with Square POS and integrate with your inventory, and you’ll get discounts on shipping, pickup and delivery,

You’ll be able to accept a variety of payment types, although this doesn’t include PayPal with the free plan. Square’s free online plan also comes with unlimited products, pickup, local, delivery and shipping and SEO tools to amplify your online shop. It’s simple to build your shop website with a drag-and-drop editor, but you won’t get access to themes unless you’re on a paid plan. You’ll also have to tolerate Square adverts, and you won’t get a custom domain. Square charges relatively high processing fees compared to other platforms.

Learn More: Read our full Square review .

  • Integrates with Square POS – useful if you use it for your physical shop.
  • A range of useful e-commerce features on its free plan.
  • Easy to use drag-and-drop editor.
  • Free plan comes with ads, no custom domain.
  • Relatively high processing fees.
  • Can’t accept PayPal on free plan.

Best for startups

Weebly

Weebly is a powerful and affordable website builder powered by Square, with a range of useful e-commerce features, including inventory management, unlimited items, in-store pickup, vouchers and gift cards. Additionally, if you’re in the U.S., then your taxes are calculated automatically. However, the free plan doesn’t allow for digital goods, nor does it offer a shipping calculator, item reviews, shipping labels, abandoned cart emails or PayPal payments.

Weebly’s website editor is a straightforward drag-and-drop interface, easy for beginners, but it doesn’t offer as many unique themes or templates as other platforms, with only 15 for online stores. We’d recommend Weebly for startups that want to keep things simple – its paid plans are relatively cheap, ideal if you’re looking to scale up and keep costs low.

Learn More: Read our full Weebly review .

  • Easy to use website builder.
  • Paid plans are relatively affordable when looking to scale up.
  • Useful inventory management features.
  • Limited design options.
  • The free plan has ads and no custom domain.

Best for creatives

Big Cartel

Big Cartel is, in its own words, designed for creatives and artists looking to sell their work. The free Gold plan is fairly basic, only allowing five products and offering a limited suite of features – inventory, shipments, discounts and promos. Analytics and custom domains are only available for paying customers. However, this can suit creatives with limited product runs who want to focus purely on getting their goods out there — and the available themes are more on the artsy side, too.

There are limitations that make it less suitable for other businesses – even the highest tier only allows 500 products. There isn’t much room for customization unless you’re comfortable coding, and again, this is only available on paid plans.

  • Simple and easy to use.
  • Paid plans are very affordable.
  • Themes designed for creatives and artists.
  • Only five products on free plan.
  • Limited customization ability without coding knowledge.
  • Very few features and tools.

Best for small businesses with tech experience

PrestaShop

PrestaShop is another open-source e-commerce platform that offers the ability to fully customize your online shop. The catch is it’s not really for beginners. If you’ve got coding experience or experienced developers on deck with your business, then you’ll be able to take advantage of its comprehensive editor, but it’s not ideal for those wanting to quickly set up shop and start selling.

PrestaShop’s e-commerce platform gives you unlimited products and a range of tools for SEO, marketing, payment and shipping and advanced analytics. However, many of the extensions available to you are costly and can add up to a hefty sum. Additionally, you’ll also need to pay for support plans – they’re based on credits, and you can buy enough for one to 12 months of support from their technical team.

  • You can fully customize with its open-source platform.
  • It’s free forever unless you pay for extensions.
  • You can integrate a range of third-party payment processors.
  • It requires coding knowledge.
  • Third-party integration costs can add up.
  • You’ll need to pay for hosting.

Best for plugging into existing websites

Ecwid

Ecwid quite literally means e-commerce widget, and one of the biggest benefits of this company’s free plan is that you can use it to build your shop and embed it on any website you choose. If you’ve got an existing website for your business and you want to explore selling products, then Ecwid offers an economical way to test the waters.

While the free plan is limited in terms of the features you’ll get — significantly fewer inventory and marketing capabilities – on the e-commerce side of things, it’s still strong enough to get you started. You’ll only get five products, but you’ll be able to sell on multiple sites simultaneously, as well as use free templates to build your own site on an Ecwid domain.

  • Free version lets you embed your products on your own site. Paid plans are affordable when you want to upgrade.
  • Optimized for mobile.
  • Only five products on its free plan.
  • Many marketing and inventory features only on paid plans.
  • Only email support available on free plan.

Best free e-commerce platforms comparison

Methodology

We extensively research the key competitors within an industry to determine the best products and services for your business. Our experts identify the factors that matter most to business owners, including pricing, features and customer support, to ensure that our recommendations offer well-rounded products that will meet the needs of various small businesses.

We collect extensive data to narrow our best list to reputable, easy-to-use products with stand-out features at a reasonable price point. And we look at user reviews to ensure that business owners like you are satisfied with our top picks’ services. We use the same rubric to assess companies within a particular space so you can confidently follow our blueprint to the best free e-commerce platforms of 2024.

The best e-commerce platform has positive user reviews on customer review sites. E-commerce platforms should provide customers with fast and reliable support. Using a combination of phone support, live chat and knowledge bases, customers should be able to quickly resolve issues 24/7.

E-commerce platforms should provide businesses with the necessary tools to effectively run an online business. Platforms should be affordable compared to competitors. Expanding on easy-to-use website building tools, e-commerce platforms should combine payment processing capabilities with a robust set of online sales features.

All e-commerce platforms should allow online businesses to manage inventory, sell physical and digital products and offer services to customers. A network of integrations should be offered to integrate accounting, client relationship management (CRM), dropshipping services and omnichannel selling tools. Built-in tax and shipping calculators should be provided along with abandoned cart recovery tools to ensure a smooth checkout experience for customers. And mobile apps should make it easy for business owners to view transactions, reports and analytics. Finally, email marketing tools and social media integrations should be provided to help businesses capture prospects and turn them into sales.

What is an e-commerce platform and how does it work?

An e-commerce platform is software that functions as a content management system (CMS) and online shop, allowing you to sell goods and services and accept payments over the Internet. While the specifics will vary between platforms, most will allow customers to find products, store them in a cart and pay by card to complete their order.

Some platforms allow you to build your own customized website and sell your products through it, while others offer a more basic online store page on their own website. Some also offer other features alongside an online shop, such as invoicing and accounting, payment processing and security. When it comes to finding a free e-commerce platform, this usually means you’ll be able to have a free trial or enjoy access to limited features before paying for full functionality.

Benefits of an e-commerce platform

If you’re a beginner to e-commerce, whether you’re new to selling or you already have a physical shop, you might be wondering what advantages there are to using one of these platforms. Here are the main benefits of using an e-commerce platform for your business:

  • Reach an international audience 24/7: With an online shop, you won’t be limited to those who can physically reach your store – the whole world can access your shop at any time of day. Just keep in mind you’re dependent on technology and the internet, so if this goes down, so does your shop. 
  • Scale up with fewer overheads: Scaling up will cost less, too, as you’ll face far fewer overhead costs that are associated with having a physical shop. The flip side is that competition is much higher when the internet is your playground, so you’ll need to work harder at marketing and outreach to stand out. 
  • Avoid the hassle of a physical shop: You won’t need to worry about property damage or shoplifting as everything is online behind a screen. However, the threats are different for e-commerce, not absent completely – you’ll need to ensure you have robust cybersecurity to protect yourself and your customers. 
  • Automatically track sales and inventory: The digital nature of e-commerce means more of your sales and inventory numbers are automatically tracked, so you don’t have to take a product inventory. However, this presents a different issue of shipping logistics, as customers aren’t collecting their goods when they visit your store, so keep this in mind when managing orders.

Who needs an e-commerce platform?

An e-commerce platform can be a useful option for a range of business types. You might be a new seller working from your own home, or you might have an existing physical store and are looking at expanding your reach. 

You could even be thinking about making the swap to online-only, and with the benefits listed above, it can be an attractive option for many. With the chaos of COVID aside, e-commerce sales as a percentage of total retail sales in the US have been steadily rising for years — reaching 15.5% in Q1 of 2023.

There is enough variety in the platforms available that anyone from a beginner entrepreneur to an experienced web designer can create unique and attractive online storefronts for their products. You won’t need to code anything if you don’t want to, but some platforms will let you customize every single aspect of your store, track your sales and inventory and reach new and existing customers through digital marketing.

How to choose the best e-commerce platforms

To choose the best e-commerce platform for your business, you’ll need to consider a few important factors that can vary between providers. For example, you should think about how easy it is to use, what features are available, how much you can customize your online shop, what support you have access to and how much it’ll cost. Consider your own needs and the specific requirements of your business when thinking about these factors to ensure your chosen platform offers everything you need while keeping costs at a minimum.

Key features to look for

Consider the following features when comparing e-commerce platforms:

  • Online shop: The fundamental feature of your chosen commerce platform is the online shop itself. You know your customers best, so look for things like navigation, search, reviews, videos, return policies and other crucial aspects that visitors will benefit from when they shop on your online store.
  • Payment processing: Once people have picked their items they’ll need to pay for them, so ensure you’ll be able to take a variety of payment methods that reflect your customer base. Keep the cost in mind too, as different platforms have different payment processing rates and price models.
  • Content design and blog management: As well as setting up shop, you might want to build content around it. It could be as simple as an integrated blog or a fully customized website with unique content coded to the letter – find a platform that offers design features that match your expertise.
  • Marketing, outreach and promotions: Many e-commerce platforms offer the ability to reach out to existing and potential new customers through marketing tools like emails, loyalty programs, promotions, vouchers and discounts. 
  • Inventory and sales tracking: A significant advantage of digitized recordkeeping is the automation of sales and inventory tracking – so ensure your platform gives you adequate tracking ability to help keep on top of your stock.
  • SEO analytics, reporting and optimization: Keeping your website and shop visible to Google searches is crucial, so look for a platform that offers optimization as well as a view of analytics to see where you can improve and boost visibility.
  • Security: Finally, ensuring your customers’ payment data stays safe and secure is important for them as well as your business. Pay attention to the security features offered by different platforms to ensure they’re extensive and robust.

UX and ease of use

When it comes to designing an online shop and website, different platforms offer solutions that cater to varying levels of expertise. Beginners with little experience putting a website together might prefer either a simple shop with little customization and more focus on products. 

However, drag-and-drop editors are fairly common and allow anyone to build an attractive and professional online shop with relative ease. For those with more advanced technical skills, other platforms will let you code your entire website and store from scratch – perfect for developers or those with the budget for one.

Customer service

Unfortunately, one of the negative aspects of using an e-commerce platform is that you’ll be at the mercy of technology. This is why it’s so valuable to be able to rely on your provider’s customer support – so bear in mind their methods of contact as well as their hours of availability. 

Customer service that’s available 24/7 is ideal, especially since online shops are generally open around the clock, and you’ll want to be able to resolve issues as soon as possible. Phone or live chat availability is also preferable, as you’re more likely to get an instant response compared to email support.

Software integrations

If you have an existing setup for other aspects of your business, like accounting, analytics or inventory management, it might be beneficial to look for providers that offer integrations. This can save time when setting up your online shop, knowing that you’ll be able to link services you already use and trust to make your operation run smoother.

How much do e-commerce platforms cost?

Frequently asked questions (faqs).

The best e-commerce platform for you will depend on your technical ability, business requirements and the type of company you run. Expert coders and developers might prefer open-source platforms like OpenCart, PrestaShop or Shift4Shop, while if you’re new to e-commerce, you might prefer the head start given by Square or Weebly. Big Cartel is a great option for creatives, and Ecwid is a useful plugin for existing websites.

Creating an e-commerce website for free is fairly straightforward – you can sign up with a platform that offers a free trial or that allows you to build your site at no cost but for which you’ll need to pay to publish and sell products. Unfortunately, there isn’t really a completely free way to set up an e-commerce website, as you’ll also face other inevitable costs like payment processing and domain hosting.

You can make money in a variety of ways with an e-commerce website – from relying on third-party services for methods like dropshipping or print-on-demand models to taking advantage of the online space by creating digital products. 

You can offer automated subscriptions for users who want to make regular purchases, advertise a service you offer, such as tuition or cleaning or even get involved in affiliate marketing for other brands. E-commerce websites offer a range of profit-making models, so your options for making money are wide open.

When looking for an e-commerce platform, you should aim for one that matches your level of expertise and experience when it comes to building an online shop or website. Ensure it has all the features you need to run your e-commerce business, whether it’s accounting, inventory or marketing.

Bear in mind the customer service you’ll have access to, both in terms of availability and contact methods. Finally, ensure it’s something you can afford, particularly in the long term, as you look to scale up your business.

You can create a free e-commerce site in WordPress.org if you’re comfortable with coding and developing, but WordPress.com only offers e-commerce features on its Entrepreneur plan at $45 per month.

No, Wix does not offer a free e-commerce platform. Plans start at $16 per month, but for e-commerce features, you’ll need at least a Core subscription at $27 per month.

Yes, Weebly’s cheapest plan with e-commerce features is free.

Blueprint is an independent publisher and comparison service, not an investment advisor. The information provided is for educational purposes only and we encourage you to seek personalized advice from qualified professionals regarding specific financial decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

Blueprint has an advertiser disclosure policy . The opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the Blueprint editorial staff alone. Blueprint adheres to strict editorial integrity standards. The information is accurate as of the publish date, but always check the provider’s website for the most current information.

Mehdi Punjwani

Mehdi is a writer and editor with many years of personal finance expertise under his belt. He's a spirited money-saver, with a passion for making personal finance accessible and manageable. When he isn't writing, Mehdi likes to read about history and travel, hike along coastlines and in forests, and watch his beloved team Manchester United underperform.

Sierra Campbell is a small business editor for USA Today Blueprint. She specializes in writing, editing and fact-checking content centered around helping businesses. She has worked as a digital content and show producer for several local TV stations, an editor for U.S. News & World Report and a freelance writer and editor for many companies. Sierra prides herself in delivering accurate and up-to-date information to readers. Her expertise includes credit card processing companies, e-commerce platforms, payroll software, accounting software and virtual private networks (VPNs). She also owns Editing by Sierra, where she offers editing services to writers of all backgrounds, including self-published and traditionally published authors.

How to start a small business: A step-by-step guide

How to start a small business: A step-by-step guide

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When you click through from our site to a retailer and buy a product or service, we may earn affiliate commissions. This helps support our work, but does not affect what we cover or how, and it does not affect the price you pay. Neither ZDNET nor the author are compensated for these independent reviews. Indeed, we follow strict guidelines that ensure our editorial content is never influenced by advertisers.

ZDNET's editorial team writes on behalf of you, our reader. Our goal is to deliver the most accurate information and the most knowledgeable advice possible in order to help you make smarter buying decisions on tech gear and a wide array of products and services. Our editors thoroughly review and fact-check every article to ensure that our content meets the highest standards. If we have made an error or published misleading information, we will correct or clarify the article. If you see inaccuracies in our content, please report the mistake via this form .

The best web hosting services: Expert reviewed

charlie-osborne

If you want to build a website, there are dozens of web hosting providers available. Choosing the right web hosting service for you can be challenging, but you no longer need to be a programmer, or to pay someone to build advanced features such as e-commerce or forum management, to launch a site.

Today many web providers will provide these functions, as well as a content management system and other features like SEO assistance and security checks, in standard subscription packages. Below, you will find our top recommendations for web hosting services, ranging from providers that give you a quick and easy way to build your website all the way up to the big companies that provide full data center infrastructure capabilities as a service.

Also:   The best VPNs

What is the best web hosting service right now?

ZDNET has done extensive research and hands-on testing with many of the top web hosting services. Our pick for the best web hosting service overall is Hostinger . Hostinger offers inexpensive plans suitable for the majority of website owners, and while there is a free, limited plan available, its premium plan has everything you need: a website builder, WordPress integration, templates, emails, SEO, marketing help, and more. Read on for the rest of our picks for the best web hosting services.

Best web hosting services of 2024

Best web hosting service overall.

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  • Inexpensive
  • One-click WordPress install
  • Enhanced security limited to more expensive plans
  • Prices jump on renewal

Hostinger features:  cPanel : Yes |  SSL : Some plans |  SSH : Yes |  Backups : Yes |  Money-back guarantee : 30 days |  Support : 24/7, live chat support

Hostinger's premium plan ($2.99/month, three months free) is excellent value for the money if you want to operate multiple websites for personal or business reasons under one account.

The premium plan offers support for up to 100 websites. It offers users 100GB storage, up to 100 email addresses and forwarders, free SSL website security, and unlimited bandwidth, alongside a free domain name. 

While there's no dedicated IP address, this won't bother most website owners. Furthermore, you'll be given basic e-commerce capabilities and one-click WordPress installation and migration. The same WordPress installation can be used to support multiple WordPress websites. 

If you need a theme, Hostinger also provides a drag-and-drop website builder and 150 templates. Google Analytics integration, SEO tools, and standard DDoS protection are also included in the plan. 

Overall, we consider Hostinger's premium plan to be an excellent option for the majority of website owners and small businesses. Business options begin at $3.99/month with three months added, for free.

A downside, however, is that you can only access more advanced features -- such as daily backups and increased performance -- with more expensive subscriptions. In addition, while many customers applaud Hostinger's customer service, there are reports of bounceback and slow loads by some clients operating multiple websites.

There is a limited, free plan available, with 300MB storage but no free domain or email.

Review: Hostinger review: Good support, killer entry-level price web hosting

Best web hosting service for professionals

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  • Over three-month money-back guarantee
  • Many hosting options
  • Email an additional cost

DreamHost features :  cPanel : No, proprietary panel |  SSL : Free |  SSH : Yes |  Backups : Yes |  Money-back guarantee : 97 days |  Support : 24/7 chat, ticket, and call-back

DreamHost's easy-to-use interface, efficiency, and customer support stand out to business owners and new webmasters alike. The hosting provider offers WordPress hosting, shared hosting, virtual private servers, dedicated servers, cloud hosting, and more. 

We particularly like the fact that DreamHost offers G Suite integration, with domain integration and Google Cloud support. The company also provides a great set of resources and guides that can help customers grow their businesses, all in a cost-effective way. A free SSL certificate is available on all plans. 

Nick Farnborough, co-founder of  Clavis Social , told ZDNET that he has "tried almost every host out there over the years and ultimately found DreamHost to be the best overall package taking into account cost, performance, and ease of use." 

Customers online, too, have applauded the customer support and value for money of this web host, although some also note that reaching customer support teams can be challenging. Prices begin at $2.95 per month for a basic, shared plan, with email available for an additional monthly fee.

Review:   DreamHost review: I'm a satisfied 15-year customer

Best budget web hosting service

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  • Affordable plans
  • Paid plans can become expensive following promotion time periods

Ionos f eatures:  cPanel : Yes |  SSL : Yes, wildcard |  SSH : Yes |  Backups : Daily |  Money-back guarantee : 30 days |  Support : 24/7

Ionos is one of our top picks for affordable, long-term web hosting. The web hosting provider offers reliable, stable uptime with daily backups included on all plans. Free wildcard SSL certificates, email, a free domain, and 24/7 support are included. 

Customers report great customer service and uptime, as well as easy setup and web hosting transitions. 

Basic plans supporting one website and with 10 databases, alongside 10GB storage space, are typically $6/month but while on promotion, the first six months will cost you $4/month. A free domain name is included. 

The top deal at the moment is for Ionos Plus, a website hosting package suitable for larger, scalable projects. You will only pay $1/month for the first six months, and in return, you can operate unlimited websites with unlimited databases and storage. You will also receive a wildcard SSL certificate. However, after six months, the price will jump to $12/month. 

Best web hosting service for the environmentally-conscious

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  • Reasonably priced
  • Eco-friendly
  • On-demand backups limited to premium plans

GreenGeeks f eatures:  cPanel : Yes |  SSL : Free |  SSH : Yes |  Backups : Varies by plan |  Money-back guarantee : 30 days |  Support : Depends on plan

GreenGeeks is a great web hosting option if you want to sign up for a sustainable, eco-conscious service.

GreenGeeks has developed its marketing around the concept of being environmentally friendly, with three times the power your hosting demands replaced with wind power credits and tree planting. 

It's not just the environmental factor, however -- GreenGeeks prides itself on a speedy, reliable service. Although the company's own website could use some modernization and an overhaul, the important part is the hosting, which includes standard hosting, WordPress installs, commerce, VPS, and dedicated tiers. 

You can expect to pay $2.95/month for basic plans, with options to upscale and grow over time. The basic web hosting plan only covers one website with 50GB storage, but once you move up a level, you can expect support for unlimited websites, managed WordPress installs, unlimited space, a free SSL certificate, and more. 

Customers applaud GreenGeek customer service, although there are reports of "hidden" fees related to specific products.

Best web hosting service for GoDaddy domain customers

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  • Free, unlimited SSL for all websites on the Deluxe plan and up
  • Tutorials online to help guide your website-creating process
  • Large payment down to start hosting

GoDaddy f eatures:  cPanel : Some plans |  SSL : Some plans |  SSH : Some plans |  Backups : Some plans |  Money-back guarantee : 30 days for annual plans, 48 hours for monthly plans |  Support : 24/7/365 US-based ticket and phone

GoDaddy has made a business of offering as wide an array of services as possible for individuals and small businesses in need of an internet presence. It's widely known, and many customers enjoy the service.

Pricing begins at $6.99/month for one website. With specific plans, you may be eligible for a free domain name and SSL certificate. Regarding security, automatic WordPress updates are applied and malware scanning services are available. Each plan comes with a one-click WordPress installation, a cPanel, and daily backups. 

Customer service is reasonable, and, although not 24/7, if you need a technical lead to get something accomplished, you can usually find someone with a clue (after jumping through a few hoops, of course). However, the refund policy is restrictive and I would say the host's website is cluttered, making it difficult to find exactly what service you need -- and for what price.

ZDNET author David Gewirtz has decades of experience with GoDaddy, and he has come to respect how this web host provides the key services most customers want. They're definitely not the best at anything, but they do a good job with almost everything. 

"GoDaddy, in my opinion, is the best web host," Gerrid Smith, director of E-commerce of  Joy Organics , told ZDNET. "They promise a minimum of 99.9% availability. To prevent malicious activities and repel DDoS attacks, their security team works around the clock."

Review: GoDaddy: A no muss, no fuss website-building service

Best web hosting service for simple e-commerce

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  • Lots of templates to choose from for beginner web designers
  • Simple interface
  • Website apps available with Wix support
  • Monthly plans are expensive
  • Can't switch templates, must start from scratch

Wix f eatures:  cPanel : No |  SSL : Free |  SSH : No |  Backups : Site history |  Money-back guarantee : 14 days |  Support : 24/7 English call-back

If you've ever watched a YouTube video, you've seen a Wix ad. They are everywhere. With six million premium subscribers, they've got some momentum -- and are certainly capable of grabbing attention.

When selecting a website builder, why would you go with Wix over WordPress? The answer is simplicity. WordPress offers tremendous depth and customization options with plugins and widgets, but Wix quickly gets you up and running with an attractive site. 

There is nothing like the thousands of plugins and themes offered by WordPress in the Wix world, but if you want a well-designed site and you need an e-commerce solution, this is a great option. 

I selected this provider when I assisted someone in setting up a small online business, and the learning curve was easy, with no payment or downtime issues. However, for someone used to CMS backends, the more restrictive website builder can be somewhat frustrating.

Free versions, however, do contain Wix banners. You can start there, and if you like the system, convert to a paid plan and link up your chosen domain name. Plans begin at $16/month with a free domain name thrown in.

What is the best web hosting service overall?

Hostinger is ZDNET's top choice because it offers excellent features at outstanding price points, with a large selection of tools to make the process easy, even for beginner webmasters. Hostinger offers inexpensive plans suitable for the majority of website owners, including a website builder, WordPress integration, templates, emails, SEO, marketing help, and more.

Which web hosting service is right for you?

To help make the process of selecting your new web hosting provider simpler, here is a guide to making your decision less of a hassle, based on what is most important to you. 

Factors to consider when choosing a web hosting service

When selecting your new web hosting provider in 2024, there are some crucial factors you should consider:

  • Reliability : We always recommend you choose a web hosting provider with a long history of stable, reliable service. After all, your website could end up being the central hub of your business for promotion and customer communication, so constant downtime can harm your reputation.
  • Affordability : Your budget must be based on the purpose of your web hosting package. Whether you want a single, small slice of hosting real estate for a personal blog or you want to run a large e-commerce store, it will change how much you should expect to pay. Set a budget that you can easily afford and find the right provider to match you.
  • Scalability : You need to consider what the most important functions or uses of your website will be. If you expect to grow your business over time and you expect heavy traffic, you will need to be able to scale the hosting's capabilities over time. Choose a provider with upgrade options. 
  • Customer support : We find that customer support can be extremely important when you sign up for a web hosting service. Regardless of whether you are a beginner or you want to run a plethora of websites, you should choose a provider with customer support options.

How did we choose these web hosting services?

When we compiled this list, we began with web hosts ZDNET authors are personally familiar with. ZDNET does extensive testing on and research into web hosting providers, taking into consideration user reviews, competitor analysis, personal usage and experiences, and more.

Some of us have been running production websites for decades, with sites that have served millions of pages. Others have used web hosts for personal blogs, writing projects, and to help individuals launch small businesses. 

We chose these providers because we believe they offer some of the best services in the market. These are the main factors we considered:

  • Features offered : Deciding on the best web hosting provider for you requires you to consider what features are a priority. We've included options for CMS implementation, e-commerce, design services, SEO services, cybersecurity functions, and more. 
  • Price : Naturally, the price point is a very important factor when we choose our web hosting provider recommendations. We have included options suitable for varying budgets, all the way from personal blogs to small businesses and large enterprise setups that will need to scale.
  • Stability : We have included only reputable web hosting providers that provide stable services with minimal downtime. After all, there's no point in having a speedy, responsive website if downtime is a constant problem.
  • Customer experiences : If you are going to sign up for a web hosting service for a long period, you need to know how the company treats and supports its customers. We have examined customer reviews and feedback.

Which web host is best for beginners?

Wix and Squarespace are the two web hosts we would recommend for beginners. With an abundance of creative templates between the two platforms, users can gain experience in web development with an attractive site. If you have experience with CMS platforms, you could look at WordPress.com.

Can you get web hosting for free?

Yes. There are many sites that allow for free hosting, but to do so, you will have a generic, branded domain. For example, if you were to have a free WordPress website, your domain would be [yourwebsitename].wordpress.com. 

Be careful, though. Many of the free offers end after a period of time and then you're stuck on a service that will likely charge you a considerable additional fee to keep using it. Or, the website host may allow you to have a free website on the condition that you allow adverts to be displayed.

Who is the largest web hosting company?

GoDaddy is one of the most popular web hosting service providers. Then, of course, there are the hosting plans from Amazon and Google, which are larger (in terms of revenue) than some countries.

What are the best WordPress hosting services?

We might as well get WordPress out of the way since if we're talking web hosts, we're going to talk WordPress. About  63% of websites  with content management systems use  the open-source WordPress CMS . 

The WordPress ecosystem is huge, and finding the right WordPress host is a challenge all its own. Beyond WordPress.com, the service offered by the creators of the CMS, there are a large number of managed hosting providers and an even larger number of hosting providers that specialize in providing a WordPress-optimized server for your website. Nearly every hosting provider will allow a WordPress install, considering its popularity.

What are the best Infrastructure-as-a-Service providers?

Our recommendations include IaaS providers you probably know intimately, such as Amazon. They are highly credible vendors who've been providing infrastructure for years.

If you're just starting, you might not want to go all-in with an IaaS provider, although they offer the most flexibility. Some, like Amazon and Digital Ocean, allow you to point-and-click configure virtual WordPress machines or almost any other open-source content management system you may want. It might be overkill for SMBs, though.

What are the best point-and-click website builders?

A website builder is a type of software that lets you craft your business website, generally without programming knowledge or experience. Many allow you to choose from templates and then modify those templates to suit your look and layout.

Nearly all web hosting providers include some kind of website-building software. But for most hosting plans, it's often an afterthought. By contrast, the website builders listed in this section are provided by web hosting services that have made point-and-click website building tools with excellent customer support and solid up-time a core priority in their offering. 

You do sacrifice some control when choosing a website builder solution, but if you've never done any web development and you want a beautiful, usable website quickly, these services are for you. One warning: There are a lot of lock-ins here. You won't be able to transfer the look of your site (and sometimes the content) to another hosting provider easily. So keep that in mind when you choose a website builder. 

Are there alternative web hosting services to consider?

There are countless web hosting providers out there and not all of them can make the list regarding our top recommendations, despite offering excellent service. Below, you will find other hosts to consider that may be more suitable for your requirements:

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Parent item expand the sub menu, glenn martens on layering fabrics and personalities in diesel fall 2024 collection, pharrell williams invites tyler, the creator, creativity, innovation key for ceos at italian brands, sustainability, ai and e-commerce are top wholesale trends for 2024, study finds.

NuOrder by Lightspeed compiled the top trends to help retailers be more competitive in the year ahead.

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NuORDER by Lightspeed

In a recent report by NuOrder by Lightspeed , the business-to-business marketplace platform, surveyed 65 brands and retail experts looking at wholesale trends for the upcoming year.

Retailers and brands identified e-commerce, sustainability , artificial intelligence and emerging technology , personalization, data and analytics and inventory management as top trends shaping the industry over the next five years.

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The primary challenges brands and retailers foresee they will face include rising costs of business, supply chain disruptions, labor shortages, inventory management, artificial intelligence and emerging tech and data and analytics.

Notably, retailers and brands are both looking for more data fluency through distribution and sales. Looking ahead, the brand-retailer relationship is set to change the wholesale ecosystem through data sharing and collaboration, private label growth, sustainability and ethical practices, flexible terms and conditions and seamless technology integration.

Amid these rapid changes and innovations, companies are looking to adapt by investing in training to ensure employee comfortability, phase-in implementation, partnering and collaborating with tech experts, prioritizing cyber security, staying updated on the latest tools and trends, taking a customer-centric approach and more.

More than 90 percent of survey respondents said that the key to strong collaboration and communication efforts with wholesaler partners are critical to the success of their businesses. Most brands and retailers said that they are taking the approach of creating shared goals, joint problem solving, training and workshops, checking in regularly, transparent decision-making and maintaining an open channel of communication.

As brands and retailers understand their product life cycle and customer journey as an essential practice, they have become savvier to make more informed decisions on product and distribution, access to data and sustainable and ethical initiatives. Metrics used to track the success of wholesale are sell-through, gross margin, order frequency, reorder rate, average order value and total sales.

Sustainability has continued to be a top-of-mind priority amongst wholesalers; the report’s authors note that experts are doubling down on strategies to adapt more sustainable and ethical values.

For More WWD Business News

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Walmart Reports Rising Holiday Sales as Shoppers Seek Value

The number of transactions at the retail giant rose 4.3 percent, but the average ticket price decreased by 0.3 percent, a sign that shoppers spent a little less during shopping trips.

Jordyn Holman

By Jordyn Holman

Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer, said on Tuesday that sales rose in the fourth quarter over the previous year, offering one of the first looks at how Americans shopped during the crucial holiday season.

A woman with a shopping cart, and a child in the cart’s seat, in an aisle filled with merchandise inside a Walmart Supercenter.

The Numbers

Walmart said its comparable store sales were up 4 percent in the three months that ended in late January compared with the year before. The number of transactions at Walmart rose 4.3 percent, but the average ticket price slightly decreased 0.3 percent, a sign that shoppers spent a little less on shopping trips.

The retailer’s online U.S. sales increased 17 percent, and its online global sales jumped 23 percent, surpassing $100 billion. Losses for the e-commerce business were slowing as the company spent less on fulfillment costs, John David Rainey, Walmart’s chief financial officer, said in an interview. He added that more customers were using Walmart’s delivery services, helping to reduce costs.

“Instead of a Walmart delivery being delivered to one house on a cul-de-sac, now we’re dropping it off at two or three houses from that cul-de-sac,” Mr. Rainey said.

At the same time, he added, U.S. shoppers were pulling back on discretionary purchases, like computers, TVs and other electronics. “Those are the parts of our business where we see less sales growth versus some of the more everyday essentials,” he said.

The Bigger Picture

Walmart is one of the first major retailers to report fourth-quarter earnings. Companies including Target, Macy’s and Kroger will do so in the coming weeks.

Many retailers, including Walmart, focused on value last year as the economy cooled and shoppers became more selective. Walmart’s sizable grocery business and emphasis on low prices helped insulate it from the sales declines that other retailers reported . The company said on Tuesday that its strong comparable sales were underpinned by sales in its food business.

“In food, prices are lower than a year ago in places like eggs, apples and deli snacks, but higher in other places like asparagus and blackberries,” Doug McMillon, Walmart’s chief executive, said during an earnings call on Tuesday.

Mr. Rainey said Walmart had a wider assortment of private label brands now than it did two years ago, as it caters to shoppers looking for lower priced items.

Walmart also said it would acquire the television maker Vizio in a deal worth $2.3 billion as it continued to increase Walmart Connect, its fast-growing advertising and media business.

The Road Ahead

During the high inflationary period in 2022 and through the middle of last year, Walmart won over many customers who were in search of lower prices. The company particularly drew more shoppers with household incomes of more than $100,000. Analysts and investors want to see whether the retailer can keep them as inflation subsides.

General merchandise, which includes apparel and home décor, continues to be bolstered by higher-income shoppers, Mr. Rainey said. Two-thirds of the share gain in that category came from households making more than $100,000.

Gaining more new customers will become increasingly difficult, testing Walmart’s ability to continue its sales growth momentum, said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData.

“This essentially puts Walmart in the position of having to work far harder and more creatively to generate growth,” he said in an email.

Still, Walmart sees this as a time to expand. Last month, it said it planned to add 150 U.S. stores, a big jump from the past few years. It has also been increasing pay, bonuses and benefits for store managers in a bid to retain them. On Tuesday, it said it expected both net sales and operating income to increase this year.

These will be metrics that analysts will be watching closely as they expect retail sales industrywide to moderate this year after a surge in consumer spending in the early stages of the pandemic.

Jordyn Holman is a business reporter for The Times, covering the retail industry and consumer behavior. More about Jordyn Holman

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  1. Ecommerce Business Plan (FREE How To Guide + PDF Sample Template)

    Ecommerce Business Plan (FREE How To Guide + PDF Sample Template) How to Make an Ecommerce Business Plan for Your Startup Written by Darren DeMatas Updated January 30, 2024 In addition to receiving commissions generated through affiliate marketing, we are able to fund our independent research and reviews at no extra cost to our readers. Learn more.

  2. How to Write an Ecommerce Business Plan [Examples & Template]

    An e-commerce business plan is a document that outlines your business and its goals, analyzes your industry and competitors, and identifies the resources needed to execute your plan. It also lists the e-commerce retailers you'll use to distribute your products and the marketing strategies you'll use to drive sales.

  3. How to Write the Ultimate eCommerce Business Plan

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  11. How to Start an E-commerce Business: A 2024 Guide

    There are four basic types: Business-to-customer (B2C): A common business model, in which a business sells to consumers, anything from spices to shoes. B2C brands can sell different brands under one umbrella, such as Amazon, Walmart, and Alibaba. Business-to-business (B2B): In B2B models, businesses sell products or services to other businesses.

  12. How to Write an E-Commerce Business Plan (Step-by-Step)

    Whether you're seeking investment or planning your e-commerce marketing strategy, it's vital you get all this information down in one place. Make sure to include your: Company name. Industry. Business structure (e.g. sole proprietor, partnership, LLC) Vision, mission statement, and value proposition.

  13. Ecommerce Business Plan Template: How to Make Business Plans

    Read on - the ecommerce business plan template below offers a handy framework to get you started. Executive Summary. Like a blurb on the back of a book or an abstract at the start of an academic article, an executive summary is designed to give time-poor readers a concise, compelling overview of your ecommerce business plan's contents.

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  17. How To Make an E-commerce Business Plan

    An e-commerce business plan is a written document that details and outlines your business, your business goals, and how to achieve them. It also describes how you plan to maintain and scale your business, financial plans, customer base, and many other details that help you manage the direction of your e-commerce business.

  18. How to write an e-commerce business plan

    In summary, here are the six key steps involved in writing a watertight e-commerce business plan: Determine your e-commerce business's goals. Draw up your company identity card. Carry out market research. Create a marketing strategy. Plan how to manage the logistics chain. Consolidate your financial plan.

  19. How to Start an Ecommerce Business: A Simple 7-Step Guide

    5. Write a Business Plan. Your ecommerce business plan should outline your company's goals, the strategies to achieve these goals, plus your target market, financial projections, and operational structure. This document should act as a reference point and a roadmap for your business. And answer some important business-focused questions.

  20. How to Start an E-Commerce Business In 2024

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  21. E-commerce Business Plan Template

    This e-commerce business plan template is tailored specifically to e-commerce businesses, and all you need to do is add the details of your company. Business Overview. If the business has legally been in existence for a little while, add some context for what's been accomplished since the business was founded and where it's at now e.g ...

  22. 6-Part Ecommerce Business Plan (Template Included)

    Use This Ecommerce Business Plan Template To Enter Your Business Model. Business Costs vs. Potential Revenue. Your potential revenue is derived from your SOM. Knowing you won't take 100% or even 10% of a market will help you estimate a realistic financial overview for your industry choice.

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    Check out our eCommerce sample plans and successfully get your online shop up and running today with a refined business plan. If you're looking to develop a more modern business plan, we recommend you try LivePlan. It contains the same templates and information you see here, but with additional guidance to help you develop the perfect plan.

  25. How to Create an E-Commerce Business Plan

    Company Description. Begin with the basics. Give an overview of the business, listing high-level goals first and then sharing the details regarding what makes your e-commerce business stand out from the crowd. You may also include a business ownership section — where you talk about the main partners behind the business.

  26. Building an E-Commerce Website: 11 Experts Offer Best Practices

    How to build a successful e-commerce website 1. Invest in AI chatbots "[Including] AI chatbots in your digital marketing strategy helps foster communication with customers, leading to quicker ...

  27. Best Free E-commerce Platforms in 2024

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  29. Wholesale Trends 2024: Sustainability, AI and E-commerce

    Sustainability, AI and E-commerce Are Top Wholesale Trends for 2024, Study Finds. NuOrder by Lightspeed compiled the top trends to help retailers be more competitive in the year ahead.

  30. Walmart's Earnings Rise on Holiday Sales and Surging E-Commerce

    The number of transactions at the retail giant rose 4.3 percent, but the average ticket price decreased by 0.3 percent, a sign that shoppers spent a little less during shopping trips.