You always wanted to open your online shop but you thought it was difficult and expensive? This article is just for you! I will show you a tool that will let you start an online store for zero dollars. You may feel overwhelmed at first. But by using these applications you will make your beginnings easier. Making your dreams come true!
It’s easy to start an online store for zero dollars.
Don’t worry if you don’t know how to start. Get to know each element, in turn, take your time. Using these tools you will able to create an online store with no investment. Each app helps you with different jobs you should do as a virtual shop owner. You will have to plan, design, make ads and of course, develop a website where you can make a purchase. These are your challenges but if you will use these tools it will be a pleasure!
Name – name your brand
Namelix – generate store name using AI
Don’t waste too much time finding the best name. Generate it for free. After you provide generating settings, you will get many propositions to choose from. But remember that your store name should be: original, and easy to remember!
Planing
Notion – hybrid of docs and databases
You are the hero and you wanna start an online store, for sure you need a plan! Notion let you take a note, create a to-do list, or store items that you wanna sell in databases. The possibilities with this app are endless! In the beginning, it can be tricky, but when you learn how to use blocks, you will love it. With Notion, you can create a board that helps you keep on track with what you should do, as you see in the image. Also, You can make a database with whatever data you want without programming skills. This app has so user-friendly UI that everybody can do the magic.
Google docs – just docs, but online and free
Just an old text editor but oh so useful!
Design
Canva – create graphics
For sure, you wanna have a nice-looking online store. You will need a good graphics program to do this. Most people can’t use photoshop but that’s not a loss. Canva allows you to create beautiful graphics quickly and easily. It is very intuitive to use, anyone can handle it. There are many elements that you can use, it will definitely be enough to start! In this program, you will be able to create graphics for the website, marketing materials, or even a logo. Remember a good picture attracts attention! Try it!
Shop
If you wanna start an online store for zero dollars, you need a free shop platform! There are many tools available to make an online store. I chose for you 3 + 1 in my opinion the best free solutions for a free start. They differ in their approach to sales and the degree of configuration difficulty.
Square
You should not worry that the company is focused on stationary sales. They provide a great platform to build an online store without much technical knowledge. You will find tutorials on how to set up a shop in 15 minutes, on youtube! There you will find everything you need to start your adventure with online sales. The store can be easily integrated with a stationary point of sale. If you want to sell both online and offline, this is the ideal choice for you. And also perfect as a starting point for online selling journey.
Ecwid
A system that approaches sales a little differently. In the free version, it allows you to create an online store on an existing website. But in the paid version, the platform allows you to manage online stores on social media such as Facebook, Intagram, and on Amazon or eBay. If your plan is to sell on these platforms, this app is worth considering. In the future, it will allow you to manage all sales channels from one place! Ecwid itself won’t create your online store, it’s just an extension to website builder. They provide integration with such website builders as WordPress, Wix or Google site. But don’t be put off by this, the setup is very intuitive!
Woocommerce
The most advanced solution on the list. It will allow you to create a small online store and scale it to a substantial size. Many huge stores use Woocommerce. Jest to rozszerzenie do WordPress, so you should have WordPress site to use it. It’s not the easiest to set up, but you’ll find a lot of youtube tutorials. For sure you deal with it with a little patience. It’s worth spending a little more preparation if you’re going to be selling a lot of items and you like to keep things under control. Woocommerce has tons of add-on apps that will let you do extra work. You will definitely not regret this choice!
Gumroad
Not interested in physical products? Want to sell only virtual products? This app is special for you. An easy way to create an online store with a miserable design. you should be able to do it in less than an hour when setting up Gumroad for the first time! It is a service without a monthly fee, it only charges commissions on transactions. Perfect for selling your ebooks, courses or programs.
Statiscic
Google analytics – get to know and understand your traffic
The best free tool for collecting analytics from your website. You will surely be interested in traffic statistics on your store. The most important metrics you should be interested in are website visits, time spent on the pages and the number of actions taken. Google analytics can be connected to any store builder(all of the above). By this data, you will be able to find out which products are the most popular, or at which stage of the purchase flow most users give up. You don’t analyze, you don’t sell, check power of analytics.
Links
Rebrandly – link management
Manage your links like a pro! You will be able to generate more user-friendly links. Not only that, you’ll be able to track clicks. A noteworthy feature is changing the destination to which the link leads. This functionality will protect you from losing customers when the link to your product changes. It is very easy to implement, it’s a pity not to use it!
Marketing
TikTok
Tiktok allows you to reach a lot of people for free. You can achieve a really good number of views by creating content for free. The video that will be added to the platform will appear on the “For You” page to people who, according to the algorithm, will be interested in your content. When the algorithm sees that your video is liked by users, it will display it to a wider audience. On youtube, you will find a lot of guides on how to create good content on Tiktok. This is the best form of free marketing.
Reddit, Quora
Another place where you can encourage people to use your store by helping them is Reddit and Quora. You should look for problems that your product solves. To persuade users to visit your site, you can’t just paste a link in a comment. You have to help him as best as you can and discreetly direct him to your store, that he finds more help there for his problem.
Facebook groups
A good place to advertise your products will be Facebook groups whose main topic is what you sell. It is worth helping people in the comments and directing them to your store. You have to be careful because many groups do not allow advertising, you can not do it intrusively!
Automation
Zapier – automate task
As a newbie you will have many new things to figure out. It’s worth automating everything you can so you will have more time for it. Zapier comes with a helping hand. This will allow you to perform actions automatically without the need for your intervention. Tasks can be performed periodically or triggered by action. An example of such tasks may be transferring orders from the store to the database or sending discounts for users birthday. There are plenty of possibilities, find out more here.
Do it!
You are the hero of this story. You’ve met a tool that will let you start an online store for zero dollars. Technology is with you, now everything is in your hands. Don’t wait for a special moment. Give it a try, it may be hard at first, but if you are consistent, you will definitely succeed!
If you want more, check our article about how to start a business for 0$.
