Gifts are evergreen products in the business industry because there are always some occasions for which people buy expensive gifts for their special ones. Now business-minded people are always looking for such opportunities to start a business and make money from it.
So let’s decode the gift market today and understand how to start an online gift store with almost no industry knowledge. You can break into this industry with an online store and sell your gift items. but this is easier said than done, this market seems easy and requires less investment so there is a lot of competition too.
Today in this article you will learn how to start an online gift store from scratch and different business models that people are using to sell gift items, which one is more feasible and profitable. We will also discuss the best marketing strategies you can follow to boost your sales using social media and content creation strategies.
How to Start An Online Gift Store In 7 Steps
1. Market Analysis
the first step whenever you are starting or thinking about starting a business should be market research, you should analyze the market deeply to understand the business model and work from the inside because there is a huge difference between reading about a business and doing the business.
There are many things you can analyze to determine the market situation like:
- Market Competition
- Consumer Demand
- Business Situations during
- Investment and Profit Margins
- Current Market Trend
Analyzing the market will help you to make critical decisions like selecting a profitable niche and your target audience.
2. Create a Business Plan
Creating a business plan is very important, you have to assign various roles manage business finances carefully, and decide the roles of different people in your business.
Sometimes we assign our known people like brothers, sisters, friends, or relatives some important position without knowing that they are incapable of doing that or they are just not contributing anything to the company.
So it’s very important to choose the right people for your business that can manage the resources properly, also you have to be prepared for the losses in the initial days and plan for the next 5-6 months.
Maintaining cash flow in the business is a very important aspect of the business without cash flow, the business will fall apart within a day.
3. Choose a Niche
The gift business is a wide business and various products come under this like watches, antiques, paintings, jewelry,
Here are some criteria that will help you to decide your niche
- Your Investment amount
- Inventory Management
- Your Target Audience
- Market Size
- Seasonal Demand
4. Find A Supplier
Since we are not manufacturing the products directly, obviously we don’t own any factory otherwise you won’t be reading this article, Jokes aside. We have to choose a supplier so that he can supply our gift items.
Our work would be packing and shipping the orders received on our online store. Now there are two ways to choose a supplier.
- Directly visit the Factory
- Find a Supplier Online
- Dropship
Online Shop provides you the flexibility to choose from different product fulfillment options like directly buying from the factory. In this model, you visit some factories and choose the product from your niche directly from the supplier.
The supplier can be near you and sometimes the supplier can be from a different state. You have to notice that transport management will be from the supplier to your inventory. So any damage done during transport will be returned to the manufacturer.
The second way to find a supplier is to go online and search for wholesale suppliers a popular wholesale market for gift items is Alibaba. Here you can buy the products in bulk and they will ship the products from China to your door, you just have to take care of some documents during customs clearance.
Alibaba is my favorite website because it’s cheap and offers a variety of products.
The third way to start a gift store is drop ship, this is a very popular method to sell products online without any inventory management, in simple words you list the product on your website, sell it, and forward that order to the supplier, the supplier will ship the product to the customer directly and you will get your commission.
5. Setup your Online Website
You have products, now it’s time to create a website and list your products so that people can buy gifts from your online store.
There are many ways to set up an online store like using Shopify, wordpress, Wix, and Squarespace. You can hire a website developer from online platforms like Fiverr or Upwork and he can create a beautiful online store for around $200-$300.
Make sure to choose a unique domain so that customers feel that they are buying from a premium store.
Once your Website is set up you can start listing your products on the website. You can hire someone to list the products and descriptions of the products or you can do it yourself it yourself if there are not many products to list.
6. Marketing Plan
As I already told you, there is a lot of competition in the market, so how people are going to find you in the crowd? The simple answer is with the help of marketing and advertising, today every business has a presence on social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.
Social Media Platform will help you in free marketing and get customers for you. Small Business Owners are recording their mini blogs and posting on Instagram and YouTube shorts. That is helping them to convert more customers.
The second method is direct advertising on platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
Read: 9 Ways To Get Customers To Your Business
7. Pack And Ship
After your advertising and other marketing campaigns, you will start receiving orders. So it’s time to pack those orders and ship them. You can choose delivery service if you choose, there are many delivery services for small businesses.
Don’t go for the cheapest one when you are just starting because we don’t want customers receiving broken or messed up products after all it’s a gift item.
You also need to be careful while packing, if your product is fragile make sure you are using bubble wrappers to protect it while transporting.
Investment and Profit Margin
Revenue from your Gift shop can vary depending upon the products and quantity you are selling and also it depends heavily on the type of product like premium watches and decorative paintings, which can be sold at higher prices than usual.
The average gift shop owner in the USA can make between $300,000-$600,000 per annum, and these numbers can change depending on your business strategy.
How to Increase Your Gift Sales?
There are many ways to increase sales on your online Gift shop:
- Use Diverse Product Range :
- Follow the Market Trend :
Is Online Gift Shop profitable?
Yes, Online gift shops are profitable gift products can be sold on a 5-6x profit margin than the other items. You just have to choose the right product and select a marketing strategy. Once you start getting sales from an organic audience, your profit margin will increase exponentially.
