8 Useful Tips to Start a General Online Store in 2022

Are you planning to start a general online store in 2022?

That’s great! However, to build a successful online store in these times, you will need to have a proper plan in place.

Online shopping has taken over the world, and you will have to face competition carrying big names like Amazon, eBay, Walmart, and more.

But that’s okay! There is no need to worry.

With the rise of social media and various ecommerce services, anyone can start a general online store today and sell products on platforms like Shopify, Instagram, Facebook, and more.

This article will give you eight tips that will help you start a successful general online store.

If you’ve got your heart set on the idea of starting a general online store, you will get a leg up with these tips!

Why you should start a general online store in 2022

Did you know that online shopping is one of the fastest-growing retail industry segments?

Just take a look at the growth of retail ecommerce sales worldwide:

You can see that the sales are overgrowing. From 2020 to 2027, the global ecommerce market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 14.7%!

In this image, the effect of the worldwide pandemic on ecommerce sales can also be seen. Global ecommerce sales increased by nearly a trillion US dollars from 2019 to 2020 due to the increase in online shopping!

Online shopping is one of the most popular online activities worldwide, and to grab a slice of the pie, you will have to set up your online store!

When starting a general online store, you will have several advantages over choosing a niche or one-product store.

First of all, you can add any product you want to a general store. A specific niche does not limit you! So, if you see a new trending product that you would like to sell, you can create a product page for the product and start selling it.

No worries about whether or not the product will fit in your niche; import it, and you’re done!

Another advantage of starting a general online store is reaching more people.

By offering different products, you attract different kinds of people. Therefore, you will theoretically be able to grab a bigger piece of the pie by starting a general store!

8 Tips for starting a general online store

If you are going to start a general online store, there are a couple of things that you should remember.

Following these eight tips will make starting a profitable general online store easier and less stressful!

Let’s start with the first tip:

1. Realize that starting a general online store generally requires more work

First of all, you should be aware that starting a new general online store generally requires more work compared to starting a new niche store.

This is true for a couple of reasons.

A general store often sells more products than a niche store, for starters. For each product, you need to find high-quality images and videos and take the time to craft a fantastic product description.

Since the number of products on your online store will be larger for a general store, this process requires more work.

Also, don’t forget that it also takes time to manage all your products. You will have to monitor each product’s inventory and pricing continuously.

To slightly reduce the required work, you can also choose to focus on a couple of “main” products that you will be advertising. That way, you can design the best possible product pages for those products and use the other products on your online store as “fillers.”

Besides having to create product pages for more products, there is another reason why general stores often require a bit more work.

When running a general store, you offer products in all kinds of different niches. Well, this increases the chances of you having to work with multiple suppliers. Working with multiple suppliers requires more work, both in the setup and the management.

2. Get inspiration from other stores.

Before really getting started with creating your brand-new general online store, a nice thing to do is get inspiration from other general stores.

By simply looking at other general stores and seeing how they designed their store, what products they sell, how their product descriptions look, and more, you will get an idea of what is possible. Besides that, you may get some new ideas that you can implement for your store!

For example, you might see a clever way of upselling that you haven’t seen or thought of before when looking at a different store. Now, you can write down that idea and implement it on your general online store later on!

3. Choose the right theme.

After looking at other general online stores for inspiration, you can start with the first steps of creating your store.

A general online store often offers many different products in many different categories. Therefore, choosing a theme that fits a general online store is crucial.

So, how do you know if a specific theme will fit a general store?

Well, in essence, you should try to look for themes that work great for a store with a large number of product categories and inventories. If you use Shopify, you can filter the themes in their theme store. Themes that you will find in this collection will often support features like mega menus, advanced product filtering or search, and more.

4. Keep your store name neutral.

Naming your general online store will be different from creating a niche online store.

For example, you wouldn’t want to call your general online store something like “Musicshop.com.”

A name like this will imply that you are selling products in the music niche. However, since your goal is to start a general online store, you will likely be selling products in other places as well!

Therefore, a name like that wouldn’t fit a general online store.

Often, general online stores have more “neutral” names that allow them to sell products in different categories.

And if coming up with a name for your new online store isn’t your thing, then remember some tools and methods that can help you come up with a great name!

5. Try to minimize the number of suppliers you are working with

A general store sells products in all kinds of different niches. Consequently, it isn’t easy to source all your products from a single supplier, especially when working with niche suppliers! This is why it’s natural for a general online store to work with multiple suppliers.

For example, what happens when a customer orders multiple products that need to be sourced from different suppliers?

Since different suppliers will supply those products, your customer will receive their orders in separate packages. Therefore, it is best to try and source the products on your general online store from as few suppliers as possible. It will simplify the process and leave you more time for other essential tasks.

6. Add a disclaimer to your shipping policy or FAQ page

Suppose you will work with multiple suppliers for your general online store. In that case, you should add a release to your shipping policy or FAQ page, which states that your customers may receive multiple separate packages if they order multiple items.

By doing this, your customers won’t be surprised when their entire order isn’t in one package, and it will save you a lot of time since you won’t have to answer all the support emails you will get.

7. Keep an eye on trending products while running your store

One of the upsides of running a general online store is that you can always add trending products to your store and start selling them. Since you are running a general store, pretty much any product will fit!

By keeping an eye on trending products while running your general online store, you will be able to capitalize on new trends by starting to sell those new trending products as one of the first stores.

8. Test products until you find a winner

One last tip for starting a general online store is testing, testing, and testing until you find a winning product. Once you have found a winning product, a great option is to proceed and build a niche store or a private label brand around that product. A private label brand will allow you to scale even higher.

Your product will be branded, so its perceived value will increase. Besides that, you will have to deal with less competition since you’re the only vendor for that exact product.

Lastly, a private-labeled product includes your company’s name and logo, positively affecting customer loyalty and word-of-mouth marketing.

Conclusion

Hopefully, this article gave you a better understanding of starting a general online store.

A general online store is different from a niche store, so there are a couple of things you should know about before leaping.

If you are still debating whether or not a general online store will be the right decision, after reading it, you will be able to answer the question: “Will I go for a general or a niche store?”

I hope you enjoyed reading this article, and I wish you a great rest of your day!