Anyone have their own online store?

if you are in LA

LINK

will help with the state part... local laws need to be investigated

My buddy started one. It was a little work on the front end but its now just sitting out there. Its all gravy for him on the back-end but I haven't asked him about the traffic or sales info since last summer. I know he's still working so he hasn't hit the bigtime yet, so to speak.

Yes it's what I do for a living.

Check storecoach.com as a good resource.

Ask me any questions and I will try to help.

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do you stock your inventory or drop ship?

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Both. For my primary product line I keep quite a bit of product on hand. If I run out or sell a rare item the manufacturer will drop shop for me.

It can be hard to find a reliable drop shipper. Even reliable manufacturers sometimes aren't good at shipping an order at a time to consumers.

Right now I'm looking for new product lined to sell and fur to storage, hassle of shipping etc I'm trying to do these as drop ship.

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If you don't want to post too much on here I understand

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Yeah, sorry I don't want to post that info. But if you go that storecoach.com site (not affiliated with them at all) you'll get plenty of good info on where to start. Some of the features you have to pay for but you can learn plenty for free. They also have a pretty good forum.

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so i assume you have a warehouse with your product stocked? is this a full time job or do you work basically when you want

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Yes, I stock it at my own warehouse.

It was a side job that complicated my main job. I'm moving into as more a full time job now. While the hours are more flexible then traditional retail or even many office jobs it takes a decent bit more work to do things then one may consider. Especially if you are doing everything on your own like a I do.

I design and develop the sites, add the products, work with vendors, answer all the calls and do all of the shipping. I don't have nearly enough $$$ coming in to pay someone to help in the office as the volume is still low.

On thing to remember about the hours is that you want to make yourself available as much as possible. It may be 9:50 here right now but its only 7:50 on the west coast and you don't want to miss that sale so you may need to take a phone call. It just depends on if you want to me that aggressive. I take calls day and night whenever I can, 7 days a week. Of course some people want a clear divide in their off time and work time.

The most difficult things about the job are ranking in search engines and making decent margins. There are people constantly undercutting you. Many people start out in e-commerce and keep such thin margins that they can't make it longterm. But in the meantime it devalues your product and you don't end up making money either.

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I wouldn't want to handle the returns for that

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think this will be fun way to get a little extra spending money from.

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I wouldn't hold on too hard to the expectation of it being fun. But, good luck to you if you do decide to give it a shot.

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What's the market like for your product? Are there major competitors, or is it more of a niche product?

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There is some pretty decent competition out there. All things considered it is niche but can be found on some big sites. Thankfully I have buy in bulk and have good buying power on this line.