How To Start Your Own Online Gift Store

A great internet business is your very own online gift store, already stocked with products or one that you design yourself. There are internet-based gift stores that are free to sign up for and fully stocked so that you can start selling from them immediately and begin earning extra income. They offer you a variety of items to sell. They allow you the ability to purchase items yourself at the wholesale price. This is a great business that can be marketed online as well as off.

Another moneymaking outlet for your gift store items is to sell on auctions. EBay is the biggest auction site on the internet, but not the only one. There are many more online auction sites popping up. Some offer free sign up to sell on their auction site with no listing fees. You can choose a product to feature for auction from your gift store items. You can also find dropshipping companies that sell to you at wholesale prices. You auction the product, then once you make the sale you place the order with the dropshipper who sends out the order for you. If you prefer, you could also sign up for a free storefront website with a shopping cart and place pictures and text links of items for sale from your chosen dropshipper, with prices that you set. Once the customer places the order with you and submits payment, you in turn submit the order with payment to your dropshipper at the wholesale price and they send the order out for you with plain labels. You never have to touch the item or stock inventory.

To market online you can submit your site to search engines, directories and classified ads. Other ways of marketing your gift store business, if you really want to focus on the area of sales and not signing up other store owners, is getting listed in directories such as the Dmoz shopping directory and the Yahoo shopping directory.

Another great way to sell your store items is at Sell.com. You place a classified ad with photos for your item or items for 30 days at the low, low, low price of only $1. You and the buyer negotiate back and forth on the price and there are no final transaction fees that you pay to Sell.comLet your creative juices flow and create a shopping blog and write articles about shopping trends, trade links with other high traffic shopping sites and be sure to place a link to your store on your blog. Submit your blog to the Blog Search Engine.

To market your store offline, write up small ads, preferably 4 ads to an 8 ½ by 11 sheet of paper and place them in grocery stores that have bulletin boards. Stop by the library or FedEx Kinko’s, or wherever the general public uses a computer for internet access and leave a few of your small flyers underneath the keyboard, slightly exposed, but not enough to draw attention for them to be moved and discarded.

Buy Avery business card stock paper and create business cards with your store name and web site address and pass them out to family and friends. Call on small shop owners and let them know that you sell gifts online and ask them if they might be interested in purchasing items from you in bulk amounts at discount prices. You can sell the items to them for a little over your cost and still make a profit and in turn gain a possible long term customer.

There are many creative ways to market your business online and offline. Please be realistic and understand that to grow ANY business takes time, patience and diligence. But with much effort, you will be successful.