- Analytics & Performance
- Financial & Legal
- Site Building
- Third-Party Selling
How to Plan Revenue-Driving Ecommerce Initiatives
How to Start Selling to Customers Internationally
6 Best Practices for Ecommerce A/B Tests
A Brief Look at Ecommerce Bounce Rate—and How to Curb It
- Branding & Design
- Customer Acquisition & Retention
- Holiday Planning
- Products & Presentation
Inspire Brand Trust With User-Generated Content
Best Practices for Improving Your Email Deliverability
The 6 Grammar Rules You Can (and Should) Break
The 5 C's of Marketing: Situation Analysis Template
- Email Marketing
- Paid Search
- Social Media
The 5 Best SEO Books of 2020
How Entrepreneurs Can Deal with Failure (Large or Small)
How to Overcome the Lesser-Known Challenges of Running an Ecommerce Store
The Top 5 Books to Read About Design
- Ecommerce News
- Ecommerce Studies
- Volusion Merchant Stories
- Volusion Updates
- Tips for Success
- Volusion Product
- Volusion Webinars
Customize Your Newsletter Experience
Feel free to choose industries that you're interested in..
There was an error subscribing. Try refreshing the page and submitting again.
Thank you for subscribing!
Back to Blog
Ecommerce Business Plans: Examples, Templates, & A Detailed Walkthrough
So you have an idea, a product to sell and the drive to get started. You might be tempted to jump right in and start building your business without a formal business plan. Don't.
We've been in the ecommerce business for 20 years, and we've seen thousands of online stores come and go. The number one mistake new merchants make is failing to create a business plan before getting started. If you’re serious about starting an online business – or if you're currently running a business without a plan – you will benefit from a business plan.
The number one mistake new merchants make is failing to create a business plan. Businesses without a business plan are more likely to fail.
At their core, ecommerce business plans compel you to think critically about every major component of your online store, allowing you to identify and avoid major problems before getting started. Your business plan will become the cornerstone of how you budget, how you spend, what products you sell and who you sell them to, how you talk about your business, and much more. To put it bluntly, businesses without a business plan are more likely to fail.
Does My Online Store Need A Business Plan?
Yes. Every ecommerce company can benefit from a solid business plan. Here are the main benefits of creating a business plan:
If You’re Just Starting Out: A business plan will help you set clear goals and create an action plan to achieve them. It will also help you realistically estimate and budget for the costs of your new business. If You’re Seeking Outside Funding: A business plan is a standard way to show potential investors why it’s worth betting on your business. Most financing options require a business plan before moving forward. If You’re Considering Going All In: If you’re considering making your ecommerce business a full-time job, a business plan can help you determine if its a viable option.
If you already have a business plan, great! Use the info below to verify that you’re on the right track, and revise your strategy if needed. If you don’t yet have one, here is where you can learn everything you need to know to lay down a strong foundation for your online store. Here's an example of a business plan we made up for an ecommerce store, to give you a sense of what you're working toward:
Ecommerce Business Plan Example
How long and thorough should my business plan be?
For the most part, a business plan for your online store will look quite similar to the business plans you’d see for a brick-and-mortar shop, a restaurant or even a large company. The level of detail you provide for each main point may vary, and that’s just fine; for some people, business plans are 100-page books that cover every possible detail or circumstance, and for others, ten pages is enough to get the creative juices flowing and to establish a basic rubric or guide to follow.
Business plans should feel manageable, helpful and creative, so don’t turn them into a daunting project if you don’t have to!
If you’re applying for a business loan or seeking funding from an investor, the U.S. Small Business Administration recommends a 30-50 page plan. If you’re not looking for outside funding, we suggest starting small, with a goal of a few paragraphs per bullet point. You can always expand as you see fit. Business plans should feel manageable, helpful and creative, so don’t turn them into a daunting project if you don’t have to!
As you move through our suggested outline, remember that unless otherwise specified, you can start with any section you like. While it does make sense to move linearly, if you’re most passionate about the marketing part of your business or you’re an accounting whiz and you want to start with what you know best, go for it! Beginning with the part that excites you the most will give you the confidence and momentum to complete the rest of the business plan.
In most cases, your ecommerce business plan should contain the following elements at a minimum.
Creating Your Own Ecommerce Business Plan
Now that you have an idea of the scope and content of a business plan, here's how to write one for your own ecommerce store. We'll start with the broadest aspects of your business, and then focus in on the important details.
1. Company Description
Start with the basics. Your company description is an overview of your business, providing high-level goals and diving into the details about what makes your company tick. Your company description may include:
Business Ownership
The business ownership section of your business plan will help you sort out who is doing what and why they're qualified to do it.
- List the owners of your ecommerce business. If the business has multiple owners, list them separately. Make a note of each owner's level of ownership and the responsibilities they've agreed to take on.
- List the founder(s) of your ecommerce business, and what drove them to start the business in the first place.
- List the people that are responsible for operating your business (if different than the owners).
- List the personal and professional qualifications, qualities, and experiences that make your business operators qualified to run the business. (For example, professional certifications, "50 years of combined experience", "river-rafting guide" - whatever gives you credibility!) It's also a good idea to list qualifications that you wish you had but don't, and create brief plans on how to acquire them.
- List your business model - are you selling directly to customers, or using a business to business (B2B) model?
- List your type of business - e.g. solo proprietorship, partnership, LLC
2. Products
Now it’s time for the fun part: Describe what you’re actually selling! Start with a high-level look at the products you currently sell along with products you plan on selling in the future, focusing on their specifications and benefits.
- Main Product Lines: Summarize your main product lines - what types of things does your store sell? Don't list every product in your catalogue, try to restrict it to broad categories, such as "graphic print tees". Emphasize the benefits or competitive advantages of your product lines: You aren’t just selling dresses, you’re selling whimsical or quirky dresses. You can also add a little bit of a “human” element about why you chose those products and what makes them so special to you. Then go into a bit more detail with the following information:
- Differentiators: There are plenty of quirky dresses out there, so what makes yours different? Perhaps each dress is handmade (or handmade-quality) and fully-lined, which is a huge differentiator in today’s current atmosphere of “fast fashion” or disposable clothing. If they are high-quality, maybe you sell them at a price that’s lower than the typical price point for dresses of that caliber. Maybe you only use U.S. designers and manufacturers. Perhaps you hand-design original fabric that nobody else sells. Try using the “in a world” format to make this section a little easier: “In a world of X, my product does Y.”
- Product Sourcing: How will you acquire each of the products you listed? List your different product sources, storage locations, and include data on how to get in touch with your suppliers.
- Costs: This doesn’t need to be a full financial run-down (we’ll get to that later) but should instead provide a basic overview of how much your products will cost, on average, to acquire, and how much they’ll cost for the customers. Consider referencing competitors in this section to make sure your pricing is standard for your industry – or better.
- Life cycle: How long do your products last? If they are seasonal, when and how will you acquire new stock, and what will you do with the old? How often will your target market expect to see new items? With dresses, for example, people might return often to check out what’s new – particularly as events come up or as seasons change.
3. Operations
This pertains to the logistics and 'moving parts' of your business - how you're getting your products from the manufacturer to your customers. Don't worry about costs yet - we'll cover that later.
- Where will your business operate? List any physical locations related to business operations. This may be your home office, a rented space, a new headquarters, etc.
- List your staff and management team
- List your product suppliers, or how you will create/acquire what you're selling.
- List your packaging providers
- List your storage spaces
- List your shipping providers
- List third-party service providers (such as your ecommerce provider, subscription-based tools, etc.)
- Create brief descriptions of the fulfillment, shipping, and payment collections processes. Now for some nitty-gritty stuff. Your operational plan may feel like the “boring” part of your business plan, but it’s important – and it’ll give your creative brain a break for a little while.
4. Market Analysis
Market analysis will tell you whether or not people will buy what you're selling. It's broken down into three main sections:
- Audience Segmentation What key demographics are you going to serve? Where do they live, how old are they, how much money do they make, and what do they value? As you think about your target audience, it is helpful to create “Buyer Personas,” which are separate individual characters representing your various demographic sets. If you’ve sold your product already, discuss who made the purchases and what they purchased.
- Industry Analysis: What does the market look like for your industry overall? Has it grown or changed over the years? Do you anticipate it changing in the future? Are there factors that could impact its growth? You will almost certainly have to do some research for this part. Fortunately, whitepapers and research are abundant on almost any industry, as well as free tools like Google Trends . This is likely to be one of the most difficult portions of your business plan.
- Competitive Analysis: Provide an overview of who your main competition is in the general sense (ie, “ecommerce shops that sell novelty print dresses and individual Etsy vendors who make dresses to order”) and then list out a few competitors. Identify your competitors’ key strengths and weaknesses, focusing specifically on where you can outshine the competition or add value to the offering. You can also take a quick dive into their presence online: Is their SEO performance stellar? Do they have a huge social media following? Are they neglecting their PPC ads? This section segues nicely into your Marketing Strategy section.
5. Marketing Strategy
Before you launch your store, it's important to spend time thinking through your marketing strategy. This will cover how you acquire, convert, and retain customers through a variety of different channels and platforms (like organic search or social ads), and is one of the most critical parts of your business plan. After all, all of your other planning is useless if you can't attract any customers to your store.
All of your other planning is useless if you can't attract any customers.
The Marketing Strategy is a crucial part of your ecommerce business plan. Your marketing strategy will discuss the following:
- Content Strategy: While your content plans will arguably be part of your SEO strategy, we’re making it a separate point because your content can shape your marketing strategy as a whole. What “voice” or messaging will you use in your copy? Will you have a blog, and if so, what will make it a “destination” blog in your industry? Will you have an on-site “Resource” section full of tips and how-to’s? Will you be designing a user-generated content campaign, leveraging social media and customer stories? Who will write your content and how often?
- SEO: Organic visibility is crucial to the success of many ecommerce shops. What will your SEO strategy look like? Will you do it yourself or outsource it to a professional? If you’re keeping it in-house, what tools will you be using and how will you be learning? What will your keyword strategy look like? Provide some information on the tactics you’ll use for on-site SEO (keyword research, meta data, content, category and product optimization and technical elements) and off-site SEO. You can keep your off-site SEO section relatively brief, as the PR section will discuss most of the specific tactics you’ll be using during your off-site SEO campaign.
- PR: How will you get the word out about your website and products? Will you offer products for bloggers to review or will you write guest posts? Will you be running any “newsworthy” campaigns or promotions? List a few blogs who would be your ideal target blogs in this section, too.
- Paid Search: If you are planning on running PPC (pay-per-click) ads, what does your budget look like? What sort of competition will you be looking at? Are you going to run a Shopping Feeds campaign as well? What about retargeting or banner ads? If you will be devoting resources to paid ads, explain why they’re a good fit for your business.
- Social Media: What platforms does your target audience use most frequently? Discuss each one in detail, including information about how you plan to engage your audience on that platform. An example could be: “My target audience loves to share clothing and quirky products on Pinterest. I’ll meet them on this platform by curating a number of boards that cater to their likes, working my dresses into the mix. I will also like, follow and otherwise engage with users who fit my target demographic.”
- Email Marketing: For many ecommerce shops, email marketing is a cornerstone; it’s nearly as timely as social media, but users will not have to navigate to your social media page or spot an ad to receive the information. How often will you update your new or returning customers on what’s in store for your products? What additional copy will you include to entice them to read the email? How will you encourage email signups in the first place? How will you segment your email marketing list so that each group is getting the type of email most relevant to them?
- Promotions: How often will you run promotions, and what type will they be? Will you be running any competitions on social media? List one as an example, or share your entire promotional calendar. How will you get the word out about these promotions?
- Customer Loyalty: How will you encourage repeat buyers? Will you be sending out a newsletter, creating retargeting ads or setting up a rewards program? Will you offer promotions to people who can get a friend to purchase your products? Are there exclusive deals for people who are “in-the-know?” Customer loyalty can be a key component in keeping your ecommerce business sustainable – and having a loyal following will remind you why you’re running this business in the first place!
6. Financial Plan
Ah, the dreaded Financial Plan. For many people, this is the most difficult part of the business plan, and frankly, the least fun. However, it’s extremely important. In fact, if you don’t want to write a business plan at all, you’ll still need to do this part. If you’re seeking outside funding, this is the part that should contain the highest degree of detail – investors care about where their money is going and need to be reassured of an eventual return on their investment (or that you won’t default on your loan).
Planning your finances can make the difference between a successful, scalable business and getting caught completely off-guard by unexpected expenses or unsustainable profit margins.
If you’re not seeking outside funding, this section is still critical, and the more you put into it, the more you’ll get out of it. Planning your finances can make the difference between a successful, scalable business and getting caught completely off-guard by unexpected expenses or unsustainable profit margins. At a minimum, your financial plan should examine:
- Office or warehouse rent
- All costs associated with product acquisition, including the raw cost of the products, shipping and how much you’ll need in stock at any given time.
- Employee pay – if it’s just you and you’re not paying yourself a salary, it’s still important to note that, along with some information about how long you can expect to keep that going.
- Web hosting fees
- Payment processing fees
- Shipping fees
- The cost of any custom design work, marketing service or anything else you plan on outsourcing
- Photography equipment (if you’re planning on using a high-quality camera to take product photos)
- Computer programs like Adobe Creative Suite or video editing software; if you need to upgrade your computer to accommodate these programs, add that cost in, too
- Marketing tools (Hootsuite, Mailchimp, etc)
- Office supplies and daily work-related expenses
- Travel expenses, if travel is required
- Shipping supplies
- Advertising budget
Many people separate this section into “Fixed Expenses” and “Variable Expenses.” Fixed expenses include things like rent, employee salaries, hosting fees and other things that won’t change monthly. Variable expenses include payment fees, shipping fees and other things that will fluctuate.
Bust out the ol’ Excel sheet and enter the amount of money you’ll lose with each product, including raw product cost, shipping and payment processing.
- Current Assets: Make sure you have enough to cover at least the fixed costs, if not the variable costs. If you’re running your business full-time, you’ll also need enough to accommodate the fact that you won’t have a salary for awhile. Set aside enough money to cover you (and/or your family’s) expenses for six months to a year.
- Projected Profit and Loss: This is the “meat and potatoes” part of your financial section, if not your entire business plan. Bust out the ol’ Excel sheet and enter the amount of money you’ll lose with each product (you can average this or itemize individual products), including raw product cost, shipping and payment processing. Then add your expected revenue (assuming you listed your costs as a negative number). You now have the expected profit of each product in the ballpark sense, and it’s time to start relying on research, goals and market assumptions to determine longer-term profit. You can play around with numbers, using a couple of scenarios as starting points and changing items like the price of the product or the cost of customer acquisition. You’ll also want to factor in variables like sales, promotions (“free shipping on orders of $50 or more”) and the possibility that you won’t be able to sell a particular product at all.
- Cost of Customer Acquisition: Given all your data, how much can you afford to spend on acquiring each customer? If each customer spends an average of $75 at your shop but you spend $500 to acquire them, it’s time to rethink your acquisition strategy. That said, many marketing tactics will naturally be pricier up front than the profits you’ll make, but over time it will balance out when a large fan base develops due to your efforts.
- Break Even Point: Using your profits and loss sheet, determine how much you’ll need to sell before you can break even – and now we’re including the raw operational costs, too. Is this a reasonable number? How long do you think it will take to achieve that goal?
- Scalability: How will you scale up as you acquire more customers?
7. Milestones
Now that we’re done with our finances section, we can get back to the fun stuff: milestones! Milestones are important metrics by which to measure your progress and make changes if something isn’t working out. They are also hugely motivating and worth celebrating upon reaching. Set as many milestones as you want, from making your first sale to breaking even. Consider adding things like:
- First 100/500/1,000 “likes” or follows on your social platform of choice
- First positive review
- First write-up on a blog or in the press
- First sale from organic/social/paid traffic
- First 50/500/1,000 sales
- Breaking even!
- First part-time/full-time employee
- Moving to a bigger office
List your milestones out and put them in a place where you can see them every day. Get creative if you want, making a “game board” or another visual image and visibly crossing off or moving past each milestone. Keep your larger goals in mind, but don’t be afraid to celebrate even the smallest accomplishments along the way. This is hard work, and you deserve to acknowledge and appreciate every success.
8. Executive Summary
The Executive Summary is the last part you’ll write, but it frames your entire business plan. Think of it as the “book jacket” for your business, introducing key elements and sharing your passion for what you do. Even if you think you have a good understanding of your business at the outset, it’s still a good practice to write this last; it will likely feel more organized and pull in more information once you have the rest of your business plan nailed down. There might also be a particularly salient point or poignant benefit that emerges in the process of writing the plan, and you’ll get to include it here!
The more objectives you establish, the better direction you’ll have, but do keep all objectives funneled toward the singular goal outlined in your mission statement.
Consider adding the following to your Executive Summary:
- Mission Statement: Why is your ecommerce business here, and who does it intend to serve? How does it fill a need or improve an aspect of your target audience’s life? This is your chance to explain, in a sentence, a paragraph or whatever makes sense for you, how your business will impact the world. Mission statements heavily guide decision-making down the road. For example, does your marketing strategy help further your mission? What about your product selections? Your ecommerce business has a purpose, and keeping that purpose paramount will strengthen your drive, enhance your communication and help you through the rough patches.
- Objectives: Objectives are similar to a mission statement, but they’re a bit less high-level and more goal-oriented. If you’re starting an online dress shop, your mission statement might be to “outfit women in fun, affordable clothing that inspires confidence, embraces originality and allows women of all sizes and backgrounds to find a community of similarly fashionable peers.” One of your objectives, then, could be, “to become the place people think of when they’re looking for quirky dresses,” or “to develop an online community of women who share a love of fashion and can inspire others to consider the brand.” The more objectives you establish, the better direction you’ll have, but do keep all objectives funneled toward the singular goal outlined in your mission statement.
- Start Date, Founders, and Current Key Players: Touch briefly on when the business started, who the founders are, and who operates it now. You’ll be providing more detail on this in your Company Description section, but it’s nice to provide a quick “role call” in your Executive Summary.
- Your Products: Provide more information on what, exactly, you sell and tie it to your mission statement and goals whenever possible.
- Differentiators: How will your ecommerce business stand out from the crowd? What makes you different as a company? What makes your individual products different?
- Summary of Growth: If you’ve been selling your products online in any form, this is your chance to brag about your accomplishments. It could be something like, “Became the exclusive provider of X brand,” “sold out our inventory in X months on Etsy,” or “Developed a strong community of 1,000+ on Facebook.” If you haven’t set up your online store yet or sold online before, don’t sweat this part!
Outside of the mission statement and objectives, the rest of your Executive Summary is covered in more depth in other parts of your business plan.
Optional: Writing a Funding Request
If you’re writing your ecommerce business plan to receive outside funding, this final part is where you make the ask. Be as specific as you can about what your financial needs are, what you will use the money for and when you will pay it back. Include a timeline if you can. If you’re looking at investors, stipulate the terms of the investment. Finally, make sure the plan is well-presented and visually attractive. This includes formatting it correctly, checking for spelling and grammar, including a title page and a table of contents and saving it as a pdf for proper printing across computers.
Complete your own business plan
If you made it this far, congratulations. Creating your own business plan won't be easy - but success comes to those willing to put in the work. Creating your business plan will let you identify and avoid common problems, and give you a quick and easy source to review the most important information about what your business is and how it operates. You should refer to it often as you create your website, social profiles, and set up your marketing campaign - it's a living document, so don't hesitate to make changes as your store evolves. Or, if you're feeling like you're in over your head, don't feel like you have to do everything yourself - there are experts who can help you plan your business . The most important thing is that you keep moving forward and working to improve your business - success will come with time.
Have any questions about writing a business plan, or have you already written one that worked for your store? Let us know in the comments!
Meg Nanson is a former content strategist at Grow With Studio, a digital marketing agency. With almost a decade of experience, Meg helps businesses find their voice and scale their organic strategies.
Stay Up To Date
Sign up for the volusion newsletter.
Get more industry inspiration, tips and exclusive offers sent straight to your inbox.
Related Articles
How ecommerce tools can give your business an advantage in 2019.
Check out these tools in 2019…
What is Ecommerce? A Simple Guide to a Complicated Industry
Here's your ultimate guide to ecommerce…
Create your address on the web.
- Domain Check
- Free Domain
Move your domain name to IONOS.
Secure site traffic and build trust.
Protect your domain from threats.
Create your own website easily.
Our experts build your website.
Create your own online store.
Fast, scalable hosting for any website.
Optimized for speed, reliablity and control.
Deploy your site, app, or PHP project from GitHub.
Reach out with your own email address.
Safeguard your emails against loss.
Secure and share your data on the go.
Powerful Exchange email and Microsoft's trusted productivity suite.
Collaborate smarter with Google's cloud-powered tools.
Protect your data from viruses, ransomware, and loss.
Pay as you go with your own scalable private server.
Your fully virtualized private server.
Get enterprise hardware with unlimited traffic
Individually configurable, highly scalable IaaS cloud
- Business Name Generator
- Logo Creator
- Favicon Generator
- Whois Lookup
- Website Checker
- SSL Checker
- IP Address Check
- Validation service
- Get Started
- Wie gefällt Ihnen der Artikel? 0 0 -->
Setting up an online store: tips for creating your business
Building a business is not something that simply happens over night; behind the scenes, there’s always a considerable amount of planning required in advance. A business plan acts as a guide for this process as it gathers, organizes and summarizes all the key information about the business concept and future projects. When writing a business plan, you should be sure to include hard facts and important information, as well as financial projections and predictions of potential opportunities and obstacles down the road. Providing a vision for the development of the business is just as integral to the plan as information about finance and structure. But how do business plans for e-commerce differ? And are there specific guidelines for entrepreneurs? Read on to discover the most important elements to include in the business plan for your web store.
Why write a business plan?
Business ideas/abstract, business profile, target group, analyzing the market/competition, marketing strategy, organization/structure, prospects and risk assessment, conclusion: it’s worth the effort.
eCommerce Website Builder from IONOS
Want to create an online store? You don't have any experience and want to take your business online quickly and easily? Look no further, the eCommerce Website Builder is what you're looking for!
Many see creating a business plan as a kind of compulsory exercise, often questioned by entrepreneurs who are already quite far through the planning stage. However, all business owners benefit from visualizing the important factors for planning, strategy, and finances in the form of a detailed plan. When it comes down to it, it can be highly advantageous to have a comprehensive and structured business plan, in which a full collection of ideas and proposals are available at a glance. This proves valuable both in terms of budget planning and scheduling as well as searching for investors and business partners . For the latter, the business plan is often the deciding factor in the decision-making process.
How to write a business plan
A good business plan is a guideline for founding a company , and that goes for online companies too. While your online store is still on the starting blocks, it makes sense to use your house bank or get your personal accountant on board. This way, your flourishing business has a better chance of success; if your founding team lacks a competent and experienced professional from the financial sector, it’ll be difficult to accurately handle your finances . While the bulk of the planning still rests on the shoulders of the founders, accounting is a mammoth task that is practically impossible without professional support.
Business plans generally follow the same basic structure: usually opening with a summary , which briefly outlines the forthcoming points, the first paragraph should work to inform the reader of the most important aspects of the business in order to pique their interest. The key data surrounding the proposed projects are important of course, especially a project’s legal status. It’s important to outline the following information at the beginning of your business plan:
- name and address of the business and its founder(s)
- date of foundation
- subject of the business
- legal status
- company structure and tenure status
Only once these have been stated should the business plan address further aspects. Here are the most important features at a glance :
The business concept is the key to every business and the cornerstone of any business plan . The biggest challenge here is summarizing your goals and intentions for your web store in a few key points. The language should be clear and concise with no unnecessary, technical terms. It’s a good idea to follow the elevator pitch model. This is the concept of pitching your business model to a group of bystanders during a 30-second elevator ride. In this short amount of time, you must be able to outline all the key information including your objectives, personal aims and business strategy.
A brief section about the founder or founding team usually follows the abstract. This generally includes a list of relevant skills , career history, and experience in the sector. Even if you use the business plan for external issues such as financial matters or promotional purposes, you should still record the founding team’s significant soft skills , as well as their capabilities and experience. Highly regarded abilities in the e-commerce realm include:
- technical skills , particularly those that are useful for programming, developing, and installing online shop software or content management systems
- marketing skills that prove at least one of the founders to be an expert in SEO, SEM, or affiliate marketing, as this is a big advantage in e-commerce marketing strategies
- logistical skills that confirm the founder(s) experience with commercial management systems and processing shipments and/or returns
Other relevant abilities include financial skills (bookkeeping, accounting, controlling), management experience (staff management, acquisition of goods), service skills, and legal experience .
Defining a target group is essential when writing a business plan. This target group is integral for later steps such as marketing strategies and publicity. Only by determining the target group in this early stage can the size of the market be ascertained, thus providing the basis for further calculations. In online trade , presentation is key to drawing in potential customers.
Most business owners can identify who might use their web store in the conceptual phase. This usually requires an understanding of the differences between B2B and B2C marketing strategies. To define the web store’s target market, you must go one step further and try to specify: what are the customer benefits? What are the characteristics of potential customers? Are there any corresponding figures or studies to back this up? These are the questions to answer when determining an accurate target group.
So-called personas or Sinus-Milieus are great tools to help define your target group(s).
This part of the business plan should record the target sector’s current market situation. Here, it’s worth including valuable information such as market size , existing market structures , and influencing factors . It’s crucial that this data is measured accurately, so it’s useful to use trade association websites to gain a glimpse into the status of other online stores in your sector. Check out the Planning Shop list of all the major US trade associations here .
Businesses should also contrast the market situation with the prevailing competition . It is essential to gather information on facts such as the level of competition for your products; for many entrepreneurs, this can provide the keystone of their entire business model. Committing this to paper often reveals potential weaknesses. For example, if you are attempting to enter a competitive market with high price sensitivity, you should consider adjusting your web store’s concept or product line. It’s not worth trying to break into a saturated market unless you have an especially unique strategy or innovative idea.
Achieving success in e-commerce relies on gaining a good reputation and transforming your online store’s browsers into buyers. The latter is known as ‘ generating conversions ’ in marketing jargon. With the rise of e-commerce, business owners now benefit from the immense range of online and offline marketing strategies at their disposal; including newsletters, SEM, SEO, billboard advertising and flyers. The marketing techniques that best suit your online store depend on a variety of factors. This is where the founders’ skillsets play just as crucial a role as knowledge of the target market. On the whole, the marketing strategy stands in direct correlation with the budget plan.
The following aspects should be included in this part of the marketing plan :
- marketing solutions
- distribution policy
- any relevant services
In the world of e-commerce, USPs (i.e. quick delivery and free returns) can be the decisive factor in a customer’s decision to use your web store over another. And when it comes to acquiring new customers and managing existing ones, traditional marketing techniques should be considered just as important as innovative distribution platforms. As well as an overview of market activity, the business plan should incorporate controlling tools and key figures to measure success.
This section of the business plan is about the general organization of the business , and should go into detail about the relevant aspects of the existing structure and management system. The overview should start with an outline of the organizational structure , from the management level down to individual employees. The founders’ qualifications and skills come into play once more here, as you break down the company’s hierarchy and management roles. The staff structure should also include wages .
This part of the business plan should also contain development plans for the marketing and sales strategies. Sales are of particularly great significance for web stores, as this area includes procurement, product management, and returns. It’s also important to document administrative issues (i.e. book-balancing, taxes, legal matters) and technical elements (i.e. e-commerce software, page design).
Microsoft 365 with IONOS!
Experience powerful Exchange email and the latest versions of your favorite Office apps including Word, Excel and PowerPoint on any device!
Creating a plan for your finances is by far the most complex part of the business planning process; we recommended that you enlist the help of financial experts . Key aspects to consider are:
- projected sales performance (3 or 5 year plan)
- required venture capital
- information about the company’s liquidity
Don’t forget these three important areas:
Capital requirement plan
This is where you specify what financial resources you need at various stages. Not only does this involve the initial cost of starting up a company, but also the ongoing operating expenses. When considering your capital requirement plan, consider the following question: what resources does the company need, in both the start-up and growth phase? If you do not have sufficient personal resources, you should document any loans or external capital.
Finance plan
The finance plan determines the ratio of personal investment to external funds. The capital requirement calculation serves as the basis for this figure. Naturally, a high proportion of personal investment is desirable, however, when starting up a business—particularly a web store—gathering extra funds is compulsory. This can help to cover initial costs such as the acquisition of stock.
Turnover forecast
The turnover forecast should predict your company’s development in the next 3-5 years. Providing a realistic glimpse into the development of your company is just as important for investors as it is for you. Among other things, it is useful to compare your predicted revenue and costs.
Having gathered all the information above, it’s time to delve into the obligatory analysis of prospects and risks . The business plan is fundamentally there to highlight the project’s strengths and opportunities, but a detailed analysis of possible risks and critical factors increases your credibility.
Here it’s a good idea to create different versions of the business plan for different recipients. This part should be an especially high priority for all internal contacts. For example, you can address technical difficulties, and the unexpected costs that come along with them, and predict the likelihood of such a risk. Never oversell the project and concept to employees. It’s crucial for the work environment to be built on a foundation of trust with an honest projection of the company’s development.
It’s important to outline these potential risks when presenting the business plan to investors and sponsors. This will enhance your credibility and paint you as a serious entrepreneur, as these donors know no business is without its risks. Attempting to hide any flaws or uncertainties will only come back to damage your web store. In any case, donors often carry out their own risk assessments before investing. A good analysis of potential risks (from the perspective of the founders) shows honesty, without making the project look bad. To convince investors of your competence, for every risk you predict, you should also present an avoidance strategy or defense plan. Typically, risk analyses list potential financial and growth risks, as well as potential liquidity shortfalls, which could emerge from a deviation in sales.
Creating a business plan takes a lot of time and work. However, anyone who has completed this task will tell you that it is certainly worth the effort. In gathering and organizing this information, a full business concept is formed, which often helps entrepreneurs to identify their weak points and potential problems. In some instances, this can even prevent the collapse of a business. The business plan is fundamentally a final draft of the business concept to analyze its feasibility and potential. It also puts the founders’ entrepreneurial skills to the tests and is critical when applying for subsidies.
Click here for important legal disclaimers.
If you want to create your startup independently, the question will come up sooner or later of how the company will be financed. Nowadays, there are so many options for startup funding: regional and nation-wide funding programs can help, as well as angel investors, startup centers, and other investors. Long-term subsidies that last two or more years are not a rarity in the startup industry. Learn...
The business structure determines how a company is run regarding its legal aspects. It regulates the relationship between partners and shareholders as well as their relationship to the state and the environment. Here, we provide an overview of the most common legal structures in the US and explain what you should bear in mind when choosing the legal entity that’s right for you.
Before a business idea can be implemented, it is necessary to create a business plan. This serves as the founder’s roadmap, and summarizes all necessary information about planning and finances. However, the business plan is also highly relevant for investors as well as potential financial and funding institutions, since it is a decision-making factor for loans and grants. Due to its importance and...
- Grow Your Business
Online retail isn’t solely the turf of Big Dogs like Amazon or Walmart—countless small-to-medium sized businesses as well as private individuals also earn their living by selling their goods online. But there’s more to setting up an online store than simply making sure you’re equipped with the latest hardware and software, or have found an excellent hosting provider. When faced with challenges...
Related products
Web hosting for agencies.
Provide powerful and reliable service to your clients with a web hosting package from IONOS.
The perfect choice for SMEs: free invoice samples for Word or Excel...
Use this helpful tool for managing your business and tracking your transaction history...
This article explains who has to pay them and how much you can expect to pay depending on your earnings...
Here you’ll learn all the details on how you can calculate this value...
Price calculation is a complex process: costs, the market, and the target group must be thoroughly analyzed...
Wait! We’ve got something for you! Have a look at our great prices for different domain extensions.
Home » Building Online Stores » Ecommerce Business Plan Template: How to Make a Business Plan
Ecommerce Business Plan Template: How to Make a Business Plan
Our independent research projects and impartial reviews are funded in part by affiliate commissions, at no extra cost to our readers. Learn more
Written and researched by:
As the Benjamin Franklin quote goes, “by failing to plan, you’re planning to fail” – and it’s a sentiment that’s just as relevant today, in 2022, as it was in the 1700s.
Particularly if you’re an ecommerce business.
After all, one research project (a collaboration between Forbes, Huffington Post, and Marketing Signals) suggests that a whopping 90% of ecommerce businesses fail in the first 120 days of their existence. So how can yours avoid being part of that short-lived majority?
With an ecommerce business plan, that’s how.
So read on – we’re walking you through what ecommerce business plans are, and why you need one. You’ll find a complete ecommerce business plan template below, too – so you can start planning for your own online enterprise’s future, today.
What is an Ecommerce Business Plan?
An ecommerce business plan is a document that outlines your online business’s objectives and strategy. That’s a summary of both your goals and how you plan to achieve them.
A good ecommerce business plan should identify all the potential challenges your online enterprise will face as you chase profitability, scalability, or simply sustainability. They’ll lay out the groundwork, too: including an analysis of the market you’re planning to enter, and the customers you’re intending to target.
And, of course, an ecommerce business plan should get specific. How will you source your products? Which tactics will you use to market them? How will you fund your fledgling business, and maintain cash flow when times get tough?
Though they’re also useful for keeping you on track with your goals, ecommerce business plans are vital for attracting and securing outside investment, too – so it’s important you get yours right.
Food products are an excellent option for selling online, and you find a list of examples here . But remember, you need to factor regulations and food safety requirements into your business plan.
Why Create an Ecommerce Business Plan?
There are plenty of benefits to creating a comprehensive business plan for your online store:
- Gaining a deeper understanding of your business – your blockers, biggest assets, and most lucrative opportunities.
- Understanding the state of the market, and where you want to position your ecommerce store within it.
- Planning for what’s ahead – getting to grips with industry trends, and how they might affect your burgeoning business.
- Testing how viable your ecommerce store’s idea and concept is, and any weak points inherent in the premise.
- Assessing the outlay required – be it time, effort, or money, this is useful for understanding the scope of the work that lies ahead.
- Obtaining funding – business plans are, after all, super useful for selling the idea of your online store to potential investors.
- Clarifying your strategies for marketing, logistics, and finance, as well as exactly who your target audience is. Making your business idea a little more tangible – it’s starting to feel real now!
Ecommerce Business Plan Template
Ready to start penning your plan?
Read on – the ecommerce business plan template below offers a handy framework to get you started.
Executive Summary
Like a blurb on the back of a book or an abstract at the start of an academic article, an executive summary is designed to give time-poor readers a concise, compelling overview of your ecommerce business plan’s contents.
While your executive summary should take pride of place at the top of your business plan, you shouldn’t write it until the end. That’s because you’ll figure out more about your ecommerce store’s plans, ambitions, audience, and strategies as you flesh out your plan – and you’ll want these to be reflected in that punchy, persuasive first statement.
So what should an executive summary include for an ecommerce business, exactly?
Here’s a quick (non-executive) summary:
- What your business does
- What goals you want to achieve
- What product or service you’re selling
- Where you’re selling
- Who you’re targeting
- Who your competitors are
- How you plan to make money
- How you’ll implement the business plan that follows
Remember, an executive summary needs to be crisp, clear, and to the point. Don’t waffle on with overlong or unnecessary analysis – you’ll lose your reader’s interest!
Company Overview
With your reader now hooked, it’s time to explain exactly who you are, what you do, and why you do it.
A company overview should include:
- Details of your products/services – what are you planning to sell?
- Your company’s key details – your name, tagline, logo, and any top-level branding information.
- Your key individuals – your founder(s), CEO, and COOs.
- Its legal structure: have you set up as a partnership, or a Limited Liability Company (LLC)?
- Your vision, mission, and values. Beyond making money, what does your ecommerce store stand for? What do you believe in – and what higher purpose gets your staff up and out of bed in the morning?
Market Analysis
Next up in your ecommerce business plan, you’ll need to provide a detailed analysis of the market you’re entering into. This is crucial – after all, if there aren’t any existing market gaps for your business to service, it’ll struggle to make an impact.
Your market analysis should include an exploration of:
- Market size
- Current competitors
- Any gaps, opportunities, and threats
To do all this, a SWOT analysis is a pretty good place to start. It stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. It’s a form of situational analysis that can help you understand the nature of your business vis a vis the competition.
Customer Research
Who are you planning to sell to? It’s a key question you’ll need to know – and that any potential investors will demand to know – before your ecommerce business gets off the ground.
So, your ecommerce business plan needs to get specific about that sweet slice of the pie you’re targeting. That includes a deep dive into the demographics – specifically, your prospective customers’:
To gain this info, you can conduct market research into the portion of the market most interested in – or most likely to buy – your products or services. That could involve running focus groups, or sending out incentivized surveys.
Advice from the Experts
Top tip: for an even more granular way of conceptualizing your potential customers, create buyer personas . these are fictional depictions or real consumers, with pain points, goals, likes, dislikes, and demographic info all fleshed out. by tailoring all your messaging to one or more of these personas, you can increase the effectiveness of your comms., marketing plan.
Next up? Details about how you plan to spread the word of your business.
This will include which communication channels you intend to prioritize, which marketing strategies you’ll implement, and which milestones and metrics you’ll use to measure it all.
Your marketing plan should make clear:
- Your marketing goals
- KPIs: such as engagement rates, traffic, conversion rate
- Key channels: email, SEO content, paid SEM marketing
- Your key marketing tactics: will you focus on social media, or plow your resources into influencer marketing? Perhaps a blend of both?
Need some digital marketing tips to add clarity and clout to your marketing plan? Our comprehensive guide has you covered.
Logistics Plan
You know how you’re going to entice your customers to buy from you – but how will you actually get your products to their doorstep once they do?
This is what your ecommerce business plan’s logistics section aims to explain. It’ll include:
- Where you’ll source your products
- How (and where) you’ll store those products
- How you’ll deal with orders
- How you’ll fulfill orders – in-house, or via a 3PL (third-party logistics) supplier?
- How you’ll handle deliveries, and which shipping provider you’ll partner with
- How you’ll deal with returns
3PL suppliers like ShipBob store, sort, pick, pack, and ship your goods – so they can be a fantastic option if you’re a growing business, and outsourcing the fulfillment process makes sense.
Financial Plan
As it so often does in the world of commerce, your business plan all boils down to this – the money .
Your financial plan describes how you’ll first fund your business, then keep it afloat. Here, you’ll set out your fiscal stall with a series of projections around cash flow and income. The goal? To convince investors (and, on some level, yourself!) that your business has legs.
Your ecommerce business plan’s financial chapter should include:
- How you’ll fund your store’s start-up costs
- How you’ll price your products
- How much profit you’ll make on each product sold
- Financial projections
- Income statement
- Balance sheet
Do I Need a Business Plan?
Yes. Yes, you do.
It can be easy, as a business that only exists online, to get complacent – to assume that you don’t need a business plan.
‘Business plans are a traditional document,’ you think. ‘They don’t have a place in the world of modern ecommerce businesses.’
Well, guess what? They do – regardless of what you call, or how you classify, your business. But there are certain types of ventures where a comprehensive business plan will be especially useful. Among these are:
- New ecommerce stores
- Businesses seeking investment
- Businesses looking to expand into new markets
- Ventures attempting to increase their share of an existing market
Even if your ecommerce store falls into none of these categories, a business plan is always a good idea. It’ll clarify and crystallize your professional goals, hold you accountable to your ambitions, and keep you on track to making your dreams a reality.
In this article, you’ve learned exactly what a business plan is, and why it’s vital for commercial success – particularly for brands of the ecommerce persuasion.
You’re also well-versed in the structure and contents of an ecommerce business plan:
- Executive summary
- Company overview
- Market analysis
- Customer research
- Marketing plan
- Logistics plan
- Financial plan
What now? Well, it’s time to get researching and writing. So remember – keep it simple, keep it tight, and make sure it reflects the heart and soul of your business (and all that passion you feel for it, too!).
Putting together a business plan is exciting. It’s that tangible, real expression of your goals and vision for your ecommerce store – so it shouldn’t be a chore. Go enjoy it!
How can I write an ecommerce business plan?
Can i hire someone to write my ecommerce business plan for me, written by:.
I’m Website Builder Expert’s Content Manager, which means I cast my eye over everything that goes up onto the site, as well as penning my own posts, too. I built my first website in 2016 with Wix, in a last-ditch attempt to get a friend’s ailing rock band some gigs. Since then, I’ve experimented with Squarespace, GoDaddy, and Shopify, and dabbled in hosting and email marketing tools, too – with far greater levels of success! I trust you’ll find the wide range of articles on our site helpful, and please don’t hesitate to shoot me a message with anything else you’d like to see on Website Builder Expert.
Found this article helpful?
Share this article or comment below!
Leave a comment
How to Make an Ecommerce Business Plan for Your Startup
Darren DeMatas
October 21, 2022
In addition to receiving commissions generated through affiliate marketing, we are able to fund our independent research and reviews at no extra cost to our readers. Learn more.
So you’ve decided that you want to quit your day job and start your very own ecommerce empire. That’s great!
But before you become the next Jeff Bezos (and definitely before you quit your job!), it’s worth spending some time to think about a business plan. In this article, we’ll dive into the key elements of an ecommerce business plan, which is very different than writing traditional business plans.
Why You Should Create a Business Plan
We know that starting an e-commerce business is exciting and it can be tempting to jump right in, without constructing a business plan. READ: PLEASE DON’T DO THIS.
If you haven’t put your ideas, questions and concerns on paper, then you haven’t given your business model enough thought .
Taking the time to write a business plan might seem like a lot of work but it can save you a lot of time and money in the long-run by better preparing you for potential challenges and opportunities that you’ll face as a first-time entrepreneur.
It’s exciting to start your own ecommerce business. However, you want to be well prepared and not jump into anything without having a solid, foolproof ecommerce business plan in place.
After all, you wouldn’t jump out of a plane without a parachute, so why start a business without a safety device in place. That safety device is your business plan.
The business plan is the brainstorming process that ensures your concept and goals are realistic.
This is more than just mental notes. True business plans take your ideas , questions, and concerns and put those in writing.
As you start creating your business plan, you’ll soon understand that it’s more than a single piece of paper with handwritten details on it. It’s a clearly constructed format of how your business will be created, how it will operate, and what you hope the future holds in terms of a successful ecommerce business.
When you write your business plan, be sure to have a target audience in mind. Are you going to look for investors or put a kickstarter campaign into motion and use this as your descriptive platform? If so, make sure that your business plan contains everything the audience would want to know about your business (and more!). Many traditional funding solutions require a business plan in order to give you capital. However, there are alternative solutions such as Payability that specialize in eCommerce and don’t require credit checks, a business plan, or any complicated paperwork. They can also get you approved in as little as 24 hours.
When your business plan is completed, you should have achieved the following goals:
- Knowledge: A greater sense of knowledge into the business aspects.
- Resources: The resources you’re going to need to make your business successful, such as partners, money, employees, etc.
- Road Map: Have clear set goals to take you from the very beginning of your business and onward.
- Viability: In other words, is your business possible?
Now that you know why you should create a business plan, it’s time to move onto how you can create your business plan and get started putting your ecommerce business into motion.
How to Start an Ecommerce Business Plan
In the very beginning of the planning stages, it’s a good idea to develop a framework for your business model. This business model will continue to evolve as you create each section, so don’t strive for a perfect completed plan on the first try. You will be making tweaks to the plan of certain steps along the way.
There are many ways to sell products online and different business models to pursue. Research and learn from successful eCommerce business examples in the market. The exact business model you follow will be one that makes the most sense with your resources, skills, and interests.
In order to create the best online business plan with your product in mind, you need to figure out the following things:
What are you selling?
- Physical products: Clothing , shoes, home goods
- Digital products: Software as a Service products, ecourses, ebooks
- Services: Consulting services, home cleaning
Who are you selling to?
- Business to Business (B2B): You are selling to organizations, corporations, and non-profits rather than individual customers
- Business to Consumer (B2C): This means you are selling to individual consumers rather than businesses
- Marketplace: You are acting as a middleman by bringing businesses and (B2B or B2C) customers to one website.
How are you sourcing your product?
- Manufacture in-house: You make your product or service in-house
- Third party manufacturer: You outsource manufacturing of your product or service to a third party manufacturer
- Dropship: You partner with a dropship manufacturer. Basically this means that they make your product, package it and ship it directly to your customer while your company handles the entire customer relationship
- Wholesale : You buy goods or services from other companies in bulk and re-sell those products on your online store
Additional References
- Entrepreneurship: Business & Marketing Plans
- Small Business and Entrepreneurship
- Entrepreneurship Resources
- Business Plan Resources
Executive Summary
The executive summary will be written according to your goals and it’s recommended that this is done at the very end of your business plan completion. This will ensure that you include all of the important factors about your business and present your ideas in a concise and complete way.
Some of the features you’ll include in the executive summary include information showing that you’ve done your research, you have concrete sales forecasts, and the main details about your brand.
Business Model
When you’re figuring out your business model, you have to consider four different areas:
- Monetization strategy
- Product/industry
- Target market
- Sales channel
Monetization Strategy
The monetization strategy delves into the methods you are going to use to sell your products.
This strategy will look at different product monetization methods including white label, private label , affiliate marketing, wholesale, dropshipping, and even selling ads.
Product/Industry
The product industry section is where you summarize your main niche.
For example, “Vegan Skincare Products.”
Target Market
In the target market section you will write a sentence or so on who your target market is in the community.
If you’re selling vegan skincare products, your target market might be women who embrace the vegan lifestyle and use natural skincare products in their daily beauty regimen.
Sales Channel
The sales channel refers to where you’re going to sell your products.
For example, you might be selling your products on your own website and this should be entered in this section.
Business Overview
This next section covers your company overview.
This section of your business plan will cover various features of your company, including the following:
- Company type
- Domain name
- Value proposition
- Brand traits
The brand name section lists your business name or brand name.
This is an extremely important aspect of your business plan as it’s what will set the tone for everything that follows.
Pick a brand name that’s simple yet unique and is something that can be used in a wordplay manner, if desired, but not pun-worthy.
Company Type
The company is how your business operates. For example, you might label your business as an LLC, S-corporation, sole proprietor, or some other type of business organization.
The best way to determine how you should categorize your company is to speak to your accountant. There are various tax and legal aspects to forming your business in a certain way.
Speak with the professionals in the company and corporation formation field to determine how to label your company and which company type best benefits your business in a variety of ways.
Domain Name
This section is where you list your domain name.
Choose a domain name that is memorable and embraces the overall traits and features of your business.
And, when choosing a domain name, be sure to think of SEO aspects when doing so. You’ll find out just how much all of these things tie together and ensure a frequently-visited website is the end result.
Keep in mind that with ecommerce the domain name is just as important as the brand name. Maybe even more so!
Value Proposition
A value proposition is a short, crisp statement that will gauge how clear your idea is. Write this section as if you had one minute to explain your business to a potential investor or customer and then practice it over and over again.
The value proposition can be used on your ecommerce store as your company description.
Here’s a good example: Say you’re looking to start a hiking company called Atlas Hiking Co. which sells premium performance hiking shirts. A possible company description could be the following:
Atlas Hiking Co. is a lifestyle hiking company that produces high performance hiking shirts for outdoor lovers. Our proprietary SPF40 fabric is one of the lightest fabrics on the market, providing mountain lovers with maximum comfort, both from a breathability and sun-protection standpoint. Our product is made in the U.S.A. and a portion of our profits are donated to preserve national parks around the country.
Pay special attention to all the sensory words !
The mission statement in your business plan is the “why” of it all.
For example, why you started the business, why you are selling the products you are selling, etc. can all be added to this section of your business plan.
You can make this portion as simple or detailed as you like. Just make sure to properly and clearly explain your business mission.
The vision part of the business plan is your “how” in the grand scheme of things. It is the dream you have for your company and the path you’re going to take to realize that dream.
When you write the vision portion of the business plan, think long-term. What are you hoping to achieve, not just in the near future but for the long haul of the life of your business?
Look into the future and plan out where you see your business in 5, 10, even 20 years from now.
This will help you construct the rest of your business plan if you know where you want your business to head, now and in the future.
Brand Traits
The brand traits section is a short section in your company overview.
Basically, in the brand traits section you’re going to want to list three to five words that describe your brand.
Think of your brand personality and describe it using a few separate powerful words.
The personnel section lists all individuals, including yourself, who will be involved in the daily operations of your business.
Some business owners choose to handle all duties on their own or with a partner, while others will hire individuals to fill the following roles:
- CEO (usually the business owner)
- Customer service/logistics
- PR/Social media specialist
- SEO manager
- Advertising manager
Competitive Market Analysis
Here’s a fact you can bank on: there has never been a successful e-commerce entrepreneur that didn’t understand his/her target market, cold.
That’s why this section is one of the most important in the entire business plan. It will force you to understand the industry in which you operate, the overall industry outlook, the existing competition, and your target customer demographic.
Market Segment
The market segment portion of the business plan will help you to put your ideas down on paper, make them more focused, and get your team together.
This area will include your niche selection, target market, and competitive analysis.
Niche Selection
The niche section provides an overview on your niche, why you selected it, whether there’s a micro niche included, and the type of niche you’ve chosen.
The purpose of this section is to crystalize the ideas that you have and make sure they are understandable and viable.
The target market section covers an overview of your target market plus describe your market segments.
Ask yourself who your target customer is (population size, age, geography, education, ethnicity, income level) and consider whether consumers are comfortable with buying your product category online.
When listing the target market information, make sure to mention your target audience size as this is important for ensuring that your audience will be adequately covered.
Competitive Analysis
With the competitive analysis portion of your market analysis, you want to list your market leader and direct and indirect competitors.
After you mention who these entities are, you need to list the characteristics of each one, such as domain name, business model, monthly traffic, and pricing range.
However, before you even get started in writing this section, you need to spend several hours researching your target market.
Here are some of the most efficient ways to research a particular market:
Industry reports
Google is your best friend. Look for any recent industry reports on your market of choice. This will give you a good sense of how much growth the industry is experiencing, why this growth is happening and what are the largest customer segments. In our example of Atlas Hiking Co., we should research the outdoor apparel market.
Let’s say that through our research of the outdoor apparel industry, we discovered that there was a huge boom in youth hiking apparel. Perhaps parents were increasingly concerned about their kids’ exposure to UV rays while hiking so began to spend more money on their kids. We could use this valuable information to guide our business strategy.
There’s only so much you can read online. Go to a nearby store that sells similar products to yours and interview the store representative. The store rep has interacted with hundreds of interested customers which can lead to thousands of valuable insights! It’s amazing how these insights can translate into a meaningful business opportunity.
Here’s an example:
If I was going into a Billy’s Outdoor Store to research the outdoor apparel market, I would probably ask Billy the following:
- What are your best selling products?
- What are your worst selling products?
- Find products similar to yours and ask the representative his/her favorite features on products similar to yours.
- How much are customers generally willing to spend for these types of products?
- Do customers make repeat orders of any of these products?
- Do you get a lot of customers that are looking to buy last minute hiking gear before they go on a hike?
Competition
Create an excel spreadsheet of all of your competitors. In your excel spreadsheet, you should have the following columns:
- Competitor Name
- Price point
- Product Description
- Key Features (e.g. fabric, waterproof, slimfit, etc.)
What is the competition missing? Is there a gap in the offering? Where you can add some additional value?
After conducting the competitor analysis, Atlas Hiking Co. might find that the competition’s hiking shirts offer very few features at a low price point, but no one offers a luxury hiking shirt with additional features at a higher price point.
This is just an example of the types of insights one can gain from market research which can drastically alter your business model
Keyword Research
By using Google’s keyword planner and trends pages, you can get a good sense of how in demand your product is and whether it’s trending upward, or downward. Google is great for a general idea, just don’t bank on it.
Some other keyword tools you can use for keyword research include Ahrefs, JungleScout , and Viral Launch. Check out this list for more ideas.
Trade shows
Are there nearby trade shows that you can go to? Again, creating connections with other people in your industry is a sure-fire short-cut to countless hours of reading on the internet. Trade shows are also a great opportunity to talk to competitors, meet manufacturers, and better understand where things are heading in your industry.
Once you finish researching the relevant industry, you should summarize your findings by answering the following questions:
General Industry
- How big is the overall industry?
- How big is the specific sub-industry in which you intend to operate?
- Where has most of the historic growth in the market come from?
- Why is this the right time to enter this market?
- What are the sub-segments that are poised for future growth (e.g. youth apparel)?
- How crowded is the product category with competition?
- How is your competition distributing their product (online, retail, wholesale, etc.)?
- What’s missing from the competition’s product offering?
Products and Offers
So we know we want to sell hiking shirts, but how do your research specific products?
But for some of us, we’re not quite sure as to what we should sell. To succeed in online retail, you need a product that is trending upwards in a growing niche.
Different types of products
Some of the different types of products include the following:
- Convenience products: Frequent purchase product, little effort on buying
- Shopping products: Less frequently purchased in between purchases, little more effort and planning, shop around
- Specialty products: Strong brand preference and loyalty, will buy no matter what the price
The various types of niches include the following:
- Hobby niches
- Lifestyle niches
- Problem niches
- Weird/embarrassing niches
Existing products
Come up with detailed specifications for each product or service you intend to sell. If it’s a hiking shirt we’re selling, we would want to have:
- Detailed sketches of the shirt
- Fabric weight, materials, type
- Key features (e.g. pre-shrunk, water-proof, SPF 40)
Future product pipeline
What are other products that you have in the pipeline? Perhaps once you’ve successfully sold hiking shirts, you’re able to leverage your manufacturing relationships to provide hiking socks and shorts. Include that information in this section.
The products and services section will cover the various selling categories of items.
These product offerings will include the following:
- Core product
Each product group will have its own purpose in your sales catalog. For example, tripwire is the product that brings customers to your ecommerce store or online marketplaces while the core product is your main seller.
Knowing what products you’ll include within each section allows you to have a firm grasp on what your main product will be and how the other types of products will work alongside your main product.
This section will also cover the search volume and Amazon pricing range.
You’ll need to calculate your true costs. You have to make sure you don’t overestimate your margins.
To tabulate your total true costs, you need to write down the costs in the following areas:
- Target price
- Supplier cost of product
- Total cost per unit
- Net profit per unit
- Profit margin per unit
Once you complete the pricing portion, you’ll have everything on one sheet and readily accessible whenever you need it.
Marketing Plan and Operations
So, now you’ve concluded that you have a great business idea and it’s in a growing market. That’s fantastic – but how are you going to drive traffic to your ecommerce website and get customers buy it ? And how much can you afford to spend on your product?
Marketing is everything. It’s important that your marketing efforts match your business model.
If you have a website and no marketing, your site won’t have any visitors. With no visitors, you will make no sales. Then how do you grow and sell your ecommerce business (if that’s your long-term goal)? Even with the best possible products, nobody will buy them if they aren’t directed to them in some way.
In order to come up with a marketing strategy, you need to first know your customer inside out. You should be able to answer such questions as:
- How old is your customer?
- Where does your customer live?
- What is the population of your customer base?
- What is their education level?
- What is their income level?
- What are your customers’ pain points?
With so many channels to reach your customer, which one is best for you?
Once we know pretty much everything there is to know about our target customer, we can shift focus to our marketing strategy. You want to choose marketing strategies that equal positive conversion rates. What channels should you use to grab the attention of your customer demographic? Some of the key marketing channels include:
Paid Marketing
- Pay-per-click – this online marketing typically involves using Google Shopping campaigns and managing a product data feed.
- Affiliate sales networks – Allowing other blogs and websites to sell your product for a cut of the revenue. List the different affiliate sale networks that you plan to promote through.
- Facebook ads ⎯ Ads posted on Facebook to draw in buyers through social media means.
- Influencer marketing ⎯ Hiring industry influencers to get the word out on your product through their social media platforms and contacts.
Organic Marketing
- Social media (Facebook, Instagram , Pinterest etc.): Which is your strategy for social media and where will you dedicate your attention?
- Search Engine Optimization : Create and promote awesome content so people find your product organically through search.
- Content marketing: Figure out how you’ll use content marketing in your business. Consider various article topics that will persuade your target audience to buy your products.
- Blogger networks: could be organic or paid through affiliate sale programs.
- Key bloggers: Develop a list of the key bloggers in your product category. For Atlas Hiking Co., this might be an influencer that blogs about the best hiking trails in America.
Finding the optimal mix of these advertising tools depends 100% on your customer segment as well as your product type. For example, a SaaS product targeting millennials will require an entirely different marketing strategy than an e-commerce physical product targeting baby boomers. Perhaps that should be a post on its own for another day!
How much should you spend to acquire a customer?
In order to understand this, we need to first discuss a concept known as Lifetime Value of Customer or LTV. In essence, this is a formula that helps you better understand how much an average customer will spend over time.
Here’s a good read on how to calculate LTV.
It’s important to remember that for new businesses, you don’t have a lot of data on customer purchase habits so it’s a good idea to be more conservative with your assumptions in calculating LTV.
Let’s say, for Atlas Hiking Co., I determine that the average LTV per customer is $300. This means that over time, the average customer will spend $300. Let’s say on average, if I receive $300 in revenue, $100 of that will translate to gross profit before I factor in my marketing costs (basically I’m just subtracting out the cost making the shirts).
Knowing that my gross profit is $100 per shirt is a critical piece of information because it tells me that I can spend up to $100 in marketing to acquire a customer and still be profitable!
Some of the marketing options include social media marketing and content marketing.
Think about your business model and then line up your marketing budget. Your marketing budget may include the following items:
- Sales/branded content
- SEO/blog content
- Facebook/Instagram ads
- Influencer marketing
- Marketing tools
- Niche advertising
Choosing The Right Technology
With so much technology and SaaS products out there, it’s important to understand the various moving parts and diagram how they all integrate with one another.
Some of the different elements include:
- Shopping Cart Platforms – e.g. Shopify , BigCommerce , WooCommerce , or any open-source platform
- Hosting – Servebolt, WPX
- Payment Processo r – e.g. Stripe, Paypal
- Fulfillment Center – e.g. Amazon, ShipBob
- Apps – e.g Zipify, BuildWooFunnels, Printify
- Accounting & Taxes – e.g. Quicken, Xero
- Marketing Automation – e.g. Klaviyo , Mailchimp
- Marketing Tools – e.g. Buzzstream, Ahrefs
- Customer Loyalty Programs – e.g Antavo, Smile
Come up with a detailed list of the different products and services you need to run your business as well as the monthly and per-transaction cost of each of them. This will be important in understanding the impact of these services to your margins.
Matching your business model to your technology is essential, too. Certain website platforms are better suited for specific sales models.
Email marketing is another type of technology that should be carefully considered and matched up correctly with your business model.
Keep in mind that it takes on average 6-7 interactions with a brand before someone makes a purchase so you need to keep using technology to get them back to your website.
As you explore the technology options and find out ways to draw potential customers in and keep them happy while they’re there, here are some key points to keep in mind:
- What you say about yourself and your products with your website content
- How you respond to questions on live chat and email support
- How to make use of chatbots
- How you connect on social media
- The information you send through email marketing
- What bloggers and influencers say about your brand
- How existing customers review your company
- How you advertise
- How you establish loyalty beyond sales
After you figure out your technology methods, you have to come up with a technology budget.
The business plan must also include the operations side of things. Determine who will be your manufacturer, secondary manufacturer, and shipping and fulfillment provider.
When looking at supply chain costs and options, ShipBob is an ecommerce fulfillment provider you can consider.
Financial Plan
When figuring out your financial plan, evaluating and pinpointing your startup costs is essential.
The focus of the financial plan is how long it will take for you to make your money back. You also need to figure out if you need a business loan.
Traffic and conversion rates will help you determine how long it will be until you start making money back.
You’ll also want to use an income statement to detail financial information.
The financial section is used to forecast sales, expenses and net income of the business. Ideally, you’ll want to create a monthly Excel balance sheet showing the following:
- Projected revenue: first come up with your projected number of units sold and then come up with your projected revenue (Projected Revenue = # of Units Sold * Average Sales Price).
- Fixed expenses: these are expenses that are fixed no matter how much you sell. Typically, these relate to monthly SaaS subscriptions, employee salaries or rent.
- Variable expenses – these expenses change in direct proportion to how much you sell. Common examples include cost of goods sold and credit card payment processing fees.
This helps business owners better understand what they need to achieve to hit their profit goals. In reality, projections are usually always off the mark, but it’s good to give yourself some measurable goals to strive for.
This section should aim to answer the following questions about your product offering:
- How much product do you need to sell per year to meet your income goals for the business?
- What are the margins on your product? If you sell 1 hiking shirt for $50, how much do you make after paying your supplier, employees and marketing costs?
- What is the lifetime value of a customer (see marketing section)?
- How much can you spend to acquire customers? If you conservatively project that the average customer will spend $300 over time on your shirts, then you can afford to spend an amount less than $300 to acquire that customer using the paid marketing channels described previously
- Do you have any big capital expenditures early on that would require you to need to bring in investors?
- Can you improve gross margins by making bigger orders from your suppliers?
There are various acquisition channels that will help your traffic to convert including:
Your revenue plan will contain a 12-month revenue forecast plan to help you map out each month of earnings.
There are different business earning models you can go through to determine how much you can make with your business.
You want to calculate how much traffic costs. This all depends on the methods you use to gain traffic to your site.
As you determine what your profit might be with your ecommerce business or ecommerce businesses, there are certain math formulas to use:
- The profit equation
- Break even analysis
- Units needed to achieve profit target
You should also consider how you will use fintech companies in your ecommerce business.
Wrapping Up Your Business Plan
Careful planning is crucial to get your e-commerce business from the planning phase to the launch phase, and to ensure its successful future.
Going through the exercise of writing a business plan will cement your own understanding of your business and your market. It will also position you to take advantage of lucrative opportunities while mitigating harmful threats to your business down the line.
Your turn! Have you written a business plan for your online store? Do you have anything to add? Tell us about it in the comments below!
And, be sure to sign up for my ecommerce business course where I’ll walk you through each step and help you create a business plan you’ve only dreamed about!
About the author
Leave a Comment
Join 30k+ entrepreneurs already learning ecommerce..
Learning Center
Ecommerce 101
Ecommerce Business
Best Ecommerce Solution
Best Ecommerce Platforms
Best Ecommerce Software
Best Print On Demand Companies
Best Fulfillment Services
Shopify Reviews
BigCommerce Reviews
Wix Reviews
BigCommerce Vs Shopify
Affiliate Disclosure
Privacy Policy
Copyright © 2023 - Orbit Local LLC . All rights reserved.
Exclusive Member of Mediavine Finance
The Ultimate List of The Most Popular Online Business Ideas
It seems that there’s no shortage of good online business ideas. The truth is, the internet has made it easy to create a business. With just a website, you can reach anyone in any location in the world. Target the right people with the right offering, and you would be making your own money in no time. Other benefits of running an online business include cost savings, increased flexibility, and less paper waste.
Ready to start a business ? Buy unique, high-quality products to sell online with Handshake, a wholesale marketplace built by Shopify.
So if you’re quietly contemplating the idea of starting something of your own , here’s a list of the best small online business ideas that are within the reach of almost anyone who’s willing to take the plunge. From social media manager, to public speaking coach, to interior design consultant, the options are endless.
Start selling online now with Shopify
36 Best Online Business Ideas for 2022
Here is the list of the top online business ideas to get you started instantly. The best part is that all of these ideas have money-making potential, meaning you don’t need to validate them before you start. If you are looking for the best online business to start, this is the only list you will need.
Most Popular Online Business Ideas
1. Open a T-Shirt Online Shop
Platforms like Printful and Shopify have made it insanely simple to start an online t-shirt business for anyone with a speck of imagination and an eye for design. But it doesn’t need to be an online t-shirt shop; you can set up an ecommerce shop selling anything. The key here is to learn about print on demand, which forms the base for such businesses.
2. Dropshipping Business
Dropshipping is the easiest option to start an ecommerce business without having to buy any products in advance. Use dropshipping apps to find thousands of products from suppliers to sell online. Then sell to customers across the world while building and promoting your own brand, all without needing to invest in warehousing or manufacturing costs. You don’t need to pay for inventory until it’s sold to an actual customer. From online boutique to jewelry store to women’s clothing store to one-product store, dropshipping works for most online store ideas.Check out our guide to starting a dropshipping business to learn more about this great opportunity.
3. Kickstarter/Indiegogo Advisor
Grabbing the attention of curious browsers on the most popular crowdsourcing platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo is a tough job. If you’re inventive and know how to tap into human emotion, then this is a niche worth exploring. Many aspiring entrepreneurs look for personalized advice to carry their campaigns to the finish line, so try offering action-oriented eBooks or online courses targeted at this particular audience.
4. SEO Expert
One of the online world’s hottest professions at the moment, this business is a gold mine for the tech-savvy entrepreneurs. While everyone’s slightly obsessed with getting their sites SEO optimized, not many people can actually wrap their heads around this topic. If you decide to go into this field, you can think about offering link building, content creation, ecommerce SEO optimization , and similar one-off packages.
5. Selling Online Courses
Derek Halpern has built a really strong personal brand. He’s the founder of a software and business training company called Social Triggers and makes a LOT of money teaching people how to sell what they know best. And what he knows best is how to sell. If you’ve got some serious expertise, start making money out of it by selling online courses or simply teaching online.
6. Bug Testing
Bug testing is a service that no software company can ignore. If you can build a platform to crowdsource expert skills and resources to tackle this area, then you have solid chances of turning a profit. One of the most unique online business ideas, providing bug testing resources can be a lucrative way to boost your income. To learn more about this model, look into BugFinders and CrowdSourceTesting .
7. Video Producer
YouTube is the second largest site in the world , so there’s no surprise that video is becoming one of the main communication mediums for businesses of all types and sizes. If you have video filming or editing knowledge, it won’t take you long to build your clientele. Everything from video production workshops and video editing services to soundtrack libraries and DIY tutorials can appeal to the business world. Producing a video might be one of the most attractive online business ideas with lots of creativity and challenges.
8. Graphic Designer
Graphic designers are always in demand from small businesses to large multinationals. Starting a graphic design business can allow you to tap into this great opportunity. Showcasing your experience with your past portfolio can help you gain customers without aggressive outreach.
9. Website Developer
In the same vein as graphic design, website development is in constant demand as businesses are always trying to upgrade and improve their websites to get more sales. This means that you can work on new and existing websites concurrently, and get to try new things all the time. If being constantly challenged is what you are looking for, website development could be the best online business for you.
10. App Development
Apps are an amazing lucrative market, so it is not surprising that more and more companies are investing in them. This means that there is a growing need for app developers to create their applications. Offering app development is a great opportunity as you can work on vastly different applications on a daily basis.
11. Theme Designer
Just like a website developer, a theme designer is working with websites but in a different way. Choosing theme designer as your side hustle idea means building new website themes for business to use for their website. This could mean researching popular themes, identifying their shortcomings, and creating a theme that solves these pain points while remaining true to the popularity of the previous theme. If you are an expert in a certain industry, creating themes for this industry could see you reap much success.
12. Translator
If you are gifted with more than one language but have no interest in teaching others, try translating. Many companies need their website and collateral translated when they move into a different market. You can help them achieve it, while also keeping active in more than one language. Keep in mind the most common way of billing is cost per word, so price wisely to make smart money from this great online business idea.
13. Social Media Manager
Social media is an integral part of any business but it’s time-consuming and ever-changing – so really quite difficult to keep up with and, more importantly, capitalize on. Many business owners are willing to outsource this time-intensive task, so it’s a great opportunity for social media fanatics. Bundle together a few interesting offers, such as “Startup social media kit” or “Small Business Social Media Starter Kit” that encompass everything from social media graphics to analytics reports and the seamless experience will bring you more clients than you expect.
14. Remote Customer Service Agent
If you enjoy helping people but don’t want to be stuck in a call center or office all day, become a remote customer service agent and help people from the comfort of your own home. Choose between helping people via chat, email, phone, video, or other ways and save the day for people every day. This may not make you your first million, but it feels great to help people.
15. Virtual Assistant
This is one of the best online business ideas to pursue from home . As a virtual assistant, you would be answering emails, writing content, and doing other tasks on behalf of businesses The role can mean anything from a data entry person to a researcher, so, be open to trying new things and uncover new skills while getting paid.
16. Remote Sales Team
As more and more companies take on the lean, mean approach to business, outsourcing cold calling and telesales functions becomes a sort of standard in the startup and small business environment. Whether you want to sell highly-targeted sales pitches or customer data, such as phone numbers and email addresses, the potential is vast.
17. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is where a person promotes a product that another merchant sells. Using advertising, social media, blogging, and more, an affiliate marketer can attract customers to their landing page. When customers click a link to buy the product they will then be brought to the merchant’s store to buy the product. As an internet business idea, this is great for anyone no matter their previous experience. Check out our guide, Affiliate Marketing: Everything You Need to Know , to learn more about this business model.
18. Lead Generation Service Provider
Most businesses are chasing customers and looking for ways to increase conversion rates . This means investing in activities like lead generation that could be time-consuming. Because of this, many companies outsource the task to a lead generation service provider. If you are good on the phone and enjoy researching and doing outreach to strangers, then this is your calling!
19. Become an Influencer
An influencer is someone with a large follower base on social media who is seen as an expert in a particular area, like makeup or fitness. These people keep busy by posting regularly about their lives and promote products which they feel are good to possess. What is great about this internet business idea is that you can get paid to promote a business to your following, similar to affiliate marketing. Influencer marketing is a huge online business trend right now that you can capitalize on. Try your hand at Vlogging and starting a Podcast , which are under-utilized channels of communication for influencers right now.
20. Handmade Goods Shop
It can take you less than a day to build a storefront to showcase your work and connect with customers on platforms like Amazon and Etsy . If you’re into crafts and DIY, it’s definitely a viable business option to consider. You can make the goods yourself or source them from suppliers in Hong Kong and China. If you’re in a country that has ePacket shipping , sourcing products is likely to be a better and more cost-effective option.
21. Become a Private Chef
If cooking is one of your personal passions, there are dozens of opportunities to turn it into a decent business venture . You can start by setting up a catering website, experimenting with pop-up food stalls and local food markets, or joining platforms that encourage cooking enthusiasts to squeeze some money out of their passion. And if you’re not camera-shy, you can teach people how to cook special meals by selling online classes.
22. Nutritionist
The trend of healthy eating is here to say. Yet with so much contradictory advice online about what is good for us and what is not, more and more people turn to professional nutritionists for specialist tips and guidance. You can easily find free online courses to learn the fundamentals of this profession and start offering personalized nutrition plans online.
23. Get Baking!
From freshly baked butter croissants to colorful macaroons and pillow-soft morning bagels – the world of the great bake-off is a rich and ever-growing place. The beautiful thing about the online world is that a great passion can be turned into a great business almost overnight. You can start an online bakery or move your existing bakeshop online. Platforms like Shopify make it easy to sell baked goods online .
24. Natural & Organic Beauty Shop
Online shoppers are getting more and more conscientious about their choices, and especially so when it comes to beauty products. Running a beauty shop that’s built on strong ethos and values that resonate with nature and animal lovers is one of the hottest online business ideas right now. Tropic Skin Care seems to be doing a great job connecting with these shoppers.
25. Women’s Sportswear
With LuluLemon spearheading the way, online sportswear shops for women are quickly climbing to the top of the most popular idea amongst ecommerce entrepreneurs. Since yoga pants are clearly here to stay, it’s safe to say that the athleisure trend is one of the best and, perhaps, the least explored niches in ecommerce right now.
26. 3D-Printed Products
One of the biggest technological breakthroughs of this age, 3D printing is dictating a new strategy in the ecommerce world. Some of the best selling 3D-printed products include jewelry, home accessories, bicycle parts, tech accessories and more. For some beautiful examples check out 3DigitalCooks , and DanitPeleg .
27. Ethical Fashion Brand
One thing is clear – clothes and accessories will always be one of the super-profitable online business ideas for an ecommerce site. However, with so many boutiques and fashion online stores in existence, rising above the noise is extremely difficult. Yet, one promising idea that savvy entrepreneurs have probably already noticed is the booming trend of “ethical fashion”. Brands, such as Pachacuti , People Tree , Sea Salt, and Matt & Nat have successfully crafted their brands around the concept of organic, ethical production of fashion items and are riding the trend to the top of the strongest brands list.
28. Mystery Objects Shop
If you have an eye for quirky stuff, maybe running a mystery object shop could help you combine the desire for unusual business ideas with a steady source of income.
Muddy Creatures are nailing the concept of a surprise purchase that taps into the explorer instinct many of us possess. There’s no exact science or skill fueling this business idea – let your imagination go wild…
29. Online Researcher
Although it sounds like a too-good-to-be-true idea, some people are successfully earning a living off their skill to find information online. From data research for infographics to market research for budding startups, talented researchers know that you can put a price tag on knowledge.
30. Proofreader
If you love reading, becoming a proofreader could be your calling. Have other people send you their manuscripts for books, research papers, or whatever else you are interested in reading about, and give them honest feedback before they publish their works of art. This job requires attention to detail and expertise in the area to ensure that everything is ready to print.
31. CV Writing
Banging out a winning CV is a mission impossible for many. If you’re good with words and know how to highlight people’s best qualities, CV writing could be a pretty sweet place to start a business. Additionally, you can sell slick CV templates that will help job hunters to get noticed faster and yield better results.
32. Speechwriting
Giving speeches is a terrifying experience. Giving bad speeches… Well, no one wants to be in that situation. Wordsmiths have a hugely valuable skill to win people over using nothing else but the power of well-strung sentences. If you can write, cash in on this skill by crafting speeches that make birthdays, weddings, award ceremonies, or political debates a more memorable experience.
33. Self-Published Author
If you have the next Harry Potter manuscript sitting in your drawer and the publishing industry hasn’t been kind to you, try self-publishing. Using tools like Amazon’s direct publishing or working with dedicated consultants like I_Am . You not only get the satisfaction of pushing your work out there, but also an opportunity to earn residual income .Don’t think you can write a good novel? Then stick to what you know – self-help is a money-making genre!
34. Ghostwriter
If writing is your thing but you are lacking a topic to write about, become a ghostwriter for someone else. If normally requires you to write about someone or something in a lot of detail. It can take time and much research to finish this type of project so be sure to have a few months free to give to it.
35. Content Curation
The German Economist Schumpeter once said that there are “no original ideas”, only new combinations of old ones. Curation of curiosity-fueling content is an intriguing and little-known business model. One of the best success stories out there is Brainpickings – a platform that describes itself as “an inventory of cross-disciplinary interestingness, spanning art, science, design, history, philosophy, and more”. The subscription-based model and successful utilization of affiliate links have turned the blog into a self-sustaining business.
36. Foreign Language Teacher
Everyone knows that the quickest way to learn a new language is to mingle with native speakers. If you were lucky enough to be born in an English, French, Spanish (insert any of the world’s main languages) speaking country, then missing out on the opportunity to cash in on the skills you take for granted is exactly that – missing out! Use online communication tools, such as Skype or Google Hangouts, to connect with learners and leverage your privileges. Time is money, so package your hours into teaching sessions and you’re good to go.
How to Start an Online Business
Starting an online business, no matter how small you aim to have it can take time and money. It can also involve legal research and some accounting knowledge so you may find there is some upskilling involved in many different areas. Have no fear though because once you get the wheels moving on your adventure, starting an online venture will be fun and motivating. As a great source of income , side hustle opportunities are abundant as you don’t need to be located next to a customer in order to provide the goods or services to them.
The most important first step in how to start an online business is to:
1. Decide Your Business
This is the most important step as without it you don’t have a business. Check out our above list of the most popular online business ideas and choose which one suits you best.
2. Research Your Industry
Get to know what your industry is like. Maybe there is a pricing structure most of your competitor follow that will be good for you. Or maybe once you discover your competitors you will decide that your industry is over-saturated and you need to change your business idea slightly to compete.
3. Create Your Brand
With every good business comes a good brand and if you figure this out at the start you can become a more successful online business in the beginning. This includes having an amazing website, and social media (if your customers are there), killer logo creation , engaging in some PR, and some more outreach and marketing activities.
4. Begin Getting Customers
The final step to getting started is actually getting your first customer. Having great customers behind you means success for your business. To find these customers you should discover how to get in front of your audience, sending out the right message to entice customers, and devising a pricing structure that works for the majority of customers to effectively give customers what they need.
Online Business Ideas FAQs
- Where to search online for the best small business ideas?
You can search for the best small business ideas on entrepreneurial blogs like Oberlo, Shopify, or 99designs.com. Alternatively, you can use Google to provide insight by searching around topics that you are interested in.
- What to sell as your online business idea?
You can sell almost anything as your online business idea. If you want to sell clothing, you could consider dropshipping or print-on-demand. If you are an expert in a particular field you could sell your knowledge through consulting or courses. The sky's the limit when it comes to online business ideas.
Online business ideas are endless and all-inclusive. Most office-based jobs can now be done online through freelancing or remote working. The beauty of technology means that profitable online businesses will keep growing and growing, making the world a truly global marketplace. If you are considering moving away from the traditional career path and want to start your own business, read through our list of business ideas a few times and contemplate the many ways you can start a successful online business today.
Summary: Best Online Business Ideas for 2022
- Start an online t-shirt business
- Launch a dropshipping website
- Offer advice on Indiegogo/Kickstarter
- Start an SEO business
- Sell online courses
- Offer software bug testing resources
- Launch a video production company
- Offer graphic design services
- Sell web development services
- Create apps for companies
- Build website themes
- Provide translation services
- Manage social media for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs)
- Offer remote customer support services
- Provide virtual assistant services
- Become a remote sales agent
- Launch an affiliate marketing business
- Provide lead generation services
- Do influencer marketing
- Build a handmade goods store
- Become a private chef
- Offer nutrition consultancy
- Sell baked goods online
- Build a natural & organic beauty store
- Sell women’s sportswear online
- Offer 3D-printed products
- Create an ethical fashion brand
- Start a mystery objects shop
- Work as an online researcher
- Become a proofreader
- Offer CV writing services
- Become a speechwriter
- Self-publish books and e-books
- Ghostwrite content
- Curate interesting content
- Teach foreign languages
Which of these online business ideas are you going to try first? Let us know in the comments below.
Want to Learn More?
- Free Business Name Generator
- Wondering How to Grow Your Business? 4 Ways Dropshipping Can Help
- Business Ideas That Will Make You Money
- What Should You Sell Online
Is there anything else you’d like to know more about and wish was included in this article? Let us know in the comments below!
Facebook Business Page: How to Create One in 5 Easy Steps
With all the options at your fingertips, setting up a Facebook Business Page can feel like prepping a rocket ship heade…
10 Small Business Statistics You Need to Know For 2023
Many people dream about starting their own businesses, based on their own ideas and dreams. They try to break free from…
10 Ways to Increase Average Order Value in 2023
The key benefit of increasing average order value is that you make more money from each transaction. Thus, making your …
Oberlo uses cookies to provide necessary site functionality and improve your experience. By using our website, you agree to our privacy policy.
The best way to sell on multiple platforms
Connect with all your customers in just one system
Strong warehouse management system solution in the digital era
Publish and edit products with only one click
The Best Sample of Business Plans for Online Clothing Stores
Having a great idea for a business? Having a solid business plan is essential if you want to transform your idea into a profitable venture. A well-crafted business strategy, on the other hand, takes time and effort to put it. For starters, you’ll need to develop your concept, make educated assumptions, and have a thorough knowledge of the various parts of running a business before you start one.
It’s difficult enough to figure out how to do things correctly, but there are a number of tools available to ease the burden on aspiring entrepreneurs. We’ve put together a list of resources to help you get your firm off the ground with a solid business plan instead of beginning from scratch.
Related: The Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Businesses
Your Selling Stock is Messing Up? You Need Help!
Ginee Omnichannel allow you to automatically sync every stock from all of your online stores. It’s faster way to helps you profit!
What is a Business Plan?
A business plan is a written document that discusses in detail how a firm—typically a startup—defines its objectives and how it intends to go about attaining those objectives. A business plan is typically written in the third person. Business plans outline the marketing, financial, and operational strategies that will guide a company’s future growth and development.
The development of a business plan is critical in attracting funding before a company has established a track record of success and profitability. They are also an effective tool for businesses to stay on track in the future.
Despite the fact that business plans are particularly important for start-up companies, every company should have one. Ideally, the plan is reviewed and updated on a regular basis to determine whether or not goals have been fulfilled, or if they have changed and evolved. Occasionally, a new business plan is developed for an existing company that has decided to take a different course.
Why Do You Need a Business Plan?
Small company owners are inundated with information on how to get their venture off the ground, including how to register a business name, obtain a Tax ID, choose a business structure, and apply for various licenses and permissions. A business plan, however, is critical to the success of your startup, growth, and development.
See also: Business Model Canvas Explained with Online Business Examples
It Helps You Grow
A business plan serves as a road map to help you get your venture off the ground. When beginning and running a firm, a solid business plan may help you through the many stages. Your business plan will serve as a road map for structuring, operating, and growing your new venture. As a result, you’ll be more prepared to execute your company plan.
It’s Really Easy
A business plan is a document that defines your company’s goals for the next three to five years, as well as how you aim to make money and increase your revenue along the way. Consider it an ongoing business initiative rather than a one-time paper. Partition the plan — one part is for sales and marketing; the other is pricing; the last part is operations.
Business Milestones
A well-thought-out business plan aids you in taking a step back and considering your company’s most important aspects objectively, which helps you make better decisions going forward. In order to get a business loan, this is a must-have. Don’t forget that your strategy doesn’t have to be comprehensive like a dictionary or contain all of the answers.
Helps with Financial Support
You can seek money or new business partners with the help of business plans. The presence of such a plan gives investors peace of mind that their money will be well spent. With your business strategy, you can persuade others that working with you (or investing in your company) is a wise move.
You Can Write it the Way You Want
When it comes to writing a business strategy, there are no right or wrong ways. You have the option of selecting the plan format that best suits your needs. Ensure that your business plan addresses your specific requirements. Traditional business plans and lean startup plans are the most prevalent types of business plans.
Tools to Help You Make a Business Plan
Here are 3 tools that help when writing your business plan.
Related: How to do SWOT Analysis for Online Business?
Business Plan Templates
Business plan templates demonstrate exactly how a business plan should be laid out and what information should be included in each part. You can find them as downloaded example business plans that you can copy and edit to match your company’s needs, as fill-in-the-blank or question-and-answer forms, or as fill-in-the-blank or question-and-answer forms on the internet.
Moreover, there are other sorts of business plans, including simple business plans that cover the essentials, comprehensive business plans that cover every area of a company, and business plans that are tailored to a specific objective, such as raising money or locating potential partners. Here are some sample business plan templates that you might find useful.
Business Plan Apps
Apps for creating business plans: It is not necessary to be glued to your workstation in order to develop a company plan. There are various business plan mobile apps that will allow you to construct a business plan on your smartphone or tablet at any time and from any location. Here are two that are well worth your time.
Business Plan Services
You don’t want to use any of the options listed above? Consider using an online business plan service that will take you through the entire process of drafting a business plan.
Unlike business plan software, these services provide tools that are similar to business plan software, such as document collections and chart generators, with the difference being that they typically provide business and legal specialists who can assist you in better understanding complex aspects of your business and business plan.
Do You Want to Manage Multiple Marketplace Just by Single Person?
Of course you can! You can handle multiple stores from all marketplace just by single dashboard. Cut your Business’s cost, and Boost your Efficiency at the same time.
Samples of Things You Need for Business Plan
Here are 6 samples you will need for your business plan writing process.
Financial Proposal
Impress bankers and investors with a financial model that has been tested and proven to work time and time again.
Graphs for Finance
To support your Online Clothing Store business plan, you will be provided with the following financial tables in the form of graphs for two and five years: revenue breakdown, cash balance, operating cash flow, EBITDA, and EBIT.
Amortization Schedule for a Loan
This information may be found under the “Capital” page, where you can view the internal calculations of the loans, interest, and equity that have been performed.
Accounts Payable and Receivable
It clearly demonstrates to the owner and investors where the funds have been invested, what property the firm has, what responsibilities the business has, and the overall value of the business.
Financial Statements
It reveals how much money a company makes, how much money it makes and spends, and how much money it has the potential to make.
Cash Flow Statement
Cash Flow Statement is a financial statement that shows how much money is coming in and going out. Because the primary purpose of every organization is to generate cash flow, it is one of the most critical reports to produce. It demonstrates how much money you have consolidated and how much money you have left over should you need to raise extra finance.
Plan Your Business with Ginee
The best businesses require the best tools to succeed. Ginee Philippines makes it possible for you to take the initial step toward establishing a low-cost internet business. It makes it possible for you to handle multiple internet store businesses at the same time in one location. There are several business opportunity examples available on the internet.
All you need to do is search for small business ideas in the Philippines or take a more significant step forward with business investment in the Philippines. It is all up to you. Ginee can help you take the initial step in your business by registering for a free trial . Without trying it, you’ll have no idea what you’ve been missing out on.
Upload Products to Shopee and Lazada Automatically ! How?
Ginee product management allow you upload products to all of your online stores from all marketplace just once! Save time, save cost, save energy, join Ginee Now!
Omnichannel
Ginee Listing
Marketplace News
Marketplace Research
Selling Tips
Ginee Portal
500+ Free business plan examples
Need help writing your business plan? Explore over 500 free real-world business plan examples from a wide variety of industries to guide you through writing your own plan. If you're looking for an intuitive tool that walks you through the plan writing process, we recommend LivePlan . It includes many of these same SBA-approved business plan examples and is especially useful when applying for a bank loan or outside investment.
Find your business plan
Accounting, Insurance & Compliance Business Plans
- View All 25
Children & Pets Business Plans
- Children's Education & Recreation
- View All 33
Cleaning, Repairs & Maintenance Business Plans
- Auto Detail & Repair
- Cleaning Products
- View All 38
Clothing & Fashion Business Plans
- Clothing & Fashion Design
- View All 21
Construction, Architecture & Engineering Business Plans
- Architecture
- Construction
- View All 46
Consulting, Advertising & Marketing Business Plans
- Advertising
- View All 52
Education Business Plans
- Education Consulting
- Education Products
- View All 26
Business plan template: There's an easier way to get your business plan done.
Entertainment & Recreation Business Plans
- Entertainment
- Film & Television
- View All 57
Events Business Plans
- Event Planning
- View All 16
Farm & Agriculture Business Plans
- Agri-tourism
- Agriculture Consulting
- View All 15
Finance & Investing Business Plans
- Financial Planning
- View All 10
Fine Art & Crafts Business Plans
Fitness & Beauty Business Plans
- Salon & Spa
- View All 35
Food & Beverage Business Plans
- Bar & Brewery
- View All 77
Hotel & Lodging Business Plans
- Bed and Breakfast
IT, Staffing & Customer Service Business Plans
- Administrative Services
- Customer Service
- View All 22
Manufacturing & Wholesale Business Plans
- Cleaning & Cosmetics Manufacturing
- View All 68
Medical & Health Business Plans
- Dental Practice
- Health Administration
- View All 39
Nonprofit Business Plans
- Co-op Nonprofit
- Food & Housing Nonprofit
- View All 13
Real Estate & Rentals Business Plans
- Equipment Rental
- View All 19
Retail & Ecommerce Business Plans
- Car Dealership
- View All 113
Technology Business Plans
- Apps & Software
- Communication Technology
- View All 53
Transportation, Travel & Logistics Business Plans
- Airline, Taxi & Shuttle
- View All 61
Example business plan format
Before you start exploring our library of business plan examples, it's worth taking the time to understand the traditional business plan format . You'll find that the plans in this library and most investor-approved business plans will include the following sections:
Executive summary
The executive summary is an overview of your business and your plans. It comes first in your plan and is ideally only one to two pages. You should also plan to write this section last after you've written your full business plan.
Your executive summary should include a summary of the problem you are solving, a description of your product or service, an overview of your target market, a brief description of your team, a summary of your financials, and your funding requirements (if you are raising money).
Products & services
The products & services chapter of your business plan is where the real meat of your plan lives. It includes information about the problem that you're solving, your solution, and how your product or service fits into the existing competitive landscape.
Describe the problem you're solving, how your offering solves the problem, and who your potential competitors are. You'll want to outline your competitive advantages and the milestones you have in mind to successfully start and grow your business.
Market analysis
Conducting a market analysis ensures that you fully understand the market that you're entering and who you'll be selling to. This section is where you will showcase all of the information about your potential customers. You'll cover your target market as well as information about the growth of your market and your industry. Focus on outlining why the market you're entering is viable and creating a realistic persona for your ideal customer base.
Marketing & sales
The marketing and sales plan section of your business plan details how you plan to reach your target market segments. You'll address how you plan on selling to those target markets, what your pricing plan is, and what types of activities and partnerships you need to make your business a success.
Organization & management
Use this section to describe your current team and who you need to hire. If you intend to pursue funding, you'll need to highlight the relevant experience of your team members. Basically, this is where you prove that this is the right team to successfully start and grow the business. You will also need to provide a quick overview of your legal structure, location, and history if you're already up and running.
Financial projections
Your financial plan should include a sales and revenue forecast, profit and loss statement, cash flow statement, and a balance sheet. You may not have established financials of any kind at this stage. Not to worry, rather than getting all of the details ironed out, focus on making projections and strategic forecasts for your business. You can always update your financial statements as you begin operations and start bringing in actual accounting data.
Now, if you intend to pitch to investors or submit a loan application, you'll also need a "use of funds" report in this section. This outlines how you intend to leverage any funding for your business and how much you're looking to acquire. Like the rest of your financials, this can always be updated later on.
The appendix isn't a required element of your business plan. However, it is a useful place to add any charts, tables, definitions, legal notes, or other critical information that supports your plan. These are often lengthier or our-of-place information that simply didn't work naturally into the structure of your plan. You'll notice that in these business plan examples, the appendix mainly includes extended financial statements.
Types of business plans explained
While all business plans cover similar categories, the style and function fully depend on how you intend to use your plan. To get the most out of your plan, it's best to find a format that suits your needs. Here are a few common business plan types worth considering.
Traditional business plan
The tried-and-true traditional business plan is a formal document meant to be used for external purposes. Typically this is the type of plan you'll need when applying for funding or pitching to investors. It can also be used when training or hiring employees, working with vendors, or any other situation where the full details of your business must be understood by another individual.
Business model canvas
The business model canvas is a one-page template designed to demystify the business planning process. It removes the need for a traditional, copy-heavy business plan, in favor of a single-page outline that can help you and outside parties better explore your business idea.
The structure ditches a linear format in favor of a cell-based template. It encourages you to build connections between every element of your business. It's faster to write out and update, and much easier for you, your team, and anyone else to visualize your business operations.
One-page business plan
The true middle ground between the business model canvas and a traditional business plan is the one-page business plan . This format is a simplified version of the traditional plan that focuses on the core aspects of your business.
By starting with a one-page plan, you give yourself a minimal document to build from. You'll typically stick with bullet points and single sentences making it much easier to elaborate or expand sections into a longer-form business plan.
The Lean Plan is less of a specific document type and more of a methodology. It takes the simplicity and styling of the one-page business plan and turns it into a process for you to continuously plan, test, review, refine, and take action based on performance.
It holds all of the benefits of the single-page plan, including the potential to complete it in as little as 27-minutes . However, it's even easier to convert into a full plan thanks to how heavily it's tied to your financials. The overall goal of Lean Planning isn't to just produce documents that you use once and shelve. Instead, the Lean Planning process helps you build a healthier company that thrives in times of growth and remain stable through times of crisis.
It's faster, keeps your plan concise, and ensures that your plan is always up-to-date.
Download a free sample business plan template
Ready to start writing your own plan but aren't sure where to start? Download our free business plan template that's been updated for 2022.
This simple, modern, investor-approved business plan template is designed to make planning easy. It's a proven format that has helped over 1 million businesses write business plans for bank loans, funding pitches, business expansion, and even business sales. It includes additional instructions for how to write each section and is formatted to be SBA-lender approved. All you need to do is fill in the blanks.
How to use an example business plan to help you write your own
How do you know what elements need to be included in your business plan, especially if you've never written one before? Looking at examples can help you visualize what a full, traditional plan looks like, so you know what you're aiming for before you get started. Here's how to get the most out of a sample business plan.
Choose a business plan example from a similar type of company
You don't need to find an example business plan that's an exact fit for your business. Your business location, target market, and even your particular product or service may not match up exactly with the plans in our gallery. But, you don't need an exact match for it to be helpful. Instead, look for a plan that's related to the type of business you're starting.
For example, if you want to start a vegetarian restaurant, a plan for a steakhouse can be a great match. While the specifics of your actual startup will differ, the elements you'd want to include in your restaurant's business plan are likely to be very similar.
Use a business plan example as a guide
Every startup and small business is unique, so you'll want to avoid copying an example business plan word for word. It just won't be as helpful, since each business is unique. You want your plan to be a useful tool for starting a business —and getting funding if you need it.
One of the key benefits of writing a business plan is simply going through the process. When you sit down to write, you'll naturally think through important pieces, like your startup costs, your target market , and any market analysis or research you'll need to do to be successful.
You'll also look at where you stand among your competition (and everyone has competition ), and lay out your goals and the milestones you'll need to meet. Looking at an example business plan's financials section can be helpful because you can see what should be included, but take them with a grain of salt. Don't assume that financial projections for a sample company will fit your own small business.
If you're looking for more resources to help you get started, this guide on how to write a business plan is a good place to start. You can also download our free business plan template , or get started right away with LivePlan .
Think of business planning as a process, instead of a document
Think about business planning as something you do often , rather than a document you create once and never look at again. If you take the time to write a plan that really fits your own company, it will be a better, more useful tool to grow your business. It should also make it easier to share your vision and strategy so everyone on your team is on the same page.
Adjust your plan regularly to use it as a business management tool
Keep in mind that businesses that use their plan as a management tool to help run their business grow 30 percent faster than those businesses that don't. For that to be true for your company, you'll think of a part of your business planning process as tracking your actual results against your financial forecast on a regular basis.
If things are going well, your plan will help you think about how you can re-invest in your business. If you find that you're not meeting goals, you might need to adjust your budgets or your sales forecast. Either way, tracking your progress compared to your plan can help you adjust quickly when you identify challenges and opportunities—it's one of the most powerful things you can do to grow your business.
Prepare to pitch your business
If you're planning to pitch your business to investors or seek out any funding, you'll need a pitch deck to accompany your business plan. A pitch deck is designed to inform people about your business. You want your pitch deck to be short and easy to follow, so it's best to keep your presentation under 20 slides.
Your pitch deck and pitch presentation are likely some of the first things that an investor will see to learn more about your company. So, you need to be informative and pique their interest. Luckily, just like you can leverage an example business plan template to write your plan, we also have a gallery of over 50 pitch decks for you to reference.
With this gallery, you have the option to view specific industry pitches or get inspired by real-world pitch deck examples. Or for a modern pitch solution that helps you create a business plan and pitch deck side-by-side, you may want to check out LivePlan . It will help you build everything needed for outside investment and to better manage your business.
Get LivePlan in your classroom
Are you an educator looking for real-world business plan examples for your students? With LivePlan, you give your students access to industry-best business plans and help them set goals and track metrics with spreadsheet-free financial forecasts. All of this within a single tool that includes additional instructional resources that work seamlessly alongside your current classroom setup.
With LivePlan, it's not just a classroom project. It's your students planning for their futures. Click here to learn more about business planning for students .
Ready to get started?
Now that you know how to use an example business plan to help you write a plan for your business, it's time to find the right one.
Use the search bar below to get started and find the right match for your business idea.
The quickest way to turn a business idea into a business plan
Fill-in-the-blanks and automatic financials make it easy.
No thanks, I prefer writing 40-page documents.
Plan, fund, and grow.
Easily write a business plan, secure funding, and gain insights.
Achieve your business funding goals with a proven plan format.
Clothing Store Business Plan
Written by Dave Lavinsky
Over the past 20+ years, we have helped over 15,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans to start and grow their clothing stores. On this page, we will first give you some background information with regards to the importance of business planning. We will then go through a clothing store business plan template step-by-step so you can create your plan today. It can be used to create a women’s clothing boutique business plan, or business plans for a men’s clothing store, family clothing store, children’s clothing store and more.
Download our Clothing Store Business Plan Template here
What Is a Business Plan?
A business plan provides a snapshot of your clothing store as it stands today, and lays out your growth plan for the next five years. It explains your business goals and your strategy for reaching them. It also includes market research to support your plans.
Why You Need a Business Plan
If you’re looking to start a clothing store business or grow your existing clothing store you need a business plan. A business plan will help you raise funding, if needed, and plan out the growth of your clothing store in order to improve your chances of success. Your clothing store business plan is a living document that should be updated annually as your company grows and changes.
Sources of Funding for Clothing Store Businesses
With regards to funding, the main sources of funding for a clothing store are bank loans and angel investors. With regards to bank loans, banks will want to review your business plan and gain confidence that you will be able to repay your loan and interest. To acquire this confidence, the loan officer will not only want to confirm that your financials are reasonable. But they will want to see a professional plan. Such a plan will give them the confidence that you can successfully and professionally operate a business.
The second most common form of funding for a clothing store is angel investors. Angel investors are wealthy individuals who will write you a check. They will either take equity in return for their funding, or, like a bank, they will give you a loan.
Venture capitalists will not fund a clothing store business. They might consider funding a chain, but never an individual location. This is because most venture capitalists are looking for millions of dollars in return when they make an investment, and an individual location could rarely achieve such results.
Finish Your Business Plan Today!
Clothing store business plan template.
Your business plan should include 10 sections as follows:
Executive Summary
Your executive summary provides an introduction to your business plan, but it is normally the last section you write because it provides a summary of each key section of your plan.
The goal of your Executive Summary is to quickly engage the reader. Explain to them the type of clothing store you are operating and the status; for example, are you a startup, do you have a clothing store business that you would like to grow, or are you operating a chain of clothing stores.
Next, provide an overview of each of the subsequent sections of your plan. For example, give a brief overview of the clothing store industry. Discuss the type of clothing store store you are operating. Detail your direct competitors. Give an overview of your target customers. Provide a snapshot of your marketing plan. Identify the key members of your team. And offer an overview of your financial plan.
Company Analysis
In your company analysis, you will detail the type of clothing store business you are operating.
For example, you might operate a clothing store focused on:
- High-End Fashion
- Sports/Athletic Clothing
- Kids Clothing
- Wedding Dresses
- Hip Hop Clothing
In addition to explaining the type of clothing store business you operate, the Company Analysis section of your business plan needs to provide background on the business.
Include answers to question such as:
- When and why did you start the business?
- What milestones have you achieved to date? Milestones could include sales goals you’ve reached, new store openings, etc.
- Your legal structure. Are you incorporated as an S-Corp? An LLC? A sole proprietorship? Explain your legal structure here.
Industry Analysis
In your industry analysis, you need to provide an overview of the clothing store business. While this may seem unnecessary, it serves multiple purposes.
First, researching the clothing store industry educates you. It helps you understand the market in which you are operating.
Secondly, market research can improve your strategy particularly if your research identifies market trends. For example, if there was a trend towards local clothing store businesses with online counterparts, it would be helpful to ensure your plan calls for a significant online presence.
The third reason for market research is to prove to readers that you are an expert in your industry. By conducting the research and presenting it in your plan, you achieve just that.
The following questions should be answered in the industry analysis section of your clothing store business plan:
- How big is the clothing store business (in dollars)?
- Is the market declining or increasing?
- Who are the key competitors in your local market?
- Who are the key suppliers in the market?
- What trends are affecting the industry?
- What is the industry’s growth forecast over the next 5 – 10 years?
- What is the relevant market size? That is, how big is the potential market for your clothing store. You can extrapolate such a figure by assessing the size of your niche’s market in the entire country and then applying that figure to your local population.
Customer Analysis
The customer analysis section of your clothing store business plan must detail the customers you serve and/or expect to serve.
The following are examples of customer segments: college students, sports enthusiasts, soccer moms, techies, teens, baby boomers, etc.
As you can imagine, the customer segment(s) you choose will have a great impact on the type of clothing store business you operate. Clearly baby boomers would want a different atmosphere, pricing and product options, and would respond to different marketing promotions than teens.
Try to break out your target customers in terms of their demographic and psychographic profiles. With regards to demographics, include a discussion of the ages, genders, locations and income levels of the customers you seek to serve. Because most clothing store businesses primarily serve customers living in their same city or town, such demographic information is easy to find on government websites.
Psychographic profiles explain the wants and needs of your target customers. The more you can understand and define these needs, the better you will do in attracting and retaining your customers.
Competitive Analysis
Your competitive analysis should identify the indirect and direct competitors your business faces and then focus on the latter.
Direct competitors are other clothing store businesses. They are most likely local businesses who sell similar items to you.
Indirect competitors are other options that customers have to purchase from you that aren’t direct competitors. You most likely will have online competitors; companies that sell the same or similar items to you, but which operate online.
For each direct competitor, provide an overview of their businesses and document their strengths and weaknesses. Unless you once worked at your competitors’ businesses, it will be impossible to know everything about them. But you should be able to find out key things about them such as:
- What types of customers do they serve?
- What products do they offer?
- What is their pricing (premium, low, etc.)?
- What are they good at?
- What are their weaknesses?
With regards to the last two questions, think about your answers from the customers’ perspective. Look at review websites to gain this information.
The final part of your competitive analysis section is to document your areas of competitive advantage. For example:
- Will you provide superior products or services?
- Will you provide products that your competitors don’t?
- Will you make it easier or faster for customers to acquire your products?
- Will you provide better customer service?
- Will you offer better pricing?
Think about ways you will outperform your competition and document them in this section of your plan.
Marketing Plan
Traditionally, a marketing plan includes the four P’s: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. For a clothing store business plan, your marketing plan should include the following:
Product : in the product section you should reiterate the type of clothing store you documented in your Company Analysis. Then, detail the specific products you will be offering.
Price : Document the prices you will offer and how they compare to your competitors. Essentially in the product and price sub-sections of your marketing plan, you are presenting the items you offer and their prices.
Place : Place refers to the location of your clothing store business. Document your location and mention how the location will impact your success. For example, is your clothing store business located next to a heavily populated office building, or gym, etc. Discuss how your location might provide a steady stream of customers. Also, if you operate or plan to operate kiosks, detail the locations where the kiosks will be placed.
Promotions : the final part of your clothing store business marketing plan is the promotions section. Here you will document how you will drive customers to your location(s). The following are some promotional methods you might consider:
- Making your storefront extra appealing to attract passing customers
- Social media marketing
- Search engine optimization
- Advertising in local papers and magazines
- Reaching out to local bloggers and websites
- Local radio advertising
- Banner ads at local venues
Operations Plan
While the earlier sections of your business plan explained your goals, your operations plan describes how you will meet them. Your operations plan should have two distinct sections as follows.
Everyday short-term processes include all of the tasks involved in running your clothing store business such as serving customers, procuring inventory, keeping the clothing store clean, etc.
Long-term goals are the milestones you hope to achieve. These could include the dates when you expect to serve your 1,000th customer, or when you hope to reach $X in sales. It could also be when you expect to hire your Xth employee or launch a new location.
Management Team
To demonstrate your clothing store business’s ability to succeed as a business, a strong management team is essential. Highlight your key players’ backgrounds, emphasizing those skills and experiences that prove their ability to grow a company.
Ideally you and/or your team members have direct experience in the clothing store business. If so, highlight this experience and expertise. But also highlight any experience that you think will help your business succeed.
If your team is lacking, consider assembling an advisory board. An advisory board would include 2 to 8 individuals who would act like mentors to your business. They would help answer questions and provide strategic guidance. If needed, look for advisory board members with experience in clothing store businesses and/or successfully running clothing store and small businesses.
Financial Plan
Your financial plan should include your 5-year financial statement broken out both monthly or quarterly for the first year and then annually. Your financial statements include your income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statements.
Income Statement : an income statement is more commonly called a Profit and Loss statement or P&L. It shows your revenues and then subtracts your costs to show whether you turned a profit or not.
In developing your income statement, you need to devise assumptions. For example, will you serve 25 customers per day or 100? And will sales grow by 2% or 10% per year? As you can imagine, your choice of assumptions will greatly impact the financial forecasts for your business. As much as possible, conduct research to try to root your assumptions in reality.
Balance Sheets : While balance sheets include much information, to simplify them to the key items you need to know about, balance sheets show your assets and liabilities. For instance, if you spend $200,000 on building out your clothing store business, that will not give you immediate profits. Rather it is an asset that will hopefully help you generate profits for years to come. Likewise, if a bank writes you a check for $100.000, you don’t need to pay it back immediately. Rather, that is a liability you will pay back over time.
Cash Flow Statement : Your cash flow statement will help determine how much money you need to start or grow your business, and make sure you never run out of money. What most entrepreneurs and business owners don’t realize is that you can turn a profit but run out of money and go bankrupt. For example, you may need to purchase inventories now that you can’t sell (and get paid for) for several months. During those months, you could run out of money.
In developing your Income Statement and Balance Sheets be sure to include several of the key costs needed in starting or growing a clothing store business:
- Location build-out including design fees, construction, etc.
- Cost of fixtures
- Cost of initial inventory
- Payroll or salaries paid to staff
- Business insurance
- Taxes and permits
- Legal expenses
Attach your full financial projections in the appendix of your plan along with any supporting documents that make your plan more compelling. For example, you might include your clothing store’s design blueprint or location lease.
Clothing Store Business Plan Summary
Putting together a business plan for your clothing store business is a worthwhile endeavor. If you follow the template above, by the time you are done, you will truly be an expert. You will really understand the clothing store business, your competition and your customers. You will have developed a marketing plan and will really understand what it takes to launch and grow a successful clothing store store.
Download Our Clothing Store Business Plan PDF
You can download our clothing store business plan PDF here . This is a business plan template you can use in PDF format.
How to Finish Your Clothing Store Business Plan in 1 Day!
Don’t you wish there was a faster, easier way to finish your business plan?
With Growthink’s Ultimate Clothing Store Business Plan Template you can finish your plan in just 8 hours or less!
OR, Let Us Develop Your Clothing Store Business Plan For You
Since 1999, Growthink’s business plan consulting team has developed business plans for thousands of companies who have gone on to achieve tremendous success.
Click here to see how our professional business plan writers can create your business plan for you.
Clothing Store Business Plan FAQs
What is the easiest way to complete my clothing store business plan.
Growthink's Ultimate Clothing Store Business Plan Template allows you to quickly and easily complete your Clothing Store Business Plan.
Where Can I Download a Free Clothing Store Business Plan PDF?
You can download our clothing store business plan PDF template here . This is a business plan template you can use in PDF format.
Other Helpful Business Plan Articles & Templates
- eCommerce Marketing
[Tutorial] How to easily create your online shop’s business plan step by step
Ecommerce Consultant at Doofinder
Are you thinking about creating an online shop? If you think it is as simple as setting it up and starting to wait for clients to come, you are quite wrong. You need a business plan for you online shop. Even if you are not a startup and you don’t need to get people to invest thousands of euros in your project, the business plan is still essential to put your best foot forward. Having a business plan will save you a lot of headaches, such as finding out that your online shop doesn’t sell as you expected. In today’s article we will show you the main points your business plan must include so you can start working on it today. Are you ready to jumpstart your online shop?
Table of Contents
Why do you need a business plan for your e-commerce?
1. executive summary, 2. description of the company, 3. environment analysis, a. competition, b. legislation, 4. products and services, 5. marketing plan, 6. operational planning, 7. financial projections, 8. funding application, how to present the business plan of an e-commerce.
There are two types of actions in life:
- Those that bring gratification first and pain later.
- Those that bring pain first and gratification later.
When we have an idea, what we want is to get it off the ground as quickly as possible. We can picture ourselves killing it with our e-commerce shop and what we don’t feel like is wasting time on writing down a business plan.
“Everything is in my head!” you’ll hear.
Creating a good business plan is one of those actions that bring pain first, but that leads to huge rewards afterwards.
A business plan can help you earn lots of money, or save it, if while creating it you realize that your project wasn’t as perfect as you thought.
Another reason to do it is that you may need to show it to someone: investors, banks, or even friends.
In any case, let’s take a look at the key points that it has to cover.
It is the first thing your supposed investors would read if you were looking for funding since it is the synopsis of your business plan. This summary creates a first impression for your project and this is why many entrepreneurs make the mistake of making it too long or overwriting it with extravagant words. Experts actually recommend consolidating it. Just one sheet of paper summarizing every section of the business plan should be enough. Although it is typically placed at the beginning, it should be the last section to be written .
What the executive summary should include:
- Idea presentation: In one or two sentences it has to define your project, the value proposal, and the main competitive advantage.
- Who is behind the idea: A good idea needs the support of a good entrepreneur. It is time to introduce yourself, but don’t overuse the standard CV formula. Be honest, creative, and original.
- Basic information: This is your planned name, the legal status it will acquire, location, and foreseen scope. You can show this as a chart to make it easier to read .
One of the issues that are not always analyzed in depth is the matter of the legal requirements. It shows that you have read them and that you can resolve them easily. Include them briefly, and then you can go into more details if necessary.
The goal of this section is to identify the competitive advantage of your online shop so that you can make use of it in the future. You must reflect the company’s identity by defining:
- Mission: the reason behind your shop’s existence, the role it plays in the market, who is it directed toward, and what its differential factor is.
- Vision: the objectives that you want to achieve long term, which must be both realistic and ambitious so they can be motivating.
- Values: the universal ethical principles that you want your shop to be identified with. Only choose those values that you will be committed to upholding with every action you take.
At this point it will be helpful if you do a SWOT analysis.
We’re going to take a quick look at what’s behind those letters.
A SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) allows you to carry out an external and internal assessment of both positive and negative points of your project.
It is a matrix where each quadrant includes one of the letters.
- Threats: These represent what could happen or what already exists in the market that may be a trouble for the project.
- Opportunities: These could be change of legislation or any other favorable situation, whatever the reason may be.
These are factors that don’t depend on the business itself, but rather that the business either exploits them or foresees the risks.
The internal aspects:
- Weaknesses: These are our weakest points. We may not master the technical part or we may have a lack of resources.
- Strengths: What are we good at and how does that give us an advantage over competitors?
If we had to define the relation between the SWOT analysis and the business plan in a sentence, it would be this:
The business plan should show that the strengths outweigh the weaknesses and that, at the same time, they are strong enough to combat the threats and exploit the opportunities.
Now let’s jump into the next point.
Once you have completed the SWOT analysis it will be really easy to complete this one.
A business plan for an online shop should include an analysis of the environment, which we are going to divide into three types:
If you are thinking that the existence of competitors is a negative point, you are wrong.
A lack of competitors would be even worse since it would mean that there is not enough demand.
Your business plan should show that there are competitors, but not enough as to be a threat: turn it into an opportunity!
Analyze the main competitors and repeat the strengths and weaknesses process which each of them. This will give you a very clear scenario to see where exactly you can surpass them.
Finding out who your competitors are is very easy with the Internet. Have a look on Google at the best-positioned pages and the ones with the most authority for your main keywords. In addition, analyze the behavior of your ideal client and find out what they visit and what they buy.
At this point you have to dig deep into the legal aspects within your market.
A modification to the law may mean both a risk and an opportunity.
C. Technology
For some sectors, it would be essential to stay up to date regarding the technological level of the market.
Summarize the main tools that you need:
- Do they require investment? Will it be just one or will it be recurrent?
- Do you have the necessary knowledge to use them?
- Will you need to hire a third party?
The business plan for your online shop should answer those questions.
If you want to further develop this point, you can include a sociological or cultural analysis, but be careful not to include too much irrelevant information because it won’t help you achieve your goals.
What is my product going to offer to clients? This is the fundamental question you need to ask yourself at this stage of your business plan for your online shop. Your target clients and the problems you are going to solve for them must be crystal clear. If there are similar products in the market, clearly establish what your added value is compared to the other options.
Again, you can use a table. The table will show your products, their price, and the estimated profits.
If you are looking for funding, what matters to the risk analyst regarding your business plan is not the price. What really matter is why users will be willing to purchase and how much you’ll be getting from it.
Talk about pricing strategies and expenses. A company that has 100% control over where its money goes is already on the right path.
We have already shown how and what we offer to our webpage visitors. This section includes every action planned in order to get sales.
Another common mistake, both online and offline, is to put too much effort into getting it ready and then just “opening the door” and waiting.
In a physical shop, at least passersby will see you, but for an online one that is just starting up, there is not even a street.
Bear in mind that a website, at the beginning, is located in a desert with nobody around. Telling your friends and family to visit you will make it look better at the beginning, but the real struggle is to make strangers come and make a purchase.
The marketing plan within the business plan should answer the following question:
How are we going to get constant visits to the shop?
Indeed, if this is not the most important part, it’s close. Gaining visibility is a slow process that must be planned.
A good marketing plan starts with a thorough analysis of the market . Identifying your direct competitors and deciding which strategies you will implement to try to overcome them will be essential. In addition, this section will include which channels you will use to convey your message and to get leads that will become clients.
- Email marketing
- Social networks
- Videomarketing and YouTube.
- Content marketing
- Paid traffic with AdWords or Facebook Ads.
Don’t forget to clearly state how you’ll use each of them.
The operational planning includes your daily tasks as a entrepreneur. You must establish basic things such as your work schedule, your location, your daily tasks timetable, and your product stock.
If reflects the task-flow from your e-commerce shop and how they’ll be divided.
If you are the only person in charge, you need to show what your routine will be.
Bear in mind that at the beginning you will have more tasks related to promoting and growing, but after some time you will have others to do:
- Manage returns
- Offer support
- Deal with unforeseen events
- Manage the stock
- Negotiate with suppliers
Surely you will have to go through it again in the future , but it is important to have an initial idea on paper, and then make small modifications down the line.
By doing this you, will show that everything is under control in your business plan. 😉
Once you’ve gotten to this point, you will have to think about where you want to see your shop in 1, 3, and 5 years time .
For those who don’t know where they are going, no wind is favorable.
That’s even truer for an e-commerce or an online business.
The reason for doing this is to give you a direction for moving towards your goals and, most importantly, to ask yourself how are you planning on achieving them. Based on this fact and when you start getting your first sales, you should establish which percentage of the profits you are going to reinvest into making your business grow.
Making an accurate prediction about your profits is difficult—and the person reading your report will know this—but at least you are showing that you have worked on it. Just don’t write figures without a rhyme or reason.
This is the last step of your business plan, in the case that you need external funding. It should include the amount of money you need and the exact ways that you plan on making use of it.
Put yourself in the investor’s shoes. Imagine that you are the one who is going to invest your money and think about what information you will like to read.
You may know the idea, the risks, the opportunity, and how to exploit it, but the other person doesn’t.
Be careful with the language you use—be precise and specific, and avoid vague expressions like:
“My experience and my multifaceted profile give me everything I need to comprehensively manage the business that I need your money to start.”
If you are only specific about the amount of money that you need, forget about the funding.
Use a chronogram in order to show your plan visually. It is easier to understand it if it comes with a graphic instead of just having a bare text.
This may not be necessary since you can start with a budget based on the popular family and friends funding in addition to your own funds.
Remember that the three Fs (Friends, Fools, and Family) will help you get started, but they can’t be the foundation of your strategy.
You already know how to create your e-commerce business plan step by step and now it’s time to take action. Remember that it is just a document and that you can write yourself with just a bit of time. As you can see, you don’t need to have studied business administration at university to be able to write your own business plan.
You don’t need to be a graphic designer. The important part is the content—don’t steal its thunder with an opulent presentation.
Once you have a rough draft with all of the information, bring into a Google Doc or Word document and save it as a PDF.
Just like with other aspects, less is more.
To wrap things up, here you can download lots of examples of business plan templates.
Use the examples carefully. Each project is different and if you just copy-paste it, the result will be a boring, non-informative text.
Get inspired by the templates and this post, then create your own version and make people fall in love of your idea.
Do you remember what we starting off talking about?
The things bring in the most profits are the ones that require effort before you see any rewards.
Don’t forget that when creating your business plan. That way, you’ll do it with the love and attention it deserves.
Also think about the fact that the main beneficiary is you. It is also true that it will open the doors to funding, but you don’t want funding for a project that isn’t viable.
The business plan will help you in two ways: to get to know your project more deeply and, if it is viable, to gain the resources to make it work.
And don’t worry about the difficulty of writing it. It doesn’t matter whether it is about a clothes shop, a shoe shop, or a shop that sells fishing equipment. You are the person who best knows the project and that is you need to have is knowledge about your project and your sector, as well as a general strategic vision .
This is the first step towards creating the online shop you dream of, so what are you waiting for?
- Increase your eCommerce sales by 20%
- The 10 largest eCommerce sites in the world
- How to start an online shop from scratch
- eCommerce Analytics
- eCommerce CRO
- Ecommerce Platforms
- eCommerce SEO
- eCommerce website Design
- General Topics
- Magento eCommerce
- Sales Increase
- Social Commerce
- WooCommerce
ZenBusinessPlans
Home » Sample Business Plans » Wholesale & Retail
How to Write a Retail Store Business Plan [Sample Template]
Are you about starting a retail business? If YES, here’s a complete sample online retail store business plan template & feasibility report to help you get started. Okay, so we have considered all the requirements for starting a retail store. We also took it further by analyzing and drafting a sample retail store marketing plan template backed up by actionable guerrilla marketing ideas for retail stores. So let’s proceed to the business planning section.
Table of Content
Why Start a Retail Store?
1. industry overview, 3. our products and services, 4. our mission and vision statement, 5. job roles and responsibilities, 6. swot analysis, 8. our target market, 9. sales and marketing strategy, 10. sales forecast, 11. publicity and advertising strategy, 12. our pricing strategy, 14. sustainability and expansion strategy.
There are times when one might not be disposed to buy stuff in bulk. This might be due to financial constraint or other contingencies. This is one of the reasons why retail outlets are scattered all over the world. They know the importance of reaching all and sundry, and that is why they want to provide services that can reach all classes of people.
Those who are already in the trade know the huge profit levels which they attain always. If you have decided to start a retail business, then good news is that you are in a profitable trade, as nearly all the type of goods that are being dealt in is such that is important to all
A Sample Retail Store Business Plan Template
When we talk about retailing, we talk about a business that deals in loads of consumer goods; which can be categorized into three major areas. These categories are: general merchandise, apparel, and furniture. In other words, retailers are engaged in the selling of finished goods; they get the goods from the manufacturers and they sell to the end users (consumers).
Retail goods can also be categorized into durable goods and non – durable goods. Durable goods are goods such electronics, computers and accessories, furniture, and other large appliances et al and non – durable goods are good such as food, toiletries, drinks, beauty products, jewelry, clothing and shoes et al.
The retail industry is a major sector of the economy of the united states which generates a whooping sum of well over trillion annually from more than a million retail outlets scattered all around the United States of America.
The industry is responsible for the employment of well over 15 million people which is about 12% of the workforce of the U.S. eMarketer.com published that in 2014 alone, the retailing industry on a global scale generated a revenue of well over $22 trillion; it goes to show that the industry is indeed a very large industry.
It is a fact that an estimated two-thirds of the United States’ gross domestic product (GDP) comes from retail consumption. This is why the United States of America’s economy is measured with the yardstick of how well the retailing business is fairing in the U.S. In essence, when there is an unstable economy, purchasing power drops and it impacts the retailing industry negatively which may result in the closure of some retail stores.
In recent time, the retail landscape has seen tremendous changes in the last 20 years; it has grown from the usual mom and pop outlets to a more organized and far reaching venture. The introduction of franchise and online store makes it easier for a retailer to reach out to a larger market far beyond the areas where his physical store is located.
It is interesting to note that more retail shops; especially lager retail outlets have started to include self-serve checkout lanes in their stores. It creates shorter lines that appeal to consumers; the average customer would not want to stay longer on queue.
Over and above, the retail industry is a profitable industry and it is open to any aspiring entrepreneur to come in and establish his or her business; you can chose to start on a small scale in a street corner like the average mom and pop business or you can chose to start on a large scale with several outlets in key cities.
2. Executive Summary
People’s Choice Retail Shop is a retail shop that will be located in one of the busiest streets in Columbus, Ohio. We have been able to lease a facility that is big enough to fit into the design of the retail shop that we intend launching and the facility is located in a corner piece directly opposite the largest residential estate in Columbus, Ohio.
Our retail shop will retail a wide range of durable goods and non – durable goods at affordable prices from different brands. We retail goods such as groceries, clothes, sports equipment, beauty products, jewelry, baby stuffs, children’s toys, home furnishings and home appliances et al.
We are aware that there are several large and small retail outlets all around Columbus, which is why we spent time and resources to conduct our feasibility studies and market survey, so as to offer much more than our competitors will be offering. We have sell service options for our customers, and our outlet is well secured with the various payment options.
Much more than selling the goods and products of top brands in the manufacturing industry, our customer care is second to none in the whole of Columbus, Ohio. We know that our customers are the reason why we are in business, and that is why we will go the extra mile to get them satisfied when they visit our retail shop and also to become our loyal customers and ambassadors.
People’s Choice Retail Shop will ensure that all our customers are given first class treatment whenever they visit our shop. We have a CRM software that will enable us manage a one on one relationship with our customers, no matter how large the numbers of our customers base. We will ensure that we get our customers involved in the selection of brands that will be on our racks and also when make some business decisions.
We are aware of the trend in the retail industry and we are not only going to operate a system where our customers would have to come to our shop to make purchase or whatever they want but we will also operate an online store and our customers can order goods online and they will get it delivered to their houses or any location they want us to deliver the goods to within Ohio.
People’s Choice Retail Shop is a family business that is owned by Bob Wesley and Family. Although the business is launching out with just one outlet in Columbus, Ohio, but there is a plan to open other outlets all around Ohio.
People’s Choice Retail Shop is in the retailing industry and we will ensure we go all the way to make available a wide range of goods and products from top manufacturing brands in the United States and other countries of the world.
We will have available in our store a wide range of durable goods and non – durable goods at affordable prices. We retail goods such as groceries, clothes, sports equipment, beauty products, jewelry, children’s toys, baby stuffs, home furnishings and home appliances et al.
- Our vision is to establish a one stop retail shop in Columbus, Ohio and in other cities in Ohio.
- Our mission is to establish a retail business that will make available a wide range of goods and products from top manufacturing brands at affordable prices to the residence of Columbus, Ohio and other cities in Ohio.
Our Business Structure
People’s Choice Retail Shop do not intend to start a retail business like the usual mom and pop business around the street corner; our intention of starting a retail business is to build a standard retail outlet in Columbus, Ohio. Although our retail business might not be as big as Wal-Mart or Marcy, but will ensure that we put the right structure in place that will support the kind of growth that we have in mind while setting up the business.
We will ensure that we hire people that are qualified, honest, customer centric and are ready to work to help us build a prosperous business that will benefit all the stake holders (the owners, workforce, and customers).
As a matter of fact, profit-sharing arrangement will be made available to all our management staff and it will be based on their performance for a period of three years or more. In view of that, we have decided to hire qualified and competent hands to occupy the following positions;
- Chief Executive Officer (Owner)
- Store Manager
Merchandize Manager
Sales and Marketing Manager
Information Technologist
- Accountants / Cashiers
Chief Executive Officer – CEO:
- Responsible for providing direction for the business
- Creates, communicates, and implements the organization’s vision, mission, and overall direction – i.e. leading the development and implementation of the overall organization’s strategy.
- Responsible for fixing prices and signing business deals
- Responsible for recruitment
- Responsible for payment of salaries
- Responsible for signing checks and documents on behalf of the company
- Evaluates the success of the organization
Store Manager:
- Responsible for managing the daily activities in the restaurant
- Ensures that the store facility is in tip top shape and conducive enough to welcome customers
- Interfaces with third – party providers (vendors)
- Controls the sales floor inventory
- Ensures that goods and products are properly arranged
- Supervises the entire sales staff and workforce
- Any other duty as assigned by the CEO
- Manages vendor relations, market visits, and the ongoing education and development of the organizations’ buying teams
- Helps to ensure consistent quality of goods and products on our rack
- Responsible for the purchase of goods and products for the organizations
- Responsible for planning sales, monitoring inventory, selecting the merchandise, and writing and pricing orders to vendors
- Ensures that the organization operates within stipulated budget.
- Manages external research and coordinate all the internal sources of information to retain the organizations’ best customers and attract new ones
- Models demographic information and analyze the volumes of transactional data generated by customer purchases
- Manages the organization website
- Handles ecommerce aspect of the business
- Responsible for installing and maintenance of computer software and hardware for the organization
- Manage logistics and supply chain software, Web servers, e-commerce software and POS (point of sale) systems
- Manages the organization’s CCTV
- Handles any other technological and IT related duties.
Accountant / Cashier:
- Receives payments on behalf of the organization
- Issues receipt to customers
- Prepares financial report at the end of every working week
- Handles all financial transaction on behalf of the company
- Interfaces with our bankers
- Responsible for payment of tax, levies and utility bills
- Any other duty as assigned by the CEO / store manager
- Responsible for cleaning the store facility at all times
- Ensures that toiletries and supplies don’t run out of stock
- Cleans both the interior and exterior of the store facility
- Any other duty as assigned by the restaurant manager,
Our intention of starting just one outlet of our retail store in Columbus, Ohio is to test run the business for a period of 2 to 5 years to know if we will invest more money, expand the business and then open other outlets all over Ohio. We are quite aware that there are several retail stores all over Columbus and even in the same location where we intend locating ours, which is why we are following the due process of establishing a business.
We know that if a proper SWOT analysis is conducted for our business, we will be able to position our business to maximize our strength, leverage on the opportunities that will be available to us, mitigate our risks and be welled equipped to confront our threats.
People’s Choice Retail Store employed the services of an expert HR and Business Analyst with bias in retailing to help us conduct a thorough SWOT analysis and to help us create a Business model that will help us achieve our business goals and objectives. This is the summary of the SWOT analysis that was conducted for People’s Choice Retail Store;
Our location, the business model we will be operating on (physical store and online store), varieties of payment options, wide range of products and our excellent customer service culture will definitely count as a strong strength for People’s Choice Retail Store.
A major weakness that may count against us is the fact that we are a new retail outlet and we don’t have the financial capacity to compete with multi – billion dollars retail outlets like Wal-Mart and co when it comes to retailing at a rock bottom prices for all their goods.
- Opportunities:
The fact that we are going to be operating our retail store in one of the busiest streets in Columbus, Ohio, provides us with unlimited opportunities to sell our goods to a large number of people. We have been able to conduct thorough feasibility studies and market survey and we know what our potential clients will be looking for when they visit our retail outlets; we are well positioned to take on the opportunities that will come our way.
Just like any other business, one of the major threats that we are likely going to face is economic downturn. It is a fact that economic downturn affects purchasing power. Another threat that may likely confront us is the arrival of a new retail outlet in same location where ours is located.
7. MARKET ANALYSIS
- Market Trends
Retailing business has been in existence for as long as humans started trading goods, but one thing is certain, the retailing industry is still evolving. The introduction of technology and subsequently online retail store has indeed helped in reshaping the industry.
It is now a common phenomenon for retail outlets to leverage on technology to effectively predict consumer demand patterns and to strategically position their shop to meet their needs; in essence, the use of technology help retailers to maximize supply chain efficiencies. No doubt data collected from customers goes a long way to help retail shops serve them better.
Another common trend in the retailing industry is the pricing system. Aside from having varieties of products in a store, one of the easiest ways for retail stores to sell the goods on their racks as fast as they can and keep re – stocking is to ensure that the prices of their goods are a bit lower than what is obtainable elsewhere. For example; it is common to see items with prices in this format; $3.99, $99 and $199 et al as against $4, $100 and $200.
Retailers also engage in massive clearance sales and discount sales to attract customers. It is a strategy that helps them welcome new customers and also reinforce the loyalty of old customers.
Perhaps the retailing industry has the widest range of customers; everybody on planet earth has one or more things that they would need in a retail shop. It is difficult to find people around who don’t patronize retail shops.
In view of that, we have positioned our retail store to service the residence of Columbus, Ohio and every other location our retail stores will be located all over Ohio. We have conducted our market research and we have ideas of what our target market would be expecting from us. We are in business to retail a wide range of products to the following groups of people;
- Corporate Executives
- Business People
- About to wed couples
- Expectant Mothers
- Sports Men and Women
Our Competitive Advantage
People’s Choice Retail Store is launching a standard retail shop that will indeed become the preferred choice of residence of Columbus, Ohio. Our retail store is located in a corner piece property on a busy road directly opposite one of the largest residential estates in Columbus, Ohio. We have enough parking space that can accommodate well over 100 cars per time.
One thing is certain; we will ensure that we have a wide range of products available in our store at all times. It will be difficult for customers to visit our store and not see the product that they are looking for. One of our business goal is to make People’s Choice Retail Store a one stop shop. Our excellent customer service culture, online store, various payment options and highly secured facility will serve as a competitive advantage for us.
- Sources of Income
People’s Choice Retail Shop is in business to retail a wide range of products to the residence of Columbus, Ohio. In essence, our source of income will be the retailing of a wide range of durable goods and non – durable goods at affordable prices. We will retail goods such as groceries, clothes, sports equipment, beauty products, jewelry, children’s toys, baby stuff, home furnishings and home appliances et al.
It is important to state that our sales forecast is based on the data gathered during our feasibility studies, market survey and also some of the assumptions readily available on the field. One thing is common with retailing business, the larger a retail store the larger the numbers of customers that will patronize them.
Although we may not be as large as Wal-Mart, but we will ensure that within our capacity we make available a wide range of goods from different manufacturing brands in our retail outlet. Below are the sales projections that we were able to come up with for the first three years of operations;
- First Year-: $200,000
- Second Year-: $450,000
- Third Year-: $700,000
N.B : This projection is done based on what is obtainable in the industry and with the assumption that there won’t be any major economic meltdown and natural disasters within the period stated above. Please note that the above projection might be lower and at the same time it might be higher.
- Marketing Strategy and Sales Strategy
Before choosing a location for People’s Choice Retail Store, we conducted a thorough market survey and feasibility studies in order for us to be able to be able to penetrate the available market and become the preferred choice for residence of Columbus, Ohio. We have a detailed information and data that we were able to utilize to structure our business to attract the numbers of customers we want to attract per time.
We hired experts who have good understanding of the retail industry to help us develop marketing strategies that will help us achieve our business goal of winning a larger percentage of the available market in Columbus, Ohio. In order to continue to be in business and grow, we must continue to sell the products that are available in our store which is why we will go all out to empower or sales and marketing team to deliver.
In summary, People’s Choice Retail Store will adopt the following sales and marketing approach to win customers over;
- Introduce our business by sending introductory letters to residence, business owners and organizations
- Promptness in bidding for contracts
- Advertise our business in community based newspapers, local TV and radio stations
- List our business on yellow pages ads
- Leverage on the internet to promote our business
- Direct marketing
- Word of mouth marketing (referrals)
Despite the fact that our retail store is well located, we will still go ahead to intensify publicity for the business. We are going to explore all available means to promote our retail store. People’s Choice Retail Store has a long term plan of opening outlets in various locations all around Ohio which is why we will deliberately build our brand to be well accepted in Columbus before venturing out.
As a matter of fact, our publicity and advertising strategy is not solely for winning customers over but to effectively communicate our brand. Here are the platforms we intend leveraging on to promote and advertise People’s Choice Retail Store;
- Place adverts on both print (community based newspapers and magazines) and electronic media platforms
- Sponsor relevant community programs
- Leverage on the internet and social media platforms like; Instagram, Facebook , twitter, et al to promote our brand
- Install our Bill Boards on strategic locations all around Columbus, Ohio
- Engage in road show from time to time
- Distribute our fliers and handbills in target areas
- Position our Flexi Banners at strategic positions in the location where our retail store is located.
Pricing is one of the key factors that give leverage to retail stores, it is normal for consumers to go to places (retail outlets) where they can goods at cheaper price which is why big player in the retail industry like Wal-Mart will attract loads of consumers. Products in their store are tagged with the cheapest price you can get anywhere in the United States.
We know we don’t have the capacity to compete with Wal-Mart or any other big retail store, but we will ensure that the prices of all the products that are available in our store are competitive with what is obtainable amongst retail stores within our level.
- Payment Options
Our payment policy is all inclusive because we are quite aware that different people prefer different payment options as it suits them. Here are the payment options that will be available in every of our outlets;
- Payment by cash
- Payment via Point of Sale (POS) Machine
- Payment via online bank transfer (online payment portal)
- Payment via Mobile money
In view of the above, we have chosen banking platforms that will help us achieve our payment plans without any itches.
13. Startup Expenditure (Budget)
This is the key areas where we will spend our start – up capital;
- The Total Fee for Registering the Business in Ohio – $750.
- Legal expenses for obtaining licenses and permits as well as the accounting services (software, P.O.S machines and other software) – $1,300.
- Marketing promotion expenses for the grand opening of People’s Choice Retail Store in the amount of $3,500 and as well as flyer printing (2,000 flyers at $0.04 per copy) for the total amount of $3,580.
- Cost for hiring Consultant – $2,500 .
- Insurance (general liability, workers’ compensation and property casualty) coverage at a total premium – $2,400.
- Cost for payment of rent for 12 month at $1.76 per square feet in the total amount of $105,600.
- Cost for Shop remodeling (construction of racks and shelves) – $20,000.
- Other start-up expenses including stationery ($500) and phone and utility deposits ($2,500).
- Operational cost for the first 3 months (salaries of employees, payments of bills et al) – $60,000
- The cost for Start-up inventory (stocking with a wide range of products) – $100,000
- Storage hardware (bins, rack, shelves, food case) – $3,720
- Cost for serving area equipment (plates, glasses, flatware) – $3,000
- Cost for store equipment (cash register, security, ventilation, signage) – $13,750
- Cost of purchase and installation of CCTVs: $10,000
- The cost for the purchase of furniture and gadgets (Computers, Printers, Telephone, TVs, Sound System, tables and chairs et al): $4,000 .
- The cost of Launching a Website: $600
- The cost for our opening party: $7,000
- Miscellaneous: $10,000
We would need an estimate of $500,000 to successfully set up our retail store in Columbus, Ohio. Please note that this amount includes the salaries of all the staff for the first month of operation.
Generating Funding / Startup Capital for People’s Choice Retail Store
People’s Choice Retail Store is a private business that is solely owned and financed by Bob Wesley and family. They do not intend to welcome any external business partner which is why he has decided to restrict the sourcing of the start – up capital to 3 major sources. These are the areas we intend generating our start – up capital;
- Generate part of the start – up capital from personal savings
- Source for soft loans from family members and friends
- Apply for loan from my Bank
N.B: We have been able to generate about $200,000 ( Personal savings $150,000 and soft loan from family members $50,000 ) and we are at the final stages of obtaining a loan facility of $300,000 from our bank. All the papers and document have been signed and submitted, the loan has been approved and any moment from now our account will be credited with the amount.
The future of a business lies in the numbers of loyal customers that they have the capacity and competence of the employees, their investment strategy and the business structure. If any of these factors is missing from a business (company), then it won’t be too long before the business close shop.
People’s Choice Retail Store will ensure that all the factors listed above are reinforced on a regular basis and also we will engage in continuous capacity building of our workforce. As a matter of fact, profit-sharing arrangement will be made available to all our management staff and it will be based on their performance for a period of three years or more.
We will make sure that the right foundation, structures and processes are put in place to ensure that staff welfare is well taken of. Our company’s corporate culture is designed to drive our business to greater heights and training and re – training of our workforce is at the top burner.
Check List / Milestone
- Business Name Availability Check:>Completed
- Business Registration: Completed
- Opening of Corporate Bank Accounts: Completed
- Securing Point of Sales (POS) Machines: Completed
- Opening Mobile Money Accounts: Completed
- Opening Online Payment Platforms: Completed
- Application and Obtaining Tax Payer’s ID: In Progress
- Application for business license and permit: Completed
- Purchase of Insurance for the Business: Completed
- Leasing of facility and remodeling the shop: In Progress
- Conducting Feasibility Studies: Completed
- Generating capital from family members: Completed
- Applications for Loan from the bank: In Progress
- writing of business plan: Completed
- Drafting of Employee’s Handbook: Completed
- Drafting of Contract Documents and other relevant Legal Documents: In Progress
- Design of The Company’s Logo: Completed
- Graphic Designs and Printing of Packaging Marketing / Promotional Materials: In Progress
- Recruitment of employees: In Progress
- Purchase of the Needed furniture, racks, shelves, computers, electronic appliances, office appliances and CCTV: In progress
- Creating Official Website for the Company: In Progress
- Creating Awareness for the business both online and around the community: In Progress
- Health and Safety and Fire Safety Arrangement (License): Secured
- Opening party / launching party planning: In Progress
- Compilation of our list of products that will be available in our store: Completed
- Establishing business relationship with vendors – suppliers of all our needed raw materials: In Progress
More on Wholesale & Retail
Starting a Business | Templates
4 Free Retail & Online Store Business Plans
WRITTEN BY: Blake Stockton
Published December 13, 2019
Blake is an award-winning consultant, writer, and speaker. As a consultant, he helped over 700 biz owners start and grow their business. His expertise is featured across Fit Small Business in starting a business content.
This article is part of a larger series on Starting a Business .
A retail business plan can help entrepreneurs analyze their business concept and explain why it will be successful. Many banks and investors like to see companies’ strategic plans before agreeing to provide funding. All business plans for retail and online stores should showcase their products and services, financial projections, and marketing strategies.
Before starting your retail or online store, it’s important to register it as a legal entity with the state in which it’s doing business. A legal business entity would protect the business owner’s personal finances if a lawsuit were to ever occur against the business. Rocket Lawyer is an online legal service that assists small business owners with the paperwork needed for legal entity registration. Register your business with Rocket Lawyer for $99 plus state fees.
Visit Rocket Lawyer
Retail Business Plan Templates
We’ve included four retail business plan templates below and separated them into different types, including one for retail product-based storefronts, retail service-based storefronts, retail companies with a storefront and an online store, and retailers that run their business completely online. To understand each section of the business plan template better, we recommend you read our step-by-step business plan guide . All of the templates below include the necessary sections to obtaining funding from a bank or investor.
We’ve included template copies that are in both Microsoft Word and Google Docs. To save the Word document, click on your desired template’s link below. Once it downloads, click “File” within the document, then “Save As” to save the template to your computer.
To save the Google Doc, click your desired template’s link below. Copy all of the words in the document, open a new Google Doc on your account, and paste in the template. The new template will automatically save to your Google Doc account.
Product-based Retail Storefront
Word / Google Doc
Retailers with Storefront And Online Business
Service-based Retail Storefront
Online Only Retail Store
How Retail Business Plan Templates Work
These retail and online business plan templates walk you through how to create a plan for your business. They all come with questions in each section and subsection to spark creative thinking and provide direction.
It’s important to note that some businesses will have information that fits into all of the template categories. For example, a bakery can sell products in person and online in addition to providing a service with educational classes to aspiring chefs. If your business happens to have diverse revenue sources like this, choose the template that applies to how the majority of your revenue is earned. For example, if the online store will only earn 1% of overall sales, you should choose the storefront-based business plan template.
Product-based Retail Storefront Template
This template is for a retail business with a storefront that primarily sells products rather than services to customers. Typically, these types of businesses have a local marketing focus. Additionally, inventory and sales staff are important topics to discuss in the business plan. Examples that fall into this business category include clothing boutiques, food businesses, and jewelry companies―essentially, any store that buys and resells items in small quantities, not in bulk like wholesalers.
Download the product retail storefront business plan in Google Doc or Microsoft Word format. PDF isn’t available, because the Table of Contents’ page titles and numbers won’t update after you add new information to the template.
Service-based Retail Storefront Business Plan Template
The service-based retail storefront template is right for anyone who primarily provides a service to its customers. This type of business has a local marketing focus. Additionally, hiring and managing quality staff are discussed in this business plan. Examples of service-based retail storefronts include massage therapist companies, nail salons, product repair, shops, and rental-based businesses.
Download the service-based retail storefront business plan in Google Doc or Microsoft Word . PDF isn’t available because the Table of Contents’ page titles and numbers won’t update when you add new information to the template.
Business Plan for Brick-and-Mortar Retailers With Online Stores
This template is for any retail business that has a storefront and is selling a product online as well. The business plan discusses ecommerce and online marketing strategy in depth. Examples of brick-and-mortar retailers with online stores include memorabilia or comic book stores in addition to shops that sell clothing, outdoor goods, and spices.
Download the retail storefront and online business plan template in Google Doc or Microsoft Word . A PDF version isn’t available, because the page titles and numbers within the Table of Contents won’t update when you add new information to the template.
Online Retailer Business Template
The online store business plan template is for retailers that primarily sell products online. The template emphasizes ecommerce, online marketing, and shipping. It’s best for niche businesses that cannot fund a storefront, such as stores that sell artisan soaps or custom items. Dropshipping businesses will also find the template useful.
Download the online retail business plan in Google Doc or Microsoft Word . A PDF version isn’t available because the Table of Content page titles and numbers won’t update when you add new information to the template.
What All Retail Business Plans Should Include
If you’ve looked at the above templates, you may have noticed that several sections are similar on all four business plans. That’s because no matter your type of business, when writing your business plan , bankers are looking for certain sections, including the Executive Summary, Company Summary, Market & Industry Analysis, Marketing Strategy, Financial Projections, and Appendix.
Executive Summary
This section is an overview of the business plan and is typically one to two pages in length. We recommend completing the executive summary last so that you know which sections are most important to emphasize and expand upon.
It’s important to make the executive summary as persuasive and compelling as possible. Interested investors often request the executive summary first to determine if they should spend time reading the rest of the plan.
Company Summary
The company summary highlights the company’s successes if already in business or why it will be a success if you have a new business. In this section, include information about what you need to purchase to start your business and how much it will cost. Additionally, briefly discuss the company’s ownership structure and its competitive advantage, which is the one big feature that gives your business an edge over competitors.
Market & Industry Analysis
In the market and industry analysis section, make your case as to why your business will be a success. Market analysis is a deep dive into research that you can use to show that there are sufficient customers who need your business. You should research the need in your local area, especially if you’re not operating online, to help prove your business can be successful. Use software like ReferenceUSA to research for free at thousands of local libraries across the United States.
For industry analysis, you need to show evidence that the industry in which you’re starting a business is growing, not shrinking. You can use a paid service like IBIS World to pull industry data. IBIS World’s industry experts update industry forecasts and data around every four months.
The marketing section is where you outline the marketing strategy for your business. The information in this section will vary depending on the type of business you own. For example, some businesses may want to showcase the quality of their interior buildout while others expand into their online marketing strategy. You may even want to discuss the high-quality materials you’ll be creating to promote the business.
Regardless of the marketing strategies you mention, we recommend including as many visual examples as possible. You may want to include one or two visual marketing materials in this section. If you have more materials to showcase or large graphics―a menu or interior rendering―place them in the Appendix ( discussed below ).
Financial Projections
The financial projections are the most important part of any business plan. Unfortunately, they are also the most difficult for business owners to create. In the financial projection section, you should predict how much revenue and expenses will flow through the business during its first three years in operation.
Calculating financial projections can be time-consuming, especially if you have a physical location because you have to research specific costs such as construction, inventory, and utilities. Software can also be a big expense. For instance, payroll tools like Gusto , accounting software like Intuit QuickBooks , cloud-based point-of-sale (POS) systems like Vend , and so on.
Additionally, it can be difficult to predict how much each product or service line will sell month-by-month over the first three years in business. Use software like Biz Miner to obtain yearly startup financials for your industry.
To organize your financial projections, you can use a free Excel workbook from the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE). In the workbook, you’ll find tabs for financial statements that need to be completed, such as the Income Statement, Balance Sheet, and Profit and Loss Statement.
The appendix is optional but recommended for a business plan. This is where you will put supporting documentation for your business. Include items like marketing materials, licenses, permits, leases, purchase agreements, and illustrations.
When to Use a Template Alternative
An alternative to the more traditional retail business plan templates above is a more modern business plan called the Business Model Canvas (BMC) . The BMC is a visual business plan that can be used in a team-building exercise and completed by upper management. Additionally, you should note that if you’re pressed for time, you can complete the BMC in under an hour. The downside of the BMC is that most banks and investors won’t accept it as a business plan.
Many business owners find that creating a business plan is a daunting task. Staring at a blank screen can be intimidating. If you need an alternative to using the templates above, consider using a business plan software to walk you step-by-step through the planning process. LivePlan is an affordable and easy-to-use business plan software that provides more than 500 business plan examples from which to learn. Get started with LivePlan for only $11.66 per month.
Visit LivePlan
Bottom Line
Every retail business owner needs to go through the exercise of creating a business plan. The process helps the owner understand the strengths and potential weaknesses of their business. Use our business plan templates along with the SCORE financial projections workbook to obtain necessary funding for your retail business. You may find yourself struggling with portions of the financial projections. If so, contact an accountant for assistance or use a business plan software.
If you’re on a tight budget and need legal advice about your business, you can contact an online legal service. Rocket Lawyer provides affordable expert legal advice to business owners. Get started with a 30-minute consultation from a Rocket Lawyer attorney for $59.99.
About the Author
Find Blake On LinkedIn Twitter
Blake Stockton
Blake Stockton is a staff writer at Fit Small Business focusing on how to start brick-and-mortar and online businesses. He is a frequent guest lecturer at several undergraduate business and MBA classes at University of North Florida . Prior to joining Fit Small Business, Blake consulted with over 700 small biz owners and assisted with starting and growing their businesses.
Was this article helpful?
Join Fit Small Business
Sign up to receive more well-researched small business articles and topics in your inbox, personalized for you. Select the newsletters you’re interested in below.
You’re our first priority. Every time.
We believe everyone should be able to make financial decisions with confidence. And while our site doesn’t feature every company or financial product available on the market, we’re proud that the guidance we offer, the information we provide and the tools we create are objective, independent, straightforward — and free.
So how do we make money? Our partners compensate us. This may influence which products we review and write about (and where those products appear on the site), but it in no way affects our recommendations or advice, which are grounded in thousands of hours of research. Our partners cannot pay us to guarantee favorable reviews of their products or services. Here is a list of our partners .
Online Store Builders: 7 Best Options for Your Website
Many or all of the products featured here are from our partners who compensate us. This influences which products we write about and where and how the product appears on a page. However, this does not influence our evaluations. Our opinions are our own. Here is a list of our partners and here's how we make money .
Table of Contents
Best online store builders: Key things to know
Shopify: best overall online store builder, square online: best free online store builder, shift4shop: best for b2b online stores, squarespace: simplest online store builder, bigcommerce: best for omnichannel sellers, wix: most customizable online store builder, woocommerce: best for wordpress users, how to choose an online store builder.
An online store builder can help turn a website into a digital storefront. These platforms support selling and shipping goods, marketing digital content, booking prepaid appointments and more.
Some e-commerce website builders offer an out-of-the-box solution with web hosting, payment processing, integration with other sales platforms and much more. These providers can be especially valuable if you’re building an online business from scratch.
But if you’re taking your brick-and-mortar business online or adding sales functionality to an existing website, start with options that build on your current infrastructure — like your point-of-sale or content management system. These options may even be free.
The best choice for you is one that offers the features you need at a price you can afford. Here are our picks for the best online store builders.
Shopify’s drag-and-drop builder lets you build an e-commerce store without knowing how to code. You can then use the platform for inventory management, shipping and returns, email marketing, listing your products on social media and third-party marketplaces, and more.
Shopify is a good choice if you’re starting an e-commerce business for the first time because it offers an all-in-one solution for web hosting, sales, payments and more. But its business-to-business, or B2B, features are limited, so it’s best for business-to-customer, or B2C, sellers.
Who should use Shopify: Businesses that primarily sell physical goods to individual customers.
Key details:
Price: Starts at $29 per month.
Payments: Built-in using Shopify Payments , or you can connect your own payment processor for an additional transaction fee.
In-person sales: Shopify POS .
Shipping: Discounted rates with the U.S. Postal Service, UPS and DHL. You can also track the status of your shipments in Shopify.
If you’re looking to move your brick-and-mortar store online, Square Online integrates with Square POS software — NerdWallet’s pick for best POS system — to connect some or all of your inventory to your website. Square sites are easy to build; once your site is live, you can list products, offer discounts, highlight new and popular items and advertise product drops. You can also take bookings using Square Appointments .
Square Online can help you sell on Instagram, Facebook and Google, but it doesn’t offer the robust multichannel sales features you’ll get with other platforms like Shopify or BigCommerce. And while Square websites are mobile-friendly by design, you can’t customize a Square website in the variety of ways you can with Wix or WordPress.
Note that Square Online is not entirely free — Square, the payment processor , will still take a cut of all your debit and credit card transactions. But you won’t have to pay an additional monthly fee to run your store.
Who should use Square Online: Brick-and-mortar businesses that want to expand into online sales with a free or low-cost website. Square Online is easiest to use if you already use a Square point-of-sale system in your store. Read NerdWallet’s review of Square Online .
Price: Free. Paid plans start at $29 per month.
Payments: Square Payments.
In-person sales: Square POS.
Shipping: Square can facilitate free in-store pickup and local delivery by your staff or third-party courier services. For shipping over longer distances, a rate calculator is built-in.
Shift4Shop — formerly known as 3DCart — is owned by payment processing company Shift4 and free for users who process at least $500 per month in sales using Shift4 Payments. It’s one of our top B2B e-commerce platforms because of its wholesale- and custom-pricing options. But it also offers features that may be valuable to B2C sellers, like preorders and the option to take payments over the phone.
Shift4Shop offers more features than Square Online’s free plan, making it a strong choice for businesses that will take advantage of services like abandoned cart emails and reorders. But if your business doesn’t need those tools, you may want to choose a simpler option.
Who should use Shift4Shop: Businesses that want to build an online store with a large catalog and wholesale-pricing options. It’s a particularly good fit for B2B sellers. Read NerdWallet’s review of Shift4Shop .
Price: Free if you process more than $500 per month in sales using Shift4.
Payments: Shift4.
In-person sales: Use the Shift4Shop POS system or integrate with Square POS.
Shipping: Built-in label printing for UPS, the U.S. Postal Service, FedEx and Canada Post within your store manager.
Squarespace is a user-friendly website builder that offers e-commerce features, too. It stands out for its online appointment booking — you can set up reminder emails, intake forms and calendar integrations — and its membership and subscription options, like the ability to create gated sections of your website for paying customers.
Squarespace offers solid product sales features, too, but other platforms offer more advanced inventory management and omnichannel sales options.
Who should use Squarespace: Businesses that specialize in selling digital or in-person services. Read NerdWallet’s review of Squarespace .
Price: Plans with e-commerce features start at $23 per month.
Payments: Connect Stripe or PayPal.
In-person sales: Connect the Squarespace app to a Square reader.
Shipping: Squarespace offers shipping label printing and in-store pickup, but you’ll need third-party apps for more advanced shipping solutions.
BigCommerce is a multichannel-focused online store builder that integrates directly with Amazon, eBay, Google Shopping, Facebook, Instagram and other sales channels. All BigCommerce plans include unlimited user accounts, which isn’t typically the case for entry-level plans.
However, BigCommerce plans are limited in a different way: Each has a cap on annual sales volume, starting at $50,000 in revenue on the Standard plan. If your sales exceed that limit, you’ll have to upgrade to the next plan.
Who should use BigCommerce: Businesses that want to sell products on a variety of platforms, including social media and third-party marketplaces. Read NerdWallet’s review of BigCommerce .
Price: From $29 per month.
Payments: Built-in using PayPal powered by Braintree, with a discount for higher-volume sellers. If you choose to go with a different provider, BigCommerce doesn’t charge additional transaction fees the way Shopify does.
In-person sales: Integrates with a variety of POS systems, including Square, Clover and Zettle.
Shipping: Built-in U.S. Postal Service, UPS, FedEx and DHL label printing, with discounted rates for Postal Service services.
Wix is an online store builder that offers hundreds of website templates, plus support for a variety of e-commerce business models — subscriptions, ticket sales, print-on-demand products and more. You’ll also have your choice of payment gateways.
However, Wix doesn’t match the multichannel sales features of the all-in-one platforms on our list. You can’t connect Wix items to Amazon, eBay or Etsy or sell within Facebook and Instagram posts. And more customization options may mean a steeper learning curve for the person who runs your website.
Who should use Wix: Businesses that have a dedicated web manager on staff so that person can understand and take advantage of Wix’s many features. Read NerdWallet’s review of Wix .
Price: From $27 per month.
Payments: Use Wix Payments or choose from a variety of other credit card processors.
In-person sales: Wix offers its own point-of-sale system.
Shipping: Discounted shipping rates with the U.S. Postal Service and potentially other carriers. You can print shipping labels from your Wix dashboard.
WooCommerce is a free open-source plug-in that can help you add an online shopping cart to your WordPress website. It’s not a standalone e-commerce store platform like others on our list — you’ll need to build your website on WordPress first. But once that’s in place, WooCommerce is a powerful plug-in that offers omnichannel selling , digital downloads, subscription sales, customizable checkout experiences and more.
WordPress isn’t easy to use, and WooCommerce has a learning curve, too. If your digital skills are limited or your store is relatively simple, you may not be able to take advantage of all WooCommerce’s customization options.
Who should use WooCommerce: Businesses that run their websites on WordPress and want to develop a robust online store. Read our comparison of WooCommerce vs. Shopify .
Price: Free.
Payments: You can use WooCommerce’s payment processor or choose your own payment gateway.
In-person sales: Connect to various third-party POS systems using extensions.
Shipping: U.S. Postal Service and DHL label printing with discounted rates, or you can use third-party extensions to facilitate shipping with UPS, FedEx and other carriers.
The best online store builder is the one that meets your selling needs at a price you can afford. To figure out the right solution for your e-commerce business, follow these steps:
1. Examine price and feature charts
Most online store builders offer charts that lay out what features they offer at each price tier. Identify the features you value most and make sure they’re available at the price tier you’re targeting, and compare providers to one another to get a clearer picture of which best suits your needs.
2. Consider your built-in option
If you already use Square, Shift4 or Shopify Payments to accept credit card transactions, look at the online store builders offered by those companies. Square Online is free to start for Square users, and Shift4Shop is free for Shift4 users processing $500 or more per month in payments.
If you choose to go with a different website builder, make sure the one you pick will integrate with your existing payment processor and other software programs — or that you’re prepared to make some changes.
3. Take advantage of free trials
Most online store builders offer free trials, ranging from a few days to several weeks. This is a great way to dig into the features of each platform and see what appeals to you. You can try out different store designs, create products, test payments, explore marketing tools and run test orders before you commit to a subscription.
4. Anticipate growth
Switching to a different e-commerce platform isn’t easy, so it’s important to select an online store builder that can support your growth. For example, selling on Amazon and social media sites might not be on your radar now — but if it’s part of your business plan , it might be wise to choose a platform like Shopify or BigCommerce now so you can easily set those integrations up later.
A version of this article was first published on Fundera, a subsidiary of NerdWallet.
Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.
Clothing Boutique Business Plan Template [Updated for 2022]
- by Emily Polner
minute read
![Clothing Boutique Business Plan Template [Updated for 2022]](https://blog-assets.lightspeedhq.com/img/2021/09/ee9acfe0-blog_clothing-store-business-plan_1200x628.jpg "business plans for online stores")
A business plan is a document that outlines its intended purpose and goals and helps serve as a reference to keep you on track after you open your doors. If you plan to raise capital, you can send your boutique business plan to friends, family and other potential investors so they have a clearer idea of what they’re investing in.
In this article, we outline what to include in your clothing store business plan, as well as a blank business plan template for you to use however you see fit. You can be as detailed as you like when writing your plan.
Here’s what you need to know and include to get started:
How to start a clothing store business in 2022
Executive summary, business description and mission statement.
- Product services and pricing
Competitor and market analysis
Clothing marketing strategies, business structure, clothing boutique startup costs and funding , growth forecast, clothing store boutique business plan template, global state of the retail industry report: omnichannel is do or die.
Get to know the state of the industry today as you open your clothing store boutique.
How much does it cost to open a clothing store?
The cost of opening a clothing store varies depending on the size and location of your store. Leasing a retail space costs more in certain geographic areas than others. The average initial cost of opening a store can be anywhere from $48,000 USD to $150,000 USD, and this figure doesn’t include an upfront payment of first month’s rent or utilities.
Having an accurate idea of your initial cost—and, as such, how much funding you need—is one of the key benefits of a thorough boutique business plan.
The costs and logistics involved in starting a clothing store business in 2022 are different than they were even 10 years ago.
You need a rock-solid niche for your business, so you can make a splash in a crowded market. You need a brand identity that stands out, too. Those pieces aren’t new, though creativity is more important than ever—you want your new boutique clothing store to stand out online, after all.
It’s the online aspect that really matters in 2022. Instead of picking between a brick-and-mortar or eCommerce store, your boutique business plan should take both into account. In an era of high-tech stores (even Amazon is getting in on the industry with its new Amazon Style ), customers have come to expect more from retailers.
Keep in mind the technology you need to start a clothing store today: that includes a POS system with an integrated eCom platform, inventory management software that syncs your online and offline stock in real time and loyalty programs to reward them for shopping. These costs, and the time required to manage multiple sales channels, should be built into your business plan.
How to write a clothing boutique business plan
Your business plan can be as long or as short as you’d like, but it needs to be clear to others, not just yourself. Remember, other people might read your plan in order to determine whether or not to invest, so each part needs to be understandable.
Here is an example of a business plan for a boutique clothing store that gets funders on board (and what you should be putting in each section).
The executive summary should be a summary of your entire business plan. It typically appears at the beginning of a business plan, but you should write this last so you can draw from the rest of the sections for a more accurate blurb.
Think of this as the elevator pitch for your boutique business plan. If this summary was all someone read, they’d come away with an idea of what you want to open and why; detailed enough that they get the big picture, but not so detailed that they get lost on the page.
An executive summary should be at most 10% of the entire document. For example, if your clothing store’s business plan is 15 pages long, the summary should be a page and a half at most; if your plan is five pages long, try for a half-page executive summary.
The next section should be a description of what your clothing business is and does. For example, are you a children’s clothing boutique? Are you selling in store, online or both? What kinds of styles are you going to cater to? For instance, do you sell basics like plain tee shirts or pieces with a more bohemian aesthetic?
This is also where you should define your mission and company values. Your mission should answer the questions: why are you starting your business and what will your new store bring to the table? Your company values are the characteristics your business aligns itself with and uses to make informed decisions. What values are most important to you and which qualities will you make a priority?
This is your opportunity to really sell potential funders on why your clothing store will succeed. What’s more compelling: describing yourself as a new apparel retailer, or as a new clothing boutique with a focus on personal styling for young professionals that carries local designers in a high-foot-traffic area in your city’s financial district?
Products, services and pricing
With your executive summary and business description having introduced potential funders to your vision, your boutique business plan should next move into the concrete details. Your products and services section should outline:
- What kinds of items you’ll be selling
- Any services you’ll be offering (i.e. tailoring or clothing rentals)
- The main benefits and features of what you’re selling
- How much each item will cost you vs. what you’ll be selling it for
- How each item will be created or sourced: which suppliers are you getting your inventory from, if any? Do you have existing relationships with suppliers or will you have to create them?
If you plan to offer more or different products later down the line, outline that in this section as well.
It’s important to look at what your competitors are doing to get a sense of which needs are being met and where the biggest gaps in the market lie. Make sure you explain how you’re positioning yourself and why you offer something different or better than what already exists. Include the following information:
- Competitor analysis: who are your competitors? What seems to be working for them and what doesn’t? How long have your competitors been in business? Are they growing? Make sure you categorize your competition into direct and indirect competitors in your boutique business plan. Direct competitors will be anyone who is targeting your exact niche, while indirect competitors will be big chain retailers and department stores who offer an alternative experience to what you’re building.
- Industry trends: talk about the current trends and future predictions for your industry. Is it popular or growing? How have these trends impacted your niche? Can you expect these trends to keep growing—and what proof do you have that the popularity of your chosen focus isn’t just a passing fad?
- SWOT analysis: a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis details exactly what it sounds like it does. Think about what your biggest strengths and opportunities are, as a business. On the flip side, is there anything that may be a potential threat to your success?
- Target customer: what kind of person you’re aiming to target. Who is going to shop at your store? Where do they live, how old are they and what are their main pain points? What are they looking to get out of a clothing store, and how will you serve their needs? Do you have any data about your particular target’s spending power and shopping habits?
As a new business, you’ll need to promote yourself to bring customers in the door. Use this section of your boutique business plan to explain to investors and your team how you intend to do that.
- Which marketing channels do you plan to use? Are you going to use email marketing, social media marketing , SEO blogging, PR or influencer marketing ?
- Do you plan to run paid advertisements or only market your business organically, or both? If you plan to pay for advertising, you’ll need to include this budget in your costs section.
- How will you measure the success of your marketing efforts? Which metrics will you examine to determine whether or not you met, exceeded or fell short of your goals?
- What sort of loyalty program will you use to ensure customers keep returning? How will you split your budget for marketing to new customers and reaching out to returning customers?
The structure of your business will have a big impact on how it’s taxed and managed. Define your plans for incorporating as well as your org chart:
- How is your business defined, legally ? Is it an LLC, an S-Corporation, a partnership or unincorporated?
- Who is running the clothing business? List the founders and what each person brings to the table in terms of skills and capital.
- What kinds of roles will you be hiring for? Who reports to whom? Create a preliminary organizational chart that includes the current hierarchy of your business and which roles will need to be filled.
There are many upfront purchases to be made as well as recurring expenses that come with starting a clothing store. This is where you’ll list what you need to buy and the funding you’ll need in order to make sure you get everything you need. Here are some examples of costs you might include:
One-time costs
- Lease, security deposit and other fees associated with signing a retail lease
- Furniture and façade costs
- Initial inventory
- Technology hardware, such as computers, tablets, phones, credit card readers
- Website design costs (if you’re not using an eCom platform with a built-in site builder)
- Grand opening costs for the store’s launch day
Recurring expenses
- Rent and utilities
- Employee wages
- Marketing and advertising
- Retail commerce platform subscription
- eCom platform subscription and web hosting costs
- Domain name registration
- Accounting services
In addition to listing expected expenses and funding needs, also add a projected profit and loss statement, cash flow and balance sheet, if you’re able to. This will help paint a more complete financial picture.
Growth forecast
In this section, list how much inventory you’ll have on to start and your initial assets. Plan how much cash you’ll have on hand for your grand opening.
Here is where you can predict how quickly you will grow and in what ways you intend to expand. How much revenue do you intend to generate after one year in operation? Do you plan to offer more products in the future? Are you envisioning outgrowing your first retail space? Do you intend to open more locations? Describe these plans to the best of your ability.
Now that you know what goes into a business plan, you’re ready to make one. Fill in this free template to set your future clothing store up for success.
Executive summary
Business name:
Founders and executive team:
Products and services:
Target demographic:
Marketing strategies:
Future plans and goals:
Company description
What does your business do?
What gap does it fill in the market?
Mission statement:
Core values:
Description of each product and service:
How you plan to price each item:
Supply chain details:
Competitor and market analysis
Competitor analysis:
Industry trends:
Market size:
SWOT analysis:
Target customer:
Marketing strategies
Which marketing channels you’ll be using:
Plans for paid vs. organic marketing:
Loyalty program outline:
Marketing goals:
Legal structure:
Business leaders:
Organizational chart:
Hiring plans:
Startup costs and funding
What you need to buy:
How much funding you need:
Profit and loss statement:
Balance sheet:
Assets:
Cash on hand:
Revenue (projected or actual):
Other growth plans or predictions:
Create your clothing business the way you envision it
A clothing store business plan can help you solidify your thoughts and ideas so that you can start your business the way you intend to. Taking time to ask yourself important questions like how and why you’re starting will serve you well in the long run.
Clothing retailers use Lightspeed’s commerce platform to take sales, manage inventory, create a website and so much more. If you’d like to learn about how Lightspeed can help you accomplish your business goals, watch a demo .
News you care about. Tips you can use.
Everything your business needs to grow, delivered straight to your inbox.
Sorry, there was an error with your submission.
Success! You are now signed up to our blog content updates.
Emily is a Content Specialist at Lightspeed, where she brings her passion, knowledge, and expertise to give you helpful tips on how to take your retail business to the next level. When she’s not behind the keyboard, Emily can be found thrifting, getting iced lattes at local cafes or endlessly scrolling through TikTok.
Related articles
Inventory Reconciliation: What is it and Why Does it Matter?
- by Lightspeed
An In-Depth Look at the Retail Accounting Method
- by Luke O'Neill
Celebrating International Women’s Day with Lightspeed Retailers
Browse more topics.
- Business Plan for Investors
- Bank/SBA Business Plan
- Strategic/Operational Business Plan
- L1 Visa Business Plan
- E1 Treaty Trader Visa Business Plan
- E2 Treaty Investor Visa Business Plan
- EB-1 Business Plan
- EB-2 NIW Business Plan
- EB-5 Business Plan
- Innovator Visa Business Plan
- Start-Up Visa Business Plan
- Expansion Worker Visa Business Plan
- Manitoba MPNP Visa Business Plan
- Nova Scotia NSNP Visa Business Plan
- British Columbia BC PNP Visa Business Plan
- Self-Employed Visa Business Plan
- OINP Entrepreneur Stream Business Plan
- LMIA Owner Operator Business Plan
- ICT Work Permit Business Plan
- LMIA Mobility Program – C11 Entrepreneur Business Plan
- USMCA (ex-NAFTA) Business Plan
- Franchise Business Plan
- Landlord business plan
- Nonprofit Start-Up Business Plan
- Cannabis business plan
- Ecommerce business plan
- Online boutique business plan
- Mobile application business plan
- Daycare business plan
- Restaurant business plan
- Food delivery business plan
- Real estate business plan
- Business Continuity Plan
- Buy Side Due Diligence Services
- ICO whitepaper
- ICO consulting services
- Confidential Information Memorandum
- Private Placement Memorandum
- Feasibility study
- How it works
- Business Plan Examples
Online Retail Business Plan Sample
MAR.03, 2015
U.S. statistics for e-commerce indicate that annual internet sales are steadily increasing. In fact, U.S. sales doubled between 2006 and 2013 and were an estimated $210 billion in 2013 for business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B). Globally, the best estimates report B2C e-commerce sales of approximately $638 billion, and that excludes travel sales. It is not surprising that millions of entrepreneurs are preparing their online retail business plan so they can capture the great opportunities.
Approximately a third of all internet sales are for travel and flight bookings which means internet-based store for goods and services account for two-thirds of the revenue generated. How can an entrepreneur take advantage of the opportunities? It is to get on the internet and start a web based shopping enterprise.
However, it is not so easy to generate sales and grow a startup because shoppers must find the website among the billions already operating. The owner must know how to get attention through marketing and search engines. The startup needs an online retail business plan that lays out the operating model and the critical success components like marketing, operations, and financials.
Business plan for retail
You should think the following before writing the plan:
- Who will be your potential customer for online retail business? You must think about your potential customers. For, example if you are dealing with clothes, you must think it would attract young, middle age or elderly people, gender, etc.
- Who could afford your product? You must think who can buy your goods. e.g if you are dealing with high class branded clothing then your target population must be people with high social, economic class.
- Who live near the retail business location. You must think where your shop is exactly located. e.g. if you are thinking branded clothes but people living close to your shop is people with meager financial resources.
Pre-requisites of online retail business plan
- Before writing a retail plan, you should do research. There are many online websites that provide information related to online retail business. It is always good to take information about what is good and what is what isn’t for this online retail business plan. You must consult before opening a online retail business plan.
- You should know from where you should buy the good to sells. Your online retail business planning should include the list of the manufacturer from you would like to buy your goods or the company that may directly ships items to you. You should review the term and conditions, payment strategies prices, etc. before selecting any one.
- Knowing your expenses and budget is essential before writing the online retail store business plan. You must calculate initial expected expenses. You must understand how to invest the money before writing a retail business plan of the retail. Some experienced people suggest not to spend all you amount in business. You must also consultancy or knowledge related to bank loans. It is also good to have a good security system if you are retailing online with expensive items like jewelry.
- Think of eco-friendly branding strategies and write in your online retail business plans for retail stores. Many stores are using green color or plastic free bags etc. for the promotion of their business.
Thus, an effective business plan for retail is important to start a successful business. You can also review sample online retail business plans for retail to have the general idea about what retail business strategy includes. An effective plan includes a good executive summary, market strategy, and financial strategy and SWOT analysis.
Setting sites on Success
A professional online retail business plan used for many purposes. They include setting the path for successful operations, finding interested investors, setting short and long-term goals, documenting market research and more. It plays such an important role in the entrepreneur’s success that it should be considered a “living” document that keeps decision-making on track.
Every section needs to be thorough, accurate, and based on in-depth research, covering information like the following:
- What are the products and/or services that will be sold on the internet? They can be quite diverse, ranging from computer equipment to books and music to clothing and shoes. The source of products sold retail can vary too. Are the items produced by the entrepreneur or sourced from distributors? Are they domestic or global suppliers? How will the online retail business ensure it can supply customer orders? Will an inventory be carried in a warehouse or will items be drop shipped directly from supplier to customer?
- Describe the required retail facilities for online and local store which can be as simple as a home office or as complex as leased office space and a warehouse for storing inventory. The type of facilities or space needed largely depends on how goods will be delivered to customers.
- Describe the merchant business model and how sales are generated, i.e. direct internet-based selling, catalog sales through a web store, click and mortar (web store added to existing brick-and-mortar business), internet auctions, and/or bit vendor. A bit vendor sells and distributes only digital products and services on the internet. What retail sales program software was selected, and how will it be maintained? There are many possible options today. The entrepreneur can set up a retail store on eBay or Amazon. There are also numerous SaaS options. Yet another possibility is hiring technical people to write a unique sales program.
- Will the online retail company sell cross border? If so, what cross border payment systems are utilized? What are the licensing requirements? It is important to hire professionals to manage the accounting and legal aspects because of the complexity of cross border selling.
- What is the estimated average ROI for the online Internet retail store? If the entrepreneur does not know how to figure ROI, it is wise to take advantage of professional consulting services. The financial calculations and financial statements projecting revenues and costs are important to the entrepreneur and potential investors.
- Who is the defined target customer? Is it a B2C, B2B enterprise, or will both consumers and businesses become customers? What does the market analysis indicate about the industry and needs of the target market?
- What marketing strategies are employed to reach to the target market? In-depth research is needed to identify the customer demographics of the target market and how to best appeal to customer interests and needs. Once again, many people do not know how to do market research and need to hire a consulting company to get the right kind of help.
How to write a Sample online retail business plan?
The retail work mainly includes general merchandise etc. The retailers buy products directly from their producers and sell those products to the common people. These products in the online retail business can be long lasting and non-durable items. Durable retail items mainly include electronic items and other whereas non-durable retail involve food, drinks, shoes, cosmetics and clothing.
Further, the online retail business plan is a rewarding business if done properly. Properly drafted retailing business plans would help you to achieve success in the business. You can open many retail outlets in major cities. You should write the separate business plan if you are dealing with specific retail business like garment retail business plan.
Sample business plan for a retail shop
Below is the sample online retail business plan to assist you:
- Write down the executive summary of your retail shop. Your online retail business plan should include a location of your shop. Consider opening shops in the central market of your locality. Further, write whether you should deal with the durable items or non-durable items. You should write the names of manufacturers you will deal. Decide whether you will start an online or local store. You can also get profit through online shop and it requires to write a business plan online retail. The online sample business plan would also guide you to write a plan.
- Write down the mission statements along with vision of your retail business. You should be clear about your mission and vision for your online business. Your vision could be opening retail shops in your city and mission could be providing branded items to the people at reasonable prices. Review online sample online retail business plan of other websites.
- Write down the employee structure in your plan. A proper retail business structure and a good employee is key to your success. You can hire the CEO, merchandize manager, accountants, information technologist and sweepers or cleaners. The CEO of the retail shop would be responsible providing guidelines for the business, implements organizational strategy, signing the deals, recruitment of the staff and evaluates the company achievements and targets. The manager of the retail shop would be in charge for the daily management of the activities and ensure that items are properly arranged or do any duty assigned by the hiring authority. The merchandise manager of the retail shop would be response for vendor relations, buying of products on behalf of the firm and ensuring that organization works with in the assigned budget. Sales manager deals with the data to organize business information and attract the new customers and evaluates transactional data. The accountant of the retail would be responsible for receiving the payments, issuing of the receipts, financial transaction, other duties assigned to him/her. Hire well qualified and experienced employees for your retail business. You can also hire other professionals for your online retail business plan. Check other online sites as a sample for the understanding of the type of professional required.
- Write down strengths, weakness, opportunities and potential threats to your online retail business. Your strengths might be operating both local and online, the number of products and customers. Your weakness could be the competition with the larger stores due to limited financial resources. Your business opportunities could be expanding your shops to other. Cities of the province and country. Your potential threat could be economic depreciation and an opening of any new shop. A good SWOT analysis in the business plan retail shop would guide to how to work effectively. Similarly, SWOT analysis should be written for online business.
- Write down the market analysis in the retail plan for the online business. Write down the potential target customers like a household, corporate executives newly wed couples, expected mothers and students. Your competitive advantage would be the online shop, the range of items, and availability of different payment methods. Online sample plans would also assist you to write in-depth market strategy.
- Write down the marketing strategy of your retail shop to increase the sales in your online retail business plan. You should write sales forecast of at least three years. You can market your shop through advertisements in local newspapers, radio stations, introductory letters, yellow pages ads and direct marketing. Online available sample plans for online business also define many online marketing strategies.
- Write down the financial strategy of your online retail store in online retail business plan. You must include the initial prospective expenses like legal expenses, rents, the expense of consultants, insurance, promotional expense, the expenditure for equipment purchasing, installation of the security system, operational costs and other miscellaneous expenses. A good pricing strategy is important for retail business because customer visits retail centers to buy cheaper items. Select that prices that would be helpful for the customer satisfaction as well as for the benefits of your business. You should mention same prices for online business and write about delivery charges etc.
- You must formulate a business expansion strategy of an online retail business. The success of your retail business depends on your competency, worker’s efficacy and lastly your business strategies. Online retailing has a wide scope of expanding. Review other online business plan as a sample and create your customized expansion strategy of the online business.
Thus, you must elaborate complete description of your online retail business plan. You must take guidelines from the retail business plan UK . The above-given sample key points would also help you to customize your online retail business plan.
Appealing to the Investor
Even a small internet retail business needs capital to cover startup and operating expenses the first year. It is important to know how to identify outside funding needs and to include a perspective in the online retail business plan that appeals to the type of investor most likely to be interested in the businesses. Fact-based financial statements are instrumental to long-term success and for landing investors. Investors are savvy and easily recognize inflated numbers or financial information that is not based on high quality research.
Professional Help
Since 2006, OGS Capital consulting professionals have successfully help SMEs with the development of quality online retail business plans and with raising capital. Each document is customized and retail business plan templates are used. When ready to startup or grow a online retail business and in need of a customized business document, simply send your information on a completed contact form.
Download Online Retail Business Plan Sample in pdf
OGS capital writers specialize in business plan themes such as business plans for pharmacy , underwear business plan , online store business plan example , dating website business plan , IT security business plan , video game developer business plan , virtual assistant business plan template and many other business plans.
OGSCapital’s team has assisted thousands of entrepreneurs with top-rate business plan development, consultancy and analysis. They’ve helped thousands of SME owners secure more than $1.5 billion in funding, and they can do the same for you.
Add comment
E-mail is already registered on the site. Please use the Login form or enter another .
You entered an incorrect username or password
Comments (0)
mentioned in the press:
Search the site:
OGScapital website is not supported for your current browser. Please use:
You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience and security.
- Trending Stocks
- Adani Enterpris INE423A01024, ADANIENT, 512599
- Reliance INE002A01018, RELIANCE, 500325
- Apple US0378331005, AAPL:US
- Adani Power INE814H01011, ADANIPOWER, 533096
- Microsoft US5949181045, MSFT:US
- Mutual Funds
- Commodities
- Futures & Options
- Cryptocurrency
- My Portfolio
- My Watchlist
- My Messages
- Chat with Us
- Download App
Follow us on:
Urban Ladder plans to double retail stores by March 2024, to expand retail presence in 32 cities
The company, which opened its latest store in Kolkata, has rapidly scaled up its offline presence in the last nine months as it was operating only 13 stores until June 2022.
Urban Ladder
Furniture and home decor brand Urban Ladder, which on Wednesday opened its 50th store, said it plans to double this store count by March 2024.
"... the company plans to expand its retail stores in 32 cities by 2023 and aims to double this number by March 2024," Urban Ladder said in a statement.
Starting its journey as an online brand, the company would continue to strengthen its presence in the e-commerce segment.
"The world of e-commerce is rapidly expanding, and Urban Ladder also aims to strengthen its online presence through UL.com and Jiomart," it said.
Urban Ladder Chief Business Officer Nishant Gupta said the company has a robust expansion plan to cater to consumers across various metro and non-metro markets.
"Our customers have always supported and motivated us to create unique offerings and every component is carefully curated, which makes us distinct. Every detail is worked on meticulously, from the design to the selection of materials, fabrics, and packaging. In the coming years, we are committed to innovating and bringing more contemporary and traditional concepts and products to India," he said.
Urban Ladder Home Decor Solutions was co-founded by Ashish Goel and Rajiv Srivatsa in July 2012. It has over 40,000 products across 300-plus brands, delivering to more than 83 cities across India.
Trending news
- Mark Zuckerberg weighs in on WFH vs office work in layoffs email
- AIIMS Delhi doctors perform heart surgery on baby inside womb in 90 seconds
- Anand Mahindra's vintage TV photo with a 'human remote' caption has Twitter nostalgic
- Woman who weighed 325 kg can finally sit in a car after massive transformation
You got 90 Day’s Trial of
- Ad-Free Experience
- Actionable Insights
- MC Research
- Economic Calendar
You are already a Moneycontrol Pro user.
How To Start An Online Store In 8 Steps (2023 Guide)
Reviewed By
Updated: Nov 21, 2022, 9:44pm
Table of Contents
1. pick a viable niche and define your target audience, 2. choose your product line, 3. create your brand name and brand assets, 4. register your business, 5. choose an e-commerce platform, 6. build your e-commerce website, 7. optimize your site, 8. tell the world, why e-commerce is important, frequently asked questions.
Whether you have unique handmade items you’d like to sell or you want to start a wholesale or dropshipping business, you’ll need a great website with eCommerce functionality to be successful online. With relatively low upfront costs and many great code-free site builders available, it’s easier than ever to start an eCommerce business. In this article, we’ll show you how to start an online store in just eight easy steps. Make your eCommerce business dreams a reality today!
Featured Partners
$6.99 per month
On GoDaddy's Website
SquareSpace
$16 per month
On SquareSpace's Website
$1.95 per month
On Web.com's Website
The first step in starting your online store is to determine a niche market you’d like to serve. One of the biggest mistakes new business owners make is not focusing on the three components of choosing a niche:
- Profitability: You want a niche that is profitable so you can see a return on your investment and build a profitable online store. If a product is too expensive to manufacture or purchase wholesale, it has a low potential for profitability. Similarly, a product might be too expensive to ship and may be better suited for selling in person.
- Searchability: The best e-commerce stores stock in-demand products people search for. If you’re looking to start an online store that sells dog leashes, for example, make sure “dog leashes” is a keyword you target. Use SEO tools to determine products people search for.
- Passion: Consider your passions. For example, what do you enjoy talking about or researching? When you’re passionate about what you sell, you’ll be more likely to stick with it when times get tough. Not only that, but you want customers to direct people to your store because you’re the expert in a particular field, product or service.
Your target audience is just as important as your niche. You want to make sure the products you sell will interest them and that they can purchase what you’re selling with no trouble. Don’t ask people for their opinion on your product if they’re not in your target audience.
Once you’ve determined your niche and target audience, it’s time to decide on your product or service line. This can be the hardest part of starting your online store. You want to make sure you’re not selling a product that’s too expensive to produce or that no one is searching for. It’s also important to make sure you have the resources, such as storage and shipping, to accommodate your products.
If you choose a product that’s already popular, how will you differentiate yours from the best? Can you improve on an existing product? How will you make sure your online store is the go-to source for this product?
Once you know what you want to sell, the next step is to choose your brand or business name and create your brand assets, such as your logo. For some, this step might come very easy and for others, this can be very challenging. One way that businesses often weed through name ideas is by going to a domain name registrar, such as GoDaddy and searching for available domains. The reason is, ideally, you want your domain name to match your business name.
If you’re not sure where to begin when creating your logo, Canva is a great place to start. It offers dozens of free and easy-to-customize logo templates. In case you don’t want to try your hand at logo design, you can always hire someone to do it for you from platforms like Fiverr and 99Designs.
In order to process payments for your online store, you’re going to need an EIN (or employer identification number). To get an EIN you need to register your online store as a business in your state. While you can register as a sole proprietorship or corporation, generally small businesses register as an LLC (or limited liability company ), which helps protect your personal assets should your company get sued.
There are also tax advantages to creating one for your new company, so check with your tax advisor to see if an LLC is the best option for you. The process of registering your business will vary from state to state, so it’s best to refer to your state’s Secretary of State for more detailed information on the process. Alternatively, you can always use a business registration service such as LegalZoom or ZenBusiness.
Start A Limited Liability Company Online Today with ZenBusiness
Click on the state below to get started.
Next, it’s time to choose an e-commerce platform. This is the platform where you will build and manage your online store. There are a number of great e-commerce platforms to choose from, such as Squarespace, Shopify and Square. However, each platform comes with its own unique set of features, which impact affordability, capabilities, and user-friendliness, so it’s worth taking the time to find the right one for you.
Here are a few of the best e-commerce platforms for easily building an online store:
- Squarespace: Best for web design beginners looking to easily build a beautiful online store with built-in marketing tools for as little as $14 per month with annual billing.
- Shopify: Best e-commerce platform for building a dropshipping store. Plans start at $29 per month and typically involve the purchase of a premium theme for around $250.
- Square: Best for those on a budget as it offers free plans, as well as those planning to sell in-store and online.
For more insights and information and to help you choose the right one for your online store, check out the best e-commerce platforms .
Once you have decided which e-commerce platform you want to use, the next step is to go to that platform and create an account and begin building your online store. While the steps will vary depending on which platform you’re using, typically the steps will more or less involve the following.
How to build an online store website:
- Navigate to the e-commerce platform of choice (e.g., Square) and create an account.
- Choose a domain name (typically included with a plan–if not, purchase separately).
- Select a template or theme.
- Add your business name and logo.
- Customize your homepage, as well as all other web pages.
- Add your products and create product listings.
- Set up a payment processor.
- Configure settings (e.g., tax or shipping calculators).
Follow along with our detailed step-by-step instructions that walk you through how to build a website .
Once your online store is up and running, optimize it for search engines so that it can get found online and in search engines, such as Google. This will help your website increase its visibility, gain more website visitors, and generate more sales–all for free.
Here are a few things you can do to optimize your site:
- Title tags: The title tag is the text that appears on the search engine results pages (SERPs). Your title tag must be descriptive and relevant to your product or service.
- Meta descriptions: The meta description is the text that appears under your title tag in the SERPs. Use descriptive and interesting language that encourages people to click through to your site.
- H tags: The H tags are the headings on your page. Make sure they’re descriptive and help explain what the page is about.
- Images: Include images on your page and ensure they’re properly tagged with keywords.
Once your online store is up and running, you need to market it. The reason for this is that building a business through SEO is a key component in your long-term strategy. Marketing your products and services will help bring in traffic now.
Here are several ways you can promote your online store:
- Add your brand to online directories.
- Work with influencers to promote your brand.
- Online advertising (e.g., Google Ads or Facebook Ads).
- Use content marketing to help your site get found online.
- Create social media profiles and become active on them.
- Referral or loyalty programs.
- Use press releases (if you have highly unique or groundbreaking products).
- Join an affiliate marketing program.
- Try word of mouth marketing.
The best way to promote your online store depends on your business and the products or services you’re selling. Successful marketing campaigns contain many, if not all, of these strategies at the same time. Try a few different methods and see which ones work best for you.
There’s a reason the current generation is often called the instant gratification generation: our world is more connected—and easily accessible—than ever. With a few clicks of a button, people from all over the world can purchase your products and services 24/7, 365 days per year, provided you have an online website. Sometimes, this is referred to as an e-commerce store. The overall look, speed and quality of your site can make or break a sale.
How much does it cost to start an online store?
The cost to start an online store varies depending on the platform you choose and the features you need. Some platforms are free to use, while others have a monthly fee. You can find e-commerce platforms for less than $30 per month. Then, just pay for marketing, products and shipping.
Where can I get products for my online store?
You can get products for your online store from a variety of sources, including wholesalers, manufacturers and distributors. Popular aggregators of manufacturers include Alibaba and DHgate. Many store owners use sites like Faire or Abound for wholesale products.
How do I start an online store with no money?
The easiest way to start an online store with no money is to sell services or digital products and choose a free e-commerce platform. This way, you only pay per transaction. Examples include printable products, editing services and PDF workbooks.
What is the difference between an e-commerce platform and e-commerce hosting?
An e-commerce platform gives you the tools to design an attractive-looking page or series of pages for customers to visit and learn more about you but that website has to be hosted somewhere, which is what an e-commerce website host does. Websites are hosted on platforms that can support the traffic being sent to them.
What are the most important sections that my online store should have?
In addition to having sections for your goods or services and a place to check out, you should also have sections or pages that include your contact details, an about page that provides details about your store and its offerings, a frequently asked questions (FAQs) page that can help answer some of the questions your customer may have regarding your store of what you have to offer and a policy page that offers you some form of legal protection in case there are disputes―this section or page should deal with information related to your liability, return policy, privacy policy and similar issues.
What are some easy businesses to start?
One of the easiest businesses to start also has the lowest overhead: selling digital goods. This can include items such as e-books, online courses, audio files or software. If you have expertise in a particular area or niche, this is a great option for you. Dropshipping is also a great option because you don’t have to keep inventory. Or, you could buy wholesale products or create your own. Once you create your product, you can sell it through your own website or third-party platforms, such as Amazon or Etsy.
- Best LLC Services
- Best Registered Agent Services
- Best Trademark Registration Services
- Top LegalZoom Competitors
- Best Business Loans
- Best Business Plan Software
- ZenBusiness Review
- LegalZoom LLC Review
- Northwest Registered Agent Review
- Rocket Lawyer Review
- Inc. Authority Review
- Rocket Lawyer vs LegalZoom
- Incfile Review
- Swyft Filings Review
- Sole Proprietorship vs LLC
- LLC vs Corporation
- LLC vs S Corp
- LegalZoom vs Incfile
- LegalZoom vs ZenBusiness
- LegalZoom vs Rocket Lawyer
- ZenBusiness vs Incfile
- How To Start A Business
- How to Set Up an LLC
- How to Get a Business License
- LLC Operating Agreement Template
- 501(c)(3) Application Guide
- What is a Business License?
- What is an LLC?
- What is an S Corp?
- What is a C Corp?
- What is a DBA?
- What is a Sole Proprietorship?
- What is a Registered Agent?
- How to Dissolve an LLC
- How to File a DBA
- What Are Articles Of Incorporation?
- Types Of Business Ownership
Next Up In Business
- How To Protect Yourself From Online Shopping Scams
- Best Credit Card for Online Shopping
- How To Start An Etsy Shop: Ready To Sell In 9 Easy Steps
- Best E-Commerce Platforms
- Money-Saving Apps And Browser Extensions
Best Online Banks Of March 2023
How to accept credit card payments without a merchant account, do you need a business checking account, how to build a portfolio website that shines, best places to keep your emergency fund, best business checking accounts of march 2023.
Kathy Haan, MBA is a former financial advisor-turned-writer and business coach. For over a decade, she’s helped small business owners make money online. When she’s not trying out the latest tech or travel blogging with her family, you can find her curling up with a good novel.
- Skip to primary navigation
- Skip to main content
- Skip to primary sidebar
- Skip to footer
A Better Lemonade Stand
Online Ecommerce Incubator
How to Make a Business Plan for an Online Business
- By A Better Lemonade Stand
- • July 13, 2020
- • 158 Shares
Do you need a business plan for your online business?
The answer is yes!
Most businesses benefit from having some kind of business plan, so an online business plan counts, too. But, it usually doesn’t have to include the same things that traditional business plans cover, and it likely will also include additional things that don’t apply to brick-and-mortar businesses.
Online business plans are a bit of a different ball game, so that’s what this post will help you out with—how to create a business plan for your online business.
Let’s create an online business plan!
Table of Contents
What is an online business plan, when to create a business plan, how to create an online business plan, do i need a business plan for an online business, your business’ essentials, your product & niche information, your business model, your product acquisition methods, your costs & pricing, your competitive analysis, your customer personas, your branding assets, your unique value proposition, your consumer channels, your store build information, your marketing strategies.
First things first, what is a business plan, and what is a business plan for an online business?
A business plan is a document that details a business’ important information and its future projections. A business plan should include factual information like a business’ name, URL, and operational costs, but also qualitative research like the business’ strengths and weaknesses and fictitious customer personas.
A business plan acts as a record of a business’ information so it can be easily referenced at any point in the business’ lifetime and it also acts as a blueprint of the path the business wants to take. Business plans are not only used by the founders of the business, but also by business partners, investors, and if the business is ever sold, it will likely be referenced during the sales process or post-purchase.
An online business plan is a business plan designed specifically for online businesses. Since many businesses nowadays exist solely online and don’t have a brick-and-mortar location, merchants need to design their business plan to suit their digital business. A lot of the general sections of the business plan stay the same, however, there are some differences.
How Online Business Plans Differ from Traditional Business Plans
The main differences between business plans for traditional brick-and-mortar businesses and business plans for online businesses are this:
- It Includes the Business’ Digital Locations: Instead of marking down the business’ physical address, the business plan includes the digital locations where the business can be found online including its domain name, URL, and social handles.
- There’s a Global Competitive Analysis: Businesses with a physical location may only compare themselves to their local competitors, however, online businesses essentially compete against global competitors as well as local competitors because the online ecommerce world virtually has no borders. Online businesses can generally serve customers from all over the world, so global competitors in a business’ niche become their direct competition. In a business plan, this will be addressed in the competitive analysis section.
- There are Digital-Related Product Strengths & Weaknesses: Since online businesses may sell digital products or they may send out digital materials like emails and digital receipts, their business plan may discuss digital-related product strengths and weaknesses that brick-and-mortar businesses won’t experience.
- You’ll See Lower Barriers to Entry: To get started, online businesses don’t usually need physical infrastructures like a building or an office—it’s all online. This means that the business’ set-up costs and launch costs may look a lot lower in an online business plan as opposed to a business plan for a brick-and-mortar business.
- You’ll See Different Store-Building Costs: The operating costs for digital businesses, in general, will look a lot different in an online business plan, too. While brick-and-mortar businesses factor expenses like heating, electricity, and water into their business’ running costs, an online business will factor monthly ecommerce platform costs and app costs into their business plan instead.
- Their Marketing Strategies Will Likely Look Different: Online businesses will be more likely to have robust digital marketing strategies—like social media marketing—in their business plan while brick-and-mortar businesses may focus more on more traditional methods like print advertisements, word-of-mouth marketing, and local foot traffic.
You can create a business plan at any point in your business-building process. It’s usually best to do it at the very beginning though so you have a roadmap leading you where you want to go, but if you’ve already started your business in some capacity and you didn’t create one at the beginning, you can still create a business plan too!
Business plans really just help guide the next steps of your business, no matter where your business is currently at. Plus, some aspects of your business plan will change as your business evolves over time so it can be a living document that gets updated as your business progresses if that’s something you want to do.
Creating a business plan is pretty simple, you can make one in whatever word processor you’re most comfortable with, such as Google Docs , Microsoft Word , Apple Pages , Evernote , or Bear App . You could even use Airtable or Google Sheets if you prefer to work with spreadsheets.
Your business plan doesn’t have to be particularly fancy, it mostly just has to be organized. Create clear headings and sub-headings for each section and make sure to write clearly and concisely. Ideally, your business plan shouldn’t be too big of a document—you want it to be thorough but easy to read and to skim.
The answer is yes! All businesses can benefit from having a business plan, whether you’re starting an online business, a brick-and-mortar business, or even a business that does both.
If you’re starting an online business, your business plan will act as a record of your business’ important information and you can include plans and projections for the future which can help you to stay on track.
A lot of ecommerce entrepreneurs struggle with accountability, goal-setting, and staying on track when it comes to building, launching, and growing an online business, so having an online business plan can give you a greater chance at long term success.
As mentioned in the previous section, our One Page Ecommerce Business Plan worksheet and ebook has been created specifically for online businesses, so if you’re struggling to make traditional business plan templates work for your digital business, it can be your solution.
What to Include in Your Online Business Plan
Ready to actually make a business plan for your online business? The following are the sections you’ll want to include in it plus some information about why it’s important to have in your business plan.
Create a heading for each of these sections in your business plan document and note down the necessary information as it pertains to your business. Or, if you’re using the One Page Business Plan , simply fill in the digital worksheet.
First things first, your business plan should start off with the basics:
- Your business name
- Your domain name
- Your social handles
These are fundamental parts of your brand that you need to know before you move onto planning pretty much any other part of your business because your choices here will impact everything else.
Business Name
Choosing a business name can be tough—often it’s the first sticking points for most entrepreneurs—and that makes sense because it’s such an important part of any business.
If you’re still deciding on your business name, check out our blog post here on how to come up with a business name for useful tips to help guide you in the right direction. Don’t get so caught up in choosing the perfect name that it delays you from actually starting your business, though. You don’t want to be stuck on the first step for too long!
Domain Name
Every online business needs a domain name so add it to your online business plan just so it’s recorded with everything else about your business.
Here are a few tips for picking a good domain name:
- Keep it short so it’s easier for your customers to remember
- Make sure it’s easy to spell (again, so customers can remember it)
- Refrain from using dashes, hyphens or numbers as they can make your URL seem spammy or unprofessional
- Try to use a common top-level domain like .com, .ca, .net, or .store ( .Store Domains Review ). The domain name you want might not be available with the top-level domain that you want, but try to get something that works for your business
- Opt-in for WhoIs protection when you purchase your domain so you can protect your personal information
- When you purchase your domain, also opt-in for automatic yearly renewals so you don’t ever lose ownership of your domain (if you do lose ownership, someone else could purchase it meaning you wouldn’t be able to use it anymore)
When it comes to actually purchasing your domain, you can use domain registrars like Namecheap or Hover —or, if you’re setting up a Shopify store ( Shopify Review ), you can purchase a domain through them.
Social Handles
Your social channels are likely going to be an important part of your business’ identity, so add them to your business plan to keep them organized and in one place. If you’re lucky, all your social handles can be the same, however, depending on the availability on each platform, you might not be able to get your brand name on every single social platform.
Whichever platforms you do choose to be on though, make sure you list them as well as your handle on your business plan.
Here are some of the social platforms you might want to register your business on (you can choose to register on all of them, even if you don’t plan to post on some of them, just to ensure that you “own” the handle should you ever decide to use the platform for your brand):
We also recommend getting your social handles as soon as you decide on the name for your business so you have the best possible chance at getting the exact handle name you want. The sooner you register, the better!
This section of your business plan includes basic information outlining the kinds of products you sell and the niche you serve. One quick look at this part of your business plan should give somebody an idea of what you do and who you do it for.
Step one, describe your niche. Your niche is the audience you serve with the products you create. Ideally, you want your niche to be broad enough so you have a significant market of people to sell to but also narrow enough that you have clearly defined buyer personas in mind.
Targeting too broad of a niche can mean that you won’t be able to hone-in on your audiences’ needs and wants easily, which can cause your product designs and/or marketing to lose focus, and having too narrow of a niche can leave you with too small of an audience to sell to. You want to find that sweet spot.
For example, choosing “women” as a niche is too broad. A better example of a clearly-defined niche is, “women who hike.”
In this part of your business plan, you should be able to summarise in one sentence what your product, or products, are. Keep it simple and keep it short—this is just the cliff notes version of what you sell so anyone reading your business plan gets an elevator pitch version of what you do.
Product Strengths & Weaknesses
In this section of your business plan, list the main strengths and weaknesses of your product so that anyone reading your business plan has an overview of the advantages and challenges that selling your products might face.
To get an idea of what your products’ strengths and weaknesses might be, use these methods:
- Use our Instant Product Evaluator Tool to rate your product on a scale of 0-100 so you have an idea of where your strengths and weaknesses may lie
- Conduct a SWOT analysis to get a comprehensive idea of what your business’ strengths and weaknesses are
No product is perfect, so expect to find some weaknesses. Some examples of product weaknesses could be the price (maybe you can’t out-price your competition because of the materials you use or the level of quality you want to maintain), or it could be the quality (maybe with the manufacturing options available to you, you can’t make your product with high-quality materials), or it could be that your product contains certain ingredients that make it difficult to ship to other countries, meaning you’ll have to meet different countries’ regulations in order to sell globally (this often applies to food or cosmetics products).
On the other hand, it’s also important to identify your product’s strengths because if it doesn’t have any, then it’s probably not worth selling!
Identifying these upfront gives you the opportunity to acknowledge the potential success of your product idea before you start investing time and resources into developing it. This can help you avoid pitfalls and unpleasant surprises in the future that you may not have otherwise considered.
Product Trajectory Forecast
Lastly in this section, identify whether you think your product is on a trending, fad, growing, or stable trajectory. These options will help you classify the longevity you see your business having.
Here’s the breakdown of what these options mean:
- Trending Trajectory: If your product is part of a trend, you’re expecting short-term longevity for your business. You expect interest in your product to be of-the-moment—quickly booming, maintaining some stability as it plateaus, and then ultimately the demand for your product will die down quickly. Products that are trending usually have longevity of 2-6 years, give or take. (Example: Fashion trends that last a few seasons and then become out-of-date)
- Fad Trajectory: If your product is a fad, you expect very short-term demand for your product and thus, very short-term longevity for your business overall. Trends usually last 1-2 years or less, and they burn out as quickly as they came in. (Example: Fidget spinners)
- Growing Trajectory: This type of product is on the rise, therefore, you expect business to grow steadily over time. Products that are in this category might not be super in-demand yet, however, their popularity is increasing and over several years they’ll likely hit a plateau and become stable. (Example: Drones)
- Stable Trajectory: This type of product is in demand now and demand for it has been steady for a while. When you start a business with a product that exists in this category, you can expect your business to have as much longevity as possible because demand is unlikely to change drastically. (Example: Phone cases )
Not sure what trajectory-level to label your product(s)? Type your keywords into Google Trends to get an overall idea of the demand for your products over time.
There are four main business models that are common amongst ecommerce businesses: Making, manufacturing, wholesale, or dropshipping.
Whether you choose to make, manufacture, wholesale or dropship plays a huge role in many different aspects of your business. Which model you choose will depend on your level of skill, the products you want to sell, the level of funds you have to work with, how much profit you intend to make, and how you want your business to grow.
When making your business plan, note down which business model you’re using so whoever is reading it has an idea of how you’re souring your products.
How you acquire your products is very important information to know about your business, so include all contact information for your main suppliers and backup suppliers.
This is important to have listed in one place in case you or your team need to get a hold of your suppliers, or in case your backup suppliers are needed, their contact information will be easily accessible.
A business’ success depends on the health of its financials, so including them in your business plan is a good idea. Not only is it necessary information to know and have for your own reference, but it is necessary information that people looking at your business plan (like investors) will want to know.
You don’t have to give your full financial statements in your business plan—just giving a quick overview of the most essential details is all you need. The following sections are all things you should include.
Project Launch Budget
If you haven’t already launched your ecommerce business, include your launch budget as part of your business plan to give insight into how you’re planning to launch and what it will entail financially. This can give anyone who you’re working with, or who are investing in your business, an idea of what funds are needed upfront to get your business up and running.
Product Cost
For each product that you sell, note down how much it takes to manufacture that product. This is important information to know when determining margins, profits, budgets, and financial strategies in general, so put it in your business plan so you don’t forget it.
Product Price
In addition to the product cost, also include the product price. This section should indicate the price that you’re selling each product to your customers for. Knowing this information is key because again, it will also play a part in determining margins, profits, budgets, and financials.
Your profit margins are a main indicator of your business’ financials, so also include them in your business plan.
You can determine your profit margin percentages with this formula:
(Profit / Selling Price) x 100 = Margin %
And your profit margins in dollar amounts with this formula:
Product Price – Product Cost = Margin $
Again, not only is this important information for you to know, but potential investors would also want to know this information as well.
Expected Average Order Size
Your expected average order size will depend on what product you sell and how many products you expect a single customer to purchase at one time. You’ll have to guesstimate this number based on what makes sense for your business.
For example, if you’re an online clothing retailer that sells different types of tops, shirts, dresses, skirts, and jeans, it makes sense for your customers to purchase a couple of items at a time.
In time, you’ll learn exactly what this number is, but guesstimating and establishing a number prior to launch is a good way to begin understanding the potential of your businesses and setting targets.
Your expected average order size can be represented by both a number (1 item, 2 items) or it can be the value of those items (in your currency).
Expected Average Order Profit
Similar to the previous section, understanding your business’ average order profit is also important to help you understand your business’ numbers so you can make well-thought-out decisions.
Expected Average Order Profit = Expected Average Order Size – Cost of the Order
There are so many things that eat into the revenue of every product you sell—the cost of each order doesn’t just come down to the actual cost of the product itself. Other aspects of your business operations such as the shipping costs, product packaging costs, the cost of returns, advertising costs to get customers, and customer support costs all factor into the cost of the order which ultimately will impact your profits. So beyond just understanding average order values, you need to understand your average order profit as well.
Monthly Marketing Budget
Establishing a monthly marketing budget can help you make better decisions when it comes to your marketing—forcing you to think more critically about the return on investment (ROI) you receive as well as potentially forcing you to try new marketing methods, campaigns, and channels.
List it in your business plan so you and your team have an understanding of what your marketing goals are going forward and how you plan to carry out those goals financially.
Performing a competitive analysis is a very important part of your business plan and can bring to light some of the strengths and weaknesses of your brand or product you may not have otherwise discovered that you had.
In your business plan, list out your top three competitors that match you somewhat in size and sell similar products to the same market as you. Take time to learn about their companies and determine what their strengths and weaknesses are. These can be found by perusing their website, reading customer reviews, observing customer engagement on their social platforms, reading about their brand story, going through their blog posts, reading through their policies, and even ordering from them to understand the experience from a customer’s lens.
You can create an entire document focused on competitor analysis (which we recommend doing) but in your business plan, it doesn’t have to be quite so detailed. Do your research but then note your findings in your business plan in an easily digestible way so whenever you refer to it, you can quickly see what it is your competitors excel at and where their Achilles’ heels are. You want it to be easy to understand so you don’t have to sift through tons of paperwork anytime you need a refresher.
Every brand has its core customers. When businesses strategize, they often create customer personas (also known as buyer personas) to illustrate who their core customers are so they can clearly think about business decisions from these core customers’ perspectives. In your business plan, list out your customer personas and some of the main descriptive information for each one so you can easily refer back to them.
When you’re developing your customer personas it’s important to put a name to them and an image and to write down information such as their age, gender, where they live, what they do, how much money they make, their interests, their educational background, etc. You want to be as specific as possible so you can get a very clear image in your mind of who this person is.
Each person you develop should be slightly different, but still relevant to your brand. Just like people in real life, everyone’s unique, but people of varied interests can still share similar interests. Not all of your future customers will be identical to one another, but they’ll all have similar interests and thus, be similarly interested in your brand.
In the future, anytime you make a decision for your business, you should run your ideas through the filter of your customer personas. Ask yourself what your customer personas would think of this idea—would they be excited to purchase it, would it be relevant to them, would it alienate them, would they tell their friends about it? If your ideas aren’t in line with your core customers then they aren’t worthwhile to pursue.
Your branding is a major pillar of your overall business and often, there are little pertinent details about your brand that can be tedious to remember. Instead of having them filed away in ambiguous corners of your computer, written down on loose sheets of paper, or worse, forgotten altogether, put them in your business plan.
This is helpful for your own reference but it’s also valuable information that anyone who takes over your business (should that happen) will need to know.
So, what should you include?
Your Brand Pillars
Brand pillars are simple, straightforward, and concrete adjectives representing your brand that will help you guide the decisions you make for your business so you always stay true to your core fundamentals.
Your brand pillars will be used when building your website, talking to customers, selecting imagery, writing copy, creating policies, and posting on social media. They’re the essence of your brand that you want to be consistent throughout every aspect of your business.
Your brand pillars should be around four descriptive words that you can choose either individually or with your team. The purpose is to find the four words that truly define what your brand is and what you want it to represent to others.
Brand Colors (HEX Codes)
Every successful, identifiable brand has a color palette. For some brands, the colors they use are so identifiable people can recognize a brand just by its exact shade. Check out BrandColors to get an idea of the brand colors that companies are using and get a sense of their color palettes.
When creating your business plan, list your brand colors so you can easily identify what they are. The easiest way to do this is to identify the HEX codes for each color. HEX codes are six-digit numbers used by computing applications to represent specific colors so if ever you need to find a color or adjust a color in an application like Photoshop or Canva, you can just use the HEX code to get the exact color that you’re looking for.
Noting down your HEX codes will make sure you know exactly what each of your brand colors are without having to guess every time you go to create a piece of branding.
Most brands have about 3-5 brand colors, so we recommend sticking with that. If you need help determining your brand’s color palette, check out these resources:
- Adobe Color Wheel
- Adobe Most Popular Color Palettes
Brand Fonts
Another essential part of your business’ branding are your typefaces and fonts. Most brands have around 2-4 fonts that are a part of their branding and these fonts will be used on their website, social media platforms, marketing materials, and even on product packaging.
A brand’s font can be as recognizable as its name and color palette, so it’s important to know what your fonts are called!
Make sure to list all of the fonts that you’re using in your business plan so you don’t forget them and so anyone who may take over your business in the future knows which fonts have been used in the past.
Photography Style
In addition to having product photos on your website—which are usually simple images of your products against a plain white background—you should also have some lifestyle photos and images of your products in action.
Unlike product photos, which should simply be a photo of the product against a neutral background, lifestyle shots should be of your product in its natural habitat, so your customers can envision it being a part of their own life.
For the sake of consistency throughout your entire website, your lifestyle shots should have their own style. This style should reflect your brand and be determined against your four brand pillars and should evoke the feelings you want your customers to connect with.
Your photography style can be bright, it can be mysterious, it can be rugged, or loud—whatever you think will represent your brand and engage with your customers most. The most important thing is to find a specific style so that the lifestyle photos you take or acquire from stock photo services are consistent across your entire website.
In your business plan, try to pin down your photography style and describe it. If necessary, include some example shots of quintessential photography representing your brand. This can help you keep your images consistent and can even help you describe what you’re looking for if you hire photographers to take your shots for you.
Your brand’s unique value proposition (UVP—also sometimes known as a unique selling proposition) is what you’re pledging to deliver to your customers—in other words, what your customers can hope to achieve or experience as a result of purchasing your products.
Most unique value propositions can be summed up into one sentence, and usually, they’re displayed on the homepage of a brand’s website, above the fold .
Your UVP doesn’t have to promise anything groundbreaking, and it’s usually something as simple as offering a lower price, or a better quality product, or a more reliable service, or a greater selection, or a heightened brand perception.
So whatever yours is, distill it into a 15-word maximum sentence and write it down in your business plan. It’s going to be a leading guidepost for your brand so you need to remember what it is!
But beyond just including it in your business plan, make sure you’re living it, too. Your UVP needs to be something that you’re actively focusing on and delivering to your audience, not just a motto you put on your website because it sounds good.
This section is where you’ll predict your total expected sales from both consumers and businesses in one year. Essentially, in this part of your business plan, write down where you expect to make most of your sales from.
Here are your options:
- B2B (Business-to-Business): This refers to businesses that sell their products to other businesses (like wholesalers, manufacturers, and suppliers).
- B2C (Business-to-Consumer): This refers to businesses that sell their products directly to consumers. This can also include direct-to-consumer (DTC).
- B2G (Business-to-Government): This refers to businesses that sell their products to governments, or government entities.
If your business is only selling products to consumers, you can predict that 100% of your sales in one year will come from B2C.
If you make your own products and only sell them to other businesses to resell on their websites, you can predict that 100% of your sales will come from B2B.
If you sell a quarter of your products directly to consumers, and three-quarters of your products to resell on other business’ websites, then you can predict that 25% of your sales will be B2C and 75% of your sales will be B2B.
Make your predictions based on your own business’ unique situation. Thoughtfully considering these options early-on can help you make better decisions for your marketing channels, budget, and the overall direction of your brand.
In this section of your business plan, break down the nitty-gritty details of your online store’s digital infrastructure as well as the cost of maintaining it so you have a record of some of your business’ main operational costs.
Just as brick-and-mortar businesses have operational costs like water, heating, and electricity, online businesses have operational costs like their ecommerce platform subscription, theme costs, and apps.
First off, list your ecommerce platform of choice and how much it costs you per month or per year to subscribe to.
Your ecommerce platform is the host that’s going to be supporting your business so it’s no small decision to make when considering which one to select. There are many different ones to choose from—some are more mainstream and some are more niche, but ultimately the best one for your business depends on your own individual needs.
We highly recommend Shopify because it’s intuitive, customizable, secure, supported, reasonably priced, and the best option for most types of stores—but there are many other options.
Next up, list any essential apps that you use to run your online business, including their monthly or yearly costs. This could include security apps like Rewind ( Rewind Review ) or Sucuri ( Sucuri Review ), the Spocket app if you’re using it to source your dropshipping products ( Spocket Review ), or even marketing apps like ProveSource ( ProveSource Review ). Whatever is essential to your business’ operations—include it in your business plan!
And finally, also list which theme you’re using for your store, where you purchased it from, and how much it cost. This is important information to know not only for your business’ records but in case you need to look up your theme’s development documents to troubleshoot any problems in the future.
Now, your marketing is always going to grow and change, and it’s one of those things that you’ll be tweaking more than most of the other things on your business plan, so we recommend starting by setting three-month marketing goals in your business plan so you create a direction to work towards that keeps you accountable.
Here are some things you can list in this section of your business plan:
- Your 3-Month Marketing Goal: Where do you want your business to be in three months? Ask yourself realistically how much profit you’d like to make in the next three months and write it down. Also ask yourself what non-financial business goals you want to achieve like the number of subscribers on your email list, the number of followers on your social channels, or even the number of product reviews your customers post. Make sure it’s something you have to work hard towards, but that it’s still attainable.
- The Number of Orders Needed to Reach Your Goal: In order to make your goal amount of profit in three months, how many orders will you need to make? This is where your Average Order Profit number is important because it’s what you’ll use to help you make this projection.
- The Unique Visitors Required to Reach Your Goal Based on a 1% Conversion Rate: If 1% of your unique visitors make an average purchase, how many unique visitors will it take to reach your three-month goal?
- Your Marketing Channels/Focus: Choose up to three main ways you plan to market your business. What methods are you going to focus on to get traffic to your store? You can focus on marketing through your own social media platforms, through your own blog, through guest blogging, by sponsoring social media influencers, through Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, Pinterest Ads, contests, giveaways, etc. The options are endless.
If you need help developing a marketing action plan, especially for the first few months of your business, check out our 52 Week Marketing Plan which has a bunch of strategies and tactics you can use to market your new online store. It will help you try out new marketing methods so you can discover what actually works for your brand!
Keep in mind that your business plan should be a dynamic document, not a static one, meaning: Keep updating it, refining it, and tweaking it. It should be a representation of where your business currently is and a guidepost for where your business is going in the future. Your business is going to be constantly evolving which means your business plan should, too.
Remember, our One Page Ecommerce Business Plan is tailor-made to benefit online businesses in particular, so if you’re looking for a business plan template for your online business, it’s worth checking out.
About the author
The A Better Lemonade Stand Content Team focuses on writing comprehensive, actionable, practical and resourceful content for our audience of ecommerce entrepreneurs wherever they are in the process of building, launching and growing their own ecommerce businesses.
Join 257,649 monthly readers and subscribers who already have a head start.
Connect with our growing community, subscribers, private members.
By subscribing, you acknowledge to have read & agreed to our Privacy Policy .
Join 40,238 smart online entrepreneurs
Get tips and resources for every phase of your business, delivered to your inbox
Business Planning
Financial forecasting, see how upmetrics works →, strategic planning, entrepreneurs & small business, accelerators & incubators, business consultants & advisors, educators & business schools, students & scholars.
- Sample Plans
Business Plan Course
Strategic canvas templates, e-books, guides & more.
- WHY UPMETRICS?
Customers Success Stories
- Sample Business Plans
- Retail & E-commerce
Retail Store Business Plan
Are you thinking of starting a retail store We have prepared a solid retail store business plan sample that guides you on every stage of your business plan writing
Retail store is a competitive business as competition is intense in this segment. Moreover, many big giants are investing more in e-commerce and digital marketing making this business even tougher day by day.
Having a physical retail store that offers a shopping experience along with products is a dream for many. It is not only because of the size of a business, but the potential and opportunities such a business offers.
And if you are an individual who likes to interact with people, constantly improve your way of doing business, and form communities that work towards something then you might have thought of having your retail store business.
Now, a retail store has great potential for success but it is also a very competitive business. You’ll need a retail store business plan to help you stand apart from your competition and have a thriving business.
Industry Overview
Research suggests total retail sales in the United States were projected to amount to 6.03 trillion U.S. dollars in 2022, up from around 5.4 trillion U.S. dollars in 2018, according to the National Retail Federation .
Retail businesses come in many forms such as grocery stores, restaurants, and bookstores. There are around 4 million retail businesses in the United States alone.
The domestic retail market in the United States is very competitive, with many companies recording strong retail sales. Walmart, a retail chain giving low prices and a wide selection of products, is the front runner in the United States. Amazon, The Kroger Co., Costco, and Target are a selection of other notable U.S. retailers.
Now, to have any genuine hope of getting noticed in such a jammed industry, you need a solid business plan to get success.
Things to Consider Before Writing Your Retail Store Business Plan
Build a brand image, pick the right location, plan a good store design, build communities that promote your brand, how business plan can help.
Regardless if you’ve been operating for a long time already, by writing up a business plan for your retail store, you can get an overview of what you want to achieve with your business, and guidelines for how you’ll achieve your goals .
A retail business plan is a solid foundation for the success of your business, whether you seek funding or not. It helps you see clearly what your business looks like and how it’s positioned in your target market .
If you need to get funding , your retail business plan will work as proof that you and your business are good for investment . Studies suggest you can double your chances of securing a loan with a business plan and grow your business.
How to Write a Retail Store Business Plan?
Writing a retail store business plan requires a good amount of research , a thoroughly competitive and customer analysis , and a little bit of extra help.
You can get help for writing your plan either through a premade template on the internet or through an online business plan software which will help you write a customizable plan anywhere and at any time.
Before you start writing your business plan for your new Retail store business, spend as much time as you can reading through some examples of Retail & E-commerce-related business plans .
We have created this sample Business Plan for you to get a good idea about how a perfect Retail Store business plan should look like and what details you will need to include in your stunning business plan.
Retail Store Business Plan Outline
This is the standard retail store business plan outline which will cover all important sections that you should include in your business plan.
- Company Profile Summary
- Market Research Summary
- Marketing Summary
- Finance Summary
- Business Overview
- Company History
- Legal StructureVision & Mission
- Industry Profile & Market Size
- Local Market
- Target Market
- Competitor Analysis
- Keys to Success
- Customer Survey Summary
- SWOT Analysis
- Products and Services
- Pricing Strategy
- Marketing Strategy
- Primary Marketing Activities
- Positioning Statement
- The Sales Process
- Strategic Alliances
- Location(s)
- Legal Issues
- Insurance Issues
- Human Resources (Or Team)
- Process/Production
- Risk Assessment
- Startup Funding & Capital
- Start-Up Costs
- Sales Forecast
- Projected Profit & Loss
What to Include in a Retail Store Business Plan?
A retail store business plan consists of several different aspects. The major ones are as follows:
1. Executive Summary
The executive summary gives an overview of what your business stands for to the reader. It should be written in such a way that even an outsider could get an idea of what your business is all about.
This section mainly comprises your business summary, your vision and mission statement , and your financial summary.
2. Company Profile
The company summary or company profile section of your business plan would consist of everything about your company ranging from its location to information about your team.
While the executive summary section consists of information about the functional aspects of your business, a company summary consists of information about the structural aspects of your business.
While writing a company summary, it is a good practice to take suggestions from your team, as this section represents you as a team of individuals more than representing you as a brick and mortar company.
3. Market Research
Conducting market research helps you understand what you are getting yourself into. It helps you understand your target market, your competitors, and the working of the industry in general.
You can conduct thorough market research by using tools like PESTEL analysis or SWOT analysis . These tools help you conduct research specific to your business and prevent you from wasting your time on vague data.
4. Marketing Plan
As a retail store, it is your primary job to let your customers know about your existence. And to retain them once they start coming to your store.
A good marketing plan would help you do just that.
Based on the information you have gathered about your target audience through market research you can design your marketing campaign and promotional offers that’ll appeal to your customer base.
5. Operations
As a retail store, a proper operations plan can prevent your business from turning into a chaotic mess. An operations plan consists of your business’s logistic and functional information. Basically, it helps an outsider see what a typical day at your business looks like.
It also consists of your long-term and short-term goals. As well as the milestones you’ll have to reach for achieving them.
As a retail store business, your operations plan would consist of your supply renewal cycles, your backup distributors, a plan for the working of your store, your daily sales targets and your long-term expansion goals, etc.
6. Financial Plan
A financial plan ensures that your business sails smoothly through tough times and also generate maximum profits.
It would consist of your funding requirements, cash flow projections, and profit forecasts.
As a retail store, your financial plan would consist of the funding requirements for setting up your store, buying supplies, and hiring people. It would also consist of your projected profits and break-even analysis.
Retail Store Business Plan Summary
In conclusion, a retail store business plan helps you organize and manage your store better. It takes care of everything that goes behind the scenes of running a retail store, so you can greet your customers with a smile.
From angry customers to poorly stocked supplies, a business plan can save you from all of it.
After getting started with Upmetrics , you can copy this retail store business plan template into your business plan and modify the required information and download your retail store business plan pdf or doc file.
It’s the fastest and easiest way to start writing your business plan.
Business Planning Resources
We have plenty of free business planning resources available to help you with your planning. You can download our resources to learn all about business planning.
FREE TEMPLATES
Not found what you are looking for? Explore our 200+ sample business plans to find match for your business.
DISCLAIMER: The business plans, templates, and articles contained on upmetrics.co are not to be considered as legal advice. All content is for informational purposes, and upmetrics makes no claim as to accuracy, legality or suitability. The site owner shall not be held liable for any errors, omissions or for damages of any kind.
Plan your business in the shortest time possible
No Risk – Cancel at Any Time – 15 Day Money Back Guarantee
Ready to Kickstart Your Business Planning?
– Don’t Miss It
Please fill out the form below and we'll contact you shortly.
We care about your privacy. See our privacy policy
Download Your Template Now
We care about your privacy. See our Privacy Policy
Build your dream business for $1/month
Start your free trial, then enjoy 3 months of Shopify for $1/month when you sign up for a monthly Basic or Starter plan.
- Sign up for a free trial
- Select a monthly Basic or Starter plan
- $1/month pricing will be applied at checkout
- Add products, launch your store, and start selling!
- Start free trial
Start selling with Shopify today
Try Shopify for free, and explore all the tools and services you need to start, run, and grow your business.
- How to Start an Online Boutique- A Complete Playbook
- How To Source Products To Sell Online
- The Ultimate Guide To Dropshipping (2023)
- How to Start a Dropshipping Business- A Complete Playbook for 2023
- 6 Creative Ways to Start a Business With No Money in 2023
- What is Shopify and How Does it Work?
- What Is Affiliate Marketing and How to Get Started
- How to Price Your Products in 3 Simple Steps
- 10 Common Small Business Mistakes to Avoid
- How to Turn a Hobby into a Business in 8 Steps
Free Business Plan Template With Examples for Small Businesses (2023)
- by Desirae Odjick
- Starting Up
- Nov 9, 2022
- 11 minute read
A business plan is the secret to starting a business successfully.
The easiest way to simplify the work of writing a business plan is to start with a business plan template.
You’re already investing time and energy in refining your business model and planning your launch—there’s no need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to formatting your plan. Instead, to help build a complete and effective plan, lean on time-tested structures created by entrepreneurs and startups who have come before you.
Free: Business Plan Template
Business planning is often used to secure funding, but plenty of business owners find writing a plan valuable, even if they never work with an investor. That’s why we put together a free business plan template to help you get started.
Get the business plan template delivered right to your inbox.
Almost there: please enter your email below to gain instant access.
We'll also send you updates on new educational guides and success stories from the Shopify newsletter. We hate SPAM and promise to keep your email address safe.
Thanks for subscribing. You’ll start receiving free tips and resources soon. In the meantime, start building your store with a free 3-day trial of Shopify.
Get started
What our business plan template includes
This template is designed to ensure you’re thinking through all of the important facets of starting a new business. It’s intended to help new business owners and entrepreneurs consider the full scope of running a business and identify functional areas they may not have considered or where they may need to level up their skills as they grow.
That said, it may not include the specific details or structure preferred by a potential investor or lender. If your goal with a business plan is to secure funding , check with your target organizations—typically banks or investors—to see if they have business plan templates you can follow to maximize your chances of success.
Our free business plan template includes seven key elements typically found in the traditional business plan format:
- Executive summary: This is a one-page summary of your whole plan, typically written after the rest of the plan is completed. The description section of your executive summary will also cover your management team, business objectives and strategy, and other background information about the brand. You may consider including a mission statement here.
- Market analysis: A well researched business plan should also analyze the market you hope to reach with your business idea. This section includes everything from estimated market size to your target markets and competitive advantage. It’ll include a competitive analysis of your industry to address competitors strengths and weaknesses.
- Products and services: What you sell and the most important features of your products or services. It’ll also include any plans for intellectual property, like patent filings or copyright. If you do market research for new product lines, it’ll show up in this section of your business plan.
- Marketing plan: How you intend to get the word out about your business, and what strategic decisions you’ve made about things like your pricing strategy. It also covers potential customers’ demographics, sales plan, and your metrics and milestones for success.
- Logistics and operations plan: Everything that needs to happen to turn your raw materials into products and get them into the hands of your customers.
- Financial plan: It’s important to include a look at your financial projections, including both revenue and expense projections. This section includes templates for three key financial statements: an income statement, a balance sheet, and a cash-flow statement . You can also include whether or not you need a business loan and how much it’ll be.
In our business plan template, each section includes an overview of the most important information to cover and guidelines on how to approach writing and researching each one.
Professional business plan example
We’ve filled out a sample business plan as a companion to our template, featuring a fictional ecommerce business . We’ve noted where—and how—an entrepreneur could add more details to expand on their business plans, depending on their goals.
Our fictional business creates custom greeting cards with your pet’s paw prints on them, and the founder of the business is writing a plan to help understand the target market, as well as the logistics and costs involved, to give themselves the best chance of success before they launch.
The sample is set up to help you get a sense of each section and understand how they apply to the planning and evaluation stages of a business plan. If you’re looking for funding, this example won’t be a complete or formal look at a business plan, but it will give you a great place to start and notes about where to expand.
Before you write your own, read through the following business plan example . You can download a copy in Microsoft Word or Google Docs and use it to inspire your own planning.
Download the business plan example (.doc)
Lean business plan example
A lean business plan format is a shortened version of your more detailed business plan. It’s helpful when modifying your plan for a specific audience, like investors or new hires.
Also known as a one-page business plan, it includes only the most important, need-to-know information, such as:
- Company description
- Key members of your team
- Customer segments
- Marketing plan
Want to create a lean business plan? Read Trimming It Down: How to Create a Lean Business Plan .
A good business plan helps you operate successfully
It’s tempting to dive right into execution when you’re excited about a new business or side project, but taking the time to write a solid business plan and get your thoughts on paper allows you to do a number of beneficial things:
- Test the viability of business ideas. Whether you’ve got one business idea or many, business plans can make an idea more tangible, helping you see if it’s truly viable.
- Plan for your next phase. Whether your goal is to start a new business or scale an existing business to the next level, a business plan can help you understand what needs to happen and identify gaps to address.
- Clarify marketing strategy, goals, and tactics. Writing a business plan can show you the actionable next steps to take on a big, abstract idea. It can also help you narrow your strategy and identify clear-cut tactics that will support it.
- Scope the necessary work. Without a concrete plan, cost overruns and delays are all but certain. A business plan can help you see the full scope of work to be done and adjust your investment of time and money accordingly.
- Hire and build partnerships. When you need buy-in from potential employees and business partners, especially in the early stages of your business, a clearly written business plan is one of the best tools at your disposal. A business plan provides a refined look at your goals for the business, letting partners judge for themselves whether or not they agree with your vision.
- Secure funds. Seeking financing for your business—whether from venture capital, financial institutions, or Shopify Capital —is one of the most common reasons to create a business plan.
Should you use a template for a business plan?
A business plan can be as informal or formal as your situation calls for, but even if you’re a fan of the back-of-the-napkin approach to planning, there are some key benefits to starting your plan from an existing outline or template.
- No blank-page paralysis. A blank page can be intimidating to even the most seasoned writers. Using an established business planning process and template can help you get past the inertia of starting your business plan, and it allows you to skip the work of building an outline from scratch. You can always adjust a template to suit your needs.
- Guidance on what to include in each section. If you’ve never sat through a business class, you might never have created a SWOT analysis or financial projections before. Templates that offer guidance—in plain language—about how to fill in each section can help you navigate sometimes-daunting business jargon and create a complete and effective plan.
- Knowing you’ve considered every section. In some cases, you may not need to complete every section of a startup business plan template, but its initial structure shows you you’re choosing to omit a section as opposed to forgetting to include it in the first place.
Tips for creating a successful business plan
There are some high-level strategic guidelines beyond the advice included in this free business plan template that can help you write an effective, complete plan while minimizing busywork.
- If you’re writing a business plan for yourself in order to get clarity on your ideas and your industry as a whole, you may not need to include the same level of detail or polish you would with a business plan you want to send to potential investors. Knowing who will read your plan will help you decide how much time to spend on it.
- Know your goals. Understanding the goals of your plan can help you set the right scope. If your goal is to use the plan as a roadmap for growth, you may invest more time in it than if your goal is to understand the competitive landscape of a new industry.
- Take it step by step. Writing a 10- to 15-page document can feel daunting, so try to tackle one section at a time. Select a couple of sections you feel most confident writing and start there—you can start on the next few sections once those are complete. Jot down bullet-point notes in each section before you start writing to organize your thoughts and streamline the writing process.
Once you’ve done the strategic work, it’s time to put it into action and write your plan. Download the business plan template and review our guide on writing a business plan for additional information.
Maximizing your business planning efforts
Planning is key to the financial success of any type of business , whether you’re a startup, non-profit, or corporation.
To make sure your efforts are focused on the highest-value parts of your own business planning, like clarifying your goals, setting a strategy, and understanding the target market and competitive landscape, lean on a business plan outline to handle the structure and format for you. Even if you eventually omit sections, you’ll save yourself time and energy by starting with a framework already in place.
Illustrations by Rachel Tunstall
Ready to create your first business? Start your free trial of Shopify—no credit card required.
Business plan template faq, what is the purpose of a business plan, how do i write a simple business plan.
- Choose a business plan format, such as traditional or a one-page business plan.
- Find a business plan template.
- Read through a business plan sample.
- Fill in the sections of your business plan.
What are the 7 sections of a business plan?
- Executive summary
- Market analysis
- Products and services
- Marketing strategy
- Logistics and operations plan
- Financial statements and projections
What is the best business plan template?
What are the 5 essential parts of a business plan.
- Executive Summary : This is a brief overview of the business plan, summarizing the key points and highlighting the main points of the plan
- Business Description : This section outlines the business concept and how it will be executed
- Market Analysis : This section provides an in-depth look at the target market and how the business will compete in the marketplace
- Financial Plan : This section details the financial projections for the business, including sales forecasts, capital requirements, and a break-even analysis
- Management and Organization : This section describes the management team and the organizational structure of the business
How do you write a business plan?
- Executive Summary : Provide a concise overview of your business, products/services, goals, and plans for achieving those goals
- Company Description : Explain the type of business you are in, where you are located, and what you offer
- Market Analysis : Research your industry, target market, and competitors to gain insight into the opportunities and threats that may affect your business
- Organization and Management : Describe the organizational structure of your business, including management, employees, and advisors
- Service or Product Line : Explain what products or services you offer, how they are unique, and how they will meet the needs of your customers
- Marketing and Sales : Describe how you plan to market and sell your products/services, including pricing strategy, advertising and promotions
- Funding Request : Explain the capital you need to start or expand your business, how you plan to use it, and how you plan to pay it back
- Financial Projections : Provide an estimate of your anticipated income and expenses over the next three to five years
- Appendix : Include any additional information that will support your business plan, such as resumes, leases, contracts, and product samples
About the author
Desirae Odjick
Desirae is a senior product marketing manager at Shopify, and has zero chill when it comes to helping entrepreneurs grow their businesses.
Join 446,005 entrepreneurs who already have a head start.
Get free online marketing tips and resources delivered directly to your inbox.
No charge. Unsubscribe anytime.
Thanks for subscribing.
You’ll start receiving free tips and resources soon. In the meantime, start building your store with a free 3-day trial of Shopify.
Start your 3-day free trial today!
Try Shopify free for 3 days, no credit card required. By entering your email, you agree to receive marketing emails from Shopify.
IMAGES
VIDEO
COMMENTS
Check out our library of retail sample plans for inspiration and guidance as you build out your own physical retail or eCommerce business. Or to develop a more modern online plan that updates with your retail needs, we recommend you try LivePlan.
Does My Online Store Need A Business Plan? Yes. Every ecommerce company can benefit from a solid business plan. Here are the main benefits of creating a business plan: If You're Just Starting Out: A business plan will help you set clear goals and create an action plan to achieve them.
With the rise of e-commerce, business owners now benefit from the immense range of online and offline marketing strategies at their disposal; including newsletters, SEM, SEO, billboard advertising and flyers. The marketing techniques that best suit your online store depend on a variety of factors.
There are plenty of benefits to creating a comprehensive business plan for your online store: Gaining a deeper understanding of your business - your blockers, biggest assets, and most lucrative opportunities.; Understanding the state of the market, and where you want to position your ecommerce store within it.; Planning for what's ahead - getting to grips with industry trends, and how ...
In order to create the best online business plan with your product in mind, you need to figure out the following things: What are you selling? Physical products: Clothing, shoes, home goods Digital products: Software as a Service products, ecourses, ebooks Services: Consulting services, home cleaning Who are you selling to?
Executive summary. Briefly tell your reader what your company is and why it will be successful. Include your mission statement, your product or service, and basic information about your company's leadership team, employees, and location. You should also include financial information and high-level growth plans if you plan to ask for financing.
1 36 Best Online Business Ideas for 2022 1. Open a T-Shirt Online Shop 2. Dropshipping Business 3. Kickstarter/Indiegogo Advisor 4. SEO Expert 5. Selling Online Courses 6. Bug Testing 7. Video Producer 8. Graphic Designer 9. Website Developer 10. App Development 11. Theme Designer 12. Translator 13. Social Media Manager 14.
To support your Online Clothing Store business plan, you will be provided with the following financial tables in the form of graphs for two and five years: revenue breakdown, cash balance, operating cash flow, EBITDA, and EBIT. Amortization Schedule for a Loan
The business model canvas is a one-page template designed to demystify the business planning process. It removes the need for a traditional, copy-heavy business plan, in favor of a single-page outline that can help you and outside parties better explore your business idea. The structure ditches a linear format in favor of a cell-based template.
Marketing Plan. Traditionally, a marketing plan includes the four P's: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. For a clothing store business plan, your marketing plan should include the following: Product: in the product section you should reiterate the type of clothing store you documented in your Company Analysis.
The business plan for your online shop should answer those questions. If you want to further develop this point, you can include a sociological or cultural analysis, but be careful not to include too much irrelevant information because it won't help you achieve your goals. 4. Products and Services What is my product going to offer to clients?
For that, you will have to have a unique online store business plan sample. Step3: Establish Your Corporate Office Simon decided to rent an office in Brooklyn. Computers, a stable internet connection, and a team of web developers and engineers are what that's needed at the office. Step4: Establish a Web Presence
Operational cost for the first 3 months (salaries of employees, payments of bills et al) - $60,000. The cost for Start-up inventory (stocking with a wide range of products) - $100,000. Storage hardware (bins, rack, shelves, food case) - $3,720. Cost for serving area equipment (plates, glasses, flatware) - $3,000.
Use our retail store, online store, or eCommerce business plan samples to start writing your business plan quickly. You can preview these business plan examples created with an upmetrics business plan builder and easily copy them into your business plan. This is the easiest and fastest way to write a business plan for your retail or online ...
The online store business plan template is for retailers that primarily sell products online. The template emphasizes ecommerce, online marketing, and shipping. It's best for niche businesses that cannot fund a storefront, such as stores that sell artisan soaps or custom items. Dropshipping businesses will also find the template useful.
Best online store builders: Key things to know. Shopify: Best overall online store builder. Square Online: Best free online store builder. Shift4Shop: Best for B2B online stores. Squarespace ...
The average initial cost of opening a store can be anywhere from $48,000 USD to $150,000 USD, and this figure doesn't include an upfront payment of first month's rent or utilities. Having an accurate idea of your initial cost—and, as such, how much funding you need—is one of the key benefits of a thorough boutique business plan.
Logistics and operations Financial plan We'll go through each of the steps you'll need to take to complete these components. Step 1: Write an Executive Summary Your executive summary is the first thing that will be presented in your online store business plan.
Your online retail business planning should include the list of the manufacturer from you would like to buy your goods or the company that may directly ships items to you. You should review the term and conditions, payment strategies prices, etc. before selecting any one.
This sample online shopping website business plan includes the following sections: Executive Summary The company The window of opportunity Size of Target Market Financial Performance and Business Feasibility Ownership and the Top Management Team (TMT) What we are asking ("they ask and the offer") Company description Company history
Urban Ladder. Furniture and home decor brand Urban Ladder, which on Wednesday opened its 50th store, said it plans to double this store count by March 2024. The company, which opened its latest ...
Research state law before buying across state lines, both for in-person and online sales. Gather your application materials. Once you know what you need to register and submit your application, prep all the necessary documentation for your reseller business. Get a resale permit. File for a reseller business permit in each state where you buy ...
Table of Contents 1. Pick a Viable Niche and Define Your Target Audience 2. Choose Your Product Line 3. Create Your Brand Name and Brand Assets 4. Register Your Business 5. Choose an E-Commerce...
This means that the business' set-up costs and launch costs may look a lot lower in an online business plan as opposed to a business plan for a brick-and-mortar business. You'll See Different Store-Building Costs: The operating costs for digital businesses, in general, will look a lot different in an online business plan, too.
A retail store business plan consists of several different aspects. The major ones are as follows: 1. Executive Summary. The executive summary gives an overview of what your business stands for to the reader. It should be written in such a way that even an outsider could get an idea of what your business is all about.
Once you've got your business plan outline in place, it's time to fill it in. We've broken it down by section to help you build your plan step by step. 1. Draft an executive summary. A good executive summary is one of the most crucial sections of your plan—it's also the last section you should write.
Free Business Plan Template With Examples for Small Businesses (2023) Start selling with Shopify today Try Shopify for free, and explore all the tools and services you need to start, run, and grow your business. Start free trial Latest Articles Start a Business Write a Business Plan Print on Demand Start a Podcast Affiliate Marketing