How To Start Online Store With No Money

Do you know? By 2021, over 2.4 billion people worldwide are expected to buy goods and services online. In this case, the online or e-commerce store is the best business idea to invest in. Trust me, the future is for the online business. The physical retail stores will get disappeared.

Now, When coming to online business, technically it is very easy to start online or e-commerce store but despite its easiness and early enthusiasm, many times the online business end up with its shutdown.

Have you ever wondered, Why? This is because

• They don’t have any idea on What to sell online?
• They are afraid of starting an online business
• They don’t have any idea How to start it?

Does it sound like you? No problem. I will help you. In this article, I am going to share my story on starting an online store called ‘EmbroideryShristi‘ with no money.

Note: Here, the word ‘E-Commerce Store’ and ‘Online Store’ are used interchangeably. Please do not get confused by them.

But, before starting with the article. Let us first have a brief introduction to the online store ‘EmbroideryShristi’.

EmbroideryShristi is an online store (build using Prestashop) selling virtual downloadable Machine Embroidery Designs online. Today, we have more than 11000 customers worldwide in more than 80 countries including Africa, USA, UK, India, Pakistan, Israel, Australia, etc.

Yes, the above-given information is true and you can cross verify the same by visiting and following the online store. EmbroideryShristi has more than 4000 real social followers on Facebook.

How To Start Online Store With No Money

Though you can start the online store with zero money, I strongly suggest investing a small amount in it and start the online store.

Don’t worry, by small investment I don’t mean lakhs of rupees. Rs. 50000 ( $500) is enough to start an online store.

Note: This amount can be further reduced to Rs. 5000 ($100), if you don’t hire any web consultants and installed the online store on your own.

Ideally, e-commerce or online store cost you between $100 to $500.

You even don’t have this much money to spend, no problem? You can still start the online store with zero investment.  In this case, the only difference will be

• There will be no custom domain (you will not get your own domain name or extension instead you need to use the free domain address available online)
• Use the free website builder platform to host your store online.

But, these kinds of platforms will have their own limitation. Some platforms may have a trial period whereas others may allow limited numbers of products under the free plan.

Free online store builder works well when you are not sure how to start or manage it. In this case, start with the free store and then upgrade it once you are ready. But, please make sure you select the reliable platform to start the free store. Your platform should be capable enough to handle your store in the future.

Next, double check the limitations before using any free online store builder platform to build an online store or e-commerce store.

But, if you can spend a small amount say around $100 to $500 then I suggest starting your own custom store with no limitations.

In the year 2011, EmbroideryShristi was started with an initial investment of Rs.2000. Yes, it was started with just Rs. 2000.

So, how this has happened? To get your answer, please read below.

My father is doing the Garment Business since 1985. Besides, we also own an Embroidery Machine for our business.

Now, in 2011, I and my brother ( who have just completed its engineering) decided to start an online store selling virtual downloadable machine embroidery design files online.

Next, we started our online store using free open source e-commerce platform solution called ‘Prestashop‘.

Being open source platform, it was available for free and next we installed it on our own, we also did not incur any installation costs on it.

Trust me, the installation process was very easy. If you have intermediate computer knowledge then you can easily install it.

Further, the installation manual was an additional benefit to us. Nowadays, these manuals are written in so detailed then anyone can read and installed it.

Next, we purchase the custom domain name (‘EmbroideryShristi’) at Rs. 99 per year.  We have purchased this domain name from Godaddy website.

Next, to go live we have selected shared hosting plan at a very cheap rate of Rs.1500 per year. Initially, we started with shared hosting and then we move to our personal server in 2014.

So, if you wish then you can easily start your own online store at Rs 2000

Some Important Points To Note Before Starting Online Store

• I know the various prices mentioned above in the article are getting contradictory with each other. This is because there is no exact price for starting the store. It depends on your store name and hosting plan your selected. But, trust me, you can easily start it at a price less than 2000 if you do all the activities on your own and less than 30,000 if you hire any consultants to start the online store on your behalf.
• Custom domain price varies from name to name. It starts from Rs 99 and goes up to Rs. 4 to 5 lakhs per domain and beyond it. But, you will a fresh domain name at an average price of Rs. 200 only. The price will get increased only if the required domain name is not fresh ( used previously by someone else) or related to any famous and well know website already available online. The below snapshot is proof.

• If you don’t know how to install an open source platform then you can hire any web consultant asking him to install it on your behalf. Once he or she installed it, you can take over your site from him. But, please ensure you negotiate all legal terms properly before hiring any consultants.
• As discussed earlier in this article, both the domain name and hosting plan are available for free online. But, these kinds of free plan has its own limitation. Please check them before taking any decision
• Please check the website of well knows companies like GoDaddy, Big Rock, etc before taking any decision. These companies keep on running promotional events to attract new customers. The below snapshot is an example of it. In the below snapshot you will find Godaddy is offering a complete plan (including domain name, hosting plan, and free custom email address)  as low as Rs. 149 for the first year.

•  Last, but the most important, you can contact us if you face any problem in starting, installing and managing your online store. We will be happy to help you.

Final Words For Starting Online Store

Online or e-commerce store is the best option available today. Next, since it does not require any huge investment, I strongly suggest giving a try to this business idea once. There is no harm in trying this business idea. If it gets successful then you can make millions of money from it and if in case it gets failed then it will cost you less than Rs. 2000.

At last, if you think we have missed out an important point to discuss here or wants any kind of help in understanding any of the above statement or content then feel free to ask. You can share your message or queries in below comment box or contact us privately through contact-us page given in the header and footer of our blog called ‘LoveUMarketing’.