How much to start a small online retail business?

Question by Billy K: How much to start a small online retail business?
Please ONLY answer if you HAVE an online business. Basically, I just need to know what an average monthly price should be for a website that can support a business and have enough bandwidth without causing slow usage. Also, if you have any suggestions for where I should host my domain that would be great. Lastly, if you have started and online retail business please share some tips which could help my effort.

Best answer:

Answer by Jade S
I run 5 websites (none in retail though). I can say that this is a hard question to answer. Clearly, overstock.com will cost more to run than joesglass.com. I personally use bluehost.com for hosting, so my monthly expense is under $ 10 for all 5 sites (non-retail though…). I see anywhere from 8k to 20k visitors monthly with no speed issues. You should probably look into some e-commerece software solutions like this:

http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/ecommerce/

It looks like their starter package is about $ 40/month, and its scalable in case your business grows unexpectedly.

Add your own answer in the comments!

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *