We describe goods and services in the business plan of the online store
It is necessary to start describing the business plan of an online store with a small introduction, the so-called summary.
Start the body of the document by describing exactly what your online store will implement:
- List the services provided or product groups/types offered.
- What advantages distinguish the offered goods and services from others?
PS This may include: delivery methods (free, express), prices, product features. - What will motivate customers to come to you and not to other companies?
Market analytics in the business plan of an online store
- Analysis of competitors in online directories.
Having studied the main results of search engines in the region, we can conclude that there are or are no similar goods and services. - Explore Yandex.Direct.
You can look at and draw conclusions based on the most popular queries in your field and take advantage of it!
Online Store Business Plan: Organization
This section of the online store business plan should include: information about the staff, the availability and characteristics of the premises, equipment, which is necessary.
Staff
If the business is expanding and funds are available to hire additional labor, this should also be reflected in the business plan.
The section contains a list of positions, their functions and salary. Employees of the online store can be:
- project curator;
- sales managers;
- courier (small organizations use contract delivery services);
- promotion specialists (smm-managers, copywriters).
room
We often talk about a small office for sales and storage managers.
In the business plan for opening your virtual store, you must indicate where and at what cost the rent is planned.
Equipment
This list could be:
- fixed and mobile phones;
- computers or laptops;
- Printer;
- uninterruptible power supply.
Business plan for an online store: calculating finances
The following information is average.
Opening costs
| No. | Name | Cost ($) |
|---|---|---|
| a | Buying a domain and hosting* | 120 (approx) |
| two | Engine development”** | 2000 |
| 3 | Grocery shopping*** | — |
| four | Entrepreneur registration | 150 |
| five | Acquisition of the necessary machinery and equipment | 500 |
* – Even if the idea of creating a free online store seems very attractive, drop it immediately!
Few buyers will trust such a site. But what about investors?
** — This position includes placement, design, filling of shop counters.
After all, a beautiful view and full-fledged work of the site is the face of the project.
*** – It is simply impossible to indicate the average statistical costs for the purchase of goods.
After all, each has its own production, its own volume.
In case of renting an office, the costs are shown in the following table.
Monthly expenses
| No. | Name | Cost ($) |
|---|---|---|
| a | Premises for rent | 300 |
| two | The cost of the Internet, domain, hosting | 200 |
| 3 | Online advertising* | from 300 |
| four | Site maintenance | one hundred |
| five | Consumables (stationery, packaging) | one hundred |
| 6 | Employee salary** | 150 |
| 7 | Paying taxes | — |
| eight | Payment for delivery of goods | — |
* — The cost of advertising can vary widely.
** – Very often, the only employee of an online store becomes its owner. However, you will have to resort to outside help in any case.
Online store business plan: revenue and payback
Revenue
Calculating future income in the business plan of an online store is quite simple:
- Calculate the margin for each individual product or service
- Based on the data on the frequency of search queries, predict the number of future sales.
- Using this data, calculate the approximate amount of income per month.
- Subtract the monthly expenses from the resulting figure.
- The final amount will be your monthly net income.
Payback
An interesting fact about the return on investment of an online store:
For an online store to sell about 5 expensive products per day, you need about 200 people per day. This is easy to achieve with contextual advertising.
This factor largely depends on the assortment of your online store, on prices, on the delivery time of products.
An important factor: choose work for only one region/city or delivery throughout Russia.
If we talk about the average value, then the payback of the online store is 6 months.
We suggest you familiarize yourself with the real statistics of the benefits of opening
your online store today!
5 mistakes when opening your online store:
- At the initial stage, you buy a large number of goods.
- The courier only accepts cash.
- You differ from your competitors only in the price of the product.
- Save on design and functionality.
- Use images and product descriptions from other sites.
Online store business plan: risk analysis
Investors, like banks, will not invest in a business that can “collapse” at any moment.”
Of course, it is simply impossible to prevent all possible problems.
But it should be done and included in your online store business plan. This will demonstrate seriousness, preparation and strengthen self-confidence.
What can be included in this list?
- Force majeure circumstances (fire, flood, hostilities).
- Economic changes in the country (“jumps” in the exchange rate, defaults).
- Decline in sales (for example, seasonal).
And in conclusion…
Creating an online store compared to opening a regular store has a number of advantages: lower initial and fixed cash costs, quick payback, a wide range of customers.
