How To Start an Ecommerce Business in 2026

Want to learn how to start an ecommerce business? Follow this blueprint for launching an ecommerce store.

by Mark Macdonald11 Jun 2026 • 13 min read

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Starting an ecommerce business is possible for entrepreneurs, but it involves several decisions, including what to sell, how to fulfill orders, and how to reach customers.

This guide covers five steps to launch an ecommerce store, how much it's likely to cost, and extra tips for starting your business.

What is an ecommerce business?

An ecommerce business sells products or services over the internet. It involves online channels such as websites, marketplaces, apps, social platforms, or comparable digital systems.

Ecommerce businesses range from small, niche shops to large online marketplaces. The global ecommerce market reached $6.7 trillion in 2025 and is projected to grow to nearly $8 trillion by 2027, according to eMarketer.

Start an ecommerce business in 5 steps

Follow these five steps to start your ecommerce business:

Find product opportunities and choose what to sell
Research your competition and write a business plan
Choose a business name and set up your online store
Choose a shipping strategy and set marketing goals
Launch your business

1. Find product opportunities and choose what to sell

The first step to building an ecommerce store is knowing what to sell and who will buy it. This decision affects sourcing, pricing, marketing, and fulfillment.

These guides can help you find product ideas:

Evaluating your idea

After choosing an idea, validate demand before investing in inventory, production, or marketing. Use these guides to validate product ideas and markets:

Sourcing your product

After choosing and validating a product idea, figure out how to source your products. These posts cover different product-sourcing methods, including the trade-off of each:

Dropshipping suppliers and apps

Dropshipping lets you sell products without holding inventory.

When a customer places an order, your supplier ships the product directly to them. This model can reduce upfront inventory and storage costs because the retailer doesn’t hold inventory.

Common dropshipping options include:

Shopify Collective is Shopify's built-in product sourcing feature. Browse millions of products from thousands of verified Shopify brands, add them to your store, and ship orders directly to customers—no inventory required.
Dropshipping apps like DropCommerce, Syncee, and AI Dropship provide access to verified suppliers with automated inventory management.
Research dropshipping suppliers to find the right partners for your product categories and target markets.

Sell your retail products online

Moving an in-person business online can create another sales channel. Use these articles to sell through both online and in-person channels:

Looking for inspiration? After losing her job, Hannah Perry turned her dream of starting a cotton candy company into a reality by going viral with her Rainbow Floof Cake.

2. Research your competition and write a business plan

After choosing a product and sourcing plan, research your competition so you know what you're up against and how you can differentiate your brand. Here are two posts to help with that:

Writing a business plan

Use competitive research to write a business plan. A business plan can help you decide what to build, budget for, and measure first.

Business plans are great for prioritization, helping you prioritize tasks, budgets, and milestones. It can also clarify your mission statement, target market, and financial plan for partners, lenders, or team members.

Develop your plan using a template:

For example, behind every entertaining MrBeast YouTube video is a solid business plan that supports Jimmy Donaldson's global ecommerce empire.

You've Met MrBeast, the YouTuber: Now Meet Jimmy, the Business Mogul

In this exclusive interview, MrBeast shares insights on his entrepreneurial journey, from creating video game content in his bedroom to building multimillion-dollar companies.

3. Choose a business name and set up your online store

Aside from finding products to sell online, another early task in forming an ecommerce business is building your brand. You'll need to pick a name, design a logo, and choose an available domain.

These guides cover each task:

Creating a logo

Once you've selected a name and registered a domain, create a logo. Here are several options for creating a great logo for your business:

Understanding search engine optimization

Before building your store, understand the basics of search engine optimization—the practice of making your site easier for search engines to discover, crawl, and understand.

Start with these guides:

Building your store

Next, build your online store. Find a few essential reads to help you create product pages with clear descriptions, beautiful photography, and a pleasing color palette:

Compare Shopify's pricing plans to find the option that fits your budget and business goals.

Build an online store now

Create your store in minutes with Shopify's drag-and-drop editor. Choose from mobile-ready themes designed for your industry and add extra features with apps.

Learn more

Choosing your sales channels

One way to reach new customers is to sell where your target audience already shops. The right mix of sales channels will depend on your products and target market, but there are several options:

The best business names and brands are inspired by real founder stories, like how a backpacking trip led two friends to create a range of eco- and travel-friendly bathroom products:

4. Choose a shipping strategy and set marketing goals

Set up shipping and fulfillment before launch. Read these guides on how to create your shipping strategy:

Define your key performance indicators upfront. Once you launch, you'll know what measures of success to track. Find the right KPIs for your store with these guides:

After a homemade video featuring their modular dining table went viral, Transformer Table has seen explosive growth. Now, they use Shopify to ship orders from their ecommerce store all over the world.

Scale your shipping and operations

Ready to handle higher order volumes and complex shipping needs? Try 1 month of Shopify Plus for $399 and unlock advanced automation, bulk operations, enhanced shipping solutions, and dedicated support to streamline your growing business.

Try Shopify Plus

5. Launch your business

Now that you're set up, it is time to focus on marketing your products. The key to successful digital marketing relies on doing one thing well: driving targeted traffic. These articles will help you get started:

How did workout clothing brand Gymshark become a billion-dollar ecommerce business? It began by analyzing its sales data and harnessing the power of community with influencer marketing campaigns:

5 tips for starting an ecommerce store

Now that your business is up an running, read these five tips to set expectations and stay focused on the most important aspects for growth:

Don't target year-one profitability
Know your target audience
Sell an in-demand product
Experiment with marketing and advertising
Invest in outreach and link building

1. Don't target year-one profitability

Starting an ecommerce business takes months of testing and adjustment.

Give yourself a 18- to 24-month runway for your business to get off the ground. Spend your first year testing, iterating, and reinvesting your sales back into your business using the budget guidelines below.

2. Know your target audience

Outside of developing or sourcing products, you'll spend time getting the attention of customers.

You want to get your products in front of the right customers—the ones who will actually buy on your site. Understanding these people, a.k.a. your target audience, can help you reach them faster and make more sales.

3. Sell an in-demand product

Create or sell an amazing product with proven market demand. Take a look at the top retailers today, and you'll notice they all sell top-tier products.

"Product quality is critical because a good product sells itself," says Eric Even Haim, CEO of upsell and cross-sell app Upsell.com. "When you marry a great product with an audience who's hungry for it, your marketing becomes 10 times easier."

Eric explains that new products don't need to be the "next big thing." You just need to look for growing trends and markets where customers are underserved.

4. Experiment with marketing and advertising

After launch, test channels to learn where your audience responds. Try different marketing strategies to understand where your audience spends time.

Test different online marketing tactics like:

Affiliate marketing
Instagram ads
Website pop-ups
Checkout upsells and cross-sells
Organic search
Content marketing
Loyalty programs

"Success depends on your ability to experiment, test, and analyze your ad and marketing strategies," says Stephen Light, CEO and co-owner of mattress company Nolah. "Experimentation is the best way to avoid falling into any assumptions about your audience that could end up hurting you rather than helping."

Stephen suggests being open to getting things totally wrong, especially when you're just starting out. Use the data you collect to create more effective campaigns that drive traffic and profit.

"Plus, optimizing your ad campaigns and gathering data regarding how your customer base responds to them can help you shape your website's features," says Stephen.

Experimentation is the best way to avoid falling into any assumptions about your audience that could end up hurting you rather than helping.

Stephen Light, CEO, Nolah

5. Invest in outreach and link building

Another tip for new ecommerce stores is to have an outreach and link-building plan in place. These tactics can help boost your SEO rankings in Google.

"The sooner you have an approach to link building and driving authority into your site in place, the sooner search engines will recognize your website as an authority in its niche," says UK-based SEO consultant James Taylor.

"Search engines see a link from an authority source as a vote of confidence toward your website, so the more links you have from trusted websites, the more search engines are going to trust you as an authority."

James recommends new ecommerce store owners and marketers invest in digital public relations and link-building campaigns early on. This sets the stage for long-term SEO success, so you can rank higher in Google, earn more organic traffic, and make more sales.

"The sooner you have an approach to link building and driving authority into your site in place, the sooner search engines will recognize your website as an authority in its niche."

How much does it cost to start an ecommerce business?

Starting an ecommerce business costs as little as $100, which is spent on a domain and purchasing a theme for your store. Ecommerce companies cost less than in-person stores because they don't require the same amount of licenses and permits, and you don't need to pay rent for a retail space.

If you operate with a dropshipping business model using suppliers like Shopify Collective, it'll likely cost less to start because you don't need to pay for raw materials, inventory, or manual labor.

If you're creating your own products by hand or working with manufacturers, you'll need to pay for equipment, materials, and labor upfront.

Research suggests new ecommerce store owners can expect business costs to reach thousands of dollars in the first year. Expense categories include:

Product: raw materials, inventory, supplier, manufacturing, patents, etc.
Operating: incorporation/legal fees, additional software, business insurance, accounting, etc.
Online store: website/platform subscription, hosting/domain, contract developer/designer, etc.
Shipping: packaging, labels, etc.
Offline: stall/table fees, rent, gas, etc.
Team/staff: salaries, benefits, perks, etc.
Marketing: logo, branding, ads, printed materials, business cards, etc.

In the first year, business owners spent:

11% on operating costs
10.3% on marketing costs
9% on online costs
31.6% on product costs
8.7% on shipping costs
18.8% on team costs
10.5% on offline costs

This doesn't mean you will definitely spend a large amount of money to open your ecommerce store. The amount spent in the first year varies significantly, depending on industry and ecommerce business model, whether the business had employees, or if it was a full-time gig.

You also don't need significant cash flow before you can begin thinking about how to start an ecommerce business. A November 2025 Shopify merchant survey** found that 79% of established merchants use profits to self-fund growth, and 62% also tap additional funding sources when needed.

Start your ecommerce store

Building your own successful ecommerce business is as exciting as it is challenging. You'll learn about choosing a product, evaluating its viability, figuring out how to get it produced, building an ecommerce website, and marketing and selling to new audiences. At times, you may feel like you're solving a head scratcher of a puzzle, but it's rewarding all the same.

Hopefully, this ecommerce business guide provides you with a roadmap on your journey. As always, the best advice anyone can give is to get started and enjoy yourself along the way.

**Based on a 2025 survey of 500 Shopify merchants conducted in English across Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United States. Respondents were established merchants with two or more years on the platform. Results reflect the experiences of this specific sample and may not be representative of all merchants.

Illustration by Cornelia Li

From first-time sellers to global retailers, Shopify works for everyone. See plans and pricing.

Ecommerce business FAQ

What is ecommerce business?

Ecommerce is the buying and selling of goods or services online. Ecommerce business is conducted through an ecommerce store or online marketplace, social media, or a mobile app. Ecommerce enables businesses to offer convenient shopping to a global audience.

How do I start an ecommerce business?

Research what products you'd like to sell or can source to sell, select a business name, register your business with the government, and obtain permits and licenses. Then choose an ecommerce software and create your website, load your products onto the site, launch, and start marketing your business.

What are the 4 types of ecommerce businesses?

Business to consumer (B2C): When you sell a good or service to an individual consumer (e.g., you buy a jacket from an online retailer).
Business to business (B2B): When you sell a good or service to another business (e.g., a business sells wholesale products for another business to use).
Consumer to consumer (C2C): When you sell a good or service to another consumer (e.g., you sell vintage clothes on Facebook Marketplace to another consumer).
Consumer to business (C2B): When you sell products or services to a business (e.g., an influencer or affiliate offers exposure to their audience in exchange for a fee).

Is ecommerce a profitable online business?

Yes, the ecommerce industry is profitable. Successfully starting an ecommerce company is a marathon, not a sprint. It can take 18 to 24 months for your business to get off the ground. It's critical that you don't measure the success of your business by your first-year profitability.

Is it hard to start your own ecommerce business?

No, starting an ecommerce company is easy, with platforms like Shopify enabling brands to go online in just a few days. Starting a brand consists of hard work and continual market research to improve your business. Read this guide on how to start an ecommerce business before you set up a store.

by Mark MacdonaldUpdated by Joe Hitchcock on 11 Jun 2026