Step 1. Find your Niche

If there was a simple way to find that business niche then we would all be millionaires. Whilst recognising that there is no magic formula then there are some sound guidelines to be adhered to.

Firstly, think laterally about what are the emerging technologies or products hitting the market place and if there are external factors like legislation or consumer views which are going to make a product a winner in the future. A good way to start is to review Amazon and ebay and to see what are the products that are being launched progressively into the market place. To complement this you do need a sourcing plan to ensure that you can procure good products at the right price. A good supply market is China right now but you do need to do your research well because for every good deal to be found there are for sure a spectrum of rogues out there. It is always worth doing company checks and using locally base inspection and loading agents to check that what you actually have bought is what you ordered. Secondly, before you jump in on a large scale with your eCommerce start-up then check the market. This can be done in one of two ways. One method is to perform consumer research to check that there is actually a market out there for your intended offering. Alternatively, you can just start small be taking some products and testing the market wither by putting together a simple eCommerce website or by using affiliates like Amazon to test the market with your samples. Then take the results, analyse and modify your business plan accordingly.

Step 2. Exploit that Niche

Once you have selected your products to retail and organised the supply side you need to market and sell the products. Here we will assume that your primary channel will be on-line although if there then proves to be a large local market it then may be prudent to open a store.
The first activity is to find the keywords that are best to attract customers. This is a balance between selecting the relevant keywords with the highest traffic but then to perform deeper analysis to check the competition for these keywords to ensure that a first page listing is achievable. From here you can then select your domain name which wants to be the optimal combination of the company brand together with your best keywords. Don't worry too much about the length but for the best search engine performance separate the words with hyphens. You are then ready to create the eCommerce Website. Here it is best to select a good shopping cart system and then integrate it in with a viable payment gateway. After population of your site with products you then have the important task of SEO to ensure that you hit high in the Google search rankings.

So that is the very high level synopsis of the approach to creating and eCommerce start-up and the success will undoubtedly be in the detail and execution.