How to Start an Online Store Without Inventory

Are you thinking about starting your own online business? Well, it’s more achievable than you might think, especially if you don’t want to deal with the hassle of buying, storing, or shipping physical products. 

There are different ways to start an online store without inventory. For instance, you might get into dropshipping, or create digital items. Plus, platforms like WordPress make it easy to sell online. 

In this post, we’ll discuss the benefits of launching a store without inventory and look at some options. We’ll then show you how to sell products online. Let’s dive right in!

Why Start a Store Without Inventory?

Many business owners create stores to sell their products, while some stock items by other brands. However, you don’t need to own physical goods to run an ecommerce business.

You can start a store without inventory. Here are the main benefits of this approach:

• Less overhead: No need to rent a warehouse or worry about packing materials.
• Location independence: You can run your store from anywhere in the world.
• Time savings: It allows you to focus on branding, marketing, and customer experience rather than logistics.

Plus, you won’t need to fork out money to buy stock upfront. This means you’ll have fewer startup costs.

What Products Can You Sell?

Now, let’s look at some products you can sell that won’t require sourcing, stocking, and shipping.

Affiliate Products

If you’re a blogger, influencer, and content creator, you might consider setting up an online store to sell affiliate products. 

Affiliate marketing is a popular way to make money online.  You don’t sell your own products — instead, you promote items by other brands and earn a commission when someone makes a purchase through your referral link.

To do this, you’ll need to join affiliate networks like Awin, CJ, and Amazon Associates. Some companies will even have their own affiliate programs. 

You’ll want to promote products in your niche. For instance, if you run a recipe blog, you might select programs for kitchen appliances and food products.

With affiliate marketing, you’ll have no customer service responsibilities and shipping or returns to manage.

The downside is that commissions can be very low, so you’ll need to have significant site traffic to make a decent income. Plus, you’ll rely on third parties for pricing, stocking, and fulfillment.

Dropshipping

Dropshipping lets you sell physical products without ever touching them. When someone places an order in your store, the product is sent directly from the supplier to the customer. 

This option is ideal for business owners who want full control without managing inventory. You can set your own prices and build your brand, and the suppliers will handle everything else behind the scenes. 

For this business model, you’ll need to use a dropshipping service like AliDropship and connect it to your ecommerce platform (WooCommerce if you’re using WordPress). 

Besides branding and pricing control, you’ll also benefit from a massive product variety. Plus, you can scale your business without worrying about warehousing. 

The problem is that you’ll be responsible for handling customer complaints or issues. And, your clients might experience slower shipping, especially from overseas suppliers. 

Print on Demand

Are you a designer, artist, or niche content creator? 

Print on demand (POD) is a dropshipping variant where you sell custom-designed items like t-shirts, hoodies, mugs, phone cases, posters, and more. The product is only printed after a customer places an order.

You can create or upload your designs to a POD platform such as Printful or Printify. These platforms will integrate with your online store and automatically fulfill orders made through your site.

So, you might launch a branded merchandise line, or sell your artwork. There are no upfront inventory costs, and you’ll have total creative freedom. However, production and shipping costs can add up. 

Digital Products

You might not be able to create physical products, but what about digital items? These may include ebooks, online courses, templates, photos, design assets, itineraries, music, and many other things. 

Whether you’re an educator, blogger, or any other professional, there’s likely a digital product that you can offer. This won’t require manufacturing or shipping, and you’ll have full control over the content, design, and pricing. 

If you have a WordPress website, you’ll be able to sell all sorts of digital products through plugins like WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads. Once a customer makes a purchase, they will be able to access the item immediately. 

Of course, you’ll need to invest time in developing an appealing product. Some niches can be very competitive, so it’s important that you come up with a unique selling point or value. 

How to Start an Online Store Without Inventory

When you’re starting an online store, you want a quick, stress-free setup so you can start selling products straight away. 

This is where HeroBuilder comes in. Powered by AI, this website builder will generate a website that’s tailored to your needs. 

HeroBuilder creates your website in WordPress and installs the plugins you need to run your store. Your site will be hosted on NameHero’s secure and powerful servers, and you won’t have to worry about performance issues.

You can use HeroBuilder for free for up to four days. After that, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan to unlock full access to your site. Plans include SSL certificates, email accounts, backups, and more. You’ll also be able to use a custom domain name.

So, here’s how to get started with HeroBuilder.

Step 1: Provide some information about your store

Create your HeroBuilder account and click to create a new website:

Give your site a name and HeroBuilder will prepare the WordPress installation for you. When it’s ready, you’ll need to provide some information about your website. 

First, HeroBuilder will ask you what type of website you’re creating. Select eCommerce:

Then, describe your online store. Let HeroBuilder know what products you plan to sell:

Here, you can also select a tone for your site, like professional, friendly, persuasive, and more.

You’ll also need to choose between a multi-page and one-page structure for your website:

Now, HeroBuilder will present you with a selection of templates for your online store. Go ahead and pick one:

Finally, select the pages you want on your store:

When you’re done, HeroBuilder will create those pages and direct you to the WordPress admin dashboard.

Step 2: Customize your store’s design

Earlier, you chose a template for your online store. If you navigate to Appearance > Editor in your WordPress dashboard, you’ll be able to customize the design. 

In the Templates section, you’ll see the site components that you can edit, including the checkout, cart, product catalog, and more:

If you go to Pages instead, you can customize the shop, homepage, contact, about, etc:

So, choose a page or template you want to edit. The WordPress editor is easy to use, with blocks for elements like headings, images, buttons, and more:

You can click on any element on the page to configure the layout, colors, etc. You can also remove any blocks you don’t want, and add new ones:

If you navigate to the Styles tab, you’ll be able to apply site-wide changes to your website, including color options, fonts, and layouts:

Take your time to familiarize yourself with the different options available. You’ll want to create a store that stands out and aligns with your branding. 

Step 3: Configure WooCommerce

HeroBuilder automatically installs WooCommerce, which is the leading ecommerce platform for WordPress sites.

Click on WooCommerce in your WordPress dashboard to complete the setup process:

You’ll also need to set up the payment methods. Go to Payments in the WordPress dashboard to set up WooPayments, PayPal, and Amazon Pay:

If you navigate to WooCommerce > Settings, you can configure other options, including taxes and order confirmation emails. 

Step 4: Add your digital products

Finally, it’s time to add your items! In the dashboard, go to Products > Add New Product:

Create a title and description for your product, then navigate to the Product Data section. If you’re selling digital items, tick the boxes for Virtual and Downloadable:

If you’re setting up an affiliate store, select External/Affiliate product from the dropdown menu:

Then, fill in the relevant fields. If you’re selling digital downloads, you’ll need to add the files and specify a download limit and link expiration. If it’s affiliate products, you must add your affiliate link to the Product URL field.

You can also add images for your product, set a category, and optimize the page for search engines with the AIOSEO plugin that HeroBuilder installed for you.

Conclusion

Starting an online store without inventory requires less overhead and startup costs. You can sell affiliate products and digital downloads, or opt for a print-on-demand or dropshipping setup. Whichever option you choose, HeroBuilder makes it easy to set up your shop.

Here’s how to start selling online with this AI website builder:

1. Provide some information about your store.
2. Customize your store’s design.
3. Configure WooCommerce.
4. Add your digital products.

HeroBuilder creates your website in WordPress and powers it on NameHero’s secure and fast hosting. Get started today!