As the online shopping market continues to grow at a rapid clip, EMARKETER reveals the ecommerce industry is projected to grow another 8.8% this year, hitting more than $6.3 trillion in sales and 20.1% of the total retail market.
What does that tell you? If you are thinking about starting an ecommerce business, the time is now. Continue reading to see 17 profitable ecommerce business ideas, along with insights about their startup costs and potential profitability. Plus, we include a list of action items if you are ready to take the next steps, along with resources to help you turn your idea into reality.
1. Sell Viral Products on Amazon
Selling viral products on Amazon involves tapping into fast-moving trends. It’s a bit more hands-on than other ecommerce business ideas, but if you get the timing right, you can make some quick sales.
To find potentially viral trends, check Google Trends (focusing on terms that are rising or breaking out, indicating rapid growth), keyword search volume, and social media insights (both data-driven and news-driven).
Keep in mind that the best products to sell on Amazon are those you can purchase at a low cost and sell at a high profit. Small, lightweight, and inexpensive items tend to perform well. Profit margins vary depending on the item you sell, how much it costs you to buy, and how much it costs to ship.
Startup costs also vary for this business venture—it depends on how much it costs to acquire the products in the first place. You can also potentially use dropshipping, in which case you won’t have to purchase the product at all. However, dropshipping also typically means smaller profit margins.
2. Sell At-home Workout Equipment
At-home workout equipment is another ecommerce business venture worth considering, especially if you have a new product idea or an existing brand or audience in this niche. The global at-home fitness equipment market was worth about $8.6 billion in 2023, with estimates to hit $21.4 billion by 2035.
If you’re going for something simple like a yoga mat or dumbbells, startup costs can be low—and profitability potentially high. But if you’re developing a revolutionary new exercise machine, like the Peloton, for example, startup costs will likely grow significantly.
Likewise, profit potential also varies. It all depends on the market.
3. Try Opening a Curated Consignment Shop
You can have a go at product curation with a secondhand or consignment shop. And in 2024, you don’t even necessarily need a physical storefront to do so. In fact, many get started selling vintage or used wares on platforms like Poshmark, ThredUp, Depop, and even Facebook Marketplace.
As far as pursuing this as an ecommerce business idea, you can explore the channels mentioned above as well as your own branded website.
Curating items for consignment is an especially great pursuit if you live in a rural area with lots of access to vintage goods. Local competition and demand are likely to be low, and selling online will enable you to access an audience across the globe.
Startup costs can be extremely low, especially if you have affordable suppliers. There’s also potential for huge profitability if you can score some highly sought-after items—brass, for example, tends to be easy to find in the southern US and is popular among shoppers everywhere.
4. Enter the Natural Beauty Market
Consumers are increasingly concerned about the ingredients and materials used in the products they purchase. Natural cosmetics and beauty products are a great way to tap into this opportunity.
The natural cosmetics market was worth $37.9 billion in 2023 and is expected to grow 5.1% annually through 2032.
Selling natural beauty products, or any beauty product for that matter, typically involves more investment and time for product development. Profitability is dependent on these costs, as well as how you position and price the product. For the sake of benchmarking, the average profit margin for cosmetic products in Germany is about 32%.
However, you can offset some of these costs by pursuing private label products. Then, the product is already developed—all you have to do is build a brand around it.
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5. Offer Online Courses
Online courses offer a low-cost ecommerce business idea with massive opportunity for profitability. However, it’s not as simple as creating a course and listing it online. Selling courses requires a strategic approach to building an audience and driving demand for your course. Plus, you’ll need to ensure your content stays relevant and updated over time.
If you already have an audience, an online course is a great way to monetize that audience. Consider the topics they trust your expertise about and think of ways to create courses around those topics. You may have even already created all the content and simply need to repurpose it into an online course format.
When it comes to promoting your online course, you can list it on your own online store or on social media. You can also post it on online course platforms like Coursera, Udemy, Skillshare, or Teachable.
6. Start a Subscription Snack Service
Everyone loves snacks! A subscription-based snack service is a great way to drum up some online business—and it’s a low-cost option.
A subscription business model involves customers subscribing to goods or services, paying for them at a set recurring rate, and then receiving them on a certain cadence.
Packaged snacks make the perfect product to include in a subscription box. They can be small and lightweight, and if you curate the snacks from existing brands, you don’t have to do any product development—they’ve done it for you! You can tap into the snack brands’ existing audiences to build buzz.
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7. Sell Handmade Goods
If you’re crafty and can make quality handmade items, they can be your ticket to starting an ecommerce business. And you don’t even have to create your own website. You can tap into platforms like Etsy, which was made for makers and artisans—so its user base is full of shoppers looking for those types of items.
Selling handmade goods depends on your existing skills and resources. If you’re learning a new craft, plan to invest more time and money upfront. But if you’ve already mastered your craft, the costs are mostly related to materials.
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8. Do Exclusive Small-batch Merch Drops
Another great idea, particularly for entrepreneurs with an existing audience, is small-batch drops of merchandise. Dropping products in limited batches drives urgency because people don’t know how long the items will be available for sale before they’re all gone.
Plus, there are tons of ways to create and sell merchandise. You don’t need to invest in product development or building a website. Instead, you can tap into third-party partners to manage everything for you. Options include outsourcing product fulfillment and manufacturing to a print-on-demand service, using a dropshipper, or buying in bulk and managing inventory and order fulfillment yourself.
9. Sell Customizable Paper Goods
Customization is always appealing to shoppers who are looking for something a little extra special. Offering the option to personalize your products gives customers more control and involvement in the process.
When it comes to selling customizable paper goods, there are so many options to choose from:
- Paper plates and cups
- Paper decorations
- Party and wedding invitations and envelopes
- Greeting cards
- Notebooks, planners, and agendas
- Calendars
- Tags
- And more!
Like other ecommerce business ideas on this list, you can manage everything yourself or leverage a third-party partner like print on demand or dropshipping to take some of the burden of business operations off your plate. The route you choose to take will also influence startup and operating costs.
10. Try B2B Beverage Sales
B2B, or business-to-business, involves selling to other businesses rather than directly to consumers. Sometimes you sell to other businesses, which then sell your products to consumers, or sometimes you sell to other businesses, which then use your products for their own purposes. The former is more of a wholesale or private label type of arrangement, while the latter typically involves the business as the customer and consumer as well.
B2B beverage sales is a great ecommerce business idea for a few reasons. You can choose to sell your own beverages wholesale to retailers and websites to sell on your behalf. Or you can offer to stock beverage vending machines for businesses in your local area.
If you’re developing the product yourself, this will require more investment in product development. Product development is a bit more comprehensive than normal when dealing with consumable products such as beverages.
11. Sell Organic Pet Food & Treats
Consumer interest in organic products has been on a steady trajectory over the years—and this trend very much applies to pet food. Organic dog and cat food and treats are a great ecommerce business idea to launch.
People love their pets and, more importantly, love spending money on them. And over time, consumers are spending more money on their animals. In 2023, the average annual expenditure on pet needs was $147 million in the US, with forecasts to surpass $150 million by the end of 2024.
Plus, food is essential. So, anyone who owns a pet has to purchase food at some point or another. It’s a recurring need that has the potential to drive lots of repeat purchases.
Product development can be pricey, especially if you’re starting from scratch, but it’s worth the investment for the right idea. The potential for profitability varies, but all signs point to growth in this area.
12. Start an Athletic Apparel Line
Launching your own athletic clothing brand is another viable ecommerce business idea. It offers lots of flexibility—you can design your own styles under your own fashion label, or you can tap into trends and dropship on marketplaces like Amazon. The possibilities are endless. As such, startup costs and potential for profitability vary depending on the route you take.
There’s strong demand for these products, with forecasts that put the activewear market at $242.5 billion by 2027.
13. Sell AR/VR Accessories
The AR/VR (augmented and virtual reality) market is estimated to generate $40.4 billion in revenue in 2024. Technology as a whole is only positioned to grow and advance. And with that ever-evolving nature comes endless opportunity for new and improved products.
And if you’re offering accessories to the technology rather than the actual technology itself, you can often enjoy lower startup costs and higher potential for profitability.
14. Consider Dropshipping Homewares
Homewares are an excellent ecommerce business idea because you can find small, lightweight items that are easy to ship. You can also tap into a steady stream of demand—people are always going to be renting or buying homes. That’s probably why the home decor market is anticipated to be worth $133.6 billion in 2024.
Dropshipping as an ecommerce business model generally comes with very low startup costs but also lower potential for profitability compared to other ecommerce business ideas on this list.
15. Sell Baked & Grown Goods to Restaurants
If you have a green thumb or talents in the kitchen, you can turn those hobbies into cash flow. Offer your homegrown produce or home-baked goods to local restaurants, coffee shops, or bars. Find businesses that offer products complementary to yours. Or maybe offer homemade snacks to bars that don’t offer food of their own so you can fill a need.
Here’s an example: Flora, a restaurant that serves locally inspired seasonal menus, sources many of its ingredients from growers in its area. Find businesses that resonate with your ethos and start there.
Startup costs are low for this idea, and profit margins vary depending on your local market.
16. Open a 3D-printed Goods Store
3D printers have revolutionized manufacturing, making it accessible for many entrepreneurs to bring their own ideas to life. You can do the same, offering a whole range of 3D printed goods.
Here are some ideas of 3D-printed goods that you can sell:
- Phone cases and stands
- Hair clips
- Bottle openers
- Planters and pots
- Sunglasses
- Bottle openers
Startup costs are higher than other ideas on this list because you’ll need to get a printer. A basic one could be as low as $500, but if you want to use it for business purposes, you’ll likely need to invest a couple thousand.
17. Create Your Own Unique Product
If you have a new and unique product idea, this is a great way to carve out your own niche. This ecommerce business idea involves the highest startup costs, as you’ll need to invest in product development, which includes design, manufacturing, prototyping, testing, and more. But the potential for profit, especially from a really unique idea, is high.
Starting an Ecommerce Business: Action Items & Tips
Feeling inspired? Ready to turn your idea into an ecommerce business? Here are the action items you will need to address to get your idea off the ground, along with resources to get you started.
Gather Funding
Depending on your initial investment needs, you might need to acquire funding for your inventory, production, marketing plans, etc.
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Perform Product Sourcing
Finding the right suppliers that are reliable and can get your products on time is key to a successful ecommerce business.
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Build Your Website
You need to choose an ecommerce platform where you can list and sell your products.
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Choose a Payment Processor
To process payments, you will need to choose a merchant service and integrate it into your ecommerce site. Some ecommerce platforms will have pre-integrated payment processing, but some don’t, and others give you the option to choose your own.
Create a Fulfillment Plan
You need to have a fool-proof plan for fulfilling orders to impress and retain the modern customer.
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Gather Shipping Materials
Along with a plan for how to get your orders out the door, you will also need to figure out how to package them.
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Market Your Business
You’ll need a promotional strategy to get the word out about your new business venture.
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Click through the questions below to get answers to your most frequently asked questions about ideas for ecommerce businesses.
The most profitable ecommerce business offers low startup costs with room for high pricing. Digital products qualify as one of the most profitable ecommerce businesses, but it also depends on other factors like the cost of goods sold and market demand.
The type of ecommerce that makes the most money is one with low operating costs, high profit margins, and consistent customer demand.
The four types of ecommerce business models are as follows:
- Business-to-consumer (B2C)
- Business-to-business (B2B)
- Consumer-to-consumer (C2C)
- Consumer-to-business (C2B)
The most successful ecommerce has streamlined business workflows and processes, strong internal operations, high profit margins, low overhead costs, consistent demand, and high customer satisfaction.
Bottom Line
It’s always a good time to start a new ecommerce business. As the population grows, people continue to spend more and more money online. There’s also demand for new products, ideas, and brands. It’s simply a matter of figuring out which ones are worth pursuing.
