Ecommerce Platform

17 Tips For Starting A Successful Ecommerce Platform (2024)

Pat Walls

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Updated: January 19th, 2023

Want to start your own ecommerce platform? Here are some tips you should know:

Learn more about starting an ecommerce platform:

Where to start?

-> How much does it cost to start an ecommerce platform?
-> Pros and cons of an ecommerce platform

Need inspiration?

-> Other ecommerce platform success stories
-> Marketing ideas for an ecommerce platform
-> Ecommerce platform slogans
-> Ecommerce platform names
-> Ecommerce platform Instagram bios

Other resources

-> Profitability of an ecommerce platform

We've interviewed thousands of successful founders at Starter Story and asked what advice they would give to entrepreneurs who are just getting started.

Here's the best advice we discovered for starting an ecommerce platform:

#1: Eyal, founder of StoreYa:

We chatted with with Eyal, founder of StoreYa ($2M/month). In our interview, Eyal says:

The power of AI is endless, it will change our world, and our focus is to keep up with the power of AI and utilize it for our needs and the different apps we offer.

Additionally:

Building a company takes a lot of time. You need to have enough passion that you'll wake up every morning and grind all day and all night to get everything done.

Read the full interview ➜

#2: Jean-Loup Karst, founder of Secret:

We chatted with with Jean-Loup, founder of Secret ($18K/month). In our interview, Jean-Loup says:

The quality of your mind is the quality of your life.

Read the full interview ➜

#3: Nick and Angelica, founder of Romans Tide:

We chatted with with Nick, founder of Romans Tide ($100K/month). In our interview, Nick says:

Outsource everything. The classic entrepreneur’s mistake is to try and do everything yourself. When I look back on it I definitely had the funds to outsource more and bootstrap less.

Additionally:

Don't be afraid of making mistakes. The path to success is paved with mistakes. Embrace them, learn from them, and be open-minded.

Read the full interview ➜

#4: Drew Thomas, founder of Really Simple Store:

We chatted with with Drew, founder of Really Simple Store ($100/month). In our interview, Drew says:

Instead of optimizing for growth/profit, side projects should be optimized for learning and connecting!

Read the full interview ➜

#5: Nick and Angelica, founder of Romans Tide:

We chatted with with Nick, founder of Romans Tide ($100K/month). In our interview, Nick says:

Make sure you’re dedicating time to writing out your processes so you can outsource properly when the time comes. Even if your solo at the moment you still should write out your processes.

Read the full interview ➜

#6: Shahram Anver, founder of DataCue:

We chatted with with Shahram, founder of DataCue ($3K/month). In our interview, Shahram says:

Make sure before you spend any time developing the product to validate your idea. Go out there and talk to people, really find out that there's a market for what you're building.

Additionally:

Understand who your clients are. And not just who they are as in where they are from, gender, geography, etc. Understand their reasons to buy your product and their willingness to pay. This will give you a much better sense of what your MVP should look like.

Read the full interview ➜

#7: Drew Thomas, founder of Really Simple Store:

We chatted with with Drew, founder of Really Simple Store ($100/month). In our interview, Drew says:

The only advice is... just start. People hear that but don’t do it, and I think one reason is that “starting” seems like something you can’t stop once you go. That’s super untrue, and every time you just start, you get a valuable new perspective- even if you stop after five minutes.

Additionally:

In the past, I would build things in isolation until it it was time to market them. That makes marketing really hard. If you grow a community while you build, not only is your product better, but when you’re ready, the marketing is a million times easier.

Read the full interview ➜

#8: Jean-Loup Karst, founder of Secret:

We chatted with with Jean-Loup, founder of Secret ($18K/month). In our interview, Jean-Loup says:

Define what you want to achieve and make sure all co-founders goals are aligned

Read the full interview ➜

#9: Eyal, founder of StoreYa:

We chatted with with Eyal, founder of StoreYa ($2M/month). In our interview, Eyal says:

Focus is key. It's easy to get distracted along the way, focus on your product run as many tests as possible to validate your product offering.

Additionally:

You need to ask yourself am I passionate enough to do this for the next 7-8 years? Building a company takes a lot of time.

Read the full interview ➜

#10: Eyal, founder of StoreYa:

We chatted with with Eyal, founder of StoreYa ($2M/month). In our interview, Eyal says:

You’ll make mistakes along the way but if you keep a positive mindset and understand that it’s a marathon runner and not a sprint, you’ll get there at the end.

Read the full interview ➜

#11: Aaron D'Cruz, founder of Maynuu:

We chatted with with Aaron, founder of Maynuu ($3K/month). In our interview, Aaron says:

The B2B sales process can be a long one, so we hired a sales consultant during the early onboarding days. We paid them out of pocket as we are self-funded.

Additionally:

As we grow, what has been working well so far is proving unsustainable. They are time and energy-consuming, and not scalable. We are starting to put systems in place to create a sales & marketing engine. We are still learning and experimenting.