22 Pros & Cons Of Starting An Online Fabric Store (2024)

Flexibility

You can put as much time into the business as you'd like. If you like the work and have some initial experience, you can start small and manage all aspects of the business on your own.

Ability to start your business from home

It's not necessary to have a physical storefront or office space to get your business started. You can do everything from the comfort of your own home, at least in the beginning!

Little startup costs required

The cost to start a online fabric store costs significantly less money than most businesses, ranging anywhere from 62 to 50,211.

High customer retention rates

Once a customer invests in your product, they've invested their time and energy to utilize your product/service which is highly valuable to them. Typically, your product or service becomes indispensable to your customer.

Quick build time

The average time it takes to build your product is quick - typically around 8 months. This will allow you to bring your product to market faster.

You are your own boss!

With starting an online fabric store, you are the one to make decisions for almost all of the operations. Calling the shots can be empowering and liberating!

Simple business model

A online fabric store has the advantage of a simple business model, which makes launching and building the business more seamless.

Control your own destiny

Starting An Online Fabric Store allows you to control every aspect of your life and make your own dreams come true every day.

You can work from anywhere!

Not only can you start your online fabric store from home, you can also run your business from anywhere in the world. This is the entrepreneur dream.

Easy to Learn The Business

When starting your online fabric store, there is a ton of information readily available to you online (Facebook groups, Youtube videos, Starter Story etc). This will help you get the business started and answer any questions, doubts or concerns you may have.

Ecommerce retail is growing fast

Ecommerce has been grown rapidly over the years and is expected to hit a total of 4.9 trillion dollars by 2021.

With running an ecommerce business, you provide your customers with alternative and more convenient shopping experience, which will ultimately drive sales.

You can promote and sell your product on Amazon

Although there are some disadvantages to consider when selling your product on Amazon, there are also a host of benefits. Mainly, Amazon is the world's largest online retailer, so you're bound to tap into new business and reach an entirely new audience.

Crowded Space

Competition is high when it comes to your online fabric store, so it's important that you spend a good amount of time analyzing the market and understanding where the demand lies.

Finding The Right Supplier

Most businesses in this space go the supplier/manufacturer route, which isn't a bad thing! However, finding the right supplier can take a lot of time, energy and trial/error. If done properly, this process can save you months (if not years) of time and energy. More on this below in the "finding a supplier" section.

Niche Market

A niche business is not necessarily a bad thing, in fact, it can be the key to your success. However, it can be more challenging and time consuming to find the perfect niche market and target audience.

You may need to charge sales tax

If you are selling your products in various states, you may be required to charge sales tax. Although this may not impact your financials specifically, it can be a headache to create a process and procedure for this. To learn more about sales tax, check out this article

Work can be repetitive

You may find creating the same product over and over repetitive and tiresome. One way of avoiding this is to diversify product lines and revenue streams - this will keep things interesting!

Time commitment

With starting an online fabric store, all responsibilities and decisions are in your hands. Although this is not necessarily a negative thing, work life can take over at times. This can place a strain on friends and family and add to the pressure of launching a new business.

Difficult to build trust with your customer

With starting an online fabric store, there can be minimal face-to-face interaction, which means it can be a lot more difficult to establish trust with your customers. You'll need to go the extra mile with your customer to grab their attention and business.

You might struggle financially (at first)!

If you bootstrap your business or choose not to pay yourself (or pay yourself less than you were making at your corporate job), this can be financially taxing. It's important to adjust your lifestyle and set a plan for yourself so you don't find yourself in a stressful situation.

Minimal physical activity

A big part of starting a online fabric store is sitting at a desk for the majority of the day starting at your computer. Some may enjoy this, but others may struggle with sitting for the majority of your day without much physical activity.

Work is not always glamorous

With starting a online fabric store, you may need to get your hands a little dirty. Although it may seem glamorous from the outside to start this business, the work can require a lot of physical activity and repetition.