Company Setup: Sole Proprietorship or Limited Company?
To sell online you legally need a registered business; marketplaces and payment providers do not allow invoice-free sales. For beginners a sole proprietorship is usually the smartest choice: it can be set up in a day, costs little, and bookkeeping is simple. Founders under 29 may benefit from the young-entrepreneur income-tax exemption for the first years up to a certain earning. As revenue grows and you take on partners, you move to a limited company — more corporate, with liability limited to capital, but heavier and costlier accounting. A practical rule: stay a sole proprietorship while monthly revenue is modest, switch to a limited company as you scale. Before registering, talk to an accountant, pick the right activity code, and learn your e-invoice obligations to avoid problems later.
Product and Niche Selection: What Should You Sell?
This is the most critical decision. A good niche has three traits: enough demand (people are searching), manageable competition (not every giant is in it) and a healthy margin (profit survives after commission and shipping). Products with durable, repeat demand are safer than chasing trends. For research, use marketplace search auto-complete, best-seller lists, Google Trends and competitor product counts. On low-priced items (the equivalent of a few dollars) fixed service fees and shipping eat the margin; a mid price band is usually the most balanced for new sellers. Fragile, heavy or high-return categories (such as sized clothing) are riskier at the start. Specialising in one category builds authority and better supplier pricing faster than a scattered catalogue.
Sourcing and Stock Model
There are three core models. Stocked selling: you buy wholesale, store it, and ship yourself. This gives the highest margin and control but needs capital and carries stock risk. Dropshipping: you hold no stock and the supplier ships to the customer when an order comes in. Low capital, but thin margin and limited delivery control. Own production or private label: the highest added value and a real brand, but the slowest start. Most beginners start with a small stocked test batch — buying a few dozen units to measure demand, then scaling once it sells. To find suppliers, use wholesale platforms, manufacturer fairs and domestic producers. When choosing a supplier, request a sample and clarify lead time and return terms. If you sell on multiple marketplaces, central stock sync is essential; Ecomiro's stock-sync module prevents the same stock from being oversold across channels.
| Model | Capital | Margin | Risk | Delivery control |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stocked | High | Highest | Stock risk | Full (yours) |
| Dropshipping | Low | Thin | Low | Limited (supplier) |
| Production / Private label | Highest | Highest + brand | Production risk | Full |
Most beginners start with a small stocked test batch (a few dozen units), measure demand, then scale.
Choosing Your Channel: Marketplace or Own Site?
A marketplace (Trendyol, Hepsiburada, Amazon) offers ready traffic of millions of buyers — you get your first sale fastest here, but you pay commission and the customer data stays on the platform. Your own site (Shopify, WooCommerce and similar) is commission-free, protects your margin and brand, and keeps customer data with you — but you build the traffic from scratch through ads, SEO and social. The right strategy is usually to run both: capture volume and visibility on the marketplace, and build loyal, high-margin customers on your own site. Managing several channels from one screen gets hard; keeping orders, stock and prices in sync across them can take hours a day. This is exactly where Ecomiro unifies 7 marketplaces and your own site on a single screen and syncs every channel automatically.
Pricing, Commission and Profit
The most common fatal mistake is pricing as simply "cost plus the profit I want". Real net profit appears only after these are deducted: marketplace commission (on the VAT-included price), the VAT on that commission, fixed service fees, shipping (by volumetric weight), withholding tax where it applies, product cost, packaging, ads and return losses. With a 20% commission plus shipping and service fees, the net margin on a mid-priced item can easily fall below 10%. A healthy e-commerce margin is generally in the 15-25% band. Before setting any price, you must run a commission and net-profit calculation that accounts for every line item — Ecomiro's commission calculator does this per category across 7 marketplaces in seconds, and the dashboard reports the real net profit of every actual order.
Net profit = Sale price − commission − commission VAT − service fee − shipping − withholding − product cost − packaging − ads − return loss. Pricing as "cost + profit" skips these lines and is the number-one reason for selling a lot while losing money.
The First Sale: Listing, Photos and Shipping
Whether your product is found and bought depends on three things: photos, title/description and price. Photos should be your own (stock images lower trust and raise returns), on a white background and from several angles. A title in the brand + model + distinguishing feature format stands out in search. The description must clearly state size, material, use and care — a poor description is the number-one cause of returns. A barcode or GTIN is mandatory in most marketplace categories. On shipping, a contracted carrier, correct volumetric-weight declaration and a realistic delivery promise protect your store rating. Because early reviews are critical, pay special attention to packaging and speed on your first orders. To write return-reducing, SEO-friendly descriptions, Ecomiro's AI assistant generates copy based on the category and attributes.