In order to start your own business, you need to understand what direction to take. We studied the online entrepreneurship market, talked to an expert and compiled a list of the best ideas for online business in 2024
The share of entrepreneurs who sell their goods and services online is growing rapidly, as is the popularity of online stores and services. According to the Association of Internet Commerce Companies, sales of physical and digital goods in Russia amounted to RUB 2.7 trillion1. This is 20% more than in the same period last year.
It is expected that the popularity of online entrepreneurship will only grow, largely at the expense of the regions, so it is not too late to start an online business from scratch.
Ranking of the top 12 best ideas for creating a business on the Internet
The rating contains ideas from different categories: online sales of goods, training, entertainment, and digital products. We took into account not only market demand, but also the level of complexity of starting and running a business.
Dropshipping
Dropshipping is the sale of goods through direct deliveries. The owner of such a business does not need to spend on the production or purchase of goods, he only accepts requests for purchase, and delivery and delivery falls on the shoulders of the manufacturer.
The obvious advantage of dropshipping is minimal financial losses in case of failure, as you do not have to spend money on purchasing goods and renting a warehouse. However, a lot of effort is needed to find manufacturers who agree to direct deliveries and to promote an online store.
Resale of goods from China
A long-known but still profitable business idea. The essence is simple: to order goods in bulk in China in order to resell them through your own channels in Russia at retail. Usually the realization is carried out through marketplaces. Now, because of restrictions and sanctions, this scheme of online trading has become even more relevant.
Finding suppliers is not that difficult, there are many Chinese websites with bulk purchases. However, in order not to remain at a loss, it is important to carefully analyze the market and choose goods with high demand. You also need to realize that there is a lot of competition in this business.
Creating chatbots
Messengers remain one of the effective tools for automating entrepreneurship. Companies in the category of large and medium-sized businesses introduce bots into their channels and communities that can answer questions and perform simple actions. The development of such chatbots is done by agencies or private performers. If you have experience and skills in creating and implementing chatbots, you can take orders on your own, if not – create your own agency and work as an intermediary between the customer and the developer.
Agency for work with marketplaces
Such agencies help entrepreneurs to promote their goods on marketplaces. Each online trading platform has its own peculiarities and rules, which can be difficult and energy-consuming to understand without outside help. The agency to work with marketplaces can order an audit of competitive products, registration on the site, design product cards, support and control of sales, promotion and customization of advertising, analysis of work done and other management. It should be taken into account that there are already quite a lot of independent managers of marketplaces, so the competition in the market is not small.
Online bookstore
Bookstores still bring a stable income, the main thing is to be able to adapt to the needs of the audience. On the Internet, you can launch both the sale of printed fiction books and digital books. It is worth paying attention to Asian literature: fans of manga are found not only among teenagers, adults are also fond of Japanese comics. By the way, the Japanese genre of ranobe – light novels with plenty of illustrations – is gaining momentum now. Find the entire series of such books in classic bookstores is almost impossible, they come out periodically, by volume, and quite often. Online to organize the regularity of release is much easier.
And also always relevant textbooks, methodical manuals and didactic materials for schoolchildren.
News public
The idea of launching a city news portal would be suitable for small towns, where events rarely make it onto the pages of major publications. Although, of course, you could also try your hand at a metropolis.
At first you can work as a city publika in social networks, and short notes are quite realistic to create independently. Earn such groups on advertising. If the business turns out to be successful, you can transfer it to the status of official media – but for this you need to obtain the appropriate license.
SMM agency
Nowadays, even the smallest business has social media accounts. Over time, it becomes obvious to the owners that it is inefficient to manage all the pages themselves, and they resort to the help of SMM specialists. Their task is to generate content, attract new subscribers, respond to comments and promote the client’s page in all ways. If you take on the realization of an idea, you will have to compete with both agencies and private specialists.
Creation of logos
A business idea for creative people and designers. Logo design has become especially in demand amid the popularity of Telegram channels and video blogs – everyone needs a recognizable picture. Large media agencies are not always affordable for aspiring bloggers, so you can start with this niche. By the way, there are logo design sites. You can use them in your work, supplementing and editing the options offered by the program.
setting up targeting advertising
Almost every adult smartphone owner spends time on social networks, some for just a few minutes a day, and some for hours. The task of a targeting specialist is to make sure that the user sees personalized ads tailored to their interests and requests, and to avoid wasting the advertising budget on clients outside the target audience. As in the case of seo-optimization, here you need knowledge and skills for each social network. Customization can be done privately, or you can set up an agency.
Online training
The pandemic promoted the development of online fitness. Many of those who continued training in quarantine, after the restrictions were lifted, did not return to fitness clubs, but fell in love with home workouts. There are millions of home workout recordings online, but not many services with real-time, personalized online workouts. The idea is not as easy to execute as it may seem at first glance. It will be necessary to find trainers who can work in the format of home workouts without special equipment, as well as to think of a way of communication between the trainer and the client.
Mobile application development
The number of mobile applications in the world is constantly growing. Initially, they were mostly games, but now useful applications and business applications are in demand. The idea is suitable for those who understand IT or can assemble a team of specialists. Finding the first clients for a portfolio is quite realistic on freelance exchanges. Digital marketing
Testing of IT products
Bugs in software can ruin the whole campaign, so developers of games, mobile apps, websites and programs hire testers to test the product before launch. The task of a test engineer, they are also called QA engineers, is to find bugs and show them to the creators. Manual and automated methods are used for this purpose. You can work on small projects without special education and knowledge of programming languages. For more serious tasks, you will have to learn to understand the code.
Conclusion
Before choosing an online business, you need to assess your abilities and analyze the market.
You have to decide on the initial capital: How much money you can invest in the business, whether you’re ready to take out a loan or find an investor.
Don’t forget the other resources: Time, knowledge and power. Answer this question for yourself: How much time are you willing to devote to the business? In the beginning, you may have to combine your own business with hired labor. Evaluate your preparations, as some business ideas require special knowledge and skills.