Running a online shop is too late today?

I am not an expert in this. But what I think your friend means is that it is not a "new" thing anymore. There are plenty of people that have online shops, and therefore it's higher competition, so your shop has to be more specific, better and more competitive, than it would have had to be when this thing just started. It is harder to proove that your shop is worth going to, when there is hundreds of thousand of other shop as oppose when there is just a few! I do not think it is very different from starting a shop in real life though. You have to assess the market (with internet you have the whole world as a market, so that makes the scope a bit bigger), have to assess how much money you will have to spend to startup and how much you think you will make. In real life you would have to consider things like rental costs, furniture etc, that you may not have now, but instead you will probably have a larger marketing cost to get your shop visible to the consumers! I think that if this is your interest and you are dedicated enough anyone can make it, but there will be costs and hard work involved, as with anything. If you or someone you know is good at economics you might want to take their help making a budget as to how much money you can put into the business, and see how much you need to sell for you to break-even, to get a profit etc. Most people that start businesses lacks this budgeting, and that is why they can loose so much money. They do not realize that the shop is loosing money on longterm, maybe not even until the end of the year when they have to close the books! With a budget and a close follow up you will always be aware how the shop is doing economically and you can close it down before it is "too late" if you realize that it is not doing well. In a budget you can calculate how many months you can spend before it has to start making a profit etc! Good luck with your business!

Very good advice from Emiese. I have an online shop and it does pretty well. I think it is all about promoting it properly and the need for the item in people's lives. I have another friend that runs her own site and makes hundreds a week. Good luck if you decide to start a shop!

it depends what u want from doing it. if u only aim to earn extra money by the online business, maybe it will not be as easy as what before . But as for inriching your experience, personally, it is still a good choice.

never to late to do some online business,more and more new people will do it anyway so like nike slogan "just do it" is all i can say :) i myself have online shop at http://borneodiva.etsy.com i just started it a couple month ago and got customers from australia and canada (its still little buyer though, but i know this kind of business takes time and patient) I wish you do well and get many success!

You wouldn't know it until you try it. Try to look for free site so that you will not pay for expensive budget.