Start An Eco Friendly Goods
About
Starting an eco-friendly goods requires a great deal of effort, dedication, and most importantly passion.
If you're interested in how to sell eco friendly products, or selling eco friendly products online, you can use this page as a guide for everything you'll need to know.
Want to learn more? You can check out our full guide on how to start an eco-friendly goods ➜
Key stats
Startup Costs
| Min Startup Costs | Max Startup Costs | |
|---|---|---|
| Office Space Expenses | $750 | $7,000 |
| Employee & Freelancer Expenses | $151 | $352 |
| Equipment & Supply Expenses | $566 | $5,700 |
| Website Costs | $303 | $7,215 |
| Business Formation Fees | $5,600 | $20,400 |
| Retail Business Expenses | $1,250 | $11,650 |
| Inventory Expenses | $350 | $14,750 |
| Software Expenses | $162 | $3,094 |
| Advertising & Marketing Costs | $75 | $5,286 |
| Other Expenses | $0 | $800 |
| Total Startup Costs | $9,207 | $76,247 |
Successful Businesses
| Business | URL | Rank | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Made Trade | madetrade.com | #123,569 |
|
VivaTerra | vivaterra.com | #246,127 |
|
Maika | maikagoods.com | #456,683 |
|
Friendsheep | friendsheepwool.com | #1,195,485 |
|
Born-Eco | born-eco.com | #1,403,792 |
|
Emeraldology | emeraldology.com | #1,719,386 |
|
Simple Good | simplegoodgifts.com | #1,820,861 |
|
Household Wonders | householdwonders.com | #2,303,281 |
|
Eco-Friendly Flooring | ecofriendlyflooring.com | #2,395,119 |
|
Food Biz Supply | foodbizsupply.com | #2,828,686 |
|
Plastic Corrugated Sheet & Box Manufacturer And Wholesaler | coolsealusa.com | #2,883,659 |
Pros & Cons
| Pros | Description |
|---|---|
| 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. |
| Meaningful business connections | You never know who you will meet as a eco-friendly goods. This could be the start of an incredible business opportunity! |
| 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. |
| Easy to encourage "impulse buy" | In the eco-friendly goods, you have a much higher chance of encouraging your customers to buy on impulse - you can easily alter the price, placement, packaging, and promotional value to influence the decision of your buyer. |
| Gain exposure and experience | This career allows you to gain experience working for multiple different businesses - which will benefit your resume and also keep things interesting for you! |
| Unlimited income potential | With starting an eco-friendly goods there is no cap as to how much income you can make. The stronger your business skills and the more energy/time you put into your career, the more you'll make. |
| Cons | Description |
|---|---|
| Motivation of employees | If you plan to have a sales/content team on board, finding creative ways to motivate them can be a challenge. It's important that you're able to offer great incentives and a good work environment for your employees. |
| Low margins | The gross margins for your eco-friendly goods are typically around 27%, which can make it more challenging to incur new expenses and maintain profitability. |
| High employee turnover | In the eco-friendly goods, employee turnover is often high, which can be quite costly and time consuming for your business. It's important to try and avoid this as much as possible by offering competitive pay, benefits, and a positive work environment. |
| High overhead expenses | With starting an eco-friendly goods, there are overhead expenses that come with selling a physical product. You will want to make sure you strategically budget for these overhead costs. We discuss this more in the startup costs section below. |
| 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](https://www.thebalancesmb.com/do-i-need-to-collect-sales-taxes-in-my-state-398913) |
| Churn | In this business, customers can cancel their membership or subscription for your services - which can make revenue forecasting challenging and unpredictable. It's important to focus on your churn rates and trends so that you can prevent this as much as possible. |
Marketing Ideas
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1
Word of mouth
Word of mouth is when a consumers reflects their interest in a company’s product or service in their daily dialogues.
Therefore, word of mouth advertising is essentially a free advertising triggered by the customers experience.
According to Nielsen, 92% of people trust recommendations from friends and family.
Therefore, in today’s hyper-connected world, a single recommendation through a word of mouth can have a huge impact to your business.
-
2
Social Media Advertising
Social media advertising is the use of social media platforms to connect with your audience with the objective to build your brand, increase sales, and drive website traffic.
According to Oberlo, approximately 48% of the global population use social media, and the number is ever-growing.
Therefore, social media allows brands access to cost-effective advertising by enabling them to interact with a large audience.
-
3
Pay Per Click Advertising
Pay-per-click (PPC) is a performance-based marketing method that allows you to show specific ads for services or products oriented to a very defined target, with the goal that the user visits your website or landing page.
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