Build Ecommerce Business Up to $500 Million In Revenues?

So I was doing some thinking, and was pondering if it's possible still now to build an ecommerce business up to $500 million in revenues; I was thinking one could have a business that is made up of a bunch of smaller online stores that each focus on a niche; I was thinking if one could build about one hundred stores, each making up to five million in revenues, done over time, that this would be achievable, but maybe there are problems with this model, was wondering what people thought...?

CSN stores will be doing it and they've carved out quite a niche.

InternetRetailer.com - One Size Fits All

Carving out a niche and marketing it as pieces of a whole is a concept that I recently came across with another travel site. The salesman said that they had over 200 domain names all with the words go2(somewhere).com. I didn't understand how having that domains would help with branding, as it only serves to fragment an already fragmented industry, but after reading this article, my guess is that they are going for relevance on google over branding just one site. Interesting marketing plan. I don't know how well it will work for them as their domains use highly fought after keywords like Vegas, skiing, etc. I would think to get top billing on google, they'd need to go after less sought after keywords or an even smaller niche. This is definitely something that I'll keep my eye on.

That's very interesting concept. Now, when you search Google for just one little thing, you can find so many sites out there.

There people out there build Niche site for eBay, Shopit.com, Zlio.com, etc.

It's crazy!

Ahh goody, competitors

You seem to be more focused on making 500 million that doing what you love or having a passion for your business succeed. But alas I will not be a downer here, you will figure this out once you actually start something up.

Go read my post in the "Goals/Fastlane Plan" forum, where I specifically address how this is not just about the money. The $500 million is just a goal. I am passionate very much about the business idea.

possible, but real hard work

Wow, CSN hit the nail on the head. If I was born about 5-7 years earlier I would already have dominated startups like this on the internet. I've seen a few companies that have used this approach to eCommerce, CSN is one of the bigger ones for sure though.

Good for them.

-Alex

I think it's quite possible. As you know, you can do this two ways:

1) The low price way (offering services chaper than others)
2) The high cost way (premium pricing. More value than others, but not cheaper than the competition).

Going route number 1 is a hell of a job. You need a lot of customer turn-over to make the $500 million mark. Going route number 2 is perhaps not very much easier, but you don't need a lot of customers to reach the same level of revenue. Depends on what makes you tick I guess. I would take route number 2 any day. I don't want to help everyone, only those who see the value I give.

I mean, you work with odds anyway you look at it. Why not make a lot of cash for every customer you bring in, than less money?

Start a service for people who can afford paying $10,000 a year for some kind of recurring service and then find 50,000 customer buying the service. Or even better find 5000 customers paying $100,000 a year for some kind of premium service.

Not possible you say? Well, that thought alone would tell you to think harder. As Henry Ford once said (correct me for incorrect quotation): "Thinking is hard work. That is why so few people engage in it".

The thing that I find amazing is it appears CSN drop ships the vast majority of their product (if not all).

I wonder how you would have multiple store fronts all leading to one shopping cart.

I am just wondering why you don't want to focus on just one niche, so you can make $600 Milliona dollars just on that one? A friend of mine already created 100+ niches store on top of eBay, Buy.com and Amazon.com. He thought he can just sit there and counting his money. Obviously, he is not.

Look at Zappos.com. The largest shoe online store on earth. They are hitting $600 million sales this year while econimy is going down. They are eatting all other shoes online store.

When you are big enough on one niche, you can extend that to something else. Just like Amazon.com. They start selling books. Now they sell almost everything.

You take over one niche at a time.

Just my 2 cents.