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Looking for an Online Business Idea? By 2020; These Businesses Will Be Part of Our Every Day's Life The blogger community needs to bring some fresh online business ideas to change this general perspective and to make these posts useful again

By Manish Bhalla

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Bloggers across the world are writing about online money making business ideas for quite some time. Without a doubt, some of the ideas mentioned by them are quite sound. However, over the years, these potential business ideas have been ruthlessly repeated by so many bloggers, and so many people have already acted upon them, that their flare has pretty much faded away today.

Do a quick Google search yourself for "online money making ideas' or "online business ideas' or something along these lines, and I bet that 5 out of 10 related results will have roughly the same ideas, with "become an affiliate' served as the first money making idea in most of them.

It is apparent that blogger community needs to bring some fresh online business ideas to change this general perspective and to make these posts useful again. So, as an initiative in this direction, here I have collected some fresh ideas that you won't normally get to see in those online money making ideas posts.

As the title might already have given you the hint, I am going to talk about business ideas based on emerging ecommerce marketplaces and not those easy-peasy stay-at-home businesses. And my argument for choosing them is that technical advancements in recent years (turnkey solutions, tools for business process automation, etc.) have made it possible for an individual or a small team to manage even a large online business.

Without further delay, let's explore these fresh online business ideas that will be a major part of people's online transactions within next few years.

Online Custom Tailoring Business

People are increasingly becoming conscious of their looks these days and want clothes that perfectly fit them. Recognizing this rising need, apparel stores have already started to offer several new lines of standard size. However, despite these efforts, many people still have a hard time finding clothes that perfectly fit them. And there is no better option for them other than getting their clothes custom tailored.

But the custom tailoring process is so tedious & inconvenient that instead of adopting it, people choose to compromise with ill-fitted clothes. However, online custom clothing platforms like IndoChino, Black Lapel, and others have made the custom clothing service adoptable. These platforms allow people to easily customize their clothes – fabric, patterns, size, fitting & stitching style – and conveniently get the prepared clothes delivered to their doorstep.

As of now, the online custom clothing industry is relatively untapped, and there is a good scope for new players. And it can be said for sure that down the line there is a good scope for them. To open such an online portal, you can use Stitch, a pretty comprehensive custom tailoring platform.

On-Demand Service Marketplace

Your 9-to-5 job, including commuting time, cuts off about 9 hours from your day. For people of some countries, it could be up to 11 hours (see the graph below). Working class also requires at least 7-8 hours of sleep. Add hours spent in checking emails, social profiles, exercise, etc., and there is hardly any time left for every day's household work.

For most working class households, it isn't possible to afford a full-time housekeeper. But many are comfortable with the idea of having someone to help them once in a while with their day-to-day household work such as grocery shopping, baby-sitting, etc. And this is evident in the success of online service marketplaces like TaskRabbit & Thumbtack that provide people that option.

Given the existing huge need of such service marketplace, market penetration of these websites is quite high; however, their reach is limited to mostly America & Europe. This leaves room for new entrants to establish themselves in their target regional market.

Start an Ecommerce Store

Over the past one decade, people across the world have become quite accustomed to buying things online. Today, it may seem that everything is available online, but that's not true. If you regularly follow startup blogs, you will see unique niche marketplaces are being introduced to the market. This clearly tells us that there is still scope for new ecommerce stores.

This thought is further validated by the fact that currently, only 8% of the total retail space is online. For people interested in opening an ecommerce store, the bottom line is - there is an abundance of opportunities in the online retail space and If you have a business idea that caters an existing need or for which need can be created, go ahead and start it.

For opening an ecommerce store, there is no dearth of turnkey solutions. For single store set up, most recommended ones are Shopify, Volusion, & BigCommerce. For multivendor store (the likes of Etsy, eBay, amazon) YoKart and Cscart are the considerable solutions.

Online Professional Search & Appointment Marketplace

How painful it is to stand in a line to get an appointment with your doctor, right? Similarly, if you are seeking an appointment with some other professional, say a lawyer, it isn't easy to make one in timely manner.

To address this problem, today there are online platforms for professional search of different industries. These platforms not only act as online directories of professionals, but also let people know about the quality & reliability of their services, as well as to make appointments with them. These professional search marketplaces have a good future scope because they capitalize on this very habit of people.

You can open a search portal for doctors, real estate agents, lawyers, entertainers, beauticians, immigration agent, and so on. The only thing that you need to pay attention on is the selection of your target market, since many such portals have been established across the world.

Conclusion

I know, in contrast to regular online money making ideas, these business ideas may seem a bit overwhelming to some. But as I have mentioned earlier in this post that with advanced technology solutions & online tools at our disposal, it is possible to start them with a little bit of extra efforts. And with that little bit of difference in the efforts, differences in returns will be huge.

Huge opportunities are out there, but ultimately, choice is yours. You can keep going after small fishes by staying in your comfort zone, or you can catch a big with a little bit of extra efforts.

Manish Bhalla

Founder & CEO of FATbit Technologies

Manish is the founder & CEO of FATbit Technologies, a web agency known for its cutting-edge ecommerce solutions. Manish counsels businesses on technology, online marketing, & helps them build effective strategies as per their specific needs.
 
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