Online Store Products, Services And Tools I Recommend

Since I commonly get asked what services I use for my online store, I thought it would be useful to create a resource page that details every product, tool and service I recommend. If you are thinking about starting an online store in the near future, you should bookmark this page for your reference and convenience. Enjoy!

Web Hosting

bluehost
Blue Host – Blue Host is the shared host that my wife and I used for 2 years to run our online store before we switched over to dedicated hosting. BlueHost is inexpensive and offers a wide array of free services.

Note: MyWifeQuitHerJob.com readers are eligible to receive 29% off of Bluehost by clicking on this link (This link will earn me a commission if you sign up)

storm on demand
Storm On Demand – Storm On Demand is the dedicated webhost that I use now for every website I own including my blog and online store. Service and uptime are top notch and I haven’t had any problems yet. If you are looking for VPS or dedicated hosting, Storm On Demand is awesome.

wp engine
WP Engine – If you have a slow WordPress blog and you really don’t want to deal with any of the technical aspects of speeding up a website, then you should probably sign up for a service like WP Engine. These guys specialize in WordPress hosting and will make sure your blog runs as fast as possible. But naturally, this comes at a price.

Keyword Research Tools

ahrefs
Ahrefs – Ahrefs is my favorite keyword research tool and is pretty much the industry standard for SEO tools. It’s pricey but essential if you want to rank in search.

Amazon Tools

Jungle Scout
JungleScout – The Amazon research tool with the biggest bang for the buck. You can instantly find out how much money a product is making on Amazon, which suppliers are being used and track the rankings of any listing on Amazon at one low price.

Jungle ScoutUse this link and get 30% off the tool

Helium10
Helium10 – The all in one Amazon tool that does it all. Helium10 is one of the leaders in the Amazon space and is a direct competitor to Jungle Scout. You can read my comparison of Helium10 Vs Jungle Scout here, but you can’t go wrong with either tool.

Helium 10Use this link and get 20% off the tool

Data Dive
Data Dive – The best in depth Amazon product analysis tool available for thoroughly evaluating possible products to sell. You can instantly evaluate the strength of the competition in any niche to assess the risk factors involved in launching a similar product.

Use COUPON CODE: MYWIFEQUIT to get a 33% discount for life

Feedback Genius
Feedback Genius – The best way to solicit legitimate product reviews on Amazon. What’s nice about Feedback Genius is that you can setup automated email sequences to your Amazon customers and generate reviews on autopilot. Highly recommended!

Getida
Getida – Amazon is constantly losing your inventory and charging you extra fees without you knowing it. Getida will file for inventory reimbursements for you and you only pay for what gets refunded.

This service is a no brainer and by signing up with the link above, you’ll receive $400 free in reimbursements.

Shopping Carts


WooCommerce – WooCommerce is one of the most popular open source shopping carts in the world. And because it’s so popular, it has massive 3rd party developer support and it’s extremely robust and easy to use. It is my preferred open source shopping cart.

Watch this video to learn how to install WooCommerce in 5 minutes for less than $3

Shopify
Shopify – If you do not know a lick of HTML or CSS, and you want to design a good looking website without a designer, then Shopify is probably the shopping cart for you. While you’ll have to pay higher fees than some of the other shopping carts, Shopify’s templates and design tools are much better than the rest.


Big Commerce – Like Shopify, BigCommerce also offers a great fully hosted shopping cart solution for a fixed monthly fee. What’s great about BigCommerce is that it’s a fully featured shopping cart out of the box and you won’t have to purchase many additional plugins.

Shift4Shop
Shift4Shop – Shift4Shop is quickly becoming my #1 choice for fully hosted ecommerce platforms because it’s 100% free for US businesses. Not only that, but it’s way more powerful than Shopify out of the box and they offer free email marketing on all of their plans. Highly recommended! Read my review on Shift4Shop Vs Shopify

Email Marketing

Klaviyo
Klaviyo – My #1 recommended email marketing provider for ecommerce stores. I use these guys for my online store and email makes up 30% of my revenues.

Drip
Drip – Drip is the email marketing provider that I use for MyWifeQuitHerJob.com. They are by far the most feature rich email marketing provider for bloggers and they are very reasonably priced for the functionality you get.

ConvertKit
ConvertKit – While ConvertKit isn’t as powerful as Drip, I like CK because it provides you with the best bang for the buck if you run a blog. I would say that it has about 75% of the features of Drip at nearly half the price. If you run a blog and are on a budget, try ConvertKit

Privy
Privy – Privy is the tool that I personally use to manage all of my email capture forums. They offer email capture, exit intent and site targeting tools to make it super simple as well. And it’s the only popup tool designed for ecommerce stores. This tool is free to use making it a no brainer to sign up!

SMS And Facebook Messenger Marketing

Postscript
Postscript.io – My #1 recommended SMS marketing provider for ecommerce stores. I use Postscript for my ecommerce store and it is by far the best solution for the buck and you only pay for the texts that you send.

ManyChat
ManyChat – My #1 recommended Facebook Messenger marketing provider for ecommerce stores and blogging. I use ManyChat for both my ecommerce store and my blog and it is easily the best Facebook Messenger marketing platform out there. Highly recommended!

Small Business Banking

Highbeam
Highbeam – The bank that I use for my online business. The main advantage of Highbeam is that your money generates interest and is FDIC insured for up to $2.5M. You also get free wires, small business loans, everything that a regular bank would give you and more! Highly recommended over BOFA, Wells Fargo and Chase.

Logo And Packaging Design

Outlinematic
Outlinematic – Outlinematic is my go to place for logo design and box/packaging design for my physical products. What I like about them is that they’ll do unlimited revisions of your design until you are satisfied at one flat rate. Highly recommended! Use coupon code: Steve for 10% off

User Testing & Customer Support

PickFu
PickFu – I use this service whenever I need to quickly get feedback on a product listing or website design. Within 15 minutes, you can have real people within your targeted demographic answer a poll or fill out a survey about your product or service. It’s totally worth using before you launch anything!

Click Here To Get 50% Off Your First Poll At PickFu

Gorgias
Gorgias – I use this service to handle all of my customer service needs all in 1 place! In other words, all of my email, my social channels, my Messenger messages and my text messages are all managed from 1 central location. This service is a must have for all ecommerce businesses!

Click Here To Sign Up For Free

Domain Registrar and SSL Certs

NameCheap
Name Cheap – I just started using these guys recently for SSL certificates because they are so inexpensive compared to GoDaddy. As their name implies, everything they offer is at a great price!

godaddy
Go Daddy – While I don’t recommend their hosting service for an online store, GoDaddy offers an excellent and easy to use interface with which to manage your domain names. GoDaddy is the service I use for all of my domain management.

Incorporation, DBA, Business Paperwork

CorpNet
CorpNet – I really like CorpNet because they focus their efforts on helping small businesses like mine. In addition, they run their company like a small mom and pop shop(which I love) and you can often find Nellie, the founder and CEO, handling customer support issues. The personalized service that you get with CorpNet makes it highly recommended! Use coupon code: MWQHJ to get 10% off!

legal zoom
LegalZoom – For everything from registering your DBA or filing for an LLC or corporation, LegalZoom is awesome because they get the job done at a fraction of the price. Highly Recommended.

Product Sourcing

Qima
Qima (formerly AsiaInspection.com) – The service I use to inspect all of my shipments in China before they are sent to my warehouse and Amazon.

Real Landed Cost Of Goods Import Calculator
Real Landed Cost Of Goods Import Calculator – A calculator that I created to help you calculate your true landed cost of goods when importing from overseas. Don’t make the common mistake of misjudging the cost of shipping and transportation.

Worldwide Brands
Worldwide Brands – An incredible service that helps you locate and contact wholesale vendors for products that you want to sell. The best part is that there’s only one upfront fee that you have to pay and then you can use the service for life. If you don’t like going to tradeshows or cold calling wholesalers, then Worldwide Brands is the way to go because they will save you time.

Global Sources
Global Sources – If you want to import your goods from Asia, then Global Sources is a good place to start. Going through the massive lists of suppliers can be intimidating on this site, but it’s a good place to learn about various trade shows and get in touch with potential vendors.

Canton Fair
Canton Fair – This is the trade show that my wife and I try and make every year. It is enormous and a good way to meet vendors face to face if you don’t mind traveling to China.

Credit Cart Payment Processors

Braintree
Braintree – In 2023, my wife and I switched to Braintree and now have sub 2% credit card processing rates. Plus, you can negotiate discounts with Paypal as well.

Communication, Internet Telephony

Google Voice
Google Voice – It’s free and it’s versatile. Google voice allows you to forward a call from one number to any phone line that you want. My wife and I use Google voice all the time and this service is completely free.

grasshopper
Grasshopper – Grasshopper is an excellent service that is like Google Voice on steroids. With Grasshopper, you can get a 1800 number with which you can send/receive calls or faxes at any time. In addition, you can create an auto-receptionist and a custom greeting that lets callers wait for an available employee. And like Google Voice, you can forward a call to any phone line of your choice or make calls from any phone using your office phone number. This service is awesome especially if you are short staffed in your customer support department.

Shipping Carriers

ShippingEasy
ShippingEasy.com – ShippingEasy.com allows you to easily streamline all of the shipping for your online store. Easily print labels and automatically update your shopping cart with this awesome tool that seamlessly integrates with the United States Postal Service, UPS and FedEx. Best of all, it’s 100% free for up to 50 shipments per month!

USPS
United States Postal Service – Since they are the cheapest shipping carrier and most of our items are lightweight, we use USPS for the majority of our orders. They aren’t the most reliable but are by far the cheapest if your package weighs less than 2 lbs.

fedex
FedEx – If the package exceeds 2 lbs, FedEx is our carrier of choice. As soon as you open an account, you get 15% off shipping which makes it cheaper than UPS out of the box. If you ship high volumes, then you can negotiate for better pricing.

dhl
DHL – We use DHL for all international shipments because they handle customs and everything for you. All you have to do is sit back, relax and pay the customs bill.

Bookkeeping and Finances


Quickbooks – Quickbooks has become the defacto standard for small business bookkeeping. It’s inexpensive and it’s easy to use once you get the hang of it.

Turbo Tax – I’ve already shown that Turbo Tax can perform as well or better than an accountant in my article on the Outcome Of Hiring An Accountant To Do Our Taxes Vs Using Turbo Tax Or Tax Cut. Seriously, TurboTax is awesome even if you run a business and will help you maximize your tax return.

Intuit Online Payroll – Intuit Online Payroll is an excellent payroll service that is priced really well. If you have employees, then it makes sense to outsource the payroll paperwork to someone else. Since Intuit Online Payroll is so inexpensive, it’s a no brainer.

Handling Shipping and Returns – Where To Get A Physical Address

upsstore.com
UPS Store – The UPS store is awesome because you can sign up for a mailbox that has a real physical address. If you don’t want to use your own address (if you run your business out of your home) or if you just want to use a separate address, then opening a UPS store mailbox is ideal. Best of all, they will email you whenever you have mail.

USPS
USPS PO Box – A PO Box is a poor mans UPS Store mailbox. However, they are also about 10X cheaper than UPS. The disadvantage is that everyone knows that a PO Box is not a real physical address. In addition, PO Boxes can only receive mail from USPS. FedEx and UPS do not deliver to PO Boxes.

Packing Supplies

uline
ULine – ULine is awesome! We get most if not all of our packing supplies from here and they are all reasonably priced.

Marketing Tools

Camtasia
Camtasia – Camtasia allows you to quickly create videos in which you display slides or whatever is on your computer screen while you narrate in the background. If you want to create screencast videos for your website, then Camtasia is an excellent and well priced tool to get the job done.

Website Maintenance And Backups

Site Uptime
Site Uptime – I use Site Uptime to monitor the downtime for all of our websites. Basically, Site Uptime pings your websites at specified intervals and then sends you an email if your site is down. For all mission critical websites, I highly recommend this service.

Please note that some of the links above are affiliate links to products that will earn me a commission. These are all things that I have experience with that I am recommending because they are helpful and are companies that I trust, not because of the commissions that I may earn from you using these products.

Ready To Get Serious About Starting An Online Business?


If you are really considering starting your own online business, then you have to check out my free mini course on How To Create A Niche Online Store In 5 Easy Steps.

In this 6 day mini course, I reveal the steps that my wife and I took to earn 100 thousand dollars in the span of just a year. Best of all, it's free and you'll receive weekly ecommerce tips and strategies!

Note: This post above may contain affiliate links, which means that I may receive a commission if you make a purchase when clicking a link. Please consult our privacy policy for more information.

Related Posts In Ecommerce Seller Tools

About Steve Chou

Steve Chou is a highly recognized influencer in the ecommerce space and has taught thousands of students how to effectively sell physical products online over at ProfitableOnlineStore.com

His blog, MyWifeQuitHerJob.com, has been featured in Forbes, Inc, The New York Times,  Entrepreneur and MSNBC.  

He's also a contributing author for BigCommerce, Klaviyo, ManyChat, Printful, Privy, CXL, Ecommerce Fuel, GlockApps, Privy, Social Media Examiner, Web Designer Depot, Sumo and other leading business publications.

In addition, he runs a popular ecommerce podcast, My Wife Quit Her Job, which is a top 25 marketing show on all of Apple Podcasts

To stay up to date with all of the latest ecommerce trends, Steve runs a 7 figure ecommerce store, BumblebeeLinens.com, with his wife and puts on an annual ecommerce conference called The Sellers Summit.  

Steve carries both a bachelors and a masters degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University. Despite majoring in electrical engineering, he spent a good portion of his graduate education studying entrepreneurship and the mechanics of running small businesses. 

95 thoughts on “Online Store Products, Services And Tools I Recommend”

  1. Pingback: Tweets that mention Online Store Products, Services And Tools I Recommend | MyWifeQuitHerJob.com -- Topsy.com
  2. Rob says:

    Great list Steve, it’s good to get into the mind of an online store entrepreneur. I suggest checking out Grasshopper and kall8 for great phone services as well if you need to appear to have a phone tree with several destinations. I haven’t found need of that yet. I still lean toward Mailchimp too, but I know aWeber is really popular. ReadyNAS is heavy duty for a personal computer or two, are you running servers at home? If you wished you could really figure out more on one of these tools what do you think it would be? Great stuff!

    1. Steve says:

      @Rob
      There so much competition these days that it’s hard to do a thorough review of every service. It’s best to go with what works for you and what you have experience with. I was a ready NAS duo at home rather than a regular PC running RAID because its easier to maintain than a server. Ready NAS also offers boxes with 5 slots so you can run RAID 5. Evaluating more of these tools is not a question of time as opposed to a question of need. Decide the minimum requirements for your business and pay as little as possible.

  3. Nick says:

    Steve, nice blog post! I would love to discuss an affiliate partnership with you. I represent Volusion’s affiliate program. Email me to discuss this. We’ll make it really interesting for you (private commission offer).

  4. Nico says:

    Hi, I’d like to get into the online store, business advertising, and e-commerce business.
    How do I go about doing just that, safely ?
    I live in South Africa, and business opportunities here are rare if you do not have thousands in startup capitol.
    I am a 3D game designer, and also a free-lance salesman currently busy with a 3D car racing game which I’d like to use for business advertising.

    But at this current moment I am employed at a motor vehicle dealership as a parts manager(very demotivated – and depressed doing business for someone else instead of for myself), but has been dreaming of my own thing since childhood. Also had a few small businesses, which offcoarse failed due to unstable partnerships, finances and mistakes made.

    Advise please !

  5. Pingback: Steve Chou’s Wife Quit Her Job – Podcast Interview #3
  6. Dennis Simmons says:

    Steve Chou,
    You have given so very much from your own experiences to others in creating this site. I, for one, have searched on line for many many months for a resource like you offer here. I have downloaded or read perhaps 10 different eBooks and gone through maybe 100 different sites about ‘On Line Marketing’, ‘Affiliate Marketing’, and ‘On Line Stores’ in my endeavour to find answers to some very ellusive questions. Mostly I am just like the many others interested in your site, I crave information which is accurate, complete, and current. What sincerly impressed me the MOST about your site is that you appear to be an HONEST man, from all that I see which you have shown. I commend you for this character trait, which is rapidly vanishing, and for being generous enough to share a great deal of valuable information with people like myself without seeking personal gain.
    Thank you,
    Dennis Simmons

    1. Terry says:

      I agree, thanks a mill Steve

  7. Michelle says:

    Hello,

    Do you know anything about SiteBuildit.com(SBI)? You would set up your name and create your website through them. They seem to be a bit more expensive but it seems they have great tutorials and help for setting up your site.

    Thank you.

  8. Pei Yin says:

    The sharing is marvelous! You have revealed the must-have softwares, applications, tools and elements in order to have a successful online business! Would like to know if you purchased the licensed Adobe Photoshop? It is quite expensive, right?

    1. Lisa says:

      Photoshop is WILDLY expensive [I’d been a graphic designer for almost 20 years so this is something I know a little about, and not something I’d expect Steve to know — he can school me in electrical engineering 😉 ]. While Photoshop IS the standard, there is also Corel PaintShopPro — vastly cheaper [$49.99 at Corel.com] which only professional designers could tell the difference… and only when it comes to print color matching. For online work, it will do everything you need and more.

      I promise I don’t work for them, have nothing to gain for the recommendation, but have used their software [and Adobe Photoshop as well] since 1992 and feel very confident endorsing their product.

  9. Patricia Smith says:

    I am trying to find a product or products that I can sale in my business. Stores on line will set up my first store front. I am Looking for someone I can trust. I am about making money. I have clientele, that not the problem. The problem is when
    I visit some of the websites, they are asking for money. The problem I have is I going to sale their product in my store. They are talking about membership before I sale the product. I know it is a business and a services at the sometime. I don’t need no fraud in my life. Worldwide brands are excellent. I don’t want put my ideas out until everyone see my store front. My license #3971550 on Stores on line.

    Thank you for your help

  10. Vincent says:

    Hi Steve,

    I followed your advice and purchased a template from Algozone. I have to admit that their templates are very nice and professionally designed. However, there are 2 problems with them:

    1. It is very expensive. A decent template would cost somewhere $150 – $300. Not a biggie for those who want to really invest into their business. However…

    2. Their customer/technical support service is very horrible. The template I bought is around $200 and I was expecting some sort of excellent support. After I found out a tons of bugs with the purchased template, I contacted them for help but was either being ignored or they replied to me with some B.S. (most of the time less than 2 short sentences) and closed the support ticket right away without me indicating that the issue was resolved. So I ended up fixing all of the bugs myself, which is such a nightmare because their template is nothing like the original zen cart template (they use a lot of their own scripts and functions that could not be easily located). Nobody on the zen cart community forum was able to help me as well. Some of the bugs are very critical such as the website only display html codes but not regular text. Other bug had to do with checkout and credit card information. These will drive your customers away in the first instant, especially if your store is newly created.

    Just to let you and others know so you would think twice about buying their products. I bought some other ugly templates from different website and don’t experience such thing.

    1. Steve says:

      Hi Vincent,
      Your comment is well timed. I’m in the midst of writing an article about why I no longer recommend Algozone for the blog. Now I’ve used and recommended many people to Algozone in the past and things have gone well. However, I had a recent run in with them which I’ll describe in more detail in my post. Thanks for sharing your experience with me.

  11. Chris L. says:

    Hi first off I want to say thank you for the wealth of info you provide on your site! Its awesome! I had a question, Since the dollar is weak do you still import from China? Or would it be cheaper for you to buy domestic with your fabrics or other products? Thank you!

    Regards,
    Chris L.

    1. Steve says:

      Hey Chris
      Let’s just say that the dollar has to get substantially weaker for it not to be worth it to import from overseas. Prices are rising however.

  12. ps3lightsfix download says:

    This is a brilliant list Steve. I owned an online store a few years ago and used some of the these services. I still use PMI for mail forwarding and incorporated with Bizfilings.

    Good resources here thanks.

  13. Salt Lamps Now says:

    wow lots of information here thank you !!!!

  14. Celeste says:

    Over the past couple months I have enjoyed your blog so much. Thank you.

    I have a question for you. I just found out that that quickbooks for macs, or even quick books online (a possible mac option) do not integrate with big commerce nor Volusions . So with my mac there will be no seamlessly back and forth flow reducing manual entry and errors between quickbooks and my online store.

    As it has been explained my three options are:

    1) Use right networks to host quickbooks pro or premier in a cloud. Access anywhere, nightly back-ups that last 90 days, (Keep using my mac)

    2) Buy a PC and then get quick books ( Hmmmm, I am finding lots of software packages are not mac optimized). But a very unexpected cost.

    3) keep my mac and do quick books on line or for mac but no integration.

    I don’t have a clue about accounting, never used quickbooks. So maybe seamless integration would improve my organization from the start?? I haven’t sold a thing yet, are choices 1 and 2 a waste of money until I have clientele and flow?

    Also what is the cost of seamless integration as far as data, customer information security is concerned?

    All thoughts would be appreciated.

    Thanks so much!

    1. Steve says:

      Hi Celeste,
      Despite what you read online, there is no solution that is 100% seamless. There will always be some special cases and such that you’ll need to handle manually. I wouldn’t let this accounting issue stop you from launching your store but I would definitely have a long term plan in place. If you think things are going to be slow during your first year, then you can probably get by with a spreadsheet. And perhaps if you start making some money, you’ll have more leeway to purchase a PC, quickbooks in the cloud or whatever service you deem necessary.

  15. anny says:

    Hi Steve,

    thanks for putting all this together. It is so helpful. By the way, what about website design? once you have domain name and SSL certificates, how do you design your website and to upload your product?

    Thanks

    1. Steve says:

      Hi Anny
      Have you signed up for my newsletter and 6 day mini course yet? I cover your questions in the tutorial

      1. anny says:

        Yes, I did sign up already.
        Thank for putting it together

  16. Mary says:

    Hello, I was wondering what you mean with the free stores. I use miiduu and bought a package they offer. I do use my own url but I dont get to host my website my self. Thanks.

    1. remone says:

      Does anyone here use doba.com

  17. kevin says:

    I contacted big commerce and got this about hosting. I am not sure what you mean in your post about it being self hosted.

    Hello Kevin,

    We host the software on our server. We provide a total eCommerce solution and have a ton of features to help drive traffic.

  18. Anthony larson says:

    China keeps their currency artificially low on purpose to infiltrate markets worldwide with their manufactured goods.

  19. abedin says:

    NI HAO PHANGYO ,
    i will be launching my online store in India within 2 week i find your website very useful thanks ,i will like to meet you may be in my next visit to china .

  20. Dave says:

    Hi Steve, My Name is Dave Webb I sent you another one of these messages last night but for I different question..I was just online looking at some China wholesale products just out of curiousity and I saw some things like Laptops, tablet PC and a few other electronic accessories. What do you think about those type of products that I just mentioned prior, I ask cause I noticed the names on those products are not what people from the U.S.A. are a customed to and also I was just wondering is there a some products that you would recommened staying away from? and if so Why?
    Thanks again,
    Dave

  21. Terry says:

    Hi there Steve
    My wife is in the midst of quitting her job and with 3 kids to feed I’m looking for that extra income. I’ve always wondered how to open an online store and always thought it would cost way too much to even ponder on the idea. When I came across your blog it was like hitting the lottery, literally. You basically covered all angles to the extreme and the magic word “no technical knowledge required”. I’m looking to start an online business with as little $$$ as possible. Topics like shopping cart, credit card, web hosting, web design, worldwide brands was mentioned in your videos, and basically everything you need was covered. Needless to say all the hard work has been done by your good self and sharing your experience and knowledge is without doubt very honorable and a time saver for many of us.
    I have a question:
    Having setup your online business, correct me if I’m wrong. Buyer buys say item X, I received order and place it with dropshipping company A who send item X to buyer.
    Q: Is there a way to get dropshipping company A to auto send item X to buyer without me having to inform them. I ask this question because say I go on a holiday with the family and I have no access to internet but I don’t want the business to be at a standstill with my absent

    1. Terry says:

      sorry, another question.
      the shopping cart, can i provide different type of currency depending on location?
      for example. bluehost has my webpage, naturally, i’m assuming here, that it will auto to US$ and yet a i hv a buyer in Singapore and when he view my store i wld like the system to auto detect his location n give him the equivalent in Singapore dollars instead of US$ – cheers

      1. Trisha M. says:

        There are plugins that do exactly what you’re talking about.

    2. Trisha M. says:

      I am a student of Steve’s, and there are many plugins that do just that. They seamlessly integrate. There are competitive plugins for just about anything. I set up my store at BigCommerce. I’ve come across enough plugins that I am able to automate customization of products, printing of printable products, packaging, and shipping, all without being involved at all. E-commerce is huge, and offering a plug-in for any need is pretty much available. It just depends on how much you want to do yourself. You can do most things, and add more automation to your business as your business scales.

  22. Nicole says:

    Hi Steve,
    I’m curious as to how you handle the shipping. As my store grows (yay!) and more orders come in, I’m finding the packaging/shipping aspect very time consuming. Do you have certain days that you package and ship, or is it an everyday thing? Thanks!

    1. Steve says:

      Packing is definitely an everyday thing. We have people who pack orders for us.

  23. Eric says:

    Hey Steve,

    I couldn’t find your contact button. Feel free to delete this if you find it too self-promotional.

    We here at http://www.klinkle.com have a product that may help many of your readers get started. We’d love for more high profile people like yourself to suggest the product. Reach out to us if there’s anything we can do to help make your list!

    Best,

    Eric

  24. Tim says:

    Hello Steve,
    I have really enjoyed your information. Thanks. Planning to do the full course in the near future when I finish my current project.
    My next project is for a multi-vendor site in the marine industry, in which I work.
    Can you recommend shopping cart software which supports multiple vendors?
    Regards,
    Tim

  25. nicole says:

    Hi I was just wondering what the link is to your wife’s site?

    Thanks:)

    Nicole

  26. James says:

    Nice list, Steve. This is very informative, thanks for the good info.

  27. Raluka says:

    Super helpfull article and listing of options. Thanks a lot Steve.
    I have just installed the openCart and they changed a bit how you get to the OpenCart.
    I also could not install by myself, simply because there was an issue ( the process of installing keept on freezing…) so the people hrom BlueHost were really really helpl, even if took them several attempts to do it.
    I hope it was just a glitch. Otherwise I have the cart installed in 20 minutes ( with all the issues)

    THANKS!!

  28. Joe says:

    Is it fair for you to say on your home page “The products and services that I use for my online store every single day. Highly recommended!” when I don’t believe you use either opencart or BigCommerce? Sounds like affiliate advertising instead… I didn’t think you used either of these for your online store but open source instead.

    Great site – always enjoy your newsletter.

    1. Steve C says:

      Hey Joe. That’s a fair question.

      I run a class of over 500 students and I work with them on these shopping carts every day. So while I don’t use them for myself, I do in fact “use” them all the time. Hope that clears things up.

      1. Joe says:

        Thanks for the clarification. I know you’re always looking for good articles to write…

        How about “A week in the life of Steve Chou”?

        I would be curious how you balance your full time job with this “part time” (haha) endeavour. Do you sleep? 🙂

  29. Janey Laine says:

    Hi Steve, thanks for this informative list. Based on your estimates, approximately how much do you think it would cost to start an online store using one of each company/site per required service? Can you provide a general figure? Thanks in advance.

  30. Erik Matlock says:

    I can’t begin to tell you how helpful you have been, for me. You have been very generous with the advice and free coaching. I also appreciate this list, it answered a few questions.
    There’s one thing I would add or possibly change. I saw that you endorse legalzoom. Even though they do a great job, they are not the best deal by far.
    LegalShield offers those documents for free, with even their basic family membership. By the time you pay for one or two documents, you could have gotten the forms along with hours of actual consultation.
    That same membership also gets your will done and virtually unlimited legal counsel on any subject. It was one of the best deals I ever found. They impressed me so much that I bought into the company.
    Not trying to hijack this post as a spammer. But these guys have saved my hide more times than I can even tell you. They are as valuable, to me, as your site. I couldn’t do what I do without both. It’s worth looking into.
    I have a video clip that shows how it works on my site and here.
    Michaelerikmatlock.legalshieldassociate.com
    Thanks again for all you do.

  31. ljklkj lkjj klj lkjl says:

    sdfsdfsdf

  32. Leslie says:

    Thoughts on webbly?

    1. Trisha M. says:

      I’m a student of Steve’s- I’ve had a website on Weebly and am currently using BicCommerce. Functionality and versatility don’t even compare.They lack so many features and plugins that are critical for some businesses.

  33. Brianna says:

    Hey steve, thanks for giving good information on your blog about starting an online business. when we sign up for your class will you give us a list of profitable niche to start a online store? Recently I signed up for salehoo but it seems like every product I thought of selling was too hard or competitive according to salehoo. I found one company that offers dropshipping but I still have doubt and I haven’t created a website yet.

  34. Emily @ The Work at Home Zone says:

    Awesome list of resources!, thanks for sharing. These will come in very handy for my business!

  35. fhopepack says:

    successful online businesses by doing the following:

    Find a need and fill it.
    Write copy that sells.
    Design and build an easy-to-use website.
    Use search engines to drive traffic to your site.
    Establish an expert reputation for yourself.
    Follow up with your customers and subscribers with e-mail.
    Increase your income through back-end sales and upselling.

  36. Pingback: eCommerce vs. Other Online Models with Steve Chou of MyWifeQuitHerJob.com | TechBleach.com
  37. Faraz says:

    Nice list steve, i love bluehost and mediatemple. You should include mediatemple also.

  38. Shaphan says:

    Don’t forget the best productivity / group collaboration tool ever, Slack!

  39. Pingback: eCommerce vs. Other Online Models with Steve Chou of MyWifeQuitHerJob.com | The eCommerceFuel Blog
  40. Niki says:

    Great list Steve. I prefer Bluehost only for VPS hosting. When it comes to shared hosting I prefer Hostgator. I am also running few domains with Namecheap and I have a really very nice experience with them. But yes I agree with you that Godaddy has a very user-friendly interface.

    Thanks for sharing such a nice list of services and tools with us.

  41. Sarah says:

    Hey – I was about to buy a camera from amazon and I was reminded of a podcast where you discussed someone buying a camera from your affiliates page. Is there an easy link to it? I’d love to support you (even in a small way) because I really enjoy your podcasts. Thanks!

  42. annie says:

    Thank you for sharing your wealth of information, it is very kind of you.

    I live in Hawaii, and have a hard time with using these wholesalers due to shipping and handling. Shipping and handling is almost twice as much as the product. How does one deal with this?

    Thank you for taking the time to read this. =)

  43. Pingback: Opencart On Godaddy
  44. protection tape says:

    I always use google adwords is very helpful in improving my sales, and to this day I still use it. Thank you.

  45. Florence C. Johnson says:

    Hi Steve, nice article, finally I found everything on one place described on way i wanted.
    I am newbie Entrepreneur, so I am going to bookmark this blog so I could return on it when I wonder my self for something, thanks for sharing.

  46. Abdul Khader says:

    Thanks for sharing this,i have used godaddy(not good) and hostgator ,i am thinking of switching to bluehost .

  47. Nic says:

    Hi Steve,

    With World Brand, if you are a person who just wanted to test the market with a particular product, just to see the feedback from it, would you recommend World Brand? since they putting you through to large suppliers who obviously will not sell you anything in small quantity. Am i making sense?

  48. Miss Eye Spy says:

    Hi love your site. I am having an issue with inventory and storing and organizing my new stock for my business. I have just found your site and will look through your articles ect and mini course. This is a big issue for me at the moment and I would love some assistance or direction as to some steps I should be taking ect when working from home to not only barcode but manage the stock I have effectively . Thank you very much

    Kind Regards

    Sonia

  49. Alex S. says:

    Hi Steve,

    I’ve been a fan of your podcast for a couple months now.

    I think the audience you have would benefit from my company’s logo design services (http://littleguylogos.com), and would welcome a link among the tools ad resources on this page. I’ll email you separately, as I have an affiliate program, and I have a feeling that if you do end up adding LGL to this list, you’d prefer to use a link with an affiliate ID 😉

  50. Michelle H. says:

    My husband and I currently sell on Amazon (mostly FBA, but some MF as well). We are looking into building a webstore with Big Commerce and eventually buying your course to make sure we are doing everything we can as efficiently as possible. My question is regarding inventory management. We currently use Inventory lab and have an accountant we hire monthly to do our sales taxes as well as the end of year taxes. We do not have any Quickbooks software or anything like that. Could you recommend another listing and inventory management software besides Inventory Lab (it appears they only do Amazon)? And is there any other software we would need to keep track of our inventory. Thanks for all your invaluable assistance so far with your free material. I really enjoy reading your articles and how knowlegable you are.

  51. Shirene says:

    Hi Steve,

    I wanted to touch base again regarding a potential collaboration with Packlane + My Wife Quite Her Job.

    Packlane is an online shop specializing in beautifully printed custom packaging with minimum orders as low as 10. You can choose a box style, upload a design quickly, preview it in 3D, and receive a quote instantly. Your designs are saved so you can revise them or restock at any time with fast turnarounds on shipping – perfect for a business that needs to be agile.

    We’d be honored to be showcased next to some of the other great resources you have listed on https://mywifequitherjob.com/online-store-products-services-and-tools-i-recommend/.

    We’d also love the opportunity to explain the power of great packaging design and how it can level up your business to your readers + listeners via a guest contribution. We’d be happy to write something specific for your audience – is that something your team would be interested in?

    Have a good evening!

    Cheers,
    Shirene

  52. Glen Amor says:

    Hi Steve it would be good if you can add a video of how to use Long Tail Pro as you suggest to use that now over the Market Samurai tool which you have been touting in your videos.

  53. Atta says:

    Thank you for sharing your recommendation. I like BlueHost but IMHO, SiteGround & InMotioning are better than this.

  54. Beth says:

    Hi Steve,

    Do you recommend any inventory management tools? There are so many on the market; a few are TradeGecko, Stitch Labs, Order Hive, etc… What do you think?

    thanks.

  55. Lewis Bezzina says:

    Hi,

    In regard to using photoshop for editing product photos. If you don’t have the skill or time to use photoshop you can use a site called http://www.removemybackground.com – they will ensure that all your pics meet Amazon requirements at around a dollar per photo. Check them out

  56. Erik says:

    Do you ship your own products? Or pay somebody to do it for you? Where do you store inventory?

  57. Beet Juice says:

    Wow lots of information here thank you !!!!

  58. Davin says:

    This is a complete business tools list. Thanks a lot Steve.

  59. Or Meretz says:

    Hi

    I need to build 2 websites in Bluehost For Amazon Brand Registry

    Do you know someone can help me with that?
    I will pay for the service

    Thank You!
    Or.

  60. Pingback: Online Store Products, Services And Tools I Recommend – Internet Marketing 101
  61. Suncode - IT Support London says:

    Wow, what an amazing list of business tools.

    Thanks for sharing

  62. MD Rasel Khan says:

    This is a awesome idea that you have written on your website. i have got more idea. thanks a lot for this bet idea

  63. Ryan Fletcher says:

    Is there anyone you recommend for Product Photography for Amazon products? I don’t think I’m doing the best job with my smartphone lol.

  64. سینک says:

    it was fully greate article, thanks man for share it

  65. Marija says:

    Thank you for such a wonderful website and sharing such useful information. I am an American living abroad and at +3 timezone so quite anywhere from 7 to 10 hours ahead of US business hours. I would like to start my businesses in the US targeting US customers from here and while traveling.

    You recommend a telephone service i see here. I would prefer for clients to only contact me via email. I will not be able to afford staff to start up or maybe not for a while. Do you think it is in an issue to not have a phone number? Do you have any advice for communicating with customers in my situation?

    Thank you:)

  66. Jaswinder Kaur says:

    Thanks for sharing such a great list of Products/Services, which can help to Start an Online Store.

    Right now I don’t have any plan to start an Online Store, may be in future.

    But, Yes I started another Blog after seeing the Success of my first Blog Ease Bedding Dot Com.

  67. Pingback: Blueprint for ecommerce success
  68. David Braun says:

    Hello Steve,

    You are doing a really good job on your website, I’ve found lots of people starting a new life because of your courses. I would like to offer to your course students exclusive conditions of any e-commerce templates from http://www.templatemonster.com – how can I get in touch with you?

  69. N-Vico says:

    Thanks for sharing this great list of business tools. Will definitely start using them.

    Regards

  70. Selina says:

    This is Selina and I have dropped a note on your personal facebook. Also, my colleague Angel contacted you as well through email. Could you give us some feedback.
    Thanks!
    Selina

  71. sadat sadat says:

    I have an affiliate site
    And let me tell you about how I will use these tools.
    Because I think these tools will be of great help to me

  72. john lee says:

    Thanks for sharing online store list. keep it up! Thanks again

  73. Packaging Boxes says:

    Here are only some that i already knew but I got enough good knowledge by your post. Thanks for sharing.

  74. Sheri says:

    Looking for other alternatives has anyone tried this company? Twinsourcesupply.com they are located in Minnesota but they ship all over the U.S.A and they are way cheaper compared to other packaging suppliers.

  75. Joe says:

    These products and services are best and I’ve just used the two services which are mentioned in this article.

  76. DearMishuDad says:

    Awesome list, @steve! I didn’t see project/task management there (I use Asana and the secretive Todo of Microsoft)

  77. Bryan G says:

    Hey Steve! Love the site and your videos! I’m starting an ATV rental business and I need a good reservation system to add to my site…. Can you recommend a starting point for me?

    Thanks!

  78. Tomoby the Scribbler says:

    Steve, you are a breath of fresh air.

    Wondering if you have any recommendations for banking… Seems like not all banks are best for online business.

    Thank you for your help.

  79. Alex Vibin says:

    Your article and content are amazing. Love your page.Thanks for this amazing content.

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