As most of you have read in a previous blog post, I recently spent a very long time on an Amtrak train ride across the country. When you are stuck on a train for 60 hours, you’ve got a lot of time to kill. I had my laptop and needed something to do to kill the time so I started thinking about what I could do that would be interesting and maybe learn some new skills at the same time. Well, I decided that I’d try to open an ecommerce store. As you know, I love camping, hiking, climbing, backpacking and generally anything outdoors so I thought an outdoor supply store would be right up my alley.

So between all the crazyness Amtrak was throwing our way, I got to work. First, I needed to come up with a name and logo. I came up with three name possibilities where the domain name was available. I asked Nick for his opinion and he chose Ecotone Outdoor. You might not be familiar with the word Ecotone. Ecotone is biological/ecological term that describes the boundary between different biological communities. I thought this was fitting as the goal of the store is to encourage people to leave their urban/suburban communities and get out into nature.

Next, I needed to file all the legal paperwork with the state. It took several hours to fill out the LLC formation documents, get a sales tax license and a resellers license. Next, I needed to design a logo. I’m not very good at the creative arts but I’m reasonably happy with what I was able to design on my own on a train car in a field in western Nebraska.

Then, I needed to build the store. I chose Spotify as my platform since it was by far the most poplular for this type of store. Several hours of watching Youtube videos and I was proficient enough to get a basic store built.

Finally, I needed to find a wholesale supplier for my products. I first looked at Ali Express since that seems very popular but I wasn’t to happy with the quality of the products and I’d rather avoid using Chinese sourced products as much as possible. I did find a US based wholesaler with camping and outdoor gear and went through their dealer application process. Once approved, I added the products to the store.

Finally, I needed to take care of the financial end. I set up a business bank account, obtained a business credit card and set up my accounting system.

Now it was time for a test run. I ordered a few products to test how everything worked and to make sure the fulfillment, payment and shipping processes worked as expected. I was a little surprised how well it all worked right out of the gate.

So now its time to go live. The store is up and running at www.ecotoneoutdoor.com. Go check it out for any camping or outdoor gear you may need. If you don’t need any camping stuff, there is also some Ecotone Outdoor branded shirts and hats!

Am I coming out of retirement to run a retail store? NO! This is just a fun little side hustle that really won’t take alot of time now that its up and running. Maybe I can make a little gas money for the RV! The total cost to get up and running was about $300 and the vast majority of that was the legal filing fees with the State. Shopify will cost about $20/month so its pretty easy and inexpensive to get started if any of you have ever thought about opening an ecommerce store.

Finally, I’m talking to other suppliers so hopefully soon I’ll be able to add some more variety to the store. Comment below if you have any questions or if you have suggestions to make this store better.

And if you read this far, you can get 10% off any order by using this link 10% off Ecotone Outdoor or entering Promo Code A2XPRA8SK1HD at checkout.