9 Problems of Running an Online Store, According to Those Who Manage Them

Running an online store isn't five minutes a day

One customer demands delivery between 5:00 and 5:15 PM. If you miss it, they return the product and ask for a refund. Another buys, pays, and the day before shipping decides they want a different tonalidad, when the supplier already has the previous order in motion. A third makes a million-euro purchase on a Sunday out of boredom and someone has to delete the order. The list of common problems is compiled by those who manage an online store.

The starting point is an uncomfortable realization: online sales are sold as a low-cost, low-effort business, but in practice it's a supply chain with links that break on their own. The shipping company hits the package, the supplier discontinues without warning, the buyer changes their mind at the last minute, and the payment gateway becomes a minefield.

How much it costs to keep an online store open

The monthly bill doesn't wait for the first sale. A breakdown shared by one participant includes €275 for self-employment fees, €360 for storage, €300 for AdWords advertising, and €50 for consumables. Hosting and domain add €80 per year. On that basis, the platform chosen matters less than it seems: Prestashop, Magento, or OsCommerce are the tool, not the business.

Some argue that ad spend pays off when campaigns are segmented and optimized, while others admit they barely notice a difference when investing in AdWords. The range depends on the sector: specialized audiovisual products justify €300 per month; others rely on organic positioning and don't pay a euro per click.

On top of the self-employment fee, there are quarterly modules —€900— and the local municipal tax, €300, if there's a physical store. The reflection that sums up the sector's frustration: the supplier can help, the landlord can help, employees can help; Hacienda and Social Security want their payment, period.

The customer who returns if it doesn't arrive on time

The list of conflicts with buyers is long and very specific. There's the one who demands a time slot, the one who changes quantities when the order is already packed, the one who changes the tonalidad when it's already been ordered from the supplier. And there's fraud with virtual payment gateways, which slips through even with contracted security, according to one participant; fraud still slips through to the banks.

Cash on delivery deserves its own chapter. The shipping company charges a commission for handling it, and around 10% of orders aren't collected, according to one participant's experience. The merchant pays for the outbound and return trips. One participant explains that they pass the extra cost on to the customer who chooses it, notifying them by phone and offering alternatives without that charge.

The supplier who becomes competition

The other front is upstream in the chain. The supplier changes the catalog without warning and leaves a discontinued item sold. The supplier sets up their own online store and slashes prices. The supplier sells to the individual at the same price as to the distributor. It's an old pattern — it's been happening for years in brick-and-mortar.

A defensive response is to have your own warehouse. Selling without stock is convenient at first and fragile later: dropshipping is good for testing the market, not as a stable model. Someone who's been running for four years with 90 items and everything managed by hand — order by email, payment by transfer, order to supplier — admits the system works with four sales a week and can't handle a larger volume.

The trap of the perfect technical store

There's a classic that repeats: the entrepreneur who obsesses over custom programming, search estimulante ilegal, optimization software, and neglects selling. The known result is a closed store and a bunch of impeccable code. The recommendation from those experiences is to start with a cheap prefabricated platform and save custom development for when the business is viable. Putting €150,000 into a custom system plus €300 per month for a server and an IT person on payroll to sell teddy bears doesn't add up.

Meanwhile, the debate about payments remains open: transfer, cash on delivery, PayPal, or Google Checkout.

The startling fact: a store with three years of history, 6,500 unique visitors and 61,000 page views in a month still considers itself in the startup phase. Five minutes a day, they said.