u/Alboman1122

First let me start by wishing all of you a happy 4th of July!

I'm looking to get started on this journey. My budget to get started is around $3-5k.

A bit about me:

This will start as a side project for me.
I come from a software engineering background so I don't think I'll have any issues dealing with the domain, modifying store look and feel, etc.

I also have some experience running social media ads as well as using pixels and GA for tracking.

The parts I'm getting hung up on are the mechanics of the store. More specifically:

• I think shopify is the logical choice for hosting the storefront but let me know if thats not necessarily true.
• Where are people sourcing products from these days? AudoDS, Dsers, something else? I've been reading some pretty nasty reviews on AutoDS but they really seem to have flooded the web with ads, blog posts and tutorial videos. Have they gotten their act together?
• I was looking to try to source products stored in the US so that customers don't have to deal with long shipping times (even if it means i have slimmer margins). Is that the right train of thought?
• I'm located in the US. Does my location matter? If so, why?
• What tools are commonly used for customer support? How do returns work?
• Does it make sense to set up multiple stores each with their own theme or go with something more vague to get a lot of products under one store?
• How many products is a good amount to get started with? I was thinking of trying like 2 -3 categories and 10-20 products per category but not sure..
• Are ads targeted towards getting traffic in the store or specific product sales? Basically, in your ads are you saying "come check out my store" or "come buy this thing from my store" (or both)?

Is there anything else that I'm not considering?

Thank you and any help / clarity is greatly appreciated!