Online shop for household cleaning products and refills

Households looking for convenient, greener or hard-to-find cleaning products, plus a few small local businesses.

You sell at a retail markup, with extra income from subscriptions or bundles for regular refills and from delivery fees.

• Setting up and running a simple online shop
• Social media and local marketing
• Organising stock and orders
• Customer service

• Consumer products sold in Canada have labelling and packaging rules for hazardous products, check Health Canada's requirements before refilling or relabelling anything
• Shipping some cleaning products by post or courier is restricted, check with your carrier before you promise delivery
• Home-based business licence or zoning rules, check with your municipality
• Product liability insurance, and storage limits under your home insurance
• Quebec labelling and website language rules, check if selling there
• Heavy liquids make shipping expensive, so work out delivery costs before setting prices

Estimates suggest startup costs are typically around $1,500 to $6,000, depending on your wholesale stock, website setup and packaging. Heavy liquids make shipping costly, so work out delivery costs before setting prices.

Estimates put monthly revenue typically around $500 to $4,000, depending on your product range, local marketing and how many repeat households you build. The idea starts at about 8 hours a week.

Things to check: Health Canada labelling and packaging rules for hazardous products before refilling or relabelling; carrier restrictions on shipping some cleaning products; home-based business licence or zoning rules; product liability insurance; and Quebec labelling and website language rules.