# How to start an online store by business type: 8 paths How to start an online store in Bulgaria for your business: from scratch, migrating, physical shop, maker, wholesale, dropshipping or restaurant. Source: https://cloudcart.com/en/blog/start-online-store-by-business-type · CloudCart · 2026-11-06 How you start an online store depends on the business you already have. A new business starts with a product and registering the store with the NRA, Bulgaria's National Revenue Agency. A migrating store protects its orders and Google rankings, and a physical shop links its till to the website. Manufacturers and wholesalers add prices per customer. For dropshipping, an outside warehouse or a restaurant, the key is the link to the supplier, the 3PL company or Glovo and Wolt. Below are the eight paths, the first five steps for each and the detailed guides, from the team behind CloudCart, the Bulgarian ecommerce platform. They apply to Bulgarian businesses, foreign founders with a company here and sellers shipping from Bulgaria across the EU. The general steps that apply to every store are in the guide on [how to start an online store in Bulgaria in 9 steps](https://cloudcart.com/en/blog/how-to-create-online-store), and what to look for in the software itself is in [choosing an ecommerce platform for Bulgaria](https://cloudcart.com/en/blog/ecommerce-platform-bulgaria). ## Which path is yours: 8 types of online business compared Two questions decide the path: do you already have customers, and who holds the stock. If you already sell somewhere, the priority is to keep what works. | Your business | What is different | First step | What CloudCart covers | | New business | No customers or data yet, everything is a test | A product and the store's NRA registration | €1/month for the first 3 months, payments and couriers ready to switch on | | Moving from another platform | You have products, customers, orders and Google rankings | A list of everything that moves | Migration by our team, 301 redirects, no days without sales | | Physical shop | One stock count for the till and the website | Where inventory comes from | Apps for Microinvest, Micro.bg, Barsy and others, in-store pickup | | Manufacturer | You sell to consumers and to retailers | A pricing policy for both channels | Prices per customer group in the same store, marketplaces from one catalog | | Wholesale (B2B) | Companies buy, each at its own price | Customer groups and terms | Private catalog, up to 12 quantity price tiers, payment by invoice | | Dropshipping | The supplier holds the stock, the responsibility is yours | A supplier with an XML or CSV file | XML Sync for prices and stock, the Suppliers app | | Fulfillment (third-party warehouse) | You own the stock, a 3PL stores and packs it | Cost per order and the contract | The Frisbo app, webhooks and the API for other warehouses | | Restaurant | Orders within minutes, menus with add-ons, local couriers | Registration for distance selling of food | Glovo and Wolt delivery from your own website, orders go into the POS | A business often fits two rows. Start with the row that brings in the money today and add the second in the same store later. ## What every online store in Bulgaria has in common Two rules apply to every Bulgarian online store selling to consumers, before the first order. A third applies once you ship to other EU countries. - NRA registration before the first sale. Under Art. 52m of Ordinance N-18 (Bulgaria's sales reporting rules for online stores, in Bulgarian), in force since December 29, 2018, a trader who sells through an online store submits the store's details in the NRA e-services portal with a qualified electronic signature (QES) before sales begin. The documents per payment method are in the article on Ordinance N-18 and your online store . - A 14-day right of withdrawal. Under Art. 50 of the Bulgarian Consumer Protection Act (in Bulgarian), a consumer can cancel a distance purchase within 14 days of receiving the goods, without a reason. The same EU-wide rule is on Your Europe . Between companies (B2B), return terms are agreed in the contract. - VAT on sales to other EU countries. According to Your Europe's page on cross-border VAT , a €10,000 threshold applies to distance sales to consumers across the EU, in place since July 1, 2021. Above it, you charge the VAT of the customer's country and can declare it through the One Stop Shop (OSS) in Bulgaria. The details are in the guide to OSS and EU VAT for cross-border sales . ## New business: how to start an online store from scratch A new online business starts with a product people already search for and a store you won't have to replace in a year. With no customers or data yet, the first three months test the product, the channel and the price. - Pick the product and check demand. Check searches on Google and on eMAG, the marketplace in Bulgaria and Romania, and compare competitor prices with your cost. - Register the company and the store. The company, usually a sole trader (ET) or a single-member limited liability company (EOOD), is entered in the Commercial Register, and the store is registered with the NRA before the first sale. Foreign founders usually register a Bulgarian company for this. - Create the store and upload your products. Choose a theme and add products by hand or from Excel or CSV. - Switch on payments and couriers. Cash on delivery (COD), cards and bank transfer are picked from a ready list, and the Bulgarian couriers Econt and Speedy (DPD Bulgaria) and the BOX NOW parcel lockers are already connected. - Place a test order and bring in the first customers. Go from the cart to the shipping label, then run ads on Facebook, Instagram or Google with a small daily budget. You can also [build the store with an AI assistant](https://cloudcart.com/en/offer/ai): with a PAT token from the admin, Claude Code, ChatGPT Codex or Gemini CLI build it from your description. Choosing between an ET and an EOOD is covered in the article on [company registration in Bulgaria for an online store](https://cloudcart.com/en/blog/company-registration-online-store), and the first month after launch in [the 30-day plan for your first sale](https://cloudcart.com/en/blog/start-first-30-days-online-store). > New store €1/month for the first 3 months Three months on the full plan show which product and channel sell. For new stores through December 31, 2026, on every plan, with no code. Create a store for €1 → ## Moving from another platform: how to switch without a pause in sales When you switch platforms, the new store starts with the same products, customers and Google rankings, with no day without sales. The old store keeps selling while the new one is built alongside it. - List what you have. Products, categories, customers, orders, posts and every page URL. - Decide who does the move. Our team migrates the store for you, you move it yourself with the importers for WooCommerce, Shopify and Magento 1.x or with CSV, XML or Google Sheets, or your developer migrates through the Admin API. - Build the new store in the background. You test design, payments and couriers while customers see the old store. - Redirect every old URL with a 301. A 301 tells Google the page has moved, so its ranking carries over. Ad parameters such as gclid, fbclid and UTM tags pass through. - Compare the counts and switch the domain. Products, customers and orders must match in both stores. Email stays with your provider, via MX records in the domain settings. The order history is moved and kept separately on our side. How to keep your Google rankings step by step is in the guide to [migrating from WooCommerce without losing SEO](https://cloudcart.com/en/blog/migrate-from-woocommerce-guide). > Migration €0 for the move with a 24-month contract The CloudCart team moves products, customers, posts and redirects within 45 days while the old store sells. Valid through December 31, 2026, requested in the admin under Services → Migration. How the move works → ## Physical shop: how to sell online with one stock count A physical shop goes online with one inventory for the till and the website, so an item sold over the counter disappears online too. The most common mistake is two separate stock counts copied by hand. - Decide where inventory comes from. Warehouse software stays. With only a till, you keep inventory in the admin, under Products → Inventory. - Match products by barcode or SKU. One item is then one record in both systems. - Install the app for your system. These are Bulgarian warehouse and POS programs: Micro.bg updates stock and prices every 3 minutes, SelMatic every 4 hours, Barsy every 8 hours, PosMaster once a day, and Microinvest sends changes when they happen or when you start the sync. - Turn on in-store pickup. In Apps → Local Pickup you add your locations with address, hours and a map. Pickup is offered only where the product is in stock, with payment online or in store. - Bring your walk-in customers to the website. Your web address on receipts, in the window and on Google Maps brings the first orders. You keep your POS software, and a system outside the list connects through the API. The apps are collected on the page about [an online store for your physical shop](https://cloudcart.com/en/physical-store). ## Manufacturer: how to sell direct to consumers (D2C) A manufacturer starts an online store to sell direct to consumers (D2C) and keep the margin that used to stay with the retailer. An online price below your retailers' price stops their wholesale orders. - Set a pricing policy for both channels. Retail on the website, wholesale for retailers, and who sees what. - Prepare the product data. Barcode, ingredients or materials, dimensions, instructions and warnings. Under the EU General Product Safety Regulation ( GPSR, Regulation (EU) 2023/988 ), applicable since December 13, 2024, an online listing shows the manufacturer, the product identifier and its warnings. What goes on the product page is in the article on GPSR for online sellers . - Launch the store with retail prices. Descriptions show how and from what the product is made. - Add a group for retailers in the same store. In Customers → Customer groups and Marketing → Discounts the group gets a percentage or an exact price, and consumers never see wholesale prices. - Sell on marketplaces from the same catalog. eMAG, Pazaruvaj (a Bulgarian price comparison site), OLX (classifieds) and other comparison sites are fed from the store's products, with no separate catalog to maintain. How D2C differs from B2B, B2C and subscriptions is in the article on [ecommerce business models](https://cloudcart.com/en/blog/ecommerce-business-models). ## Wholesale: how to start a B2B online store A B2B online store is where companies log in, see their own prices and order themselves, instead of by Viber, email and phone. The 14-day right of withdrawal under the Consumer Protection Act is for consumers, so return terms between companies go into the contract or into separate B2B terms and conditions. - Split customers into groups. Each customer is in one group, and the group decides price, payment and shipping. Starter Pack has 3 customer groups, CC Pro 5 and CC Master 100. Baby Pack has none. - Close the catalog if needed. With Apps → Private Store the catalog is visible only after login, and you approve new company sign-ups manually or automatically. The app is part of the higher plans. - Set the prices. A percentage on the whole catalog, a category or selected products, an exact price per product and up to 12 quantity price tiers per product. - Offer payment by invoice to companies only. The minimum order value is set in Settings → Cart and order and applies to the whole store. - Invite the partners who already order. Move their next Viber order to their account in the store. The options are described on the page about [B2B and wholesale selling](https://cloudcart.com/en/b2b). > CloudCart Pay 0% transaction fee through December 31, 2026 Companies and consumers pay by Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay and Google Pay in the store's own checkout. How CloudCart Pay works → ## Dropshipping: how to start an online store without a warehouse Dropshipping is selling online without your own warehouse: the customer pays in your store and the supplier ships the goods straight to them. In law you are still the seller, so warranty, returns and delivery time are your responsibility. - Find a supplier with a product file. Prices, photos, descriptions and stock as an XML or CSV file at a fixed URL, updated at least daily. - Connect the file with XML Sync. In Apps → XML Sync you create a task with the file's URL and map the fields. When only price and stock are updated, your rewritten descriptions stay. By default the file runs every 12 hours. - Choose the plan by file size. The product limit for the sync is 100 on Baby Pack, 2,000 on Starter Pack, 7,500 on CC Pro and 25,000 on CC Master. - Keep suppliers in the Suppliers app. You store the supplier price, code and stock per variant, and "Products by orders" groups sold items by supplier for export. - Decide how the order reaches the supplier. The platform doesn't send it on its own: you send the export or a webhook for every new order. How much really stays from one order, which taxes apply and how to choose a supplier is in the article [what dropshipping is and how to start in Bulgaria](https://cloudcart.com/en/blog/what-is-dropshipping). ## Fulfillment: how to start when a third party runs the warehouse Fulfillment is a service where an outside company, a 3PL (third-party logistics provider), stores your goods, packs the orders and hands them to the courier. Unlike dropshipping, you own the goods and buy them in advance, and you pay the warehouse for storage and for every order it ships. - Work out the cost per order. Storage, picking, packaging and courier, against your current cost per order. - Check the contract. Deadlines, liability for missing items, returns and minimum volumes. - Connect orders to the warehouse. In the Frisbo app you log in, choose the warehouse and channel, and turn on automatic sending. For cash on delivery, choose the "New order" status, because such a shipment is paid only after delivery. - For another 3PL, use webhooks and the API. In Settings → Webhooks you add the address of the warehouse's system, and the warehouse updates stock through the API. The API is available from Starter Pack up. With Frisbo, stock does not flow back to the store on its own, so you update the counts yourself. What fulfillment costs and when it pays off is in the guide [fulfillment for an online store: rented warehouse or 3PL services](https://cloudcart.com/en/blog/fulfillment-warehouse-online-store). ## Restaurant: how to take online orders without commission A restaurant goes online with its own website and menu, where customers order directly and Glovo or Wolt couriers deliver. On the Glovo and Wolt marketplaces you pay a percentage of every bill. With their courier services, you pay only for delivery. - Register for distance selling of food. Under Art. 60 of the Bulgarian Food Act (in Bulgarian, version in force since June 9, 2020), food is sold at a distance only after registration with the regional food safety directorate (part of the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency) where the premises are located. - Upload the menu with its options. Each dish gets a size, add-ons and a sauce. With Barsy or R-Keeper, the menu comes from the POS. - Set up delivery for each location. Each location gets its own Glovo keys, per-kilometer rate and hours, or its own Wolt API key, Merchant ID and venue ID. Add your own couriers and pickup with payment on site. - Connect the POS. Orders from the website go into Barsy, R-Keeper or Microinvest with no retyping. - Bring your regulars to the website. Your web address on the packaging moves orders from the marketplace to your own channel. For other POS software, write to support@cloudcart.com. > 0% commission 0% of the bill on orders from your own website With €20,000 a month in delivery revenue, every percent a food platform takes is €200 a month. From your own website you pay the plan and the delivery. See the plans and what they include → ## How much it costs to start an online store, by path A CloudCart plan costs €14 to €249 a month, billed annually and excluding VAT, and new stores pay €1/month for the first 3 months of any plan. CloudCart takes no percentage of sales on any path. | Plan (billed annually, excl. VAT) | Price per month | Usually enough for | | Baby Pack | €14 | A new business with a small catalog, a physical shop with inventory kept in the admin | | Starter Pack | €33 | Dropshipping up to 2,000 products, the first 3 customer groups, the API for a warehouse | | CC Pro | €83 | Manufacturers and B2B with more groups, dropshipping up to 7,500 products | | CC Master | €249 | Large B2B with 100 groups, supplier files up to 25,000 products | Prices and limits are from the [pricing page](https://cloudcart.com/en/pricing). When the business grows, you change the plan and keep the platform. For the full monthly budget, see [what an online store costs in Bulgaria per month](https://cloudcart.com/en/blog/online-store-cost-bulgaria), and for how Bulgarians shop online, the overview of [online shopping in Bulgaria](https://cloudcart.com/en/blog/ecommerce-in-bulgaria). ## Frequently asked questions **How do I start an online store with no experience?** Start with one product or a small category with proven demand, register the company and the store with the NRA, and launch on a platform with payments and couriers built in. Use the first 3 months as a test. **What do I need to start an online store in Bulgaria?** You need a company (a sole trader or a company such as an EOOD), the store's registration with the NRA before the first sale under Art. 52m of Ordinance N-18, payment methods, a courier and terms and conditions with the 14-day right of withdrawal. Food sellers also register under the Food Act. **Can a foreigner start an online store in Bulgaria?** Yes. Foreign founders usually register an EOOD, open a business bank account and follow the same steps as a local store, including NRA registration. Questions about the store setup go to support@cloudcart.com. **Can I start an online store without a warehouse?** Yes, in two ways. With dropshipping, the supplier holds and ships the goods. With fulfillment, you own the goods and an outside warehouse (3PL) stores and ships them. **Do I need to change my POS software to sell online?** No. Microinvest, Micro.bg, SelMatic, Barsy, PosMaster, Gensoft and other systems connect to the store as apps, and products are matched by barcode or SKU. If you only have a till, inventory is kept in the admin.