Why should you create an online store?
You’re someone who loves trading. You’re well aware that eCommerce is the present AND the future of ‘selling’. A lot more shopping is happening online now than ever before.
To catch up with this trend, you have probably tried out experiments on marketplaces like eBay that allow you to list your product, find buyers and sell your products with ease.
You’ve got everything in place to make money online by selling your products.
All this is good because you’ve now got a hang of how online buying and selling happens. But is this sufficient?
Do you have your own online store? If not have you considered building one?
Below are some great reasons why you should be creating your own online store to sell products.
Own your brand, own your customers
In the process of building your own online store you also build a brand. Your online store will have a unique domain name (the URL that people type in to reach your site), it will have a store logo which you can link up to all your online properties like your blog, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest accounts. Your store can also have multiple pages that can explain a lot more about yourself and your business.
When shoppers make a purchase on your eCommerce store, they will recognize that they are buying from you and not a marketplace. Your quality of service & trust that such purchases will create remains with you and will not be shared with another brand. In simple terms – your customers are lot more connected to you & your business.
The rules of selling offline (such as brand marketing) are very relevant even in the online world. Its simple – If you’re into this for the long term – its always better to own your brand.
On your online store – You’re the boss
If you create your own online store, you get to decide your sales and returns policies.
If you are selling on a marketplace you will need to comply with their existing policies. Most marketplaces also regularly change and update their policies. Eg: eBay releases two seller updates, or policy changes, every year.
So as a seller you will need to monitor these policies continuously and make changes to your selling process likewise.
If you don’t comply, there is a high chance your listing are flagged and taken down.
Don’t know about you, but we surely love to have our own freedom when it comes to making policy decisions.
If you have created your own online store, there’s no need to worry about COMPLIANCE. You get to decide your own policies, when to change them & have your own plan to change them. You are a lot more “In control”
Control your tech expenses
Lets take an example marketplace like eBay – A seller on eBay needs to pay insertion fees, which differs depending on various parameters like listing format, final value fees which depends on the selling price plus shipping charges, store subscription level etc., eBay also has extra charges for simple things like International visibility, making a title bold, & having a Buy It Now option on an auction.
So many variables, make the selling process for a store owner very unpredictable.
Compare this to what you can do with your own online store. Most hosted shopping carts including Shopnix charge you a fixed monthly fee to create and run an online store. In fact, we recently removed the transaction fees from our pricing plans. So there is only ONE variable to be worried about when it comes to your technology expenses 🙂
Choose your payment modes
You know your customers the best. One place where this matters the most is while setting up payment modes.
Some online store owners might think Cash on Delivery should be the ONLY option on their store. While others would want to target an international market and hence want to have “PayPal” as a payment option. You might also want a Demand Draft/Money Order payment method or want to be integrated with a specific payment gateway simply because they offer better transaction rates. On a marketplace you wouldn’t have the full freedom to pick & choose your payment modes.
You can have this freedom only if you own your online store. Most marketplaces are limited in the payment options they provide to their sellers.
Creating an online store was never so easy!
The ultimate reason you should open an online store is – It was never so easy to build one. Shopnix allows you to have a fully functional online store within minutes.
All you need to do is visit the Shopnix homepage and hit the “Get free store now” button. You need to punch in your store name, emailID and a password. Thats it and a full fledged online store is ready!
At Shopnix we make it extremely simple and easy for merchants, businesses & individuals to create an eCommerce store.
Typically, setting up an eCommerce store takes you at least 6-8 months depending on the web-agency you work with. But with Shopnix, this happens in minutes. Give it a try now!
Visit – www.shopnix.in
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