The world of shopping has undergone a huge change as most of the consumers now shop online instead of visiting physical stores.
Usually, sellers have two options to go with, in order to sell their products online:
- List their products on marketplace such as Amazon, eBay etc.
- Build their own e-commerce website and sell their products online.
Most of the sellers think that it’s easier & better to signup and list their products on the various marketplaces.
However, a lot of entrepreneurs are also moving towards their own e-commerce website design to create their e-commerce websites so that they can provide maximum features to their users.
Why?
Well, because when you choose to build your own e-commerce website, you get more benefits.
In this blog post, I am going to share top 8 reasons that will compel you to build your own e-commerce website instead of making use of marketplaces to sell.
1. Get Rid Of Selling Fees
None of the marketplace websites designed for e-commerce will permit you to sell on their platform without coughing up a subscription or selling fee.
This eats into your profits as you must pay some charges to the marketplace depending on the kind of product you are selling.
Developing your own e-commerce website is a one-time investment. You don’t need to worry about the recurring charges (other than the website hosting, domain or any special plugin/module that you have subscribed for).
2. Save Yourself From Fierce Competition
Selling on the marketplace may seem like a convenient option but it comes with a lot of fierce competition.
There are multiple sellers doing business in each of the product categories.
This makes it extremely difficult to stand out of the crowd. It may be achievable but takes a lot of time and energy.
However, when you build your own e-commerce website and attract the buyers to it, you have higher chances of getting more sales.
3. Branding
You miss out on your brand-building when you choose to sell your products on a marketplace as you have to abide by their own rules & regulations.
You need to make a note of the fact that all your sales are owned by the marketplace and this is the reason why you will never be able to create or promote branding for your own business.
In most of the marketplaces, you may also not have the opportunity of adding the customers to your mailing lists and will not be able to make suggestions for your products in order to increase their spend with your business.
To make things worse, some marketplaces even place restrictions on the ways you can adopt to brand your products.
Therefore, building your own e-commerce website with your own rules help you to build your business brand.
4. Think Long-Term
Investing on your own e-commerce website development is sure to pay dividends in the longer run.
Since you get a lot of freedom with this approach, you can use this opportunity to tell your story in order to connect to the buyer.
Also, it is an investment you need make only once and it frees you from undesirable selling fee levied by the marketplace, which leaves you with a higher share of profit.
5. Flexibility In Marketing Approach
When you run your own e-commerce store, you have the flexibility of targeting your audience in lots of ways.
Using mechanisms like Facebook ads, Google Ads and even LinkedIn based audience targeting, you will be able to gain unconditional leads.
It would be a waste of your time and energy to practice these marketing tactics when you are selling on a marketplace.
6. Better Control
Having your own e-commerce website will give you more control on how you want to run your business.
This includes everything from your website design, layout, descriptions, product placement, navigation and other such aspects.
You can do what it takes to maximize the satisfaction of your customer and make their visit memorable.
7. Access to customer insights
Owning your own e-commerce website will give you the opportunity of exercising better control on your business insights.
You will be able to analyze the conversion patterns of your customers, their purchase history and improve your website design based on the results.
You will also be able to maintain mailing lists of your customers and help them in making better buying decisions.
8. Provide More Features
You can provide more customized features with your e-commerce website design as compared to listing your products on a marketplace.
For example, allowing guest checkouts to help people in processing their orders easily and saving them time. Also, you may apply remarketing for the abandoned orders and encourage users to complete their orders.
Conclusion:
Some people get quite intimated by the idea of selling online and turn to marketplaces for listing & selling their products.
However, if you consider the benefits of getting into your own e-commerce website development, it is well worth building the blueprint of selling on the internet for yourself.
