Everybody knows eCommerce or online selling has been in trend in today’s time. Having physical presence only has some restriction when we compare to those businesses who are having online shops along with physical shops. Online selling/purchasing has been fully adopted by customers in large numbers now. So when any retail business plan to come in this online world then sooner or latter one question come in front of them that sell your products on your platform or on other selling platforms like Amazon or eBay etc.
Today, I am going to discuss benefits of having own eCommerce / online shop to sell your products instead of selling your products on marketplaces. Here are my views as following:
- Branding: Having own shop with your name, creates your brand name among your customers. Similarly having a physical shop and selling own products instead of any other company products. The own online website creates your brand impression on your customers. This is a primary difference of selling your products on marketplaces than on your platform.
- Competitive pricing: Save commissions of market place & offer a competitive price to your customers.
- Reduce competition: On marketplaces, there are many other competitors who are selling similar products. Selling on own platform reduce the distraction of price war of competitors and increase the volume of sales.
- Marketing campaigns: You can plan your marketing campaign yourself. You can plan custom marketing campaign as per your choice & budget whereas on marketplaces you need to participate in predefined campaigns of marketplaces which are generally based on price discounts.
- Customer loyalty programs: You can setup custom loyalty programs on your eCommerce website by offering reward points, special discount coupons for new or regular customers. On marketplaces, these programs generate loyalty to that marketplace website and don’t give many benefits to your business.
- Discount offers: On your website, you can collect interest (email id) of your registered customers or newsletter subscribers. This is an asset for your business. You can use these data to offer different coupons, launching of new products, new schemes from time to time or on a seasonal basis.
- An own process of selling: Having your own online shop gives you a benefit of setting own processes whereas on marketplaces you need to follow the process set by them.
- Target potential customers: You can target potential customer through your various marketing campaigns such as search engine optimization, social media marketing, pay-per-click & many others ways to target audience of desired location, age, interest, educational level, etc. This will give you more ROI than participating in marketplace marketing campaigns.
- High-end customers: In my personal experience, Those customers who are purely focused on low prices and have no values for quality are majorly visiting marketplaces to get the product in bottom prices. If you are into niche product and want to target high-end clients then having your own online shop will be the success key for you.
- Sharing information: You can’t showcase your business information on these marketplaces. I am talking about information like about your business, infrastructure, customer testimonials, your range of facilities, why you are different from your competitors, etc. Which sometimes additional factors in deciding purchase decision of customers for your products.
- Competitors having their own website: Your competitors already have their own online website along with selling on marketplaces. So you should not leave this opportunity untapped.
- Customers trust: Having own eCommerce website makes more trust & seriousness among your customers rather than having your product listed on marketplaces. It seems that you are more serious about your business not like short-term selling on marketplaces for just profits.
- Customer experience: Selling through your online shop / eCommerce website have added the advantage of personalizing your sales process like user-friendly website layouts, check out pages, customized packaging, etc.
So, What is best for you. having your own eCommerce website or listed your products on marketplaces?
Conclusion:
If you want to plan long term business strategy, building your business brand, what loyal customers, want your customer to stick to your business, provide personalize the experience to your customers, want to target potential customers then having your own eCommerce website will the best choice for you.
Want to discuss your online eCommerce strategy with industry experts then you may try to contact Best eCommerce agency India or already planned to start your eCommerce venture this year then you can also see various packages according to your different needs at Ecommerce packages India.