Thinking about starting an online business? The online business competition is getting fiercer than ever, but the scope to make money out of it is immense. You would be surprised how many businesses set up an online store before identifying the opportunities. This is not the right way to start with. From choosing the niche to setting up a store is very crucial and will impact every other business decision you make. Regardless of which niche you are in, there are different ways to sell your product online. There is no one ultimate way that leads to the road of eCommerce success. You need to find the one that works for you. Regardless of how you sell, you have to create an online store to introduce your business to the global market and to your customers.
Selling on Marketplaces or Building Your Own Online Store?
You are planning to sell products online, but online is too general. Just as with any retail store, you need a space on the web to sell your products. If you want to consider a way to sell your products online, it comes down to 2 choices- online marketplaces or your own eCommerce website. An online marketplace is an eCommerce site that offers a platform for third-party sellers to sell products. Popular examples include Amazon, eWorldTrade, eBay, and Etsy. Websites like Amazon have a different range of options for sellers. Whereas, you’re online store is a self-hosted platform that you design and build yourself to handle all the sales yourself.
The best thing about selling in a marketplace is that you can set up your store the same day.
You can sign up with either Facebook or Google account, which makes things again simple. eCommerce marketplaces solve the major difficulty eCommerce business face- Generating traffic. As there is already steady traffic on a marketplace like Amazon or Etsy, half of the job is already done. However, when you sell products in your multi-vendor eCommerce store, you gain the ability to retarget your customers. This works with the use of cookies to track what a customer has been browsing for when they are anywhere else on the Internet.
The Hybrid Approach Also Holds the Scope
You can also follow the hybrid approach of having your online store and listing yourself on a marketplace to generate serious profit. However, when making such a decision, think deeply about what type of business you want to build, how quickly you want to make revenue and how you plan to differentiate yourself to your target audience. You can leverage multi-vendor marketplace software to build your online store with fewer resources. If you want to follow the hybrid approach, you must have the resources to maintain both as the hybrid approach can quickly add a lot of work.
Business Model to Follow
The major part of how to sell online is how you deliver the products. In other words, how you fulfil an order. When it comes to selling products online, the popular business model is Dropshipping.
What Is Drop Shipping?
Dropshipping is a business model where the retailer doesn’t have to keep products in stock, but instead transfers customer orders to the manufacturers or suppliers who then ships the item directly to the customer. An online business which works on a Dropshipping model purchase the products it sells from a third-party manufacturer or suppliers. Dropshipping not only cut down operational costs, but it also frees up your time to focus on other areas of the business.
In short, Dropshipping works like this- A customer purchases a product from your store at a retail price. You forward the order to your supplier and pay for the item at a wholesale price. Then the supplier directly ships the product to the customer under your business name. This means the drop shipper, that is you, don’t have to store the stock in bulk. This eliminates the need for investment in a lot of money upfront in inventory and the risk of buying in bulk. This is why Dropshipping is very popular- it requires a minimal investment but helps to earn the same amount of revenue or more, than traditional business models.
Secrets to Selling Products Online
- Make it easy to purchase
People visiting your online store have a very short attention span. This means you just have 10 seconds or less to catch their attention when they first visit your page. Never put obstacles on their way that makes them overthink or force to leave the website soon.
Some of the golden rules to retain your customers in your store are as follows.
- Never force visitors to register when they visit for the first time.
- Make the navigation simple to use.
- Put the navigation at the top of the site.
- Keep the buying process short and don’t try to collect more user info.
- Keep the checkout process simple and keep it to a single or just a few steps.
- The key is to reduce the friction to make more sales.
Offer great customer care
When a customer buys from your website for the first, great customer experience and customer service is what drives them to make a second purchase. Help them buy with confidence and they will automatically come back to your store. Another technique of selling online is to give your customers a guarantee that if at all they are not satisfied with your products, they will get a refund easily with no questions asked. Another way is to show that your website is safe is to be verified by trusted third party brands. This becomes critical if you are planning to accept credit card payments.
- Promote your store
Having a beautifully designed website is not just enough to drive traffic and sales. You have to attract users to your online store and help them make a purchase. You have to invest a good amount of time and effort every week to promote yourself. Use Google Analytics data to know about the sources that bring more customers to your website.
- Choosing the right niche makes the difference
Wonder how the choice of your niche affects your online selling? Imagine the situation where you have chosen a wonderful niche according to you, only to realize later that there is no market for it. People hardly lookout for products in that line. That is why it is important to choose the right niche.
Consider the niche market you want to target to display trending products to sell, yes, it can make or break your business. Smaller niches come with less competition and give you a good chance of connecting with potential buyers. But, your customer base would be smaller and if there is a scope of technological advancements in the particular niche you chose, there is a scope of your audience base getting larger.
Conclusion
Online competition is growing tough every day, and that’s why many people never bother to create an online store. However, selling online can be a great strategy if you turn your passion into money. Learning how to sell online can be daunting, it takes a while. Once you work out an excellent strategy to sell online, success is likely to follow. There is nothing more rewarding than building an online business, watching it grow, and earning revenue from it.
