Look at these three options to determine how to sell your products online and grow your business.
Nowfal Beary founded NewBorn Cart and JabKas, an online baby product brand with ten products, in 2015. Four years later, he has 100 products on two online marketplaces.
Online marketplaces like Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal, and Shopclues have made it easy for entrepreneurs to start online businesses.
A rise in online shoppers has spurred them to expand or shift to online selling. The downside, however, is brand dilution since customers are not keen to know about the brand. This can be overcome by venturing into social media platforms or opening online stores. Here are three options to choose from:
Online marketplace
To create a seller account on Flipkart or Amazon, the sites will verify your business documents, a bank account in the business’s name, and tax documents. After registering, you can list the products, set a price, and start selling. The website will not influence the selling price but charge a 3-25 % commission, besides a fixed fee of Rs 5-40 and shipping charges of Rs 25-260 on each shipment. After deducting charges, you will receive the payment 7-15 days after the sale. The charges can reduce your profits, especially if you are a small seller.
Most websites have logistics services for shipping that pick up the packed product from the seller and deliver it to the customer. Alternatively, you can store the stock at their warehouse for a fee. This will save you the effort and cost of packing, facilitate faster delivery, and allow them to handle exchange requests.
Benefits: High traffic means you don’t have to worry about marketing or promotional campaigns. There are no set-up costs, and the onus of customer satisfaction—except for product—is not on you.
Drawbacks: Most sites have easy return policies so that you will get back many products. Cancellations and exchanges will eat into revenue and slow down payments.
Online stores
You can also use e-commerce solution platforms to build an online store. Shopify and GoDaddy provide hosted solutions, which means they host and create the store, charging Rs 1,000-7,000 monthly. It’s a good option for beginners with no technical knowledge.
Open-source solutions like Magento, WooCommerce, and PrestaShop are free, but you must build and host the website from scratch. You can store, pack, and ship packages in-house or outsource them to a third party to fulfill orders. The latter will cost more but offer more time to build your business.
Benefits: Online stores integrate with Google Shopping and social media platforms to offer high visibility. You also get to know your customers. The direct interaction with customers tells you where you need to improve, says Vedang Patel, Co-founder and Director of The Souled Store, an online pop culture store. Besides, you can devise your own return and exchange policies.
Drawbacks: Gaining customer trust is a big problem. “It’s difficult to establish website authenticity and assure product quality,” says Patel. Getting traffic to one’s website is an expensive process. If not done right, the cost can spiral. ”
Facebook
Facebook is not just a marketing platform; you can also sell products by setting up a Facebook Shop on the company’s business page. However, it would help if you had an online store, as Facebook Shop does not allow direct selling in India without an external site linked to it.
Don’t have an online store? Start by creating a basic website with a free e-commerce solution platform like Shopify or Ecwid, and link it to Facebook Shop. The products on the site will be displayed on the business page. Customers can browse your catalog and order directly via Facebook. Order processing, shipment, and payments are automated via the site.
You can similarly conduct ram. You can’t include a redirect link with each post, but you can attach a single link to the online store in the bio. Without an online store, you can take orders by adding the ‘Contact Us’ tab on the business page, but you must process each order and shipment manually.
Benefits: Facebook Shop is an effective way to get new customers, as your brand is exposed to its 2.3 billion active users.
Drawbacks: As the business grows, manually managing orders can become time-consuming. Without an online store, there ise no other shopping outlet.
