July 1, 2024
In the world of digital enhancement, it is easily accessible to utilise the advantage of all the online selling platforms, for those who own a physical product or services, to sell.
One major benefit of selling online is that you can reach a larger set of audience and the customer’s pockets.
It could be a little overwhelming if e-commerce is an area where you don’t know much details and need to explore. The efforts would give huge benefits to reap on the basis of how you sell your products online.
Do you have a question? Is it profitable to sell online? The answer would be a big yes. According to statistics, in 2020, there are over 2 billion people who buy online worldwide. This means you could have a bigger reach than that of a retail store or any other means of sales.
Can you sell online for free? Yes, there are many sites that allow you to sell your products online for free without any membership or subscription. But the catch here is there would be a limited audience for those sites or platforms and also you will be limited to the amount of growth that you could reach with the free services.
There are a number of sites that you could use to sell your products online, and there is no shortage of websites. The difficulty begins in choosing the right website that fulfils your requirement and suits your brand or business.
For any medium-sized and already running the business, Shopify would be a better place. And for any new small business, there are many sites that are more budget-friendly.
Always look for sites that could help you enhance the offering that you may or may not provide currently.
Choosing a website is the same as choosing the right location for your physical store. Doing detailed research and analysing your business’s needs would be the best way to start this process.
When you have decided to set up a full website where the user could view and shop only the products of your brand (unlike Amazon, eBay, and other such sites), then you will have to decide between a hosted and self-hosted platform.
The hosted platforms could be compared with a rented house. You could live in the space but cannot modify the structure of the house, or any kind of physical change like a painting. If the landlord decides to sell or modify, you might be forced to leave or lose access to space.
So hosted platforms are the space where you could sell your products online by paying the service provider with a subscription-based plan. Your products will be hosted on their servers that benefit you by avoiding the amount of work that you need to put in to set up your own servers. These platforms are also very simple and easy to set up and use even for novice sellers.
As per the previous comparison, self-hosted platforms are like owning your own house. You could feel free to modify, expand, or change exactly how you want your house to be.
However, having to build or buy a house for your own is very expensive and also comes with the responsibility that you are liable for any changes or fixing any part that breaks or crashes.
In self-hosting, you would be running the site by using your own platform(for instance, using WordPress), which gives a lot of customisation options and allows you to change the site as per the business needs.
But it could be a little tricky if you have no knowledge or experience with coding or other such technical stuff and would require you to hire someone to do this for your business.
In today’s technological world, it is an essential aspect for small businesses to have an online presence, not only to survive but also to thrive and go global. There is a number of reasons for businesses to go online, such as :
Compared to setting up a physical store, the online store setup cost is way cheaper and easy with minimum time-consuming. You could avoid a lot of overhead costs that occur while setting up a physical store.
This is a major benefit for small or any new business to set up and start selling within the budget with just spending for the website and payment portal to accept payments online.
When you are selling online, you could reach a wider audience without being physically present in those areas. This will allow you to sell products all over your country or even worldwide without having to move there. All you would require is an internet connection, a platform to sell your products, and your actual products or services.
Owning a retail or physical store will limit the number of hours that you could operate, but with an online store, there is no concept such as store hours. You could be available 24hours a day, even when you are sleeping someone from somewhere could purchase your product or service.
Since there is no downtime for your business, this could improve your sales eventually and also the profit for your business.
To conclude the article, if you own a physical store or a new or small business that doesn’t own any store yet, it is always recommended to get yourself an online presence. This could benefit you in many ways and help the business reach its goal.
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Disclaimer: The information provided on the website is only for informational purposes and is not intended to, constitute legal advice, instead of all information, content, and other available materials.
