Many businesses are planning to sell their products online, one big descision what they face is whether to create own website or sell through an online market place like Amazon, eBay,or walmart. Although there are advantages and disadvantages to each choice, and there is no single solution for all situations, However, if you are serious about long-term success in e-commerce, having own website is the best option.
Why you Need a Website for your E-commerce Business:
Find out why having a stand-alone e-commerce website is essential to the long-term viability of your company.
Create an Email List of your Clients and Send them Direct Marketing
Being able to promote directly to website visitors and consumers is one of the most significant benefits of owning your own website. Selling directly to clients on your website gives you the opportunity to gather their contact information, in contrast to marketplaces where the individuals who purchase your goods are the marketplace’s customers. You may promote new items, give discounts, and send email marketing promos to your consumers if you have their email addresses.
Because you don’t have direct connection to your clients on a marketplace, it is very hard to get repeat business. As a result, you will have less chances to offer excellent customer service and advertise your other items. Maintaining communication with current clients is essential to bringing in growth for your company since it is less expensive and easier to keep a customer than to acquire a new one.
You are aware of not just who has previously made purchases from you, but also what they purchased, how much they spent, and what interests them. This information may be used to guide and recommend future purchases.
Create and Boost your Brand
Your items are listed when you offer them on an online marketplace. There is minimal to no flexibility for personalization or branding, from word count or character constraints to logo usage. Actually, the brand that is leading the pack is the marketplace’s, not yours. Because of this, increasing brand recognition and awareness is practically difficult.
Most of the time, consumers and visitors to your website believe your product is already on the market without even knowing you exist. Put differently, those who buy your goods will remember the market rather than you.
It should be your aim for customers to think of your brand when they think of that category and to link your product with it. You have complete control over your website’s appearance, content, and functionality when you own and operate it. There are countless options. Using personalized boxes, you can harness the unwrapping experience to further reinforce your brand and make a lasting impact on your clients.
Understand your Target Audience
You can improve your clients better if you have an e-commerce website of your own. This includes information about their location and other data, such as how they found your website and learned about you. You may examine their online activity, including what they browsed and how they came to purchase from you.
Since you know that particular traffic sources are profitable, you may decide to concentrate your efforts and invest more funds in those channels if they are bringing in a lot of revenue.
You may discover not just more about your current client, but also where the people who decided not to buy from you went wrong. Perhaps there aren’t enough positive customer reviews or high-quality photographs on a product page, or maybe customers are giving up on their baskets because shipping is so expensive.
Alternatively, it’s possible that your checkout procedure decreases the payment alternatives and methods that your target audience expects to see on your e-commerce business, or your homepage is unclear and unfriendly to use.
Equally important, you must use these insights to your website’s design and optimization in order to boost conversions and boost sales.
Establish Your Own Guidelines for Your Online Store
- You may have greater direct control over the user experience and customer journey when you operate your own e-commerce business.
- Videos and images of the products can be included at certain locations.
- The navigation and layout are customizable.
- Both the website’s theme and color palette are customizable.
- The text and button positions are editable.
Most notably, unlike with a marketplace, you don’t have to be concerned about your rivals’ items appearing next to yours. Clear product categories, descriptions, photos, and other e-commerce elements may be added to your website using e-commerce website builders, providing store owners with a personalized design option.
You may also choose whether to provide free delivery and how to organize and price your items. Freebies during the checkout process have the power to change online shopper’s purchasing decisions since they make them feel as though they are receiving a good bargain.
You may experiment more easily with this kind of offer on your own website because there aren’t any set guidelines to follow. Since you don’t need a third party for a portion of every transaction, like you would on a marketplace, you also don’t need to worry about how these changes would affect your conversion rates. You may test and confirm what works for your online business with a website, which gives you total control over your shop.
Effortless E-commerce with Plug-and-Play Systems
The emergence of pre-built e-commerce website platforms like Shopify, Magento, Squarespace, and WooCommerce has made the process of building a website very simple and quick. Using shop builder plugins, which enable you to manage your small business more conveniently than before. With site builders that let you drag-and-drop e-commerce store elements to your liking, you can enter your information, select from a variety of inexpensive or free themes, and create the shopping experience you desire for your clients in real-time.
Nowadays, a number of e-commerce systems are hosted and simple to use; no web developer or design team is required. You can easily add goods, update content, and make other changes on your own with these do-it-yourself tools.
Integrating your website with other applications might be a simple task once it is operational. Linking your e-commerce platform to the order fulfillment management system is one typical example.
By using a 3PL for fulfillment, you may simplify the information flow and get rid of the daily requirement to transmit your orders to the 3PL. This implies that orders from your store are forwarded automatically to your fulfillment center, where they are picked, packaged, and shipped.
Manage Original Marketing Initiatives
You should not expect clients to find you easily just because you have a website. You will need to put in effort to get customers to your store once you have one. Building a strong online presence on social media and using a combination of SEO tactics is the first step towards gaining clients. Setting up the correct campaigns isn’t always simple, but there are a lot more options available to you when it comes to getting customers to locate and purchase from you.
E-commerce companies have the ability to modify their marketing plans to better suit their target customers and their unique purchasing preferences. Using Facebook and Google advertisements to reach your audience is one of the typical strategies. Additionally, you may write content for your website by finding and using the keywords that people use to find solutions similar to yours. You may retarget previous customers and create interest by running specials or flash sales.
Approximately 30% to 40% of consumers believe that discounts or coupons can entice them to return to a retailer’s website. All things considered, there are a more techniques to draw attention to your company that might result in a sale, ranging from making films to holding competitions.
Conclusion
One of the most crucial components of any e-commerce strategy is your own website. It is a fantastic method for you to develop your brand, attract devoted clients, learn new things, and use creativity in your marketing. Check out Soharon Infotech if you need a partner to assist with fulfilling online store orders. Our company uses direct connectivity to manage orders for marketplaces as well as websites. You don’t need to know any code to create your e-commerce platform, we will do all the necessary process for you.