Online Marketplace Vs Own Online Store
The buy-local movement continues to build momentum in India. Major cities including Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru have created city-wide branding campaigns to encourage their citizens to support local stores and Entrepreneurs. While this movement is typically moving towards brick & mortar, retail, e-commerce businesses often face a similar dilemma. Is it better to sell their products through their own webstore or through major online marketplaces such as Amazon or eBay?
Well, the answer is, it depends. There are important “Pros & Cons” that you should consider before making a final decision for your business.
1. Brand Making
Marketplace:
Well established Online Marketplaces like Amazon, Flipkart, E-Bay, Myntra used every possible strategy to tap their brand in the consumer’s mind. So almost every internet user is familiar with these big brand names.
This brand value provides sales to most of the sellers associated with them. But at last this brand value is only profitable for the marketplaces because according to the buyers they buy products from that marketplace and not from you.
Own Online Store:
In the initial period, it will take a time to make your own brand name. For emerging as a good brand you will need your own unique products so that buyers couldn’t stop themselves to leave other online stores and buy it from your website. This way you can control your own brand which is not possible with the strict rules, regulations and formats of marketplaces.
2. Customer Making
Marketplace:
They have their own customer base which is continuously increasing day-by-day. On Flipkart, the number of monthly visitors is 62.3 million similarly 59.5 million visitors visits Myntra monthly. So, if you want to sell your products on these marketplaces then customers are not an issue for you.
But there is a second face of a coin, you are unable to know about your customers and product buyers. Only the marketplace have the right to access the customer’s list and not you. you can never have access to your customer base. And by not being able to access prior customers, you are missing out on huge revenue opportunities.
Own Online Store:
This is most likely the greatest favourable advantage of having your own online store. At the point when a customer purchases from you, you get all his required information and he turns into your client. Presently you can choose how you need to target him and pull him to return to you next time for purchasing.
3. Advertisement & Promotion
Marketplace:
Online marketplaces spend millions of money for their own marketing and advertisements. To gain traffic they regularly enhance their SEO, social media promotions and advertisements. There is no need to worry about the promotions of your products and the marketplaces do it for you without taking any single penny from your pocket. They charge you just when you sell anything through them. But this will not give any extra benefit to you as you have to share your sales percentages with them and you are missing a huge percentage of product sales.
Own Online Store:
You can buy your own advertising, drive traffic directly to your own website and keep 100% of the profits. The traffic visits your websites is fully yours and it will create your own customer database which is useful for your future strategies. Initially, it put a burden on your pockets but you can recover your all investments in a short span of time.
4. Profitability
Marketplace:
Online marketplaces work on a commission model. They will deduct a specific amount from the sale of your every product. It will lower down your earnings. It will not profitable to sell products on these marketplaces with low-profit margin.
Own Online Store:
Once created an online store, your profit will be yours.
Personalizing The Shopping Experience With Your Own Online Store
- Selling on your own online store allows you to market products in unique and distinguishable ways.
- Gives freedom to add personality to your website.
- It effectively humanizes the shopping experience for visitors and provides a personal touch.
- By giving buyers a chance to connect with your store and brand. You create a sense of trust that can pave the road for customers loyalty and increase the chances for repeat purchases.
