The art of selling now is completely different from that it used to be several decades ago. Having a shop on the main street is good idea, however not possible for all business holders. And, to be honest, focusing only on physical shop is not all the business possible. Trying online world can be a great challenge and adventure, as you receive million of customers all over the world.
If you were tempting, but didn’t find some courage to launch it – this article is exactly for you! We will tell where you can sell and how to do it more effectively.
Note: there is no ideal online shop, it is the same true for the ones with physical presence. When opening a shop in Baker street or on Green Avenue you think about customers whether it will be convenient for them, whether the shop will be suitable for the audience and so on. The same is true for online places: of course, popularity is important, but you should rely on presence of your target audience.
Before you will start
Choosing online marketplace is probably the most exciting moment in all this activity. But after answering Ebay or Amazon you should think with the help of which system you are going to handle all the back-end issues, which system will be implemented for goods tracking, for example.
The question of delivery is also an important point, because you should have some arrangements with delivery companies. It also should be clear for your customers, whether the delivery service is included into price or not.
Selling of the good and receiving it by the client is not the end of the journey. You should have a system that will help you to gather feedbacks, to collect some information about your clients like emails to keep contact with them: it may be a personified leaflet with season sales, discount coupon, opinion poll etc. People become sad when see the seller was interested in them as a money source, they may not with friendship but a feeling they are interesting by themselves.
Some words about platforms
Amazon or eBay?
They are two big and very popular market places with local websites in big countries including Australia, US and UK.
Selling here is not a free option. Amazon asks nearly $40 (+some other taxes), fee from eBay is less per month, but they also get commission from all your deals.
Both the ad platforms are so popular that it is the first place where sellers and buyers come, so it is not surprising that you may see brand clothes or something like that. main advantage for big local manufacturers is that people far away may know about them, especially if they couldn’t google them.
What about others?
Of course, it is not a final list. There are certainly thousands of places specially designed for local selling. For small businesses it may become a good option with low money investments and risks, but will help to understand what is working well and how to improve other points to go to the global market.
