Aspects that you can work on in your online store (and not in a marketplace)

It seems that, right now, everything is about selling on Amazon or any other of the marketplaces that have been emerging in recent years. And they are very good, they have a lot of reach, they help to internationalize the business... but they are not a panacea, as we have mentioned before. They have pros and cons, in fact quite a few of the latter.

Just a few days ago we talked about the importance of working your own online store in times of global instability like the ones we are living. Today we are going to see which aspects of your online store you can work to your advantage and which, on the other hand, you will not be able to work in the same way in any marketplace. 

 

But before starting, just a comment: we are not against marketplaces at all, but it is necessary to make a strategic use of them to avoid problems in the medium term.

This is the best parallelism that always comes to mind, and it has a very clear relationship with the retail world.

 

First thing to be clear about is that a marketplace is nothing more than a large area in which multiple brands compete for the attention of a large volume of people who come massively.

On the other hand, your online store is the equivalent of having your own store where you sell only by yourself. It may be less popular and have a lower volume of traffic and turnover, but it is still your business.

 

The big difference is that each of the models implies having less or more control and more or less reach, as we have mentioned.

Designing your online store is really cheap with solutions like Oleoshop: the monthly payment for a Basic plan is only 19€ and includes everything you need to start selling.

 

You could say: "But selling on marketplaces is free". Nothing could be further from the truth.

Amazon, to give the most popular example, charges us for each product we sell a different commission (reference rates ranging from 8% to 15%). To this we must add a fixed fee of 39€ per month and, in the case of delegating to them the logistics management, transport and storage.

 

As you can see, it depends on the volume and the niche, but all this necessarily goes against your margin. In fact, these costs have just gone up recently.

This is an Amazon classic. As if it was not enough to have to compete with all those who want to sell the same thing as you to the same public, you will find that the marketplace manages its own brands.

 

From that moment on, you find yourself immersed in a competition that is not as neutral as you would like. You enter into price wars to become the default option in the product file, appear in internal searches and sell more... but no one guarantees that, at a given time, Amazon will not notice your product and produce it or negotiate with your own manufacturer or supplier.

 

From that moment on you are out, because Amazon will always prioritize its own products.

In your store, you are the only one who sets your commercial policy, return policy, internal procedures, standards... but in a marketplace you are not in your store, my friend.

 

Amazon is characterized by being a customer centric company, so they take to the last extreme: customer is always right. You go unnoticed in the chain and you must assume that it is not in your best interest to argue with the customer. Bad reviews or, even worse, complaints, mean that your quality level as a seller suffers.

Lowering prices in the marketplace has a direct effect on your online store. Do you think a user will pay more to buy on your eCommerce than on Amazon? Of course not.

But of course, in the dynamics of the marketplace, the vicious circle in which you have to lower the price to sell more and maintain the position that allows you to do so, profitability is lower and your own online store is no longer competitive.

 

Having your own eCommerce is a guarantee to set the pricing policy you consider (as long as it is within reasonable market values).

To some extent, most of the transaction between the marketplace and the end customer makes us invisible as sellers. Nobody says: "I bought from company X through Amazon", they simply say: "I bought it on Amazon".

 

That is why, in a very high percentage, when they want to buy again they will go back to Amazon without caring too much about the seller. Today it is you, tomorrow isomeone else.

 

On the other hand, on your online store you can work on customer acquisition and loyalty in multiple ways. You can get customers to come back again and again, because a relationship of trust with the brand is generated.

That tightness assumes that we are contributing to generate traffic that makes our competition grow indirectly and that is 100% transactional. However, in our online store you can work the informational through, for example, a blog.

 

In this way, we reach more top of funnel users to go "evangelizing" and acquiring those who are not yet in the purchase phase.

All Amazon product sheets are the same, or almost the same. The shopping experience is great, but identical for buying a blender of one brand or another, even for buying a blender or a synthetic kidney for surgery practice.

 

On the other hand, your online store is only governed by your rules, by what you know about your customers, their preferences..... From texts to images, through customer service with a touch of advice and anything that serves to add value to the customer, are details that make the difference, and that they will never find in a large platform.

So, if a few days ago you were wondering how you could get more out of your online store in these turbulent times we live in, with today's post you have some ideas that will make your eCommerce does not lag behind or rely too much on revenues from marketplaces.