Member Article

Breaking the Myth : Selling Online is still Not a Good Idea

Everyone knows that ecommerce in growing disruptively and it’s hard to believe that still some sellers/small business/ marketers thinks that it’s not a good idea to sell online. They never know how powerful the internet is and how to utilize the internet in a proper way for their business. They keep refusing its power because they still have some misconceptions and they never tries to give a try. The most common myths about the online shops are:

1. Setting an online shop is a difficult task:

People think that setting up an online shop/website is not their cup of tea as it requires the technical, designing and other staff. However, it’s not so necessary because there are lot of ecommerce market places which are fully loaded and it takes only 5-10 minutes to set up the store online. They are user-friendly as well.

2. My products doesn’t suit to sell online:

Many sellers think that our products may not suit to sell online. However, it’s the biggest myth because from a small pin and vegetables to large electronics or luxury cars everything you can be sold online. It’s been found that some sellers tried to sell cow dung in cities at the time of festival. It proves that we can sell everything online.

3. Needs lot of investment:

We think that setting up a website and maintaining it seems to be risky and requires lot of investment. However, online shop doesn’t require much investment. You don’t have to rent a shop or spend more money on fancy decoration. But just create a website using some free website providers and upload your products. It’s simple and cost-effective way to take your business online.

4. Acquiring customers:

Customers are the backbone to any business. You can obtain customers little easy online than offline. Online market doesn’t have any boundaries. One can use his offline database to get customers to his shop or promote some cost effective ways such as Blogs, social media and email marketing. There are some apps available online which help to share your shop and products easily and allows you to improve your customer base.

5. Digital transaction and payments:

Many sellers think that collecting payment is the nightmare. However, it’s not difficult. Just provide all your documents and get an account for your business and link it to all your e-wallets, COD and also ask your customers to pay through online banking/card payment. There are lot of payment gateways available in the market and use them to reduce the burden of collecting/maintaining payments.

6. Logistics woes:

Logistics are biggest worry for sellers and some people are maintaining distance from online business because of logistics. However, it is not a worry anymore because there are lot more options available now compared to earlier (It was just2-3 providers). It is creating competition among them and many providers are giving huge discounts for online business. They are not only giving discounts but also can be tracked online and collect COD as well.

7. Need to have lot of features:

E commerce is an ocean and it’s difficult to swim over. We never know which all features are helpful and sellers keep adding more & more features so that they can get more orders. However they forget that it’s difficult to maintain more features and may confuse the buyers. If we observe the market many online stores are making one lakh profit every moth with minimal and basic features. Features doesn’t matter much online but what matters the most is how easy to use your shop and also the product’s quality.

8. Need to give lot of discounts:

We assume that shopping on online is good because lot of discounts available. However, why one will do the business? It’s just to earn some money and no one will sell their products for loss. They do keep the required margin and sell them. We can sell at low prices online because the maintenance fees are quite less comparative to offline shop. Discounts are used as marketing strategy and just to get more sales with fewer margins.

9. Useless to sell as lot of competition:

It’s never late to sell online. We usually assume that there are already quite decent numbers of good sellers online and we are entering the business late. However, where ever you go and whatever you do, you will find competitors or similar business. So stop thinking and start selling. Try to use different strategy to beat the competition. You will succeed in business.

10. Getting organic reach/ will get more traffic just like that:

The common mistake every online seller does is upload the products and leave it and thinks that your website/shop is not getting enough traffic. They assume that they will get the traffic easily on online but you need to understand that we need to promote our shop and do spend some money on promotion. The web is an ideal place to utilize grass-roots strategies for marketing.

Online marketing is growing vastly and making a lot of money. It’s the best thing for marketers so why waste time instead start selling online. Many people worry that selling online is not a good idea without even trying but it’s absolutely not. Be smart and make lot of money.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Shathyan .