Nowadays, everyone wants to start an online business, most people even try their luck, but only a few get successful. Do you wonder why? Getting started with an online business is easy, but getting conversions and considerable sales is not. However, it demands the right strategy and time. The right strategy includes a step-by-step process and an understanding of eCommerce business and ecommerce solutions.
In this blog, we shed light on the eCommerce solutions a business owner needs to sell online successfully. If you have the same query, read this blog to the end to get your information correct.
Marketplace
To sell anything, you need a marketplace that shoppers can easily access. In other words, a marketplace is a platform where sellers can sell their products and advertise their products, i.e. a superstore, a market or a mall.
However, when discussing the online marketplace, multiple options differ from the traditional marketplace. If You have to sell online, you would need an eCommerce website, an online store, or create your own marketplace.
Also Read: 5 Ways An Online Payment Gateway Can Boost Your Sales
If we break down things for simplification, we start with the eCommerce website and its options.
eCommerce Websites
The simple definition of eCommerce websites is websites that allow you to sell your products to worldwide customers. The increasing demand for online shopping has made eCommerce websites preferable options for selling your products. The online payment system allows shoppers to pay online and enables retailers to accept the payment. However, the website acts as a middleman.
Amazon, Ali express, Rakuten, and eBay are the most common and trending examples of eCommerce websites. To sell your products, you would have to pay a certain commissioonline payment systemn per every order to the website you’re selling.
Online Stores
The second option a retailer has for selling online is online stores. The online stores are similar to eCommerce websites; however, there are a few differences. On an eCommerce website, you have to pay a certain commission to the website per every order, but on an online store, you pay a fixed amount every month.
When you sell on an online store, you are responsible for advertising it on your own. On the other hand, an eCommerce website advertises your products.
When selling on an online store, you are free to add your payment methods, unlike eCommerce websites. You are free to acquire to services of any online partner solutions. Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento and Wix are the most common examples of online stores.
Own Marketplace
The most convenient and best of all option is your own marketplace. Creating your own marketplace means having your own website enabling you to sell your products online. A website is like a one-time investment; you will have a platform free from all restrictions. Neither you’re supposed to pay commission on orders, nor do you have to pay monthly rent.
Your personal website allows you to design it according to your needs. You can add payment methods; you can allow credit and debit transactions for shoppers. Besides this, if you want to allow other payment methods, there are no restrictions.
Payment Gateway
Once you have listed your products on your website or online store next step is the payment gateway. A payment gateway enables the transaction and allows the customers to pay their respective amounts. The payment gateways are like credit card machines installed at physical stores. Your payment gateway sales and services decide how many ways you can accept payments.
However, an efficient payment gateway can accept most payment methods, including credit and debit cards, QR code transactions, mobile-authorized payments, and other common payment gateways. The common payment gateways are Paypal, stripe, eft canada login and moneris outage.
Marketing and Security
Once you have a platform to sell your products and a payment gateway to accept the payments, the next step is how you advertise your business. Advertising and security play a key role in any business’s online or physical success. The advertising of online businesses includes advertisement on different social platforms like Facebook, google and youtube.
On the other hand, the security of a business depends on how secure your website or store is. You need an encrypted website and firewall protection around your site to protect the data.
Also Read: Which Merchant Account Is Best- An Ultimate Guide For Merchants
For the security of the payment gateway, you need to ask your service provider. There are different codes for different merchants named merchant category code MCC. If you sell groceries and products like that, you fall in mcc 5411. Similarly, there are different codes for different merchant categories. So there are different security protocols and guidelines for different categories.
Therefore ask your service provider to provide a payment gateway that works properly, doesn’t show error codes, is secure and accepts payments through most channels.
Ending Notes
There are some basics of establishing an online business starting from the marketplace and going to marketing and security. However, This blog is for retailers who want to build their online presence but need more proper knowledge. We have covered all the basics of building an online business, and if you read, it will certainly enlighten your mind.