Any seller who desires to grow his business online can’t brush off the elephants of the eCommerce jungle – The Online marketplaces. While selling via your own store is a great alternative, it is a fair choice to take into consideration selling on marketplaces, as well.
Want to begin selling, but don’t know how to start? Go through our post to follow these 3 easy steps.
In our last story, our fashion entrepreneur Lata choose to go online.
Lata has a business that sells women’s clothing. With each passing year, her business has matured to be profitable. After a time, her sales stopped up growing. She wished to grow her profits, size up her business, and stretch out to more customers. She opted that the right thing she could do was sell online.
She kickstarted her online store by opting for the perfect front-end eCommerce platform for her business. Know her complete story here.
Lata’s story (continued…)-
Lata’s store has with success augmented her customer reach – and the profits have grown up with it.
And at present, like any shrewd business (wo) man, she’s thinking, “I need more!”
She wants to hike her revenues – and so she desires to sell on online marketplaces.
Her selection of marketplaces includes – Amazon, Flipkart, AskmeBazaar, eBay, Lazada , Snapdeal – and the list is ceaseless.
What does she have to profit by selling on marketplaces?
Topmost Advantages of selling on Marketplaces:
Decreased Marketing Costs – By listing on a marketplace, she will not have to expend time and resources edifying her own brand. This will permit her time to concentrate on her core capabilities – such as assortment, pricing etc. of her products. Marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay have a high client reach, and this will give Lata’s products visibility from day one.
Setup Costs – By listing on marketplaces, Lata only has to pay when she gets the order. Nevertheless, if she has her own store – she will have to pay for setup – the platform, themes, custom-made, publicity, etc. even when the order quantities are low.
Simplicity of setting up operations – Effortless to set up and get going –she can start right away; all she requires to do is register, list products and sell. This is one of the key reasons why selling online on marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay is such a best-selling option for almost all business owners.
Sell Worldwide – Marketplaces are global – which means she can be too! Selling on marketplaces is among the quickest and most favourable ways of going cross-border. For example, online marketplaces such as Amazon can aid you in selling to its booming market – given its broad reach in the area.
Trouble-free selling – The majority of marketplaces offer support to operational hassles that sellers countenance, all for a small fee. For example, sellers who sell on Amazon without fulfilment ability have the alternative to get their orders Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA). Amazon takes the order end to end, offering the seller a simple, easy way to sell. Likewise, nearly all marketplaces today have a Fulfilled by Flipkart, Fulfilled by Snapdeal etc. choice etc.
Profits, profits, profits – Selling on a marketplace is the simplest, fastest way to begin selling with minimal costs. Their broad client base means that revenue grows with larger volumes of orders and enhanced sales.
So there is a bunch of benefits to selling online on marketplaces, but how does she choose a marketplace which best matches her objectives?
To choose the best marketplace that addresses her business needs, there are various factors she needed to bear in mind, such as pricing, shipping, payment policies, etc.
Lata compiled a comparison list of marketplaces to make her choice –
PRICING
Each and every marketplace has its separate pricing structure. Based upon their guidelines, they may charge–
Monthly Subscription Fee – The majority of marketplaces charge a monthly fee for selling on their platforms.
Listing Fee – Sellers are charged a standardized sum of money for every product they list on the marketplace’s catalogue.
Payment Gateway Fee – Marketplaces are merged with Payment Gateways – it is not normally charged, with the exclusion of eBay, which charges a ‘Paisa Pay Fee’. For all sales made through eBay, you will be charged 4.5% as the PaisaPay fees. Additionally, on this PaisaPay fee (only interest amount, not the total sale value), 12.36% Service Tax is also applicative.
Commission Fee – This relies on the category of products that is sold. The commission fee varies from product to product on the same marketplace.
Major marketplaces in India, compared on the foundation of their pricing structures –
SHIPPING
Lata wasn’t convinced about Shipping. Did she need to ship products herself or through the marketplace?
PACKAGING
What increases the costs?
Packaging nowadays, particularly when goods are being transported across cities, states & borders is the utmost concern for retailers/sellers.
Damaged goods/incorrectly packaged goods are “the” major reason for customer returns & discontentment.
Lata would like to put one of her extra responsibilities off her head – so she can opt from the marketplace’s packaging alternatives. Many a marketplace offer packaging – based upon the fulfilment options chosen.
Here is Lata’s comparison chart –
PAYMENT
At what time does she get paid? Each marketplace has a contrasting payment policy and pays as per them. Marketplaces like eBay for example, payout the full amount as soon as the product is accepted by the customer. On the other hand, Snapdeal makes the payment only nearly 3 weeks post-product dispatch date.
MARKETPLACE SUPPORT
Last but not least – support from the marketplace is a big cause, particularly when starting out.
Lata wanted to select a marketplace that not only offered her pre-sign up support but also while selling – in transacting with returns, payment, cancellations, etc.
Numerous marketplaces render support and training to its sellers.
AskmeBazaar, for example, can make use of its seller panel, to aboard its sellers faster, and supply support to its sellers by serving them out in training, shipping, returns, cancellations, etc. (read trivia below)
Lata finally made up her mind to sell on more than one marketplace, which serve her business needs. She can make sale on multiple marketplaces, as well as her very own store and you can do that too!
Here’s how she can start selling in less than 2 minutes:
Interesting Trivia
Are you aware #1: AskmeBazaar was originally called GetitBazaar. They changed their name in 2014.
**The data rendered in this post is prone to change as per marketplace guidelines. Data has been collected from secondary research, and as per our conversation with multiple sellers.
Next in our series – Do’s and Don’ts for Online Sellers.
