The fact that the global economy is volatile was best witnessed during the Covid pandemic. Our world changed almost overnight as a result of this pandemic. Although it impacted all industries, its impact on the retail industry was particularly severe. Many retailers went out of business as a result of social distancing protocols. But this also presented a new opportunity for retailers in the form of e-commerce.

There has been a clear shift in the retailing industry, with operations moving to the online sphere. This changed scenario would have likely made many people overwhelmed and anxious. If you are running a physical retail store, you are probably considering shifting to an online model. This is where the future lies and if you fail to adapt, you will likely need to shut your business.

Deep down you know you need to start selling online. Fortunately, it is now easier to sell online than at any time before. All you need is a working knowledge of the e-commerce industry and a high-speed internet connection like Hughesnet Internet.

Here are some considerations you will need to look into before launching your e-store.

Should I Build My Storefront or Use an Existing Marketplace?

You will first need to identify if you should have an in-house e-store or should you use the services of existing e-commerce platforms like eBay or Amazon. This will understandably be a tough question to answer. Here are the things you will need to keep in mind for both options.

Building Your Storefront

Having your own storefront has some obvious advantages. You will be able to control how it looks and functions. However, launching an e-store will take more time and effort. You will also need to use the services of a web developer for the initial setup.

Another advantage will be that you can make changes to your e-store as and when the need arises. You will have greater freedom to customize your store.

A big disadvantage is that you will be solely responsible for configuring your store for inventory, shipping, payments, and taxes. Doing this is quite a herculean task. This can easily get you confused, overwhelmed, and most importantly take up a lot of your valuable time. There will be several variables at play here so if you decide to build your storefront, then be prepared to go through all this hassle.

Using Third-Party Marketplaces

As mentioned earlier, there are plenty of third-party online marketplaces to choose from. They will allow you to set up your business and get it up and running in a quick time. However, this will come at the expense of forgoing complete control over how your product listings will be displayed.

You will need not be bothered with setting up the online selling infrastructure like transactional emails, payment processing, and web hosting. All these aspects will be taken care of by whichever selling platform you sign up with. This is a huge advantage that you won’t be able to enjoy if you decide to launch your e-store.

Another huge advantage is that you will be selling on a platform that already has millions of customers. The platform will come equipped with algorithms and functions that increase the searchability of a brand for the customers. In other words, you will have access to a sizeable customer base as soon as you launch your business. However, your business will be at the mercy of an external party.

If you opt to list your products on a third-party marketplace, you will be relinquishing complete control over how and when your products will be displayed. Your sales will also get affected if your chosen platform decides to change its algorithm. This might make it more difficult for shoppers to find your merchandise. Additionally, you will be competing with numerous other sellers. A lot of them may be offering more competitive prices than you.

There will always be pros and cons associated with both options. If you want to hold greater control over how you sell your merchandise, then you should opt to build your own storefront. If you value convenience over control, then get your products listed on a third-party marketplace.

What E-commerce Platform Is Right for Me?

There are numerous platforms available on which you can create your e-commerce storefront. For your convenience, we have shortlisted two of the bigger platforms, Shopify and WooCommerce. Our focus in this part of the blog will be on these two platforms.

WooCommerce

If you are familiar with using WordPress, then this is the right platform for you to opt for. WooCommerce is anyway compatible only with WordPress.

However, you will be responsible for getting updates to WordPress plugins. You will also need to deal with any issues that may come up with servers. Fortunately, there are online services that perform web-hosting on WordPress to help you deal with such issues.

If you don’t have a website or you don’t want to go through the trouble of creating one, you will have the option of hosting your store on the WordPress platform.

WordPress has appointed WooCommerce as its official e-commerce plugin. So if you have a WordPress account, you will get access to WooCommerce features. These features are all you need to quickly set up your e-store. These features include tax, shipping, and inventory management configurations. It will also allow you to use the gateways of e-commerce payment gateways like Stripe or PayPal.

WooCommerce also has a long list of extensions to help you optimize the shopping experience for your e-store. These include customizable shipping options and the ability to add variable products.

Keep in mind that you will have to deal with aspects like integrating payment portals to your e-store and shipping rates configuration. This will be a challenging proposition if you don’t have a lot of experience in dealing with these settings.

You will also need to make use of a transactional email service such as Postmark or SendGrid. This will send email notifications to your customers when they purchase your merchandise. WooCommerce and WordPress also offer this feature. However, you will need to have a certain level of technical sophistication to have it configured appropriately.

Shopify

Shopify is one of the most popular drop-shipping platforms in use these days. It is ideal for you if you want to quickly start an online selling business or if you are not familiar with building websites.

With Shopify, you can create a comprehensive storefront with any of the available customizable themes. You may also integrate your existing website by embedding your merchandise on the platform. Shopify can also be embedded in Content Management Systems (CMS) like WIX, Weebly, WordPress, and Squarespace. This means you have the liberty to choose your preferred platform on which to host your store.

You won’t need to worry about connecting to a payment gateway. This function will be handled by Shopify. It will also automatically send transactional emails related to shipping updates and order confirmations.

Shopify also links to point of sale (POS) systems. This will help you keep track of all your sales orders. With the help of a POS mechanism, you can sell your merchandise both in person as well as online. Plus, you can keep track of your inventory. This is a particularly valuable feature of Shopify, as it will allow you to sell through multiple channels. You won’t be restricted to just selling online.

Additionally, Shopify lets you get your business up and running in a quick time since you will not need to do a whole lot of configuring. However, this platform is not for you if you prefer to have total control over your storefront and website.

You will also find an extensive theme library for your store’s portal on Shopify. Although you may not find a theme that meets your requirements, it is always better to design your own theme.

Shopify is ideal for those online sellers who have very basic websites that only consist of product catalogs. However, if your website is more than just a storefront for your merchandise, then Shopify may not be the solution for you. If you need features like user log in, advanced search, directory listing, or store locator, then it will be better to sell through your website.

It is simply an e-commerce portal having limited individualized marketing features. It does not offer any customization beyond this. There is also a limit on the number of users that can get access to an account. This will be a problem for you if you need multiple employees to have access to your sales portal on Shopify. WooCommerce fares better in this regard as it has no limit on the number of users per account.

What Am I Responsible for When Running an E-commerce Storefront?

Dropshipping platforms certainly have their advantages. They will perform most functions linked to running your e-commerce storefront. However, they will not absolve you of all your responsibilities.

You will still be responsible for things like order fulfillment, dispute handling, inventory management, and taxation. Both Shopify and WooCommerce help in managing these tasks. However, they won’t do everything for you. Let’s see how you can perform these functions on both platforms.

Inventory Management

No matter which platform you opt for, you will still need to make sure you are entering the correct data concerning adding products to your storefront.

Both platforms are adept at keeping track of inventory as sales orders get processed. They will even go to the extent of hiding out-of-stock merchandise. They will even alert users when products get low in stock so you will know when to replenish them. However, updating inventory will be the responsibility of the account holder on either platform.

This can become even more challenging if you are selling variable products, such as clothing that come in multiple sizes.

Fulfilling Orders

Unless you are drop-shipping your products, you will be responsible for fulfilling orders. This means you will need a place to store your inventory, prepare your packages, and track orders.

Both WooCommerce and Shopify offer the ability to integrate with couriers like UPS, DHL, FedEx, and USPS. This means you can print shipping labels, and even calculate shipping costs from the comfort of your home.

However, you need to make sure you are only offering items to customers you can ship to. For example, you must determine if you are willing to ship internationally, and you will also need to determine what courier will offer the turnaround and services you need.

Summing Up

Online selling is a big industry today and will only grow bigger in the future. Just like any other industry, it is not easy to enter this industry as well. There will be many factors to take into consideration. We hope this article will make it easy for you to decide on starting an online selling enterprise.