{"id":3767,"date":"2021-04-26T07:41:36","date_gmt":"2021-04-26T07:41:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vendlab.com\/?p=3767"},"modified":"2021-04-26T07:41:36","modified_gmt":"2021-04-26T07:41:36","slug":"do-i-need-a-website-to-sell-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vendlab.com\/do-i-need-a-website-to-sell-online\/","title":{"rendered":"Do I need a website to sell online?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The growth of online marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay means that it is entirely possible to build an online business without having a website. Many brands on Amazon are known as &#8216;FBA brands&#8217; as they only sell through Amazon FBA. Online marketplaces should be part of every online retailer&#8217;s marketing mix as they have a lot going for them:<\/p><ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Easy to set up<\/strong>. Little or no technical ability is needed to sell on online marketplaces.<\/li><li><strong>Massive, international customer base<\/strong>. When selling on a website, a seller must generate their traffic, but you get access to their enormous audience in exchange for a commission on marketplaces.<\/li><li><strong>No upfront fees. <\/strong>Most fees are charged on a commission basis, with no listing fees.<\/li><li><strong>Secure for buyer and seller<\/strong>. The marketplace takes charge of vetting buyers and seller and accepting payments, providing both sides with peace of mind.<\/li><li><strong>Support for sellers<\/strong>. Marketplaces offer added services such as postage which helps merchants to run their businesses.<\/li><\/ul><p>However big marketplaces are, they are only part of the eCommerce ecosystem. Whilst online marketplaces are a fantastic way to start selling online, they have distinct disadvantages:<\/p><ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Restrictive policies<\/strong>. When selling on marketplaces, the seller is bound by marketplace rules. These can restrict certain otherwise legitimate behaviours<\/li><li><strong>High fixed fees<\/strong>. Amazon charges 15% and eBay about 12% of every transaction<\/li><li><strong>Customer communications<\/strong>. Marketplaces typically prohibit their merchants from marketing directly to customers, so opportunities to encourage repeat business opportunities are limited. You do not &#8216;own&#8217; the customer.<\/li><li><strong>(Too) Highly customer focused. <\/strong>One of the reasons why customer like marketplaces is that they are highly customer focused. Consequently, they make it easy to return items and dispute transactions.<\/li><li><strong>Unaccountable<\/strong>. It is possible to fall foul of marketplaces rules and have your account restricted or closed permanently. If you are solely dependent on marketplaces, that would be a disaster. It does happen. Be afraid.<\/li><\/ul><p>By launching an eCommerce site, you can open new channels for your business and attract new customers. The table below compares the selling on a website and an online marketplace:<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td>&nbsp;<\/td><td><strong>Website<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Online Marketplace<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Fees<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/td><td>None (payment provides will charge 1-3%)<\/td><td>5-20% eBay 7-17.5% Amazon<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Marketing<\/strong><\/td><td>Retailers do their own marketing<\/td><td>Market place drives traffic to listings via its user base.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Risks<\/strong><\/td><td>Low<\/td><td>Marketplace closure, delisting or change terms and conditions<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Technical requirements<\/strong><\/td><td>Some technical knowledge needed to set up a website<\/td><td>Limited knowledge needed<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The growth of online marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay means that it is entirely possible to build an online business without having a website. Many brands on Amazon are known as &#8216;FBA brands&#8217; as they only sell through Amazon FBA. Online marketplaces should be part of every online retailer&#8217;s marketing mix as they have [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","transcript_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ecommerce-guides"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7zVGJ-YL","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vendlab.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3767"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vendlab.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vendlab.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vendlab.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vendlab.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3767"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vendlab.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3768,"href":"https:\/\/vendlab.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3767\/revisions\/3768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vendlab.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vendlab.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vendlab.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}