Selling Through Marketplace vs Open Online Store – Which is The Best and Profitable ?

Maybe now you are in a position to determine what products will be sold through online media. Then, a new problem arose... where should this product go? Marketplaces such as Lazada, Tokopedia, and Bukalapak, or decide to open their own online store and compete with giant marketplaces in Indonesia.

Marketplace VS online store. This is the essence of the article I created. What's the purpose? It's not just about finding which sales platform is the best; I will dissect the advantages and disadvantages, long-term benefits, and of course... most profiteering for you personally.

Marketplace VS online store

The products you sell have their own uniqueness. Regardless of the type of product, the sales platform contributes a small factor that can determine the practice or not of the product you are selling. Most importantly, though, it's still your product, not the platform where you sell the product.

Marketplaces and online stores have their own uniqueness, advantages, and disadvantages. As an online product seller, there are some that you should know more about.

Advantages and disadvantages of marketplace

When it comes to Lazada, Bukalapak, Tokopedia, and other marketplaces, what comes to mind? Perhaps, online sales media whose promotions jor-joran with a myriad of investments for advertising. Yep. That's got a truth.

I have a personal view of the marketplace. They're all intermediaries. An intermediary between the buyer and the seller. As an intermediary, of course promotion is the main weapon to collect time. No wonder, the promotional budget is incredibly tight.

So, looking at the amount of money in the marketplace and the number of (prospective) buyers, is it better to sell a certain product through the marketplace? You should first look at the advantages and disadvantages of selling through the marketplace.

5 Advantages of selling on the marketplace:

There is no need to spend money on making investment websites – not a little money will come out when you open an online store. Depending on the size and complexity of the website, the cost of creating a website is potentially bloated. Moreover, if you use a paid CMS like Shopify; there will be more costs coming out.
The target market already exists – everyone who enters a particular marketplace, already has a desire to buy a particular product. It will not be difficult if you sell the goods you are looking for and needed target market.
Trust has been built – when you sell products on the marketplace, no matter how expensive the products you sell, if there is a market and buyers, your products will still be sold. One of the foundations has been built. What's that? Trust. Buyer confidence through the marketplace is already very high. Thanks to vigorous advertising and promotions, it's one of the educations that when buying something on a particular marketplace, the chances of being deceived and there are problems in the future will decrease.
Ease of website and navigation for buyers – although for the first time selling on the marketplace you will find it difficult to get a buyer, this will not last long. Marketplace has a website design and navigation that is very friendly for visitors. For example, if someone is looking for a facial beauty product and you sell one of the facial beauty products... although your product has not been searched, it is possible and potential that your product is visible in the "similar products" column when visitors see other facial beauty products.
SERP optimization and SEO Friendly – this becomes one of the advantages, when you sell through marketplaces, means you are not competing for organic visitors. Indonesia's popular marketplace already tops the list of SERP (Search Engine Result Pages) which will make it very easy to get additional organic visitors. If you sell products in certain categories or pages with a decent organic search, there will be the potential for your goods to sell quickly and become a selling item.

5 shortcomings of sales on the marketplace:

Competition is incredibly tight – undeniably, you are not the first person to sell beauty products (examples) in a large Indonesian marketplace. In fact, it's also possible that the items you sell on the marketplace are also sold by others on the same marketplace. This unusually tight competition will bring in a lot of conditions, where, usually a price war will occur.
There are sales deductions – as I said, marketplaces are intermediaries (third person), that is, there will be sales deductions as your contributions contribute to the marketplace because you are selling. The term, there will be a tax if you sell goods on the marketplace. How many of these pieces? Each marketplace has different policies and pieces. Although there are certain marketplaces that do not implement sales discounts before you reach your monthly sales quota.
You can't store buyer data – when you sell through a marketplace, all data is held by a third party. In a sense, you don't know who's buying, where it's from, and how its demographics are. All consumer data is controlled by the marketplace (third person). What's the loss? Anyway, I'm just selling, not collecting data. Yep. That's got a truth. But, think again, you missed the opportunity to get the costumer data and obliterate the opportunity to sell other items to the same costumer.
Buyers are used to buying at the lowest prices – if you sell a million general products, don't expect you to be able to sell the product and make a 100 percent profit. Buyers on the marketplace are very used to checking and comparing prices. As a result, if you are not the cheapest, it will be difficult to get sales from the marketplace.
You can't increase brandawareness – of course, you also want your online store to be known by the public. Through the marketplace, unfortunately, this is very difficult to do. For example, if you sell homemade juice on Lazada, when a costumer buys it and is asked by relatives and family, what will the costumer who bought your product answer about? Of course, not your brand... rather, the famous and costumer answer is Lazada. Correct?

Summary of marketplaces

Want to keep selling on the marketplace after seeing the shortcomings and advantages above? It doesn't get any harm; You can still sell products on the marketplace with all the advantages and disadvantages that exist. Here are some conclusions that can be drawn:

Sales investment in marketplaces is smaller than opening your own online store.
It's great to test the sale of your product in the market and see its enthusiasm.
It's easy to understand, in fact, for people who are new to selling, it's very easy to sell on the marketplace because it's so simple.
It's hard to increase brand awareness if you're looking for long-term profits
Competition is tight and price wars are frequent.

That's my personal view on selling through the marketplace. Now, to further complete the discussion, what are the advantages, disadvantages, and differences in sales through the online store itself? The language is downstairs.

Advantages and disadvantages of selling through online stores

To open your own online store, you basically need a website where you put all the products you sell. Typically, WordPress CMS platforms are most often an option. With Woo commerce functionality, selling through your own online store is easier and more enjoyable. What are the differences, uniqueness, and advantages of selling through online stores compared to marketplaces? See the discussion below.

5 advantages of selling through online stores:

Control branding, user experience, and purchasing education – all done through a website with the name of your online store. Whatever you eat and display, it will have an impact on visitors. You're in control of everything. You want to present a buying experience through your online store is interesting, different, and unforgettable. As a seller, you are also responsible for educating visitors to get used to buying through online stores rather than marketplaces. Also, to make it easier, you can create friendly navigation and imitate the marketplace so you don't get confused.
You get the customer data directly – by getting the customer data, you have the opportunity to do email marketing. What are the benefits? You can sell more products, get more sales opportunities, and earn costume loyalty. You can build your own brand and have the opportunity to increase long-term brand awareness.
All the profits you hold without a discount – 100 percent profit will go into your account. No pieces. No taxes. No flaws at all.
Marketing becomes more efficient with paid advertising media – who says it's hard to find traffic for online stores? With paid advertising media, it's easier to get targeted visits directly to the products you sell. In fact, this method is much more effective than selling through marketplaces.
Some people prefer shopping through online stores than marketplaces- there has been research done, individuals aged 18-26 years prefer shopping in online stores than marketplaces. If you sell products in a unique way, a website with good navigation, and a new product purchase experience, of course you have the opportunity to be superior to the marketplace. Better yet, you already have loyal visitors and buyers who are very profitable for the long term.

4 disadvantages of selling through online stores:

You need additional costs for maintenance and others – running a website needs to require experts. It would be a good thing if you master website creation, preparation, and other things. However, if you don't master it, you need an expert who helps you prepare everything.
You need to run marketing – selling through the marketplace, you can say, you need a little time to do marketing. When you open an online store, you need to set up a special budget for marketing. Can be through Facebook Ads, Google Adwords, or other advertising media.
You need to fill in the content– why should it be? When your online store looks "deserted" and there is no reading material for visitors, surely you are giving visitors the opportunity to make visitors longer on your website. Ideally, the longer a visitor is on the website, the higher the conversion rate of your online store purchase. So, at least, you need to do an update once a week. Either add new products, or add new content and articles.
Payments – unlike marketplaces that have been set up by various payment methods, through online stores, you'll need to create your own payment method. In this case, if you use WordPress CMS, you can install plugin Payment Gateway for easy payment. Remember, trust is the ultimate in online stores... so, at least you should pay attention to the convenience and security of costume data.

Summary of online store sales

Looking at the disadvantages and advantages, which one do you think is more feasible: selling through online stores, or still utilizing the existence of marketplaces in Indonesia? Selling alone by opening your own online store, not too complicated and as difficult as you can imagine, really. Seeing the disadvantages and advantages, online store sales are still worth your run. From the discussion of online stores above, here are the conclusions that we can take:

Adding to the possibility of running email marketing is excellent for future businesses.
100 percent profit and profit without deductions.
You can get visitor data.
You control a lot of things and get a lot of things at one time.
You can increase traffic through paid advertising media with a highly targeted target market and high conversions.

Marketplace vs online store – which is better?

To be honest, this discussion is not looking for winners and looking for the best. This discussion is more likely to add new insights for those of you who want to sell products but are still confused about which way to sell.

If you have drawn conclusions to sell products through marketplaces or online stores and choose one of them, there is additional information for you.

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