When it comes to ecommerce, there is often great confusion about which option is better: sell on marketplaces or create a dropshipping website of your own.
To make it simply, there are two main platforms which you could opt for when setting up your eCommerce store. Either you could set up your store on a popular eCommerce marketplace, or create your own eCommerce website. Today we are going to take a deeper look into both the two main methods and see how they work so that you could decide which one would suit your business the most.
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1. CREATING YOUR OWN STORE PROS AND CONS
Building your dropship store on store builder platforms such as Shopify, ShopBase, Woocommerce, BigCommerce are more like renting a space in a shopping mall to set up your store. You have choices of selecting themes and layout for your storefront, installing the best dropshipping apps or extensions for exceptional features. Therefore, there is more space for your creativity to come through when building your own brand image; however, it is also worth noting that it might take more time to do so.
Store builder platforms also enable you to manage your customer lists, or even the list of website visitors abandon their shopping cart. You are given conditions to build and run handsome remarketing strategies and brand loyalty programs.
2. POPULAR ECOMMERCE MARKETPLACE PROS AND CONS
On the other hand, selling on a popular eCommerce marketplace is simply like having a stall in a famous boot-fair. You can take advantage of these marketplaces’ huge traffic that gives your stores and products great exposure. In fact, what consumers on the marketplace are looking for is not your business in particular, but you could still be able to make a lot of sales by making your products and store stand out from the crowd.
In terms of store layouts, most popular eCommerce platforms based stores are way more limited in their store designs. The chances for you to build a unique or strong brand image are limited.
3. CONCLUSION
To sum up, both types of store setups suit different types of online sellers. If you own a small and medium sized business, it is a better choice to opt for a well-known eCommerce marketplace. On the other hand, setting up an online store is an option that every business could aim at, from small to big business. But why not running after 2 horses? Since it is not a bad idea to sell multi channels if you have enough resources.
