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In this lesson, we will look at selling on your own website and some of the benefits and drawbacks. Creating your own website to sell on is a big step in the right direction to grow your business and boost your income. Setting up a website can be time consuming and intimidating for some though.
There are 3 main benefits of selling on your own site:
1. Eliminate your competitors
When buyers come to your website, they can only buy your items. This is a huge advantage to sellers who are used to the very tough competition on eBay and other marketplaces. Eliminating your competitors offers two advantages:
A. You won’t lose sales to competitors who are selling the same item as you for a lesser price and,
B. You can actually increase your prices because, unlike on eBay, you aren’t having to drive your prices down and compete with sellers who seem to be able to sell items for a lot less than you. This results in bigger profits every time you make a sale on your website.
2. No listing or selling fees
We all know how much marketplace fees eat into our profits and when you sell on your own website, you free yourself from these fees which means all the money you make is yours to keep! Keep in mind that depending on how you process your payments, you may still have to pay PayPal fees.
3. A more professional and trustworthy image
Despite the fact that eBay has been around since 1995, many web users are still hesitant about buying from there. A professionally designed website, however, induces trust in buyers and makes them feel more comfortable about buying online.
Let’s take a look at some of the drawbacks of selling on your own website.
1. Initial lack of traffic
When you first start your own website, it’s likely that you will have low levels of people coming to your site. Generating a customer base and getting regular buyers to your website can take time, but once you have established a loyal customer base, and have new buyers coming to your site on a regular basis, your business will really start to grow.
2. Lack of support
When something goes wrong on eBay, you can generally get in touch with their support staff and get the problem fixed. However, when you sell on your own website, you will be faced with problems that you need to overcome yourself. If you use a good website builder, however, you will have complete technical support and someone to talk to if you need advice on any part of your business.
3. Initial start-up costs
Setting up your own website can involve fronting up with some cash, but it’s probably a heck of a lot cheaper than you think. Unless you get a go to a local web design agency and get a website made from scratch, you can get your own store up and running for peanuts.
