Amazon, E-bay, Shopee or my own website?
We are selling a turmeric latte spice mix, which people can mix with their milk and drink in the morning as a healthy beverage. This spice mix contains essential spices that help to fight infections and lifestyle diseases.
The spices are manufactured and packed in Singapore, and we want to market and sell the turmeric latte spice mix to places where the benefits of spices are not very well known and not commonly used.
We are confused in which markets and through what online channels should we sell the spice mix. Instead of using the E-Commerce Marketplaces, we can even build a funnel via clickfunnels, or sell on a shopify website. How should we start, and how should we scale later.
Hi,
Thanks for clarifying your business model. This helps me help you better.
So, as part of strategy, I would suggest you to begin with global e-commerce giant, Amazon. Furthermore, I would suggest you to keep it exclusively on Amazon.
You can tell your existing customers to purchase your products on amazon and give them a coupon which they can use to get a discount. Also ask for their reviews (there are multiple ways to do that).
This helps you keep up the numbers that acts as a social proof on Amazon. People looking for the products you sell will find you product in the search results.
Since you have taken care of the numbers (sales & reviews) Amazon will promote your product to the top of the search result and hence increase the sales.
Meanwhile, I'd suggest you to create your own website and market it across all marketing channels like search engine, social media & email.
This includes bringing in customers via blogging, content marketing, videos, social media posts and newsletter.
Once you have a decent number of user base, you can then shift your focus from amazon to your own website.
The reason why you should consider your own website, is that Amazon is only getting 30% of every sale it makes (which is also the main reason why you should build your own website), so Amazon will increase its margin by selling same products as their own and rank it atop.
At the end of the day, you don't own the customers on amazon, or any platform for that matter. So in order to reach global customer base and increase profit margins, you should rely, invest & take very seriously on your own e-commerce website. You can do that using shopify or Woocommerce+Wordpress.
This is a 10,000 feet overview how I would get started with e-commerce business & this is how I have helped many of my clients.
If you need any help, feel free to book a call & I'll help you strategize in detail.
Hello, I would think about which platform has the more diverse mix of customers and shipping options. Since the product is made in Singapore you want to ensure that the platform will aid in offering different shipping options. Think about how your product can easily be matched when searching for similarities as well.
My expert recommendation is a good web site. Pay someone to create the perfect place to sell and distribute. Trying to use second calass platforms {Amazon, E-bay, Shopee} will make your job easier, but it will make it difficult for buyers to buy. There are 80 million e-stores on the internet and there are plenty of scams. Your site must meet the requirements of trust and functionality and not second-rate solutions. I would like to lead your project for a decent price, send me a message inbox and I will gladly analyze your idea and your plan for free.
My recommendation is firstly sell through a good known site that is accepted and used globally . E bay , amazon are the best sites to sell your product because people are aware of this site and trust them
Secondly create a social media platform and get your product known by people
You can do this by paid advertisements , promoting your product through blogging like ( you can send it to bloggers that are best known in their countries )
Selling from your own platform would be more good as you will be in direct contact with your your customers and clients and will be able to know their reviews and requirement
If you need any help feel free to contact me
It is a question that every seller or retailers think who wants to sell online. Whether you should sell your products in an online marketplace or start your own e-commerce website?
There is no doubt that selling on the online marketplace is an easy option and since they have readymade traffic, you can expect immediate sales on the day you start selling on the online marketplace. However, in the long run, the benefits of running your online store will outgrow your desire to sell products at other websites.
By not selling on your own website, you are losing the following things:
• Brand value. Listing your products at online marketplaces will shadow you amidst hundreds of other retailers and curb your brand identity.
• Fear of losing the business. You can be removed as a seller any time and also marketplaces increase its commission percentage when they want.
• No control & flexibility. Since you are selling amidst hundred of sellers, you will have to offer a competitive price.
• No access to customer data. On online marketplaces, this data remains with the owner and not the vendor. This means you cannot retarget your customers for offers, deals, and promotion.
There are many other disadvantages of selling on an online marketplace. You can start your own ecommerce store FREE with QuickeSelling.com. Unlike Shopify, it is a free and quick solution to launch ecommerce website/apps. Visit: https://www.quickeselling.com
There is no simple answer as every eCommerce business has truly unique needs and as those requirements are outlined it will present a clear case for which direction to proceed. Based on what you've outlined already my recommendation would be to use a platform that has unlimited flexibility to integrate into - most likely that would be WooCommerce but others could work too. The key is having your shipping and fulfillment automated, all of your inventory centrally managed from one place regardless of the channels you sell through (i.e. Amazon + your own site), and all customer communication automated. If those things aren't automated you'll lose your pants on trying to manage the business just to keep up with the daily changes in data. We actually just helped launch a business in a very similar situation https://moringavinga.com/
The last reason I'd recommend doing a combined approach of channel sales through something like Amazon plus your own site is you're not putting all your eggs in one basket that is highly dependent on another business. i.e. what happens when Amazon says to sell that food product your labeling has to change -until then they remove your product and you lose 100% revenue + momentum until you can meet their new requirements. Having a home base for your own brand is critical.
Hi, there are few things to consider before choosing a platform to sell your product. First I would consider the primary location where the product is manufactured before I put it on a global market. All eCommerce platforms are good what really matters is what the intended customers know about the product. Most products in your niche sold eCommerce platforms like Amazon and eBay are products which have grounding already.
I would recommend you start your own website, create social media accounts, do marketing for the product before putting it on Amazon or eBay. The simple reason is these platforms work on reviews, when a product is new they are not the best platforms.
I would also recommend creating funnels because through that other people will market the product on your behalf. Depending on your target location you will get better results than eCommerce platforms. When the products start to sell well then list it on Amazon or eBay.
Good luck!
I would recommend a Shopify site. I've created a few already and found the platform to be very user friendly and focussed on e-commerce. Considering you're selling something lightweight, shipping would not be a major issue and rates are easy to calculate in Shopify.
The big thing to consider for your business is whether or not you want to build a customer base or sell products. Selling on marketplaces can be easier to set up but you are building someone else's customer base and in a sense building a house on rented property. Creating your own store gives you control and you build your own customer base that you can contact at any time.
Shopify is very flexible and is fairly easy to set up with lots of tools and support available.
If interested, I can go into greater detail about setting up and managing a store on Shopify. In the meantime, good luck with your business!
Greetings,
As I see you seem to have got some really good answers. So to add firstly, I would like to vote for Amazon as one of the best channels for selling. Over 40% of the total unit sales on Amazon are generated by 3rd party selection on the site, making it a right choice for those who wish to sell internationally. You can sell in more than 30 product categories, access 11 global marketplaces (with Australia coming soon), and use FBA and FBA Export to take care of shipping and customer service from 109 fulfilment centres.
Followed by eBay, selling internationally on eBay gives buyers the chance to bid on items or purchase them at a fixed price. After setting up a seller account, you can increase visibility by purchasing an international listing upgrade, or you can visit any of eBay’s 26 international sites to post products directly to those marketplaces.
Lastly and most importantly, as a business coach I would like to suggest you to study and delve about a company by the name of 'Pride of India'. They have been selling a product similar to the one you mentioned on Amazon.com under Health and Household category. For their Organic Turmeric Latte Spice mix they seem to have a decent enough review (466 reviews & 4.1 rating ) on Amazon. It would be a good idea to research their marketing strategy before entering the market. It's always good to study your competition beforehand to learn your own USP.
Let me know if you need any additional information or guidance. I would be happy to assist you further over a call. Best of your luck.
Hello,
I would agree with some of the answers below that you should be on Amazon for your brand, but I also think that having your own eCommerce website (either on Shopify or any other platform) have huge advantage long term for your brand to help:
- Build an asset that you own and control (as opposed to Amazon).
- Build and own your email list to make the people that buy come back for more.
- Create more notoriety for your products
- Possibility to expand with paid ads & Influencer marketing to make your brand go viral
- Higher valuation if you decide to sell later.
So first I would create a Shopify store, get someone with experience doing Facebook ads to generate some traffic and sales on your site, and then create your listing on Amazon to benefit from their free traffic.
If you have a solid brand, nothing stopping you from selling across multiple platforms at the same time ;)
I'm new to Clarity, but I've successfully helped over 50 entrepreneurs get started in eCommerce over the last 4 years, and I would be happy to help you. After scheduling a call, please send me some more information so that I can prepare in advance before the call. Take a look at the great reviews I’ve received here: https://clarity.fm/xavier-cl/reviews
It truly relies upon how much volume/guests your site can deal with. You could arrange something extremely straightforward now yet following a year you may need to redesign your site to a greater/better stage to have all the highlights of an internet business webpage. Nowadays clients are ruined for decisions with large c-trade players. For ex: If a client restores an item and you need to offer credits to the client in his/her record. This is a different module and requirements to be constructed.
Assuming you want something simple and elegant, here is the list.
WooCommerce - It is simple and easy to ma.
Shopify - Lot of Shopify folks as well - they can build a site for a fixed cost.
Wix.
Magento.
BigCommerce.
LemonStand
Spree Commerce.
Volusion
Big Cartel
Yo! Cart
IMPORTANT: It is important to select a platform that has all the extensions/integrations that you’d want in your country. Make sure the platform you choose is widely used in your country and there are a good number of apps in the platform for Plug and Play.
I would be happy to help with any further details.
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