Opening your own online shop – the ideal complement to selling on Amazon
Selling on Amazon offers many advantages. In addition to a seemingly unlimited number of potential customers, it is primarily the straightforward handling that motivates many sellers to offer their products on the largest digital marketplace. Instead of spending a significant amount of time opening their own online shop, they can start selling their products right away. However, this simplicity comes with drawbacks. Especially when it comes to building brands or implementing complex sales strategies, sellers quickly encounter the limitations of Amazon.
In this article, we will show you how to effectively expand your offering on Amazon with your own online shop, thereby optimizing the advantages of both sales channels.
This article comes from our partner enno.digital. If you are in the process of creating your online shop and need ideas for implementation, you are in the right place.
Creating an online shop – Reach and competition
One of Amazon’s greatest strengths is the variety of its offerings. Whether it’s brand-name televisions or bicycle bells, bestselling novels or dog food – the seemingly endless number of all conceivable products provides Amazon’s customers with a shopping experience that leaves nothing to be desired. The resulting gigantic number of potential customers makes every seller’s heart race. The flip side of the coin: where demand is high, many sellers see their opportunity, and the supply – and thus the competition – grows rapidly. On average, two new sellers appear on the playing field every minute.
If your products are already established in the relevant segment, you can easily stand out from the crowd and enjoy all the advantages of Amazon’s vast reach. If not, your own online shop offers a solution. In this closed environment, you create a clear focus on your brand and products. Once potential customers reach your shop, their full attention is on your offerings, without distractions from your competition. By ensuring an intuitive and engaging page layout, you make it easy for customers to browse your shop and obtain the information they need, exactly when they need it. This way, you retain all the freedom to shape your own brand without being subjected to the direct competition of a marketplace.
Opening your own online shop – what are the costs?
The bad news upfront: The initial financial and time investment required to generate profits with your own online shop is definitely higher than selling through Amazon. Even though there are now plenty of tools and templates available that allow you to create online shops at a low cost, several other investments are still necessary before you can start successfully. In addition to costs for hosting, your desired shop system, and suitable inventory management solutions, you should budget for marketing activities to attract potential customers to your shop.
If you want to open a shop online, you also need to consider whether you would like to enlist the help of a digital agency for the design and development of the shop, which can provide advisory support or fully implement the shop according to your specifications. Depending on your requirements, you should budget in the lower to mid five-figure range, which often pays off quickly due to the agency’s expertise.
Once all the steps are completed and you can present your online shop to the public, you have full control over your pricing and branding policies. For example, you can lower prices during promotions without suffering profit losses compared to selling on Amazon. Of course, you can also invest the profits into marketing or the further development of your shop to solidify or even improve your market position in the long term.
Comprehensive brand building
When you start an online shop, positioning your brand in the minds of your customers is of utmost relevance. Only in this way will you stand out from the endless offerings on Amazon when you create your own webshop and be able to retain customers in the long term. Since Amazon itself – understandably – allows little room for the design of external brands, this is where your own online shop comes into play. It offers you all the freedom to personalize and present your brand. For many companies in ecommerce, it represents the core of their corporate identity.
If an Amazon seller wants to create their own online shop, they must ensure that it stands out from the crowd, aligns with the overall image of the brand, and possesses a recognizability that extends beyond their own boundaries. This way, your Amazon sales activities will also benefit. Even if a potential customer reaches your online shop but decides against making an immediate purchase after viewing your range, you have at least gained a touchpoint between them and your brand. Perhaps this customer will later find your products again during a search on Amazon, remember them, and choose to make a purchase there due to the familiarity.
Personalized marketing and sales strategies
When you build your own online shop, you not only have endless possibilities for shaping the brand itself but also complete freedom to develop personalized marketing and sales strategies. This is particularly relevant in the B2B sector, where customers place orders for large quantities or require customized versions of the desired items.
But even as a B2C seller, you benefit from flexible options for pricing. For example, you can offer bulk discounts when purchasing three identical products to create an additional purchasing incentive. Or you can send personalized discount codes to subscribers of your newsletter as part of a campaign. The possibilities here are endless and allow you to tailor offers and prices precisely to the needs of your target audience, thereby ensuring the best possible service. Those who want to build on all levels of ecommerce must remain flexible.
But you also have several options to strategically build your pricing policy on Amazon. Learn more here: Get started with the right pricing strategy: Find the strategy that truly fits your business – including practical examples!
The perfect shopping experience
Of course, marketing and sales strategies are not the only levers you can adjust when building your own online shop. To enhance your customers’ shopping experience, you have many creative options at your disposal. Use videos to demonstrate your products in action. Animate graphics to explain their structure or functionality. Or bring your products directly to your customers’ homes through VR. The possibilities are endless and allow you to present even complex products in an understandable way. Similarly, you can differentiate everyday items from your competitors’ offerings through extraordinary presentation methods.
Integrate practical tools and features in your shop to guide your customers at every stage of the customer journey and ultimately lead them to purchase. A product finder can help inexperienced visitors who are still at the beginning of their “journey” to find the ideal version of a product from your range without much technical knowledge. Extensive filter options on your category pages provide customers who already know their requirements with the ability to find all products with the desired features in seconds. This way, you can provide each customer with the information they need at every stage of their individual purchasing process.
Independence
One final advantage of having your own online shop has already been highlighted in some of the previous points, but it should be emphasized again here: the independence from intermediaries, platforms, and their algorithms. As the operator of your own online shop, you have the freedom to design your shop, curate your product range, and carry out promotions as you see fit.
Much more importantly, you are not bound by the (economic) interests of another company. Of course, a sales platform like Amazon thrives on satisfied customers and is therefore also interested in a good offering from sellers on the marketplace. However, the ultimate decision-making power remains in the hands of the platform. That this is not necessarily a bad thing is demonstrated by many examples of successful Amazon sellers. However, having an alternative sales channel in reserve can never hurt.
Conclusion: The mix makes the difference
When planning a sustainably successful e-commerce strategy, you will sooner or later need to open your own online shop. This serves as the showcase for your brand. Here, you can create a central point of contact for your customers, perfectly present yourself and your products, and fully utilize your marketing repertoire. It provides you with the necessary flexibility to sell your products in custom designs or quantities and allows you to fulfill orders that deviate from the norm. However, the initial effort is high, both financially and in terms of time. And even once the shop is finished, you will first need to promote it before you notice any economic success.
In combination with your Amazon seller account, having your own online shop puts you in an excellent position. Both platforms complement each other perfectly in many aspects and balance each other’s strengths and weaknesses. The potential reuse of existing content, such as product descriptions and photos, makes it easier for you to operate both sales channels simultaneously. Finally, if you adapt your sales strategy to the individual characteristics of each platform, a multitude of new opportunities will open up for you.
FAQs
The following points must be considered: reach for new customers, individual brand building, and personalized marketing strategies. This is particularly crucial for products without an Amazon presence. Through targeted communication and an appealing shopping experience, customers can be convinced. A unique shop design reflects the brand identity and attracts not only Amazon customers. The flexibility of the shop allows for creative sales strategies such as bulk discounts or email campaigns that can retain customers in the long term.
Building your own online shop – compared to selling on Amazon – involves a higher initial financial and time investment. You need to invest in various areas, such as hosting, shop systems, inventory management solutions, and marketing. However, having full control over pricing and branding policies allows for profitable and flexible business management in the long run.
A own online shop does not require specific professional experience. However, basic knowledge in e-commerce, online marketing, accounting, and customer service is highly beneficial. Understanding certain target groups and the ability to effectively present and sell your products or services are also important. There are many agencies in this field that are happy to assist you.
Image credits in the order of the images: © Tierney – stock.adobe.com
