E-commerce is at its peak in today’s world. Although it has been around for almost three decades now, it actually exploded in popularity after the turn of the millennium. Some of the biggest companies in the world include E-commerce organization. This really shows how massive this industry has become. Amazon.com is that largest E-commerce website in the world and it has certainly played an important role in making its founder, Jeff Bezos, the richest man in history of the world.
As discussed above, E-commerce seems to be one of the hottest industries right now. It is also making tons of money for its owners. The world of E-commerce certainly looks tempting, and this temptation has caused many people with deep pockets to invest in it. As a result, they created intense competition out there. Almost every country on earth now has multiple E-commerce platforms competing for the top spot. The competition in the U.S. alone is really intense with Amazon locking horns with Ebay now and then.
If you are one of those people or a company that is looking to invest in the massive industry of E-commerce, then you need to ask yourself this question first— when is the right time to build your own E-commerce platform? Well, the answer to this question is, just start right away without wasting any seconds.
As you can clearly see, E-commerce is at its hottest right now, and it certainly doesn’t look like it is slowing down anytime soon. So if you want to invest in this industry, then now is the time. However, there are certain factors that you need to figure out before diving right into this world of E-commerce. Many businesses like to invest by simply buying an already established platform in order to skip all the struggles that they might have faced in the building process. Some businesses, however, like to take their time and build it from scratch in front of their own eyes. Both of these directions have their advantages and disadvantages but, in the end, it all comes down to your willingness to work and how much money you have in your bank account.
To Build or To Buy?
Before deciding to go in a direction, you need to understand the consequences of both of these investment methods. If you have really deep pockets and can easily take a risk, then you can go for buying an already built up E-commerce platform. But there some risks involved in this way, and one risk is that it might or might not work out for you. One way to avoid this is to keep the old staff and let them run it in their own way. Buying an E-commerce platform will save you from a lot of hassle that you might have faced building it.
Building an E-commerce platform entirely from scratch might cost you a lot of your valuable time and effort, but if done right from the beginning, it can be really fruitful. There are many benefits of building an E-commerce yourself, and some of them are mentioned below:
Freedom of Choice
When you build an E-commerce platform by scratch, then you can put in it whatever you want. This luxury of getting exactly what you want cannot be acquired through a buying an already built platform. You are in complete control of the design and model of the platform, and if you are looking to make it unique by adding a revolutionary feature, you can do that as well.
Dedicated to Staff
Of course, if you decide to build your own E-commerce platform, you will be required to hire a staff of programmers and IT personnel. This staff will be present with you from day one, and you can lead them by explaining your vision to them. As they build the platform, you can keep an eye on the progress and ask them to make changes on site.
After successfully building the platform, you can take on some of these people permanently with you in order to run and monitor the platform. This is because no one will know well when it comes to the maintenance and running of the platform.
Add Payment Methods
After you have successfully built an E-commerce platform, the next most important decision to make is selecting the payment method. Some of the biggest E-commerce platforms in the world have multiple payment options to facilitate their customers. Payment methods do vary according to the type of E-commerce platform and also according to the region it is serving in. Another thing you need to decide on is how you are going to receive money in your bank account after a customer has made a purchase from your platform.
Thankfully, there are already established services that can help you in this area for mutual benefit. Payment methods such as PayPal add Secure Website payments by WordPress can offer their services for any website. You can also receive payments from anywhere— whether it’s a bank transfer or cash on delivery— to facilitate your customers as most platforms do.
Add Products
After deciding upon the payment method, the next thing you need to do is start adding products to your website. Regardless of what products you intend to sell on your platform, whether through the website or an app, you need to add full description along with images or videos of the products. These descriptions are really helpful for customers to understand what they are buying. Sometimes they can also get tempted to buy something they don’t even need in the first place.
Test the Checkout
Before opening the gates of your platform to the open world, test it out yourself. Make sure the website or app is working fine and that the payment methods don’t cause any inconvenience. After successful testing, you can go ahead and dive into the world of E-commerce and start fighting with the bigger fish in order to climb the ladder to the top.