Social media is one of the saving graces of the ongoing pandemic. It does not only connect people; it also allows anyone to generate some income through online selling. Many are taking advantage of the features of social media sites to promote their business or sell products.
Facebook, in particular, has a number of features that support online selling. The social media giant allows users to set up pages for posting for-sale items. These pages have fields for inputting the prices along with convenient messaging buttons that provide a quick way to contact and notify sellers. Additionally, Facebook’s live video feature helps small-time online sellers in interacting with potential buyers.
These are all great ways to sell products on the web. However, it is still advisable to have a separate ecommerce site or online store for going-concern businesses that are eyeing future expansion.
Flexibility and greater control
Having your own website affords flexibility and better control over how you present your business. As experts in web design in Oxford suggest, social media and free website-building solutions are not enough to create an impactful online presence. It’s not possible to develop a distinct identity if you rely on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. The most you can do with these is to put out your logo or static banner.
Social media sites are useful – without doubt – especially in promoting products and interacting with customers. However, they wouldn’t suffice for businesses that seek to establish a reputable brand and reach out to customers beyond local borders.
Moreover, limiting your business to social media prevents you from creating a unique customer experience. How do you make your brand stand out if the way you deal with buyers is similar to how everyone else is doing it? It is necessary to have greater control over how you do things. Facebook can change policies or decide to remove your posts or suspend your account altogether. You can’t allow your business to be subjected to this arbitrariness.
Having the right mindset
There’s nothing wrong with using free solutions to promote and sell your products. However, you need to invest in bespoke solutions if you want to be ahead of the competition. There’s a need to do more to gain more.
Investing in a well-developed website is similar to committing yourself to achieving more success for a business. It takes away the mentality of mediocrity. Some businessmen tend to think that it is okay to fail because they did not exert any effort to do things right. The expenditure (for the website) reminds and compels business owners to do their best, so they don’t end up wasting the resources and time they spent in starting the venture.
Having an ecommerce site is a must for anyone engaged in buying or selling products and services. Garage sellers and those who sell things online for fun don’t have any significant benefit from having a website. However, those who want to start web-based businesses should consider putting up an official online store to establish a more credible and distinctive online business presence and create the mindset of chasing success.