Why Your Online Store is Better Than a Marketplace

Any sales method - your own online store or marketplace, has its pros and cons. By choosing a marketplace, you don't need to create a website from scratch or set up technical aspects like payment service integration. However, an online store, which can be created for free using Opencart, allows you to sell exclusive products, build customer loyalty, and operate by your own rules.

It is optimal and profitable to sell high-margin or popular products on a marketplace. Examples include household goods. It is important that sales volumes, turnover, and markup cover the costs of delivery, storage, commissions, and discounts. The product should be simple, understandable, and not require detailed consultations. It is also convenient if the marketplace's warehouses or drop-off points are close to you. It is necessary to consider that marketplaces can charge fines for late delivery of goods to the warehouse and fees for storing goods in their warehouse.

Better to sell in your own online store

• Specialized products and products requiring technical knowledge, assembly, installation, or special delivery conditions that can only be provided by your company.
• If you are engaged in manufacturing or offer unique handmade products, such as jewelry, clothing, or accessories, their individuality can be lost when placed on a marketplace.
• Your product is targeted at a niche audience: members of interest groups, specific social groups, religious communities, etc.
• You also sell perishable food products, flowers, or balloons - which limits your delivery region.

Advantages of an online store on Opencart

The winning points of an online store compared to a marketplace include:

• Access to customer information: an online store allows you to connect almost any CRM systems and analytics systems for quick response, engagement management, and customer loyalty. For example, in case of an abandoned cart purchase, you can offer the customer a discount or launch a bonus program.
• Your own rules: owning your own online store, you can set your own rules and not depend on platform requirements. For example, you are not obligated to discount the product by 50% as the platform may require, and you can manage pricing and promotions according to your strategy. You can even create separate regional sites with your information for any region of Russia using the Regional Subdomains module.
• Easier to combat "consumer terrorism": users often leave negative reviews with poor ratings, return working products, or even swap purchased products. On the marketplace, there is practically nothing you can do about it. Your reputation and rating in the system suffer.
  
• Increasing product margin: in Opencart, you have full control over pricing. You can independently track changes in the market and the economy, be flexible, and not depend on third parties. This is especially convenient if you produce goods, as you can offer them directly to customers at a price favorable to both you and them, without overpaying dealers or intermediaries.
• Capturing customer attention only with your products: in your online store, you can focus the buyer's attention exclusively on your products, without allowing distractions to competitor products. On the marketplace, the customer can easily be distracted by similar offers from other sellers and change their mind about buying from you. In your online store, you can offer related products, increasing profit and average check. For example, a customer looking at your glasses will not be distracted by competitors' offers and will stay on your site, increasing the likelihood of a purchase.
• Increasing brand recognition and loyalty: your site helps strengthen brand recognition and customer loyalty. You can create your unique site design or buy a ready-made template for Opencart. Buyers have the opportunity to interact directly with your brand, learn about its history, mission, read the blog and articles, etc. When selling on a marketplace, the brand is lost, as it is overshadowed by the brand and functionality of the marketplace itself.

An online store provides the opportunity for a more in-depth analysis of sales, ensures high margin, and strengthens brand loyalty. However, for its successful operation, significant financial investment in advertising, logistics control, and provision of technical and service support is required.

Marketplaces, on the other hand, provide access to a wider audience, create confidence in your reliability as a seller, and take on logistics and service support. Their disadvantages include strict rules, high commissions, intense competition, and the risk of price dumping.

When choosing between an online store and a marketplace, it is recommended to gather information on which products and categories are most successful, on which platforms, and at what times they are in demand. If you decide on your own store - we recommend using our free version of Opencart - ocStore 3.0.3.7. It is based on the ocStore build from opencartforum.com.
Differences from the original ocStore: unnecessary regions, modules, and data loading from external servers are removed, and errors are fixed. You can read more about this build on our Opencart forum.
Differences from the original Opencart: fully localized in Russian and includes a number of improvements compared to the original OpenCart. At the same time, like OpenCart itself, it is free, has open-source code, and comes in a distribution ready to be installed on a hosting.

Please note - we have several modules that allow you to upload products, orders, and more from your Opencart store to marketplaces like Ozon, Avito, Wildberries. And you can also quickly create your own marketplace with your own rules based on the "Marketplace" module.