The growth of online retail and all the convenience it brings to consumers and businesses alike has made the online retail market boom over the past decade. Online shopping will account for more than 50% of retail sales in the next ten years according to a new report, The Digital Tipping Point, commissioned by Womble Bond Dickinson
It couldn’t be a better time to starting seller online in the UK. With so many market places to choose from, we have tried to summarise your options for you.
Where can I sell online?
Here’s our pick of the top five places to sell online, taking advantage of the largest online retail opportunities.
Amazon is the world’s largest online retailer. The Amazon Marketplace gives you the chance to sell on on a reputable and world-renowned website. If you are looking for international reach, wider consumer audiences and reliability – Amazon Marketplace is the way to go. Amazon’s simple onboarding process for sellers makes it even more attractive.
Amazon Seller Costs:
- You will have 2 plans to choose from : professional or individual.
- The professional plan costs £25 a month for unlimited sales
- Individual costs 75p on each item sold
- There are also additional selling fees on top.
eBay was founded in 1998, ahead of the game, and has grown to become a household name is most countries across the globe.
Ebay allows you to sell almost anything while giving you access to 24 million registered users. Plus you have the option to selling using a bidding method or put an fixed price on your items.
eBay Costs:
- Basic pay-as-you-sell plan or
- Professional Plan – Register as a business starting at £25 per month.
Shopify differs from Amazon and Ebay because it actually is not a marketplace, it is a website building software designed to help anyone create an Online Ecommerce Store.
It offers its users help to start selling online with tools for marketing , built in discount features, financial management features. So basically you don’t need to be a web developer to set up and launch a shopify store. You can also use it to push product listings out to other online marketplaces.
Shopify Costs:
- Try Shopify for free for 14 days.
- The Basic Package starts at £25 per month with the most premium package going up to £250 per month
Etsy is the most popular niche marketplace for selling handmade and vintage items online. handmade crafts and vintage goods where ‘millions of shoppers spend billions each year. Choosing Etsy to sell your handmade goods is a good idea because they offer the benefit of a valued reputation and fairly low pricing too. Plus they even help to promote your products on the web to reach more people.
Etsy Costs:
- Free to join
- Listing fees: around $0.20 per listing which will stay active for four months, or until they sell.
- Transaction Processing Fees 5 % (eg. through Paypal)
Some new Marketplace worth looking at
Fruugo: Started in the UK, Frugo is an online marketplace which also makes it easier to buy and sell overseas. There unique selling points are:
- that they offer translation into 17 languages and
- accept payment in local currencies
Facebook or Instagram: While these social media platforms won’t offer you any payment integrations but it could allow you to target a wide audience or a local area of your choice within things like ads. Also, Social Media advertising tends to be very affordable.
How do I choose the right place to sell online?
Every online marketplace has different benefits and features to offer that will suit your business or not. You may need a more robust system like Shopify or Amazon if you want to integrate sales and marketing functions into your sales platform OR you may find something like Etsy.com makes sense for the type of product that you sell.
Here are key points to consider:
1. Cost – subscriptions and commissions.
2. Audience – will you find your buyers here
3. Competition
4. Usability – how much technical knowledge will you need to set this up
5. Value Added Tools – what value added features does the platform offer eg. sales function, advertising, invoicing and inventory management.
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