DO NOT START AN ONLINE STORE UNTIL YOU HAVE READ THIS – To Have Your Own Store Or To Use A Marketplace Initially?

Yesterday I wrote about ‘trust’ being the issue of why many Malaysian independent online sellers do not make much sales online – Malaysians trust online buying, but just not the small guys.

If you are thinking about starting an online business and know nothing about this fast-changing territory, then I would firmly advice you to read this article, which is based on my own experience of starting an online business in 2010, and the hurdles I had to overcome. These past challenges of mine have today become knowledge, and I wish to share this hard-gained knowledge with the other Malaysians who may have a dream to start an online business.

The first and best advice I am inclined to give anybody is NOT to start an online business using your own domain name and creating your own e-commerce store. Our quick research yesterday has already proven to us that Malaysians prefer to buy from the known and popular Marketplaces. Hence, the best advice I can give anybody who is starting off in this online business is to test the desirability of your products and services at Marketplaces. There are many Marketplaces in Malaysia that an independent seller can open an account and then upload his or her product images and start selling! It is that quick and can be done within minutes. Similarly do this with all the other Marketplaces available in Malaysia. Spread out your reach by opening as many free accounts at, especially, the popular Marketplaces. You may test this by asking your friends where they prefer to buy their online products, and this will give you some real statistics and a better idea of what to do next.

 

E-commerce Stores & Payment Gateways

The internet is full of advice and jargon that only the IT guys are familiar with, but now we ordinary folks have to learn some of it too. But we are not interested to learn all these technical stuff and would rather focus on product and idea development, but when you become an online seller, you MUST dedicate many hours each day on promoting your store and products to prospective buyers.

Also, if you have your own e-commerce store, you will need to link with one of the many Payment Gateways around. PayPal comes for free, but sadly Malaysians do not prefer to use PayPal much, based on what I have observed. Malaysians prefer our local banks and local Payments Gateways. We have MOL Pay, iPay88, and a few others. However, to have your website linked to these Payment Gateways, there will be a fee and also a monthly retainer. I used one of these Payment Gateways when I first started, it would be interesting to know that many online companies including some of these Payment Gateways were starting in the same time as I was (2010), and this means that everybody was a novice and everybody was trying to get their act together. Nonetheless, after I had signed up with one of them, and business did not come though my website, I found the monthly retainer of the Payment Gateway a waste of money.

For these reasons and more, it would be advisable to anybody who wants to have a go at this internet business, to take the cost-effective methods as far as possible initially, for an example, by using the services of popular Marketplaces. When you start to get some sales over time, then you can consider having your own e-commerce store.

The other benefit with Marketplaces is that they have their own traffic which is in the millions coming through everyday, and your product may be found in this Marketplaces that people spend hours browsing. This will rarely happen with our individual sites because we do not actively advertise and promote our websites as the rich Marketplaces do, and also Marketplaces offer so many product varieties that people prefer to shop from one place. These Marketplaces also entice the buyers with free  deliveries, and people have trust in them, most importantly.

Here are 5 things one should NOT do when one is new to all this internet business and have very little knowledge of it:

1. Do NOT engage the services of a web designer to design a website for you. You do not need a website just now. It will cost you a lot and there will be a lot more work and understanding of online selling before you can make the first sale. It is better to sell through successful Marketplaces for free initially who already have a pool of customers waiting for you. When you make your own website – you're on your own.

2. Do NOT spend any money on online ads before you have acquired some knowledge on how and why to run online ads. They are a waste of money if you do it wrong – you won't get sales.

3. Do NOT give up your day job yet. There is a very long way to go before you make a decent income online (however, your product desirability will also decide this). Just so you know, one will have to work longer hours trying to sell online successfully compared to the hours of a day job. Products on the internet do not sell on their own, we need to promote them to get people's attention with the hope of getting a sale, and this process takes a lot of time and patience, and income may be scarce. So please keep your day job and be nice to your boss... until you make a lot of sales that you can survive on. 

4. Do NOT spend money to open an Online Store offered by people like Shopify and others (local or foreign) for the time being. (Note: A ready-made Online Store is better and cheaper than making your own website when you are starting off, but since it costs money, it is best to try to sell your products via free sales channels or through Social Media for now).

5. Do NOT mass produce or buy a huge stock of products before you start selling. Do not tie your money down in stock, you will also have a storage issue. Make a small amount and offer for sale, then take it from there.

I wanted to write more on this topic, but I have some work to do to save Malaysia’s entrepreneurs which I have taken on to myself – just to make sure that you do not suffer the pitfalls as I did when I first started. I plan to write on some other important topics on Marketing your products and website or store in the following articles. Please do subscribe. 

Please don't make the same mistakes as I did in ignorance, please read my previous article "EVERY MALAYSIAN ONLINE SELLER MUST READ THIS – The Real Reason Why Our Products Are Not Selling Online" and discover the other pitfalls to avoid.

Article written by:

Joy Nandy

Founder: Socialnetworkmerchandise.com

Inventor: Malaysia’s First T-Shirt Vending Machine

Inventor: The World’s First Vending Marketplace