Which Platform to Choose for your E-Commerce Business?

Hello everyone, welcome back to our strategic, structural training program.

We are going to learn how to sell effectively on E-Commerce.

And today’s topic is - which platform to choose?

Which is the perfect platform for your business, that’s what we are going to understand today!

Okay?

Before that, I would like to tell you what Marketing Mix is.

You have launched your business or if you are going to launch it, you need to know these 4 Ps.

What are the 4 Ps? Product, Price, Place & Promotion.

Doesn’t matter how big or small your business is, these 4 Ps are applicable in your business, okay?

First is Product. You obviously have a product, ofcourse, that is why you are doing a business, you must have made this product as a solution that is why it is important for your business & it is necessary for the customer also, that is why you have a product.

Then Price, the product has a proper price.

What can be the right price?

You must have seen in the competition that, for eg, someone is selling shoes & the price of shoes is Rs. 100 & his neighbouring business is selling the shoes at Rs. 150 and his neighbour is selling at Rs. 200.

So where will the customer go? Yes, to the Rs. 100 one.

So in marketing, this principle of 4 Ps applies, which is Price, Product, Place & Promotion.

Place means you have to sell it at the right place.

It’s not like where you are selling right now is not correct, you need to understand on what basis it is made right.

What does right mean?

If I sell it from home, won’t it be right? Is selling in a market a must?

It’s not like that, guys.

Right means how to judge it? Right means that you are selling it in a successful way, you are selling it where there is a demand.

So that would be the right place, right price, right people are buying it.

Means the product is right, the price is right, the place is also right & you are promoting it in the proper way also.

For example, you can go to houses & sell your product or you can go to a market & say that this is your product, people can buy it from here.

So Promotion, Place, Price, Product.

You will have to balance these 4 Ps and convey your business in front of your customers.

There are 4Ps, 7Ps & 9Ps but these 4Ps are very basic & the most important one, so it is very necessary to understand them.

Do read about them - Product, Place, Price & Promotion.

So let’s start this training program.

So my first task for you is to Identify your product.

Yes! Identify your product.

It is a must for you to recognise that your product belongs to which category.

Yes, which category? What are you selling?

Are you selling Food, Apparels, Electronics, any gadget, mobile, electronics, fresh fruit, or does your product belong to the fashion industry?

You will need to categorise that your product comes under which category?

And my second question for you is - how many products do you actually have right now?

Keep a tab on your shop to know the amount of products you have in your business.

You might have 1 product, 2 products or 10, 1000 or 2000 or even in lakhs, no matter what it is, having a proper record is necessary.

Plus what is the cost of the product?

Is it Rs. 10, Rs. 200, Rs. 1000, Rs. 5000, no matter what is the cost of your product, you should have its record.

Yes! Identifying your own product, okay?

After that, you have to identify your target audience.

You are selling to whom?

Do I have a restaurant business? To whom can I sell it? Do I have a vegetable business? To whom am I selling? Or do I have an electronic gadget business? Who am I selling it to?

Whichever product you have, there will be someone who will buy it.

You must have made that product for someone to buy or you are dealing with a unique product that only certain people can buy.

Then you should have that record also, in this step.

That is, Identifying your own product.

Identifying your product is the first step for you to enter E-Commerce.

Yes guys! Understanding the product is very necessary because when we plan the inner way, then only you can understand the outer world.

Unless and until you don’t understand yourself, you won’t be able to understand this universe.

In the same way, until you are able to understand your product, how will you sell it?

I’ll give you an example -

For instance, you are going to a war & you don’t know how to use a sword.

I don’t know how to use any weapons that I have.

Then will you be able to win that war? No!

In the same way, in business, in E-Commerce, if you don’t know the 4 Ps, you don’t know you want to sell to whom, don’t know your product comes under which category or how many products do you actually have, what is its cost, if you don’t know this much, then how will you sell it?

Right? So you need to analyse in a proper manner that who can purchase my product, what is the best cost, what is the perfect quantity & my product belongs to which category, okay?

You need to analyse all of that.

Although there are a lot of steps through which you can analyse it & you would know it better because you have chosen that product for this E-Commerce industry.

So identifying your own product is the main   point.

Means if you want to step in the right manner in E-Commerce, then the first step is Identifying your own product, okay?

-7:13

Then what is the next point?

Understand the requirement, okay?

What does ‘Understand the requirement’ mean?

Look guys, there are many platforms, there are many many platforms but it is necessary for you to understand which platform is appropriate for my product.

You need to understand what your budget is right now to enter E-Commerce.

Which platform is better, do we need to hire people, will I need to buy an extra licence, will I need to create a website?

All of these doubts will clear up when you have analysed & identified your product.

Depending on that analysis, you should be able to jot down your requirements to enter this industry, okay?

So don't worry, I’ll explain everything to you whether you need a website or not, don't worry.

But you should atleast have an analysis if you really require it, what is my budget, etc etc

So let’s see the next slide.

Difference between all the platforms.

Like I told you, there are many platforms, there is a bifurcation in platforms also, you would have known some marketplaces, yes! Online marketplaces such as Flipkart, Amazon, Zomato, Ola, Alibaba, okay?

So you can choose online marketplaces to put the first step on E-Commerce or else you can make your own website through self-hosted or hosted channels or platforms.

So what does Self-Hosted mean?

Friends, you will need to buy your own domain, your own hosting & through these platforms, you can make your business website.

You can make your business website by yourself by WooCommerce & Magento.

There are many more but I gave Magento & WooCommerce as an example as I was able to add only a few in my slide.

WooCommerce & Magento are among the best self-hosted website solutions.

Plus you can make it by coding html language also by hiring website developers.

You can make an E-Commerce platform by hiring website developers too.

But if you have less budget, then you can go with WooCommerce & Magento where you can start by self hosted website as well.

Otherwise you can go to the Hosted website also.

Now what is the difference between Self-Hosted & Hosted?

In self-hosted, you have to take your own hosting, your own domain & you have to manage it on your own.

Then what is hosted?

All the things are available in Shopify, Wix.

I’d like to take those examples because they are among the best from hosted platforms.

So Shopify & Wix, you might have heard a lot about Shopify as it has been advertised a lot recently.

So Shopify comes under hosted platforms.

So, what does Hosted mean?

They have their own hosting, therefore you won’t need to buy hosting from somewhere else, you just need to take a domain.

If you don’t have a domain, if you don’t need it in the beginning, you can go with its inbuilt domain, yes! There is an inbuilt domain.

For example, I want to keep the shop name ABC.

So abc.shopify.com.

Yes! They have many more categories of domains & if you have bought your own domain, you can add your domain in this also, okay?

So this is the difference between self hosted & hosted.

Hosted means they have their own hosting, you won’t need any other hosting & in self hosted you have to buy hosting, domain, you have to deal with these channels & make your website, if you really need a website.

I’ll show you another example.

Look, you might have heard about Alibaba.

The owner & founder of Alibaba, Jack Ma, was once sitting at a student conference.

There, a student asked him a question “Sir, I want to start a business, I want to start my career, what should be my first step towards it?”

To which Jack Ma replied, “You will need to get connected with a company first, gain some experience through it, okay? First understand how the business works, how it works from start to end and then launch your own business.”

Okay?

First step should always be to learn from others.

If you have already learnt, then you are ready!

But if you have not learnt, if you have some doubt about how will you enter E-Commerce, how to hire a delivery boy, how to train your inhouse employees about your dealing product, this is our hosting platform, we have to make a website in this & how it should be!

Okay? So the first step according to me is to go with online marketplaces like Flipkart, Amazon, Zomato, Ola, Alibaba.

If you have a car, rent it to Ola, if you have food items, you can go with Zomato, if you have any product, you can go with Flipkart or Amazon or if you want to sell any product in bulk, Alibaba is there for you.

Friends, they already have made their business famous in online marketing.

Flipkart, Amazon, Ola, Zomato, Alibaba, Uber, there are other websites also.

There are other honourable mentions also but I have included these because they are more famous in India & Out of India as well.

Start your business with these online marketplaces & you will start understanding how this E-Commerce industry works.

If you understand, then there’s no worry, you can start with a new hosting, new domain, you will get proper amount, proper cash flow through these online marketplaces, people will get to know you through these marketplaces & then launch your website, it doesn’t matter, okay?

-14:10

So first start with online marketplaces, then start your own website or if you are already there on these marketplaces, then go with WooCommerce, Magento, Shopify & Wix.

So this is the difference between online marketplaces & platforms.

Although all of them are in the E-Commerce industry.

What is E-Commerce?

Like I already explained to you, what is E-Commerce?

E plus Commerce. Means through Electronic ways, we are buying & selling all types of products and services, in different ways.

So what are the different ways?

It can be an online marketplace or a different platform like WooCommerce, Shopify, Magento & Wix.

So let’s see their advantages & disadvantages.

Now you must be having an idea whether you should go in an online marketplace or self hosted or hosted website.

So let’s see its advantages & disadvantages.

So advantages & disadvantages.

I have kept WooCommerce & Shopify & other platforms on the other side.

Well, there aren’t more advantages & disadvantages, but the main difference, I’d like to tell you the 2 main advantages & disadvantages.

1st is full control & on the right hand side, there is lack of control.

Now, what does that mean?

So if you are making your business in WooCommerce & Shopify, if you want to launch your business through E-Commerce from these platforms, what will happen?

You will fully be able to control it, how your product should look, how you want to portray it, in what way we have to properly promote it to people, which colour you want to use? Etc etc.

You can choose all your colour combinations according to your wish because you will have full control as to which price you want to keep, how much discount you want to give & everything.

You will be in full control of your business, okay?

But here, there will be a lack of control.

Suppose Amazon has launched some offer, a Christmas offer, a Diwali offer or any season offer, you will see that they have added some discount on our products by themselves.

It can be like that also.

It can be like that on Flipkart, Alibaba, Zomato as well.

You will also notice that you will need to do the colour combination according to them.

Now, lack of control.

What does lack of control mean? There is a different colour combination in Alibaba, Amazon, Zomato.

You don’t have any control over the way they will portray your product, in what way they are going to put your product in front of the customers, you don’t have control over the cost, you don’t have the control as to where it will be delivered okay?

Their rules & regulations are different.

But here, when you are having full control, you can change the rules & regulations, yes!

You can change the rules & regulations, you can change the costing, you can change the look & the feel, etc.

There are many other things which you can change when you make your website through WooCommerce & Shopify.

But here, there is a lack of control.

But one more thing which comes under advantages & disadvantages is, the second point is, if you have full control, if you have so many responsibilities, yes, then it gets hard to manage with high cost.

In today’s world if you hire some E-Commerce, Website Developers, they will ask for a large fee.

If you are hiring some inhouse telecaller, some food delivery services or if you are going to do some packaging then you will need to manage some high cost, you will need to manage self handed in one go.

Yes friends.

See, if we are getting a cash flow, then anybody can control it.

But yes, if you are just starting, if you don’t have a budget, I recommend you to go with an easy step & simple pricing, that is the right hand side.

Yes! Online platforms.

Online marketplaces, Zomato, Alibaba, Flipkart, Amazon, Ola, Uber and many other online marketplaces.

They have set up properly, you can enter the right pricing there, sometimes the pricing might differ, during their discount phase, you will need to look out for portraying the right price.

It is easy to set up, easy to handle, you don’t need to manage the delivery as they have a delivery boy, they have the delivery services, they support you regarding packaging also & they bring customers to your business.

Because they already have famous offers, discounts & many people are already connected to them.

It is because they have already made their name in this world, friends.

Yes! Zomato, Alibaba, Flipkart, Amazon, Ola do some kind of transactions daily on their own platform through which you too can gain some benefit.

Yes! You too can gain some benefit.

Though there are not many advantages & disadvantages comparatively.

Sometimes this is nice, other times this is, sometimes this is bad, other times the other is.

But I guarantee that even if you start & when you start, you will find through self learning, which platform can be considered good for you.

Start with online platforms like online marketplaces & when you start, as you make your website side by side, you will understand where you are getting more cash flow from.

During the self learning process, you will understand which platform can work for you.

All of this is practical, you will learn when you do it.

Nobody can tell you which platform is perfect for your business, only you can understand that through self learning & self understanding.

Even though there are a lot of platforms, it is you who has to choose which one is the best for you.

I will only guide you how many platforms are there & what are the advantages & disadvantages.

Okay friends?

Then after you finalise which platform is appropriate for your product, that’s when you have done it!

You just did it!

You just chose a platform for your business.

Okay? Next up, we will see what are the other things in E-Commerce.

So that’s what we are going to learn in the next video!

In this video we saw the different types of platforms & what are the advantages & disadvantages & how will you analyse your product & business.

And after doing that, how will you finalise it?

Yes! Finalising is necessary because now we have to take it online.

To take your business online, you need to gather all the information & through this topic, we told you which platform to choose, okay?

If you have any queries or comments, click the discussion button below the video and post there. This way, you will be able to connect to fellow learners and discuss the course. Also, Our Team will try to solve your query.

So see you in the next video, thank you very much & happy learning!

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