Choosing an Online Sales Channel: Shopee, Facebook, TikTok Shop, or Website?

In the era of strong digitalization, choosing the right online sales channel can be a decisive step towards a seller's success.

Question: "Where should I sell online, on Shopee, Facebook, TikTok, or a website?" - this is also a common concern for many people.

Through experience, research, and analysis, here is an overview of these sales channels, along with the benefits and challenges of each.

Benefits and Challenges of Selling on Shopee, Facebook, and TikTok Shop

Benefits:

• Shopee and TikTok Shop provide an e-commerce platform with a large consumer base, making it easy for products to reach customers.
• Facebook allows for direct interaction and community building around the brand, fostering trust and connection.

Challenges:

• Various fees: platform fees, taxes, advertising costs, affiliate fees, return processing fees, errors in returns, and coupons.
• High competition density, especially on e-commerce platforms like Shopee, making it harder to stand out.
• The incident between Shopee and a retailer last year is evidence of the risks of relying too much on a single platform.

In fact, the case studies of thousands of orders you see out there are the minority, making people "excited" thinking it's easy, but it's not that you can't make money selling on these platforms, it's just quite challenging.

Regarding selling by live streaming on TikTok, it should be understood that TikTok's algorithm for showing your live session is random, so even though there's a large existing user base, when they come across your live session, they're likely not in need. Therefore, unless your live session offers an EXTREMELY ATTRACTIVE promotion, no one will place an order. And if you promote too much... where's the profit?

Also, due to this random algorithm, most of the customers you sell to here are not loyal customers; they buy and then scroll away, not bothering to remember your shop's name. If selling depends only on finding new customers, you're just spending money on advertising to enrich the platform.

Selling on Your Own Website: Benefits and Challenges

First, it's necessary to understand that a website is also just a "sales channel" after all, not about which channel to use, but about using all channels to sell.

Benefits:

• Building brand and recognition is higher because you're not lost in a sea of products on the platforms.
• Increasing credibility when customers see the business invest in a professional website.
• Owning customer data, helping to optimize care and advertising to them without being limited by the platforms.

Challenges (that many people think about):

• Requires initial investment for website design and development.
• Attracting traffic to a new website is a major challenge without support from an existing user base like on the platforms.

Clarification:

• Custom design helps build brand and increase credibility of the brand, products.
• To attract traffic → costs $$$ in marketing & advertising, which is obvious, but you're investing in yourself, at least the data will belong to you, still caring for customers, creating loyal customers, unlike running ads for a shop on a platform which just enriches the platform 😁

Quick Solution for Owning an E-commerce Website

Nowadays, owning an e-commerce website is no longer overly complicated or expensive. Solutions like Haravan, Shopify, and Sapo help sellers quickly and easily set up websites at a reasonable cost. Full features from the purchasing process to payment gateways, integrated shipping services thoroughly.

For high customization needs, hiring reputable web development agencies is a viable option, especially as technology advances and costs become more flexible.

(*) Especially: you completely own all customer data and information → better customer care, unlike e-commerce platforms, where consumer data is their lifeblood, making it almost impossible or very difficult for shop owners to collect.

In Summary

In an increasingly competitive online business environment, diversifying sales channels is a smart strategy. Each channel has its own benefits and challenges, and the choice must be based on the goals and resources of the business.

Selling on Shopee, Facebook, TikTok, and owning a website are not independent choices but a flexible combination, maximizing the advantages of each channel to achieve success in online business.

Source: goon.vn