Having your own webshop has its own appeal of course, because you can keep the discounts yourself! Moreover, you can reduce your dependence on Amazon and respond more quickly at all times – not just in pandemics. But the whole thing can also quickly turn into an expensive flop and consume resources that could have been used more sensibly elsewhere. 

So how do you make the decision and find the right system? A proof of concept is needed! As with all investments, it must be clear in advance how your goals can be achieved. Be ruthless and do not gloss over anything! 

Set Goals 

  • What revenue do you expect over a number of periods? 
  • How many products should the shop offer and how scalable should it be?  
  • How should marketing be handled? How much automation do you need? 
  • Should the shop operate in several languages? 
  • How much customer service (from shipping cost calculations to order tracking) do you need? 
  • How flexible should the design be? 

Cost-Benefit Analysis 

  • How much can you invest a) for setting up the shop and b) for ongoing operations? Also take into account that you will need internal and possibly external resources to monitor the shop on an ongoing basis and provide customer support. 
  • Do you need interfaces to financial accounting, or to ERP andn an inventory management system? If so, what interfaces do your existing systems already provide? 
  • Do you expect additional sales or is there a risk of cannibalization of other sales channels? 

Select Shop System 

Based on your answers above, you can now more easily decide which type of shop system is appropriate: 

  1. WordPress plugin
    If you are running a website in WordPress, you can use a simple plugin. The online shop thus created is ready for use quickly, but offers only a limited number of functions and is therefore only suitable for small to medium-sized shops. 
  2. Rental Shops
    With these modular systems you can quickly create your own shop that can be adapted to your own needs without any programming knowledge. The monthly rental costs are manageable, and this makes rental shops suitable for all shop sizes. 
  3. Open Source Systems
    These systems are initially free, versatile, and offer many interfaces, functions and options, but set up is not for beginners. Here you may need professional help, which can quickly drive up costs. 
  4. Complete E–Commerce Solutions 

Here you purchase a software license and can then adapt the software to your own needs. Normally this is not possible without external help. But you have maximum freedom in the design and functionality of the shop. 

In order to find your way around the confusing array of shop providers and agencies, there are some very helpful comparison sites. We have selected two examples here that we think are very informative: 

https://ecommerce-platforms.com/ecommerce-selling-advice/ultimate-epic-guide-successful-online-shop 

https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/7706-choosing-ecommerce-software.html 

(Photo by rupixen.com on Unsplash)