We’ve covered a lot of online business tips and strategies here on Advisor Leap. The market is growing at a staggering speed, which means now is the perfect time to invest time and energy in expanding your online business. There are plenty of ways to attract customers and generate more sales, but in this article, we are going to discuss off-site sales and how they can improve your business.
What is an off-site sale?
Most – if not all – online businesses have their own websites through which they sell products and services. Strategies and efforts are put in place to attract traffic to the websites. In turn, the large amount of traffic is converted into customers. If you’re an online store owner, you too are using this cycle to generate sales.
Off-site sales take a different route to achieve the same goal of selling products and services. Instead of driving traffic to an online store, you can actually generate sales by taking advantage of existing platforms and other off-site opportunities. The concept is also known as multichannel selling.
Marketplaces and More Customers
We have a lot of marketplaces and even more customers browsing through them every day. Not placing your products or services on these market places would be such a waste. You are actually missing out on a lot of opportunities to connect with customers and generate sales.
Sites such as OnBuy are allowing companies and individuals to sell their products through them. These platforms are designed to handle everything from displaying product catalogues to processing customer payments. All you have to do is fulfil the orders and the marketplace of your choice will handle all the hard work for you.
Let’s not forget that marketplaces often promote themselves to attract more customers. The more traffic they have, the more appealing they are to business owners and the livelier the market will be. You don’t have to spend as much money and energy on promoting your products because the marketplaces you join will handle promotions for you.
Benefits and Cost Considerations
Off-site sales have lower overhead costs than on-site sales. Sure, you’re paying a certain amount of money to the marketplace for their services. Take a closer look at the fees and compare them with the overhead costs of your own online store, and you will find the cost of using marketplaces to be relatively cheaper.
Placing products on the best marketplaces is also a great way to generate traffic to your own site. There are SEO benefits to gain and more opportunities to explore once you start generating sales on popular marketplaces. You will also be able to benefit from reviews that customers post after every purchase.
The real benefit of off-site online sales, however, is credibility. Marketplaces tend to have a rating system to help regulate the market. Reliable sellers and vendors will have higher ratings and more positive reviews. These are the kind of things you need to boost your store’s credibility, especially if it is a relatively new online store.
As mentioned before, not exploring off-site opportunities is a mistake. The market is as competitive as ever and off-site sales are the kind of competitive advantage you need to succeed.
