As a business owner, you have a lot of options these days when it comes to choosing where to sell your products, to a marketplace platform or your own eCommerce website.

Platforms like Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, and others are popular choices for small businesses looking to get their products out there in India.

However, there are many drawbacks to advertising your products on these platforms that eCommerce businesses often overlook:

• One of the biggest disadvantages of selling on these platforms is that it increases the competition for your business because you don’t have a unique selling point.
• When customers search for a product on Amazon, Etsy, Walmart or Flipkart, hundreds of results will appear in front of them.
• Most people will never scroll past the first page of results.
• Therefore, if there are more than 20 sellers offering the same product as you, it becomes very difficult for you to get noticed by potential customers.

Another disadvantage is that such e-commerce websites charge high fees for every sale that you make through their platform.

So even though your business may be growing in sales and profits every year, most of the profit would be eaten up by these commission fees charged by these eCommerce websites.

Even if you spend thousands of dollars on advertising, you will be unable to reach your target audience. The best solution is to run your own website where you can monitor all traffic and get sales leads directly from your customers.

While it is possible to sell products on platforms like eBay, Etsy, or Amazon, they all have their limitations. Having your own eCommerce website gives you the freedom to do things that are impossible when you’re relying on a third-party platform.

As many online sellers have learned, the benefits of having your own eCommerce website far outweigh those provided by third-party platforms.

The top 4 major advantages of having your own e-commerce website are:

1. Complete Control

The one benefit of having your own eCommerce website is that you have full control over every aspect of it. This means that you can make changes to the website whenever you want, without having to ask permission or go through a process.

You can change product information, prices, and images as often as necessary, and in real-time. Other marketplace websites don’t offer this kind of flexibility, so if you want to be able to quickly adjust your products or prices based on seasonality or demand, this is definitely something to consider.

2. Changes in policies have practically no effect.

When it comes to selling your product, 3rd party websites like Amazon or Etsy often seem like a good idea.

But what if they decide the policies are changing and that you can’t sell your product on their site? Or what if they take your product down for violating their terms and conditions, even though you didn’t realize you were doing so? Or—worst of all—what if they completely close down their site, leaving you scrambling to find another way to get your products out there?

If any of those situations sound familiar, it’s time to set up shop on your own website.

We know: it sounds scary. But you’re actually more in control of things than you think. If you use a platform like Magento or Shopify, for example, you can set up your own eCommerce store without having to know anything about coding or web development.

And once you have that site live, everything from the design to the products that appear there is entirely up to YOU. You don’t have to worry about compliance or whether something violates someone else’s terms and conditions—you just have to worry about creating the best possible experience for your customers.

3. Commission Rates

When it comes to your business, no one should be able to put limits on what you can charge for your products or how much discount you can offer them.

The commission rates that are charged by third-party websites are often so high that it makes the price of the products displayed on these websites expensive for the end customers. You can’t offer discounts either if the policy of the website doesn’t allow you to.

A self-hosted eCommerce website, on the other hand, allows you to set your own prices, letting you change them at any time as per your wish. Additionally, you can offer discounts whenever you feel like boosting sales. This is because, unlike a third-party website, you don’t have to worry about breaking their rules and regulations.

4. Added Functionality

If you think that your own eCommerce website will be a major expense, you may want to think again. The benefits of having your own e-commerce website are many and varied, and they offer the potential for a great return on investment.

We all know that a fully-customized e-commerce store is the best way to go when you’re trying to sell products online. But you might be wondering whether it’s actually worth it to invest in your own website.

With your self-hosted eCommerce website, you can add any additional functionality you’d like. Say you want to engage in real-time communication with visitors to your site: just add live chat! Or maybe you want visitors to see your Instagram gallery: just embed it into your page! Since you have total control over the content and layout of your site, the possibilities are endless!

Conclusion

If you want to create your own eCommerce website, there are a number of advantages. The advantages that you’ll certainly enjoy include having more control over how your brand looks, an easier way to stay in touch with customers and free up more time. You’ll also have the opportunity to make your eCommerce website development as unique as possible.