On this site, I blog about how writers, illustrators, writers, and writing service providers market their services online. But Professional New York Publishers seldom discuss what marketing and promotion contribute towards getting your creativity to be sold! The most popular and simple method is to include links to retailers on your site or ask customers to get in touch via email. But what happens if you want to market your products? Please also set up automatic payments for your assessment service.
Imagine your online store as an actual store.
When thinking about what you’ll need to put in place to create your online store, It’s beneficial to think about it in the context of an actual store. This means that you need to consider the entire experience and the journey of the client through your shop, starting from the moment they walk in and through the time they depart. This includes thinking about the following:
Discovery point
- What do you want to be discovered? What impression do you wish to create on the person who visits you?
- Would your online shop look more like a market stall where potential customers can come upon your merchandise while browsing similar products offered by other sellers?
- Do you wish your store to function more like a storefront hosted on your site with complete control over your visitors’ experience?
Experience in-store
- What is the style of your store? Does it have a custom-designed look to help your products stand out? Is it a generic template that other sellers utilize?
Cart shopping
- Do you wish that your visitors be in a position to hold more than one item while they browse?
- Do you want visitors to be able to buy multiple items at a time?
Checkout
- What is the method of Payment for the visitor? Are they able to pay with a credit card or PayPal?
- Do customers have the option to have their products delivered to them?
- Can users register an account to be able to return later?
- If you operate an editing or writing service, consider whether your customers can sign up for an agreement for a subscription-based payment plan to use your services over the long term.
Exiting your shop
- Do you want to know more about your customers through collecting data and analysis?
- Do you want to permit customers to give comments on your items?
It’s a given that the higher the number of options you’d like for each stage of your visitor’s journey, the longer and more money that you’ll need to spend.
Having everything is good, but that’s not always what you need.
For instance, a young author with only one book will not require a cart for shopping. However, an illustrator with a huge portfolio could want to let patrons carry multiple items as they browse the gallery. In the end, the buyer can purchase several prints in one go.
Another example: is manuscript evaluation companies don’t have to consider the cost of shipping since they offer a service. However, an author with an international audience might need to determine different shipping costs depending on the customer’s location.
The operation of an online store implies that you must be thinking about the following:
- Optimizing features to be most suitable for your customers’ needs according to the product you’re selling and the requirements of your customers instead of filling the entire thing with every feature that is possible and
- The best way to keep in mind the amount you’re willing to invest and the amount of time you’re willing to commit to creating and running your shop.
In the remainder of this post, I’ve classified various methods, platforms, software, and methods you can utilize to market your services and products on the internet into five categories. These categories are created to indicate increasing costs and commitment to time with each category.
For each type of category, I will highlight how each selling technique relates to important aspects of the buyer journey.
You’ll also find a listing in each category that links to specific platforms you can explore and utilize.
Links to retailers
- cost: low
- Timing-Commitment low
- Specifications: controlled by 3rd third
- It is recommended for authors with an existing website who want an easy and quick method to sell their products and do not want to handle the selling themselves.
The most commonly used method of selling books online. They are frequently used by authors who have personal websites. Retail links link to third-party retailers like Amazon, Booktopia, and Readings on the book’s page. It’s easy to set up once you’ve learned how to set it up yourself and inexpensive for web developers to create.
Marketplaces
- Price: none too low
- Time-Commitment moderate
- Specifications: controlled by 3rd third-party marketplace
- It is recommended for illustrators or writers who don’t have the time to create the creation of their website but are looking for an affordable way to market their product.
(If you’re an author, This option isn’t suitable for you since most marketplaces sell goods, not services. But you might want to consider Patreon to help you pay for your writing)
A marketplace is a 3rd partner platform that promotes buying and selling communities. You’re probably familiar with a few of them, such as Etsy and eBay. If you join the platforms to sell your products, you’ll join a well-established community of customers who are likely to be. This can be a benefit or a drawback. While it’s beneficial to have potential buyers on an established network that could encounter your products as they browse, you compete with other sellers, just like in a real market.
Simple buy button
- Price: low
- Tim-Constituting: Low to Moderate
- Specifications: lacking
- Ideal for illustrators, writers, or writers who have an existing site and are seeking a fast and easy way to market products or services on their site
Let’s first discuss Payment Gateways.
Before you can set up an online store that you own (that is, that you’re not selling to an outside party via marketplaces or retail links), it is essential to know how payment gateways operate from a seller’s perspective.
eCommerce Website builder
- Cost medium to very high
- Time-Commitment was fairly easy to set up and maintain. It requires a moderate to the significant time commitment to operate and maintain.
- Highlights: full features of the online store
- It is recommended for Illustrators, authors, writers, or service companies who do not have websites and looking to create a website and an online store using an easy-to-use template.
Generally speaking,
Website builders are platforms that provide templates for websites that are generic that are user-friendly and non-technical ways to modify the templates in a restricted manner without the requirement for programming knowledge. eCommerce website builders are the same. However, they permit you to create an online store for your website. With most eCommerce websites, you’ll control 90% of your customers’ buying experience. The majority will offer:
- shopping carts that can hold products and allow purchases of many items,
- Recurring payments based on subscriptions from customers
- Customers can create accounts for themselves to keep store-related information for return visits.
- voucher and sale alternatives,
- Tax and shipping options,
- access to customer information and analytics
- Customer feedback options, as well as
- ease of installation for payment gateways (you’ll need to establish an account with the gateway provider, as I described in the previous paragraph)
Conclusion
As you’ve probably seen, setting up an online store is a significant commitment. This article will give you an idea of the aspects you’ll need to be aware of before establishing an online store. It would help if you considered what you’re hoping to achieve in an online store, your customer’s needs, and the number of resources and time you’re willing to spend to create and maintain it.
