Create Your Online Store-the aasaan Way

The world is rapidly becoming a smaller place. With the advent of technology as well as better networking facilities, people and businesses worldwide are rapidly connecting with each other.

This has enabled vendors worldwide to get customers across city and country borders with the help of online selling.

With the onset of the pandemic, as people avoid venturing out, online selling has become the most relevant means for businesses to stay connected with their customers. 64% of small scale and home businesses have witnessed incremental sales through online and digital sales channels.

By turning to online selling, businesses can also expand their existing customer base and gain an edge over their competitors. As per the recent survey and research reports, India’s online businesses are expected to grow by 84% to $111 billion by 2024.

Advantages of online selling:

1. Lesser setup and running costs:

Setting up an online shop account has minimal cost and lesser investment into keeping it running. There will be no physical costs such as rent, electricity, etc.

2. No geographical restrictions:

Selling online helps you in expanding your reach to customers across the borders of your vicinity.

3. No time restrictions:

In online shopping there are no time restrictions imposed on the customers as they can shop at any time of the day. The business can be open 24X7 for the customers to view and buy the products.

4. Greater scalability and growth potential:

Another advantage of online selling is that it brings you closer to customer sentiment. You can identify effectively which products are doing well and therefore stock them up.

5. Greater flexibility for consumers:

Online selling attracts customers due to the flexibility it provides in terms of shopping, payment, and delivery of the products that have been purchased.

6. Reach a larger customer base:

While a physical store can only reach a fixed number of customers, online shopping opens you up to a larger customer base. The sellers can also find new customers and expand the reach of their products.

 How To Begin Online Selling ?

If you’ve never worked in e-commerce before, it can be difficult to get your bearings. However, there are numerous advantages to it. Perhaps you started with a small local shop but want to reach a much larger audience.

Or perhaps you already have an online presence but would like to try other platforms where your products are more visible.

There are a couple of ways listed below which provide a comprehensive overview of where and how to sell your products online, whether you’re self-taught, a novice, or simply curious.

Through existing gateways: One of the ways of selling online is through the existing marketplaces like Amazon.

The pros of this way are as follows:

• They have an already established community of customers that you can gain access to.
•  If you are a new business trying to sell online, this is the easiest way to tap into a string of already available shoppers.
• This mode of online shopping can also be successfully used for testing the demands for your products, especially in the case of new businesses or entrepreneurs.
• Once you gauge the demand for your product, you can easily switch to building an online store yourself.

There can also be a few negatives of this form of selling:

• The gateway platforms charge a commission of your sales for themselves. This may cut into your business profitability.
•  It does not allow you to build an interpersonal relationship with your customers.
• The gateways are also susceptible to closing down your store at any given time, transcending into losses for you.

Though Social Media platforms:

Another way of selling online is through using various social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. You can set up virtual shops on these platforms and showcase your products to the wide range of people available there.

Pros of Social Media Platforms:

• Allows you to set up virtual shops.
• Allows you to showcase your product to a bigger audience.
• Interested people can buy the goods and check out for payment from the platform itself.
• The social media platform allows you to work with the influencers on their platforms.
• You can gain from getting access to their audiences and can use them to promote your products with the help of videos, posts, etc.

Cons of Social Media Platforms:

• This is a relatively new way of online selling and involves the use of social media, in which not everyone may be adept.
• The social media platforms often charge some fees or commissions for selling via their platform. For eg. the Facebook shop charges 5% per shipment or a flat fee of USD 0.40 for shipments of USD 8.00 or less.
• When you use influencers for promotion you have to provide them with free samples etc. For being featured in their stories and posts.

Through setting up online stores via various Apps

This is one of the easiest and most hassle-free ways to get your business online to a larger customer base. In this, you can download an app that helps you create your virtual shop so that you can sell your products without any hassle. The app provides you with an efficient way of selling your goods to a customer and creating your brand.

How much does it cost to set up an Online store?

Setting up of an online store requires 3 basic things:

1. Domain:
   Cost of domains generally remains between Rs. 600 to Rs 1200, depending upon the choice and availability.
2. Hosting:
   Depending upon the requirement, choice of hosting can be cloud based or managed. For small scale businesses/ home-based businesses, the cost comes up to approximately Rs.  2400 Rs. 3600.
3. Designing:
   For an online store, creating an attractive design that can send across the correct positioning of the business is a must. Designing usually costs between Rs. 10000 Rs. 100000, depending on the choice.
   The major work in setting up an online store falls under the head of designing. Using the aasaan app, businesses can set up an online store without shelling out huge expenses for designing the store.
4. Often home-based and small-scale businesses have smaller teams and may find it confusing to design and code for the online store. aasaan app has the USP of UI/UX and coding-free designing process. You create your store with simple surf, scale, and design steps.

The “aasaan” way:

One of such apps designed to promote creative online selling solutions for vendors, entrepreneurs, and online service providers is the aasaan app. Whether you have a home-based business or you are an entrepreneur testing the waters with scalable possibilities, aasaan is just the right fit.

Creating Online Store using aasaan:

1. Download the aasaan app:

The first step towards creating your online store is downloading the aasaan app on your device.

2. Update as many details as possible on the App:

The next step is to provide as many details about the business as possible, the clarity, and accuracy in business details, helping in building trust in the business.

aasaan team will create an attractive store for you. The app creation is free of cost, so it is a prudent decision to create the store today.

Additionally, the store lets you receive the payments as well, so start today and expand your reach, take your business to the zenith.

3. Prepare product catalog:

Preparing and updating the product catalog is an ongoing and continuous process, make it as attractive as possible, here you get the opportunity to rightly position your product portfolio. By using the appropriate keywords, the product can be enabled to reach the target audience.

Conclusion:

As we have moved into a digital world where everything is done through apps, developing an app for your business creates the right impression on customers. aasaan allows business owners to begin selling their products online.

A new stream of consumers can be attracted with proper digital marketing and optimal use of social media marketing. Download the app now and start to create a free online store.

Try it out now!