If you landed on this blog post you are probably thinking about ways to create an online store , and wander if you could do it for free. As it has been said by many, âIf you are not paying for the product, then you are the productâ. So the short answer to the main question here is no , you canât really create an online store for free â but keep reading to understand the reasons why.
No matter how you decide to build your store, there will always be a cost . Although there are many ways to reduce costs, the solution you pick to launch your online store eventually depends on your business needs.
1. Why youâll hardly sell online for free
2. Popular ways to sell online
3. Choosing a solution that fits your needs
The term free is often used to captivate our attention, because who doesnât like free stuff. When it comes to ecommerce website builders, the term free often has a temporary meaning. You can do free trials for instance, or start for free, but as soon as your business grows and starts getting serious, you will, at some point, need to upgrade the website and switch to a paid plan.
When the website builder itself is free, you might be able to set up a store, but you will soon find out about certain costs that canât be avoided. The list below may seem overwhelming, but donât worry, it has never been easier to sell online than today.
These are a few of the hidden costs behind most of the advertised-as-free online store builders:
As mentioned in the beginning, the maturity of your business and overall needs should determine the best solution to build an online store, not the price of the solution.
Keep in mind there are a lot of ways to sell online today: the following are our top three solutions:
Self-hosted solutions can involve very low startup costs and cover most of the basic needs of an ecommerce website. The final cost will depend on factors such as your ease with development or specific design needs. Without any skills for developing a website yourself, the need for an agency may add up to the costs.
As they might appear complicated at first, there are big advantages to choosing self-hosted in the long run: being the full owner of your online store, the ability to customize it exactly as you want and need, and most importantly, the ownership of 100% of the data, so you can bring it with you if you ever decide to migrate to another solution.
Hosted solutions are easy turnkey solutions, quite customizable, even for beginners. The downside of going for a subscription-based product is similar to the downside of renting a house: you cannot do everything you want freely because you do not own the property. When you rent a property you canât take the walls with you when you move out. This is more or less the same thing with a hosted solution: if you want to migrate, be prepared for leaving a lot of what you built behind. Whether or not choosing this option is right for you really depends on your ambition and long-run investment.
Marketplaces are great if youâre not ready to launch your own website. Their biggest advantage is the little amount of work to do. Usually, uploading your catalog to the marketplace of your choice will be almost enough to start selling. While some marketplaces are completely free, some like Etsy or Amazon charge a small fee per transaction. Of course customizing how your brand looks is not possible, and you will have to accept the marketplaceâs rules and be dependent on their ecommerce features.
Depending on your company size, the products you want to sell, your budget, and long-term ambitions, you can compare these three options and decide which one suits you best.
In order to make an informed choice, you can think in terms of Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). This will help you assess whether itâs worth it to invest short-term (meaning you purchase a solution paid monthly, annually etc.) or long-term (TCO, meaning you own your solution).
âIâm just starting my business and Iâm unsure about its long term successâ
If youâre new in the ecommerce world, you might want to test the waters before jumping into building an online store from scratch. In this case you can think about selling directly on marketplaces, which often represent no costs. Of course, if youâre ambitious regarding your business, and want a customized site that represents your brand you can try the hosted and self-hosted ecommerce platform options. In this case your choice will depend on:
a) How much you're willing to invest to test your site.
b) Your tech and dev skills/budget in case you go for an open source option.
In a few words, you can try all options below depending on your ambitions and tech skills.
âI already have an offline business but need to start selling onlineâ
In this situation, youâre probably aware of your costs and ROI. The marketplace option isnât ideal if you want to develop your brandâs image online since you canât customize anything. Both a hosted or self-hosted ecommerce solution can work, upfront costs will again, depend on the complexity of your project.
Why would we suggest going for self-hosted rather than hosted? Because youâll be a complete owner of your data, if your offline business works well you might want to own your data in order to keep growing independently of the solution you use.
âIâm an established and growing SMB with an online store but I need a solution to follow my paceâ
In terms of ROI, a self-hosted solution is probably the way to go for this scenario. With a self-hosted solution youâll have control over your storeâs evolution as you grow, you can keep up with your growth pace by personalizing every aspect you need (payment methods, design, integrations, and more) The upfront cost of moving to a self-hosted solution will depend on your current website, thereâs a migration process and if you work with an agency itâll add to your costs - but youâll get a nice job done. Once youâre done migrating you can begin the customization of your new online store and add all it needs. In the long-run this is the most profitable way to sell online if your business is solid, itâs a one-shot big investment - again depending on your needs - for a website that will stay forever.
By now, youâve understood thereâs no real way to sell online for free. Thereâs no one-size fits all solution when it comes to starting an online business, the final solution and cost of your store depends on a lot of variables. There are many ways to build your ecommerce website, and you can also seek help if you need guidance.
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