Build Your Own Website or Use a Market Aggregator

Remember the days you passionately set up your Startup? Full of hopes, confidence, and excitement. Ever since you started, haven’t you always wanted to reach out to a lot of potential customers? If your answer is ‘yes’ it is high time to take your products to the online market. Global internet users spend an average of 16 hours per month on the internet. The online market has always been a hustle and bustle. The pandemic has catalyzed online purchasing even further. During COVID times, a considerable group of people is preferring online shopping and contactless delivery to ensure their safety. Groceries, clothes, medicines and much more are being ordered and received through the online mode which people find extremely comfortable. Online shopping eliminates the hurdle of traveling to distant places and going store to store to find the desired product. The wide variety of options in one platform simplifies the process for the users. Hence, going online with your product especially during the pandemic is significant. Going online with your business not only helps you to establish connections with your customers, but also with other businesses both inside and outside your domain. It increases the visibility of your products and brand and can also help you to cut down on expenses. But, this is where you might get caught between two stools. You can either set up your store online or sell your products through a market aggregator.

WEBSITE

A website is a dynamic platform that consists of information in the form of audio, text, video, and images. For example, let us consider the website of Samsung. It is an online platform that displays information about all Samsung’s electronic products and models along with their features and prices. Building a website helps connect your brand with consumers and is thus a great way to promote your brand. It increases the popularity of your brand.

It can also help you to modify your sales strategy by helping you understand your customers’ buying patterns and behavior successfully through access to valuable data regarding your customers like demographics, purchase patterns, etc. You can update the content regarding your products and make other necessary changes as frequently as you would need to. It, thus, enables you to improvise your products and services based on active customer feedback.

MARKET AGGREGATOR

The market aggregator is a company that takes all rights for your products and helps you reach out to customers and sell them. You need not go and sell your product directly. Your only job is to design and produce your products and hand them out to the market aggregator. It is a one-stop-shop where all the products from different owners are sold under the ownership and brand of the market aggregator.

MARKET AGGREGATORS Vs WEBSITES

1. A website can make it easier for you to establish your brand name in the market, whereas a market aggregator can be crucial in generating initial traction if you are a new entrant in the market. Subsequently, a website approach can be leveraged to build on growing customer loyalty.

2. Market aggregators usually display products by category whereas a website can offer all the different products manufactured under the same brand name under the same roof. This can offer substantial cross-selling benefits.

3. Market aggregators don’t own the products or services they offer, whereas the products sold through websites are owned by the brands.

4. Market aggregators are more experienced in packaging and delivering products and services than websites.

The most important thing to understand is that the choice between market aggregators and websites revolves around three major factors, the mode of operation of a business, the product nature, and the customer base. There are two types of sales namely volume-based sales and non-volume-based sales. Volume-based sales are the kind of sales where products are sold in large quantities. i.e in bulk or wholesale. Non-volume-based sales are the kind in which the products are sold in comparatively smaller quantities.

Should you build your website or use a market aggregator? There is no universal answer to this question. The answer might change based on your target customers or the nature of the product you sell or maybe because of multiple other reasons. The ball is in your court. Analyze your needs and your customer needs and pick a suitable platform that helps your company to grow and develop.