It is true that the use of social networks are increasingly winning in the world of the Internet, from the youngest people to the oldest people, all are joining the social networks. And in this way, you can often wonder if it will be worth having your online store on the website or on social networks.

In today’s article we will talk about some aspects about having an online store on a website and on social networks.

Both on Facebook and Instagram, it is already possible to have your business and sell your products on these social networks. Will it still be worth it?

Having an online store on these social networks can bring you more visibility and new customers, due to the fact that social networks are having a great adherence, but because it is a free tool it will also make more people create their online stores and this there will be more competition between online stores.
Online stores on social networks can also take more time for customers to order / pay for products, as the purchase button is not always available, so the customer will first have to contact you to proceed with ordering a product. product, often if a product does not have all the details, prices, information such as sizes, colors available, among others, in the descriptions, it may lead to the customer losing interest in buying. So it ends up being important to have all product information, but this applies both to an online store on social networks and a website, the more and better you explain a product, the faster a customer can buy without having to have to waste time asking and still having to wait for an answer. Sometimes organizing products by categories on social networks turns out to be more complicated, because as a rule everything is in the feed and the person will have to scroll through the entire feed to find something. In the case of Facebook, you can choose to organize the product categories by photo albums, this way the person accessing the “photos” category can have the albums with the different categories there.

On social networks, although it is already possible to have automatic responses, for customers who like to talk first and learn more information, whether it be about the product or the company before proceeding with the order, it is possible to have a more direct contact with whoever is selling. The option of messages is usually a tool that could be useful for this type of customers, but of course you will not forget to respond to customers, speed is essential, if it takes days or weeks to respond, it can make the customer loses the desire to buy.

But for those who are starting a new project, creating an online store through social networks can be a good bet, as you can start having visibility and selling products without having to spend money creating the store, as this feature is free. So it will be a good way to see if your business will work and start attracting customers before you have the expense of creating a professional online store on a website. You can still use advertising tools to reach more people who can become customers.

But what about an online store on a website? Well, having an online store on a website, as it usually takes some investment, this way will already make your business more viable and professional. In social networks, customization of a design is practically impossible, and your store will not stand out as much for its design because it is the same as all the others, it will not be your fault, only social networks that do not allow design changes / structure of the online store, you can only make a difference by the profile image of the store and the cover. While on a website your entire online store can be completely customized to your liking, with the colors you like, descriptions, images, information, details and much more and navigation will be much easier.

Do you remember the above saying that on social media the ordering / payment process takes longer? Well, on the website this process turns out to be much faster, the customer will be able to place the entire order and payment without having to talk to you first to order a product, with just a few clicks the customer will place the order and you will receive the order notification, with all details, from address, customer name, contacts and even which product you ordered and if the product has different colors for purchase, the customer will be able to choose the color they want right away and you you will have this information in the order details. In short, time saved for you and your client. On a website you can also have other pages in addition to the “Store” page, dedicated to, for example, getting to know about your company / business, having a frequently asked questions area, having a contact page and much more, all in a simple way. separate and organized, so that it is easy to navigate, search and find and highlight each page.

Are you still undecided? What do we advise?
Our answer will be that you can have your business on SITE, on FACEBOOK and on INSTAGRAM ! You will be able to combine your website and social networks in order to increase sales even more and you may also reach more people! Having one does not imply that you cannot have the other 😉

If you are looking for a web design team to prepare your online store, look no further, at HUB Ativo our web design team will create your online store or website fully customized to your liking. For more information contact us at our contact page, or if you prefer, come and visit the Active HUB in Portimão, and get to know this and other services we have.