What is cart abandonment?

The definition of an abandoned shopping cart should not cause any difficulties to anyone. The customer reviews the offer, selects the products, sets them up, adds them to the basket and … leaves the store instead of completing the transaction. An abandoned shopping cart is not only unsold hundreds of articles, but also a wasted marketing budget. Overall you not only invest in the products but in marketing campaigns:

• Positioning and Google Ads,
• Cooperation with bloggers and your blog,
• Facebook page.

Above expenses were supposed to boost your sales. Your sales are determined not only by customers decision but also by various steps that led a customer to your offer. That’s why you can not afford to ignore unfinished orders! In order to effectively minimize this process, you need to know where the abandoned baskets are coming from and to what you should pay attention to when searching for the cause of this occurrence.

Where do abandoned carts come from?

The reasons for abandoned baskets can be noticed at every stage of the shopping process. Although the unfinalized transaction may be the result of many inconveniences noticed by the client, they can be generalized to an overly complicated, unclear and purchasing process that takes too much time.

Reasons for abandoned carts happening because of the software:

• Too many steps in the shopping process.
• The need to register on the site before buying.
• Inability to find a field for a rebate code and convenient rebate conversion.
• No purchase summary- which the customer will check the product parameters selected earlier.

The Offerer shopping cart is characterized by the maximum simplification that consumers appreciate.

Reasons for abandoned shopping carts related to your offer:

• No preferred form of delivery.
• Too expensive shipping of goods or hidden costs.
• Inability to pay in a previously chosen way, eg by credit card.
• An incomplete assortment that prevents you from using cross-selling and the customer to buy complementary products.

How to analyze abandoned carts?

Before you start making any conclusions about the possibility of improving the purchasing process, you must take into account the fact that many buyers came to you with the intention of looking at the goods, checking whether the discount coupon work and not necessarily make an order at this moment.

In the analysis of abandoned baskets, individual behaviors should not be taken into account. Only reproducible data will allow us to draw accurate conclusions.

All important data has been included in the abandoned shopping cart tool located in the marketing tab in the store’s admin panel.

1.  The duration of the session

It can be concluded that people whose sessions on the website of the online store were very short-lived, only wanted to check the price or availability of articles and were not about to finalize the transaction. That’s why your observations should focus on customers who have spent a while checking your offer.

2.  The degree of complexity of the purchasing process

Information about the visited subpages by the customer cannot be ignored. Based on this information, you can conclude, for example, about the unclear form of division of goods. Complicated shopping process can be a sign of a reason for not purchased products.

3.  Place of abandoning the basket

The moment of abandonment of basket by customers will indicate what is inconvenient in the purchasing process. The customer leaves the shopping cart in the ordering stage? Perhaps he does not have his preferred forms of payment and delivery. Leaving the store after going through several subpages? Maybe customer did not find the products he was interested in.

4.  Traffic source

Thanks to the visibility of the traffic source, you can examine the effectiveness of your advertising campaign. On the basis of the websites displayed on the right side, you will check the conversion from various traffic sources. Perhaps one of the forms will turn out to be significantly more effective than others?

How to reduce the number of abandoned carts

The data shown in the abandoned shopping carts tool should be divided into two categories:

• Registered customers – email addresses left will help you recover an abandoned shopping cart. It’s good to use remarketing techniques that will remind your clients about unfinished shopping will be a perfect solution.
• New customers and not registered – due to the lack of email addresses you will not able to perform remarketing. This does not mean that the information obtained is useless. On the contrary! Although each of the stores should be considered individually, there are certain rules that are a guide to improving the purchasing process.

 What does it might mean when the cart is being abandoned in the final stage of purchasing?

• Invalid rebate code or difficulty to find the field section for the code.
• Using cart as a wish list.
• Too high prices that the customer did not expect.

The Offerer basket structure avoids the above-mentioned reasons for the cancellation of the purchase.

The reason for cart abandonment in the ordering process

• Too high delivery cost.
• Lack of a convenient form of delivery and payment.
• The need to fill too many fields.
• The requirement to set up an account before finalizing the transaction.
• No shipping to abroad.

Lack of preferred payment and delivery methods is one of the most common reasons for shopping cart abandoned

 

Reasons for returning back to the shopping after abandoning basket?

• The unintuitive way of navigating the website and inability to find certain products
• Lack of goods.
• Unattractive prices.

Carefully examine and track the movements of potential clients on your website. This is a great way to know their needs- especially regarding the form of payment and delivery. Make your shopping cart intuitive, user-friendly and simple (remember to ask the smallest possible amount of data according to the GDPR regulations). Also, think to prepare a ‘Wish List’ option in your online store. The desire to save products for later is one of the frequent ways of non-standard use of the cart by customers. Providing the dedicated function will allow you to eliminate a large part of the abandoned carts.

Abandoned baskets in the online store

For sure you have visited many online stores, choose products and put it the basket and eventually, you left this store by not placing the order. An unexpected phone call, a long queue, a high price – these are just some of the reasons for resigning from the shopping. The rules appearing in the e-commerce market do not differ from the models learned in stationary trading.

Although the e-commerce market gives bigger opportunities than stationery shops. At the same time, this does not mean that we have to look at the growing number of abandoned baskets with folded hands. Hence, you have the possibility to track the whole shopping process. The knowledge gained from the abandoning carts will help you in the finding of the inconvenience and optimization of the purchasing process.

Do not forget that e-merchandising or an effective presentation of products in the online store will allow you to provide the customer with all the information and encourage them to buy!

How to open a first online store?

1. Do market research

You have certainly noticed that there are more and more online stores on the market, so to achieve desirable success, you have to take actions that will help you stand out from the rest. First, focus on the competition, you can take several factors into the consideration: price, store design, product presentation, promotions and marketing.

2. Name your store and buy domain

After making a decision about the industry, it’s time to choose the name for your online store. The name is a very significant aspect it should refer to the type of business and products you offer. Remember it should be catchy so clients could easily recall your brand in the future.

Have you already chosen a logo for your brand? If so, now it’s a time to buy the domain. Don’t hesitate with this step as there are a number of people who looking to buy a domain and can overtake your name. Make sure the internet address will have the same name as your store name.

3. Choose the best e-commerce software and open an online store

Choosing an effective software will determine the success of your first online store, so take a moment to do careful research and choose the best solution. The market is full of e-commerce platforms on which you can create your online store. Most of the platforms have a free trial period and access to the admin panel. This will help you to check the solution before purchasing it.

The Offerer software you can try for 14 days for free without any obligations

Why Offerer software? First of all, the admin panel is extremely simple and intuitive to use, if you are not a programmer it’s great solution for you. In addition, there is a hint system that will help with the navigation through the platform.

When choosing a proper software, be sure to choose the one that will enable you to integrate with various systems such as payment gateways, couriers, warehouses etc. This will make much easier for you to manage your online store.

4. Create an attractive graphic design

Graphics is very often a deal breaker. Make sure your website is user-friendly and transparent. Take a chance and implement unique and special ideas. Remember about all graphics elements: colors, menus, access to promotions, leading products should look desirable for clients so it will convince them to purchase.

If you are not sure about your design skills, you can always rely on professionals. You can order individual graphic design or use the store template creator available in the subscription price. This will allow in a simple way to manage your first online store.

5. Add statistics system

While considering the constant development of your online store remember to add a tool that will allow accessing to the most crucial statistics about your website traffic. A free and very popular option is Google Analytics, this tool allows to determine which online campaigns bring the biggest traffic and conversation, the worse performing pages, what people click on the most, what people search on your website, visitors location, abandoned carts.

6. Prepare “about us” page

One of the most crucial factors is preparing a good about us page.
About us page usually includes information about your company but also possibilities that you offer for example the type and cost of delivery, accepted payment methods, returns, complaints policy. This type of information is very important to show on your website, it gives transparency to the clients, which builds trust. Your website should include Terms and Conditions and Private Policy ( preparation of those documents should be overlooked by law professionals).

7. Enter products and choose unique descriptions

After fulfilling the above steps you can start your sale at any moment, hence focus on this two steps:

• You can add the goods manually by configuring them in anyway.
• Integration with wholesalers: with a few clicks you can add products database to your online store. Thanks to this function, within 10-15 minutes, more than ten thousands of items can appear in your online store. 

A very important factor to focus on is a product description. Avoid Double Content and do not copy descriptions directly from the producers. The first content is valuable and copied one will be considered by Google as useless. If you want to take good care of your store’s SEO, beware of duplicating text.

8. Make a few tests of your online store

Before launching your website, make a few tests to be sure that it works correctly.
To ensure that it is perfectly adjusted, check:

• Prepare tests of store operations, which eliminate the occurrence of possible technical errors (e.g the appearance of blank pages);
• Usability testing– examine whether the store is intuitive enough;
• Browser compatibility testing– responsiveness – with Offerer, all available templates are adapted to mobile devices.

9. Promote your brand

Your online store with rich graphics and content works without the smallest complaint? Great, but still not enough to exist on the market. Successful Promotion Campaigns in the online world can be introduced as advertisements or good and effective SEO. One of the most serious and worth considering is Google AdWords ( Google Ads)– sponsored links and so-called Adsense, which consist in matching the content of ads to the content of the page currently being viewed. In this case, the cost will accrue based on the number of clicks.

The most effective “natural” and long-term method to promote the online store is positioning. What is referred to as positioning? In this way, we determine the process of systematically growing in the ranking of search results by key phrases at Google.

Summary

We hope that this article will help you to start your own online store. Remember to start from market research, name your store and buy the domain. Next chose e-commerce software, that will meet your expectations. Also, pay attention to your shop design. If you are not sure about your design skills, you can always count on professionals- order individual projects. While adding products use unique descriptions, and lastly promote your store.

How to make money blogging?

The time has passed, when the blogs were run only for passion. Today professionals and amateurs are working on the highest content quality to reach customers expectations in order to their business growth. As a result, the interest in how to make money on blogging is huge. Here are couple factors to focus on:

• sponsored articles (using various platforms i.e WhitePress),
• affiliate network (income from the sold products),
• barter network,
• ads from the Google AdSense program,
• offers presented in social media,
• sale in your own online store.

What do bloggers sell?

It’s no secret that the influencers often earn on selling:

• gadgets,
• clothing lines,
• online courses,
• books,
• and often on commissions for items bought by customers redirected to the store from their social media.

Increasing profit with blogging doesn’t have to be based on your own brand or focusing on the existing company. Authors in various areas and subjects are experts in their field, nothing prevents their content from becoming the basis for marketing their own online store. Guides, tips, article tests and comparisons are desirable content by internet users.

Bloggers that has become known as reliable photographers or food experts, gain higher trust than the competition. This gives access to a large group of potential buyers even before opening your online shop.

 

Why it’s beneficial to start your online shop from Blog?

Although starting an online shop from a blog is not a standard procedure, but worth considering. Imagine that as the owner of a cosmetics blog, you give your readers reliable tests of products of selected brands, write about the ways of caring for particular skin type, and also inform about industry novelties. As a skilled blogger that opens an online store, you gain:

• You have extensive industry knowledge, thanks to which you gain new readers, and therefore potential buyers.
• You can easily write descriptions of products that contain reliable information asked by customers.
• You have a valuable content base that attracts to your website – including those entering from the search engine.
• It minimizes marketing costs associated with building the brand image.
• You already work in social media, and also have groups on Facebook.

In fact, you already have quite a good marketing base that will boost your sale. What’s more, the ‘know-how’ will enable you to choose the right assortment and anticipate trends for the sales season.

• The craziest peak of sales starts in the mid-November.
•  While preparing the holiday’s promotion remember that your discount will not be the only factor that will drive the client’s eyes.
• One of the ways to overtake competition is to prepare an instant shipment of goods and its efficient delivery this is crucial for people who postpone shopping until the last minute.

When does the holiday’s peak start?

People are divided into those who prepare gifts a few weeks before Christmas and those who leave their shopping madness for the last minute. In online stores, we can observe the seeds of the Christmas sales peak in the mid-November. The interest in various products during this period gradual increases, and customers often add more items to the shopping list. Many of them have already specified their shopping plans and are waiting for Christmas promotions. When preparing for the Christmas sales peak, you can not forget about the events before the hottest period of online sales in November such as Cyber Monday and Black Friday.

What type of Christmas promotions is worth to consider?

The pre-holiday period is the best time in the year to attract customers with your promotions and deals. There are very few sellers that don’t consider special discounts for the customers. During this season customer has expectations and search for deals that they use before purchasing goods. If you won’t meet their needs- the probability that will go to the competition, and probably will not return to your shop again is very big. Use Christmas period potential and prepare the most effective promotions for your customers.

What type of goods should you include in your promotions?

Certainly, your experience gained in previous years will help you to know what range of products to include in the promotion campaign. You can check your sales reports, that will define well-selling products as well as effective forms of advertising. If the obtained data turns out to be insufficient or you are a beginner seller and just starting to analyze it, it is worth following a few tips in creating holiday promotions:

• Focus on branded products, that are high-quality gifts and often inquired by a big number of people.
• Use marketing led by producers. Check the current market situation and focus on current fashion and advertising that are dictating in various media. If you offer a product inquired by thousands of people who have been interested in it before, you’re halfway to success!
• Nice-looking gift packages, chocolates, personalized gifts – these are the product groups that can appear in the basket. They cannot be missing in your store!
• Seasonal products based on the theme of a Christmas tree, baubles or Santa always bring positive emotions!

When preparing an assortment covered by the Christmas promotion, do not be driven by the idea that by the end of the year you can sell everything! If you don’t think through your purchasing strategy at the end of the hottest period, you might be struggling with the product lying in the warehouse.

Prepare Christmas sets

Gift sets are very popular both among women and men. Using the practice of combining various types of products will be good opportunities to sell more items, and at the same time will give your customers desirable deals. Nothing prevents you from creating exclusive gift ideas that will be recommended to specific groups of people. A rich assortment will allow you to create a perfect gift for a girl, grandfather, mountain travel enthusiast or fan of video games. Good practice will combine products in accordance with the principle of cross-selling.  Try to focus on a few promotions, among which the client will not feel lost and set number limit will be beneficial for you- it will be easier to prepare parcels for shipment, as well as to advertise individual sets.

When composing Christmas sets, remember to pack them pretty. Also, pay special attention to the fact that the set usually is prepared in a more attractive price than its parts purchased separately.

Buy more, pay less

“Buy more, pay less” is very effective approach. You can offer two any items for a fixed price, or buy one and get other for -20%- this suggestions will encourage customers to add items to the basket even if basket is ‘full’.

 A free Christmas gift

The opportunity to give a free gift is an additional motivation for people who have not yet chosen the place where they buy gifts. Here you can act in two ways:

•  Communicate clearly about the attached products to the package.
• Give notice about the promotion: spend a certain amount and get a free gift.

It will also be good practice to prepare holiday greeting cards or company gift tags that will be included in holiday packages. A small, practical gift will allow you to win the sympathy of customers at a low cost.

Special offer for participants of the loyalty program

During the Christmas period, you shouldn’t forget about members of the loyalty program. Use effective mailing to inform them about discounts that are only available to them. In order not to drastically reduce your profit, you may decide to enter a percentage discount only after exceeding a certain amount, which will provoke some people to make more purchases.

What to do to sell more?

It’s true that in the pre-Christmas period it is easier to sell almost anything. At the same time, this does not mean that by the end of November and the beginning of December we can count on a significant increase in income without the need to plan marketing campaign. Find out how to prepare a Christmas offer to sell more!
How to communicate about Christmas promotions?

Price reduction during the Christmas period will not surprise anyone. What’s more, a few euros difference, which can be decisive on a daily basis, this time will not make any impression – especially if purchases are made in the last minute. Communication of Christmas discounts has to be adapted to shopping fever. What does it mean?

• Highlight the percentage discount and no the price reduction itself.
• Use emotional marketing strategy. Refer to the family atmosphere, smile on the faces of loved ones, show that the gift will remind you of the moments spent together.
• Take care of Christmas graphics.

Build tension

Build tension associated with upcoming promotions. If your online store has a fan page on Facebook, use it to create promotional announcements. Keep reaching consumers with interesting promotions so they know your shop is the place where to go shopping during this season.

• Set a start date of promotion.
• Regularly provide updates regarding promotions.
• Create a feeling that the offers are very unique and special.

Work with influencers to promote your store

In the pre-Christmas period, all kinds of gift combinations are extremely popular. Very often consumers are looking for the perfect gift idea through the internet. Beneficial approach is to consider cooperation of an online store with a blogger who will mention your product in the published post. Ensure that the blogger you want to cooperate with is in the similar industry as you, so you will target perfect group for people for your product. Those that are a little more universal will work almost everywhere.

By choosing to place a rebate code in a given post, you’ll receive even greater customer sympathy. The ability to monitor the number of people who will use promotion will translate into the effectiveness of this promotion campaign.

Prepare online store for Christmas sale!

Businesses that work in a dropshipping model should be alert. Though the model is very comfortable on a daily basis, it may not work well in the hottest time of the year. When planning your Christmas offer, you should expect:

• Lacks in the warehouse assortment.
• Delayed shipping caused by a large number of orders.
• The risk associated with the purchase of a product that is currently out of stock.

To protect yourself and your customers from the inconvenience, make every effort to:

• Providing detailed information about the expected delivery date of the product.
• Set a limit of a given product in the warehouse, after which the range will be no longer available in your store. Otherwise, it may turn out that the product purchased by your customer has already been reserved for another person.

The Christmas sale madness also applies to sellers that have their own storage space. Using a wide marketing campaign, you must take into account the need to ensure liquidity in packaging and sending parcels. Contact courier company and specify the estimated delivery time that will provide to customers, as well as specify the maximum number of packages that you are able to prepare in one day. Remember that the orders that will accumulate will continue to grow and you might need to hire an additional employee (for the duration of the season) may be the best solution.

How to promote the product in the online shop?

The vast majority of online stores are focusing on selling recurrent products that consumer already know. The introduction of a new product might cause mixed feelings. Firstly, they are not familiar with the product, and secondly, there are no recommendations. As a result, instead of an expected sales boom,  we can note a drop in sales or even a lack of it!

If you think to introduce a new product to your online shop, especially for a long-term, it should be a well through-out strategy, and focusing on running a marketing strategy by using various communication channels. Make customers want your new product even before it appears in your store, and remember about the promotion. Hence, lowering the price of the product will attract more buyers, and introducing products that are trendy on the market will show high professionalism.

1. Sale new products in the online store

Pre-order is the most popular way to sell new products in the online shop. But what does it mean?  It can be described as an available possibility to purchase a product before is launched for official sale. The customer makes an order and make payment several days or even weeks before its production, and receives it on the first day of sale for a wide range of consumers. Introducing a pre-sale has very positive effects. It gives the feeling of the exclusiveness, therefore the chance that the client will return in the future increases.

What to do to make the pre-sale effective?

• Apply promotion! Everywhere you have highlighted pre-order option, put a clear information regarding the discount price.

A very good catch on customers is to give the exact amount of price reduction. However, with small discounts, it is worth using the percentage rate. It’s more attractive to use a 5% discount rather 5 euros in relation to 100 euros.

• Communicate very clearly, that the introduced offer is a pre-sale option and the attractive pricing will disappear after the product will be placed in the shop.
• Explain that the number of available pre-orders is limited. The introduced limit will increase call-to-action and will stop customers from postponing their purchase.

2. Display new products on the homepage

The homepage is a business card of the online store, and it gives the first impression to the clients about the brand. Remember to include information about the most important promotions as well as new products. When displaying new products consider to include:

•  slider,
•  pop-up windows,
•  fixed elements at the bottom, top or side of the page, for a certain period,
• add section ‘the latest added products’.

During the presentation of the selected product, focus on the distinctive graphics that will attract attention, and provide any additional technical data in the form of a transparent infographic.

3. Run a Social Media Contest

Use new products as an award in the contest, this will give the opportunity to increase their visibility. It will certainly increase the need for purchasing, and people that have not been able to win will decide to buy a product in the future. An additional advantage of the competitions is the involvement of the participants. The necessity to follow a few simple steps translates into spreading the posts, and hence the number of potential buyers increases.

4. Write blog posts about the new products

Another way to promote the new assortment is to include it in the blog posts. Information on the specification and detailed description will increase customer awareness. What’s more importantly, you can add a CTA button, which directly redirects the reader to the offer with a pre-order.

Another very significant idea is to start cooperation with bloggers. The online store may pass the product for testing based on the exchange program. Depending on the adopted strategy, you can ask the influencer to redirect its recipients to the pre-order offer after posting it in a post. Only those who have their own proprietary assortment that is not dependent on an external company and its sales plan will have the freedom to make arrangements.

5. The newsletter will help you reach existing customers

When promoting new products, it is worth using existing customers. This is a wide group that has already trusted your brand. Perhaps they have already subscribed to the newsletter and shared their data on shopping preferences. Thanks to this you will be able to reach them with the most personalized offer. If you want to create an email campaign and will increase sales, remember that the content must be attractive.

Create something that will attract clients. For example, you can send to your customer’s database an email with a special discount on a new product. Even 5 or 10% can make them feel special. In the end, only regular customers can count on the mentioned discount.

Introduce a new product and don’t worry about the sale

If you want to introduce a new product to the store, but you are worried about the demand and interest of customers, you should check the market first. A great way to check if the new assortment you want to sell will be popular is dropshipping. This is a logistic model, in which the goods are sent directly from the warehouse to the customer, and does not require purchasing goods upfront. Therefore, it offers a wide range of possibilities for testing new products.

Having an online shop brings many possibilities. The advantage of having e-store is a reduction in costs due to the lack of necessity to maintain a stationary store, by applying new solutions available on e-commerce. One of the innovative and convenient ideas is to run an online store without using the warehouse. What is dropshipping and what benefits it brings?

Dropshipping is an online sales model that is gaining popularity among e-business owners every day. It allows selling products online without inventory. This model is based on the process of shipment of goods to the customer from an online store to a warehouse. The buyer makes the purchase in the e-store, but the parcel is being sent from the warehouse. Having a dropshipping  gives you the possibility to eliminate the need of having a warehouse as well as dealing with the delivery process.

Now as you know what is droppshiping the question arises how it might look in practice. The sale process in dropshipping, or store without a warehouse, is as follows:

1. The customer places an order in the online store. What is very important is that the store has the current stock list of wholesale, on its website ( this is possible thanks to integration with wholesalers, which ensures the condition of the assortment);
2.  The buyer makes the payment;
3.  The store sends a request to the warehouse regarding the order realsiation, with the set price deducted from its margin amount
4. The wholesaler sends the goods directly to the customer.

Advantages of dropshipping

• The biggest advantage of an online store without a warehouse is the low cost of setting up and running a business
• If you have a dream to run a business from anywhere, dropshipping is a perfect choice for you. You can manage orders and promote your store by relaxing by the beach.
• Wholesalers that have dropshipping model in their offer are most often large players. That’s why their offer includes a wide range of products. At the beginning of the business, you might not have the possibility of having an impressive range of goods, that’s why it is worth to start selling in a dropshipping model. This will atract more visitors to your website.
• Many entrepreneurs search for certain business ideas on which they can earn money immidtadley. There is no guarantee of success, although you can try to increase your chances by checking what are the risks in the chosen business industry. In order to minimize risk in the very beginning of your business a store without a warehouse is a great idea,  if you manage to make money in this model, you will be able to consider investment in the development of your shop.

Offers provides 209 ready-made integrations with wholesalers. You will certainly find something for you. Lear more HERE

Disadvantages of Dropshipping

Despite many advantages, this model also has disadvantages:

• Dependency on the offer of wholesalers;
• Lack of full control over the process of order fulfillment.

Summary

The dropshipping model has many advantages – the biggest ones are low risk and minimized costs. Can this form of sales work in your business?  We hope this article will help you to find the answer.

1. What is an open source system?

The open source is a generally available software for online stores. Each user can download them for free from the website and install it on the server. The most popular free software are:

• PrestaShop,
• Magento,
• WooCommerce.

2. Is the open source for online stores really free?

 As previously mentioned, downloading the software for the online store is free. However, there are significant hidden costs that the beginning entrepreneur is not aware.

It will be necessary to find a person or company that will take care of technical service, updating the store’s inventory, and also will be watching over the stability of your store. Of course, nothing is for free, which means you will have to properly pay, and their services are not cheap. Depending on the year period, this person will have to work on your online activity from one to several dozen hours. At the same time, the cost of such a service can reach up to 150 euro net per hour. This expense can significantly burden your budget, so it is worth considering whether investing in this kind of software is a good solution, especially in the early stages of running the e-business.

You can not forget about additional functions or modules. Any function, even basic, which normally occurs in the shop platform, may not exist in the open source, and this will require an additional payment. Unfortunately, they are often old or not updated at all.

Another cost that incurs is buying the server and domain. Prices vary depending on the individual needs of clients regarding the hosting. Unfortunately, you can not always choose the right and tested solution. Because after a while it may turn out that the number of products and traffic in the store may be larger than you expected.

It is different with the subscription of Offerer shop platform. With us, you have unlimited web hosting, and price packages are prepared based on our many years of experience in working with clients.

In summary, despite the seemingly free functioning of your online store on open source software, the additional costs that you will have to pay for each functionality or change on the site, can reach up to 1000 euro net a month, and often more! However, if you use the SaaS software, you will pay from 100 to a maximum 190 euro – it depends on the subscription option you choose. The difference is enormous, right?

3. The configuration of a free online shop

Every software for online shop should be adjusted to your own individual needs before start selling. All software for online stores must be adapted to their individual needs before selling. However, the configuration process for the open source model is very long, time-consuming and requires a lot of programming knowledge.

If you want easily manage your website and give your customers user-friendly experience in your store, you need to install plug-ins, create functions and design integrations.

In case you do not have advanced IT skills, you will have to look for information on forums and discussion groups. Implementation of the collected data will cost you a lot of working hours, which will delay the start of your e-business.

Hence, when you have programming knowledge, you will be able to adjust the open script to your individual needs. In addition, the configuration of the e-store should go smoothly.

However, the e-commerce industry is dynamically changing, that’s why installing application once for a long-term won’t be enough. You need to follow trends on a regular basis and change the integration parameters, which may result in incorrect operation of the store’s mechanism.

If you are overwhelmed by the configuration of a free online store, you can commission work to a programmer or specialists from a company or agency. However, before you invest the money, you need to find a trustworthy person who will meet your expectations, which is also not easy. Then you will have to wait for your request to be completed and often pay not a small sum. 

It looks completely different when it comes to the configuration of the online shop for a subscription. With Offerer.com you have more than 1200 functions and extended help system.

From the store’s administration panel with a few clicks, you can integrate with the price comparison engine, payment gateways, and couriers. Thanks to this, you save time and energy.

Nevertheless, in case of doubts or problems, you can always contact the technical support team. In addition, specialists from Offerer.com continually develop the software, update and control its proper service.

4. Will you pay additional costs?

Unfortunately, in the case of a free online store, you pay a fee for each new integration, function or the smallest graphic element. Developers of open source software often do not keep up with the introduction of new changes in line with market trends. So will you pay additional costs?

That’s why launching the function and integration on the website involves programming them, which is time-consuming and very expensive. This step is a must, you will not skip this process. If you want to succeed in the e-commerce market, you must meet customers needs and expectations.

Free online stores often do not offer free templates, so buying a ready one and implementing it exposes you to additional fees.The same is when it comes to graphics.

What does it look like in the SaaS model? With Offerer you do not pay additional costs. Integrations, applications and current updates are included in the pricing of software subscription. In addition, you can use the free RWD graphic template, which you can adapt to your ideas using a webmaster’s editor.

5. Advantages and disadvantages of open source software and shop platform

Advantages of open source:    

• open and flexible source code
• community support on the web
• free installation
• high efficiency for many products

Disadvantages of open source: 

• the requirement to finds and buy a server
• paid additional features
• lack of free graphic templates
• time-consuming configuration and creation of new integrations / functions
• a need for high programming skills or to hire an external company

Advantages of online shop software subscription:

• hosting and server administration included in the subscription price
• additional features included in the subscription fee
• free RWD graphic design templates
• a fast configuration of the online store
• technical support and software development

Disadvantages of online shop software subscription:

• limited source code
• no adjustment to specialized online stores
• subscription fee method

6. Which software should you choose for your e-store?

Consider your options and analyze your budget, evaluate your programming skills objectively.

Free open source platforms have a lot of fans and supporters. But they are mainly recommended to people with IT skills who can devote a lot of time to configure the online store.  They are also a better choice for large e-businesses with a wide and specific range of products.

Whereas, having a shop on the Offerer platform gives you a wide possibility not only in terms of features and functionalities but also provides excellent technical support, and all of this at a subscription price. This system is recommended for beginning entrepreneurs as well as medium, and small online stores.

 Think carefully about the best option for you. Take into consideration mentioned above factors and start your adventure with e-commerce!