Ecommerce myths: which of them are true and which are not?(1)

There are very loud words and phrases that are repeated to death. Concepts such as entrepreneurship culture or digital transformation are part of the reality of anyone who, at some point, has planned to open a business or make the leap to eCommerce from retail. 

There may be a lot of confusion about it, many truths that are repeated as mantras without being objectively real and others that really are. The idea of this series of posts is to help you banish false eCommerce myths. Let's do it.  

The Internet has meant a paradigm shift in the way of doing business. It does not mean there was no evolution of retail; In fact there has always been an interest in growing, advancing and enhancing trade, but even so, a person could sell in 2020 using the same store structure as in ancient Rome.  

The appearance and subsequent consolidation of eCommerce has brought a way of selling through completely different technology, something that had never been seen. Yes, there was a catalog sale by mail, which in some countries, had a certain market share, but it cannot be compared to what has come from the Internet.  

Retailers who are less willing to change and society itself have seen how some people have been able to create businesses almost from scratch, companies that have disputed the market to others much larger or that have ended up selling theirs to their own competitors. 

All this has been generating a very well paid climate for mysticism: a place where the winning projects are called unicorns should already give us an idea of up to what point is mythicized.

Not everything that is said is true, nor everything you are going to read will be a lie. That is why we are going to discern the objective part of some of them. 

We will start with those related to the business base and entrepreneurship and we will progressively move towards more technical and strategic issues.

This is repeated to death and, with some nuances, we can say that it is quite true. 

One of the main characteristics of a native and exclusively digital business is that it has much lower structural expenses. No need of a physical store, which means a huge saving in fixed costs, but also technology allows us to optimize resources very well, so we do not require so much staff. 

This myth is, from our point of view, more controversial. We must say that it is possible to have what is called a side project that we carry out simultaneously and parallel to our professional activity in an external company.  

The questions are: how sustainable is this? How much can you grow? Can it become our livelihood in a reasonable period of time? 

Well, all this depends on the expectations (and the time) you have. Our capacity is limited, so we will reach a point where growth goes through quitting the salaried work and dedicating ourselves 100% or delegating and outsourcing. 

This is absolutely untrue. The basis of any business is a product or service that provides value and is competitive for a specific target audience. This, dear friends, is so regardless of the channel and platform used to market it. 

It is not that the online buyer has evolved and better understands the market, it is the fact that there is no online and an offline buyer. They are the same people who use multichannel to buy at convenience. 

The origin of this myth is surely that, especially at the beginning of eCommerce, the Internet was a cheap way to buy. Even so, it has been a long time since it is not worth it (if it ever was). 

One of the most false myths of all and the most dangerous when starting a business. In the vast majority of cases, resorting to expensive custom developments is absolutely unnecessary. 

A website does not sell more because it is more expensive, a website sells because the business model is better. You need a system that is modular and scalable to be able to adapt the eCommerce to the needs and opportunities that arise. If you can also manage it quick and easily, you are not only making it more profitable, you also gain the ability to react by not depending on anyone. 

If you are thinking of starting an online store, definitely you will be interested by what can be done with Oleoshop. You will see that a reasonable investment is not against to obtaining professional results. 

Another completely false myth. Although there are always ideas to start a business with small investments, no matter the platform you choose, you will always need a hosting for the page, modules, content ... What you thought of as "free" can get out of hands very quickly.  

We can also help you, because Oleoshop stores offer you a closed price with all your needs included in a monthly payment.