Why set up an online shop
Do you have a great idea? An online shop allows you to start a cost-effective, low-risk and experimental business. Why not turn your idea into euros, turn a hobby into a profitable business or take your bricks-and-mortar boutique to the next level of sales?
A merchant is an entrepreneur
Do you have a selling idea and are wondering where to get more income? There are many different reasons why you might want to start an online shop. But there is one thing that all merchants have in common - entrepreneurship.
Running an online business requires a business ID and an idea of what you want to sell, and is a safe and low-risk way to try!
Three reasons: why to set up an online shop
1. Multichannel
Reach your customers and be remembered - where they are. In addition to being a sales channel, an online store is a showcase for your business, where customers can get information about the product they want before making a purchase decision.
2. 24/7 accessibility
Most customers shop online on their mobile devices, where and when it suits them. A mobile-optimized online store is a competitive advantage for your business. It allows you to increase not only your opening hours, but also your product range and geographical coverage. It is also a cost-effective shopping platform in addition to - or instead of - a bricks-and-mortar store.
3. Functional and modern
The purchase decision is often made online. It's where you build trust with your customers. The Vilkas Now e-commerce platform is delightfully easy to use: functions such as the shopping cart are pre-placed where customers want to find them. The modern, elegant yet logical layout inspires confidence in your customers. All you have to do is bring your idea to life and put your product on sale.
From hobby to income
Earning extra income while working
Earning an income on the side should be hassle-free and easy. The Vilkas Now do-it-yourself e-commerce platform delights with just these features, enabling you to earn extra income through simple, risk-free and, above all, cost-effective actions.
Setting up an online shop is easy, you can do it yourself, just like you do with your products. Vilkas Now is the right choice for businesses of all sizes and in all industries, including crafts.
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Support the brick-and-mortar store with an online shop
The online shop supports the bricks-and-mortar shop by enabling the conversion of hobby activities into euros. With multi-channel sales, you can reach your customers wherever they are. Vilkas Now allows you to seamlessly integrate your offline and online shop. The online store and the offline store support each other's business objectives. Vilkas offers a solution for all stages of an evolving business. We grow with you, providing both our expertise and technology to help you on your journey towards - and beyond - your goals.
Why a ready-made e-commerce platform?
When you build your online store on top of a SaaS hosted eCommerce platform, it means you'll have a pre-designed storefront, speed to market, and time and effort to focus on what matters most. But above all, it means cost savings.
Let's say you want to scale up an existing business. For example, you could sell products alongside the service you offer. Or maybe you want to start selling products that you make yourself.
Whatever product or service you sell, your expertise and time will go into building a product range, planning marketing and all the other things that go into starting an online business. So your hours should be focused on the essentials - running a business that generates euros.
Then it makes no sense to spend resources, capacity or that most expensive of all - time - on your online shop, coding it, thinking about the right functionality and even installing it. Fortunately, there are services available that have been honed to take into account all the essentials based on decades of experience.
What is a SaaS service?
The genius of SaaS (Software as a Service) lies in its cost-effectiveness. The monthly cost is a fraction of the cost of a bespoke e-commerce package or licence fees. For a monthly fee, you get a maintained and secure environment in which to run your online shop. You also get the best and most important features of an online store, which are flexible and customisable, without requiring separate and expensive coding projects. This keeps the cost of your ecommerce platform in check, while at the same time there is usually a choice of functionality available for businesses of all sizes and sizes.
The main strength of an e-commerce platform lies in its business models. For example, being web-based means you can operate your online store from anywhere, regardless of the device. Maintenance and security are handled by professionals and the platform is constantly being developed and appropriate functionalities are being coded.
However, the biggest advantage, especially for a start-up entrepreneur, is that the best business model is usually built into the finished SaaS service. Thus, the implementation of an e-commerce platform delivered as a SaaS service can also improve your business models. For example, you don't have to think about where on the website to place your shopping cart or the order in which to build your customer's purchase path, because everything has been thought through by professionals.
The benefits of SaaS
SaaS has many advantages for small and medium-sized enterprises. Among other things, risk management is made easier when you get a low monthly fee:
- A ready-to-use online store where you don't have to add code snippets or worry about functionality.
- Automatic updates that you don't have to remember to install, or even do.
- Expert development, ensuring that the development items are relevant to a large number of online merchants and the profitability of their online business.
In use, you will quickly notice the versatility of SaaS ecommerce. The pre-built functionalities allow you to get your online store up and running in hours at best, but one of the key factors is its flexibility:
- A wide range of options are available. Although time-consuming individual customisation is not possible, there is a wide range of options, such as layout themes, to keep your online store looking modern, all of which are included in the monthly fee.
- The right interfaces to other platforms and third parties. A limited but essential range of options to keep your maintenance costs down. Cost-effectiveness and how to achieve it for the customer is the main idea behind SaaS services.
- The use of the service is not location-dependent. As the software is not installed on a computer, you can manage your online shop from anywhere, as long as you have an internet connection
A ready-made online store or a customised package?
So there are several ways to build an online store. A customised e-commerce is always an individually coded package for a company, which requires an e-commerce project between supplier and customer and an understanding of, for example, the requirements for maintaining the e-commerce.
A more cost-effective alternative is a SaaS online store, which is flexible, but does not require the merchant to understand the code and does not require separate projects. It also keeps the fixed costs of running an online business low and allows the entrepreneur to focus on the activities that sustain and develop the business.