A lot of big brands have recently announced that they’re leaving marketplaces and starting to build their own business entities.
Maybe because they simply can’t take the marketplace fees anymore, which seem to be eating more and more into their margins.
Some of you might also want to start doing the same thing, but maybe you have no idea where to begin.
Some people might immediately redirect customers to WhatsApp, while others might start running ads on social media right away.
And eventually, they get confused with how the whole business flow is supposed to work, and the result is… not really optimal.
Hi, I’m Willy Pujo Hidayat.
And in this special 50th episode of Commercesation, I want to share 5 steps that you should take if you want to build your own online store as an independent business entity.
Website as Your Business Entity
The digitalization era has reached a level that maybe nobody expected to happen this quickly.
And yeah, once again, thanks to COVID for accelerating the transformation of online shopping, people—including probably you guys—have become much more comfortable interacting with websites and applications.
Especially now that we have AI, where people predict that in the future, people might actually shop directly through AI.
So they ask AI for recommendations, and they might even ask AI to buy the product for them.
One of the most advanced examples of this is Alexa on Amazon Echo.
It’s not just something we can tell to do small tasks.
At this level, Alexa can actually receive voice commands to shop on Amazon.
And if AI becomes more, let’s say—native in our daily lives, then owning your own website is going to become something you really need to consider.
Why?
Because AI is going to crawl basically everything on the internet, including your online store.
In fact, some businesses are even changing their brand names so they’re easier for humans to pronounce and easier for AI to understand.
You rarely see brands nowadays using weird combinations of numbers and letters, or names that are difficult to pronounce, or names with symbols like “@” or hashtag “#”.
Because they want their brands to be easier for AI to understand.
So, owning your own website, especially as a long-term strategy, is something you really need to consider.
Brands That Left Marketplaces
If here in Indonesia we’ve only recently started seeing this phenomenon of brands leaving marketplaces because of marketplace fees eating into their margins, this has actually happened before in the US.
Around 2019, a brand as big as NIKE decided to leave the online retail giant, Amazon.
The reason was that they wanted to focus on selling directly to end users without going through a third party like Amazon.
It was actually a bit more idealistic, you know.
It wasn’t because they were waiting to get strangled by high marketplace fees. 😀
Although there were reports later that they eventually came back to Amazon, what NIKE did at that time was actually appreciated by quite a lot of people.
And honestly, it makes sense that NIKE was confident enough to do it.
I mean, it’s NIKE.
They’re already top of mind, they have a proper website, and they already have a pretty loyal user base.
But what if you’re a business owner like us?
Maybe you’re not as big as NIKE, you have limited capital, right? 😀
But you still want to try to become independent, leave the marketplace, and build your own business entity.
Well, here are the 5 steps.
And if I may suggest something, please do these steps in order.
Don’t do everything in parallel.
Don’t bypass the steps.
Just take it slowly, one by one.
Let’s start with number one.
#1 Niche
When you hear a brand as big as NIKE, what immediately comes to your mind?
Probably not too far from sports apparel.
Running shoes, sneakers, T-shirts, and so on.
Would NIKE sell computer monitors?
Or electric cars? 😀
Even if those products are making crazy money right now, they still want to be top of mind when people think about sports.
So the first step in building an online store is actually not finding a domain or building a website.
It’s determining your niche.
You can’t be a “we-sell-everything” store anymore.
You know, palugada.
Whatever you want, we have it.
No. You can’t.
You need to focus.
Where are you going?
What do you want people to remember your brand or your store for?
What kind of products do you want to be really strong at supplying?
This is really important.
“So, does that mean I need to have my own product, Wil?”
Not necessarily.
You can focus on becoming a retailer for a specific product category, like the example I talked about in the previous episode with Sociolla.
Sociolla doesn’t have its own products.
They basically become the meeting point for major cosmetics and skincare brands, and they act as a distribution channel.
You get the idea, right?
The point is: focus on one thing.
You know one simple way to know whether you actually have a niche or not?
You should already be able to map out who your competitors are.
If you already know who your competitors are, that means you probably already understand where your niche is.
But if you have no idea who your competitors are, then maybe you don’t really understand your own business that well yet.
Make sense?
So, niche decided?
No more palugada?
Good.
Now let’s move to the second step.
#2 Find Your Suppliers
Once you know where you want to focus, now we need to find your main suppliers.
Or, as we call it here, the first hand.
If you want to focus on selling perfumes, then find perfume brands that you can work with.
It could be a big brand.
It could be a smaller brand that’s suddenly going viral.
Or it could even be a local perfume seller with really good quality.
Just find them.
Reach out to them properly.
Contact them through DM, WhatsApp, or email.
Introduce yourself and ask for permission to sell their products directly.
And discuss a few things.
For example:
- Is there an MOQ, or Minimum Order Quantity, if I want to buy directly?
- If I want to dropship, is that possible? And how does the mechanism work?
- Do you offer special discounts?
- Is there any commitment fee?
- What’s the lead time from the moment I place an order until the product is shipped?
- Is there a payment term or credit facility?
- What about returns? For example, if we’re selling shoes or clothes and the customer gets the wrong size, or if a perfume arrives broken or defective?
Ask them everything.
Ideally, they should actually be happy that someone wants to help sell their products.
As long as it’s a win-win situation.
Don’t let them feel like they’re being “used”. 😀
And at the same time, you shouldn’t feel like you’re being “played” by the brand either.
“Wil, what if they don’t want to give me a discount?”
Well…
There’s no other option except markup.
You can simply mark up their retail price, maybe 20–30%.
“But if they can buy directly from the brand’s website, it’s cheaper than buying from us, right?”
Correct.
That’s the risk of being a retailer.
Especially online, where prices are completely transparent.
Customers can easily compare prices.
So as a business owner, besides having a niche, you also need to think about providing added value.
It’s a little difficult, especially when you’re dealing with a big brand, because obviously they already offer more value than we probably can.
I do have an idea.
It’s a little extreme, and it will sacrifice some of your margin.
But for a soft launch, I think it could work.
For example, offer free shipping for customers in Jakarta.
That should already be attractive enough as an additional value that you can offer to customers.
By the way, this step can actually be skipped if you’ve already been selling for a long time and you already know who your first-hand suppliers are.
Especially if you already have your own brand.
You can skip this part.
Let’s move on to step number three.
#3 Build Your Website
You’ve decided on your niche.
You already know where to source your products.
Now we can move into something a little more technical.
What is it?
Yep, you guessed it.
Building your own online store website.
This is what you’ve been waiting for, right? 😀
No.
I’m not going to teach you how to use AI like ChatGPT or Emergent to build your website.
That’s way too technical.
There are two options that I can recommend:
- Shopify
- YukBisnis
That’s it.
Just those two for now.
If later you find something more complete, cheaper, more advanced, whatever—go ahead.
But for now, let’s just focus on these two.
Personally, I would probably go with YukBisnis first.
It’s very UMKM-friendly.
You can visit pro(dot)yukbisnis(dot)com, or just go to YukBisnis(dot)com, and look for their YubiPro product.
Don’t overthink it.
Just sign up and register.
There’s a 7-day free trial.
Use it, and maximize it as much as you can.
“Wil, what about the domain?”
Yeah, you can secure the domain first.
Buy it wherever you want.
As far as I know, you can connect it to YubiPro later.
Then build your website as completely and as properly as possible.
For example:
- Structure your products properly:
- Product categories
- Brands
- Tags
- And so on
- Put up good product photos.
- Use AI if you want. Take advantage of it to figure out how to present your products better.
- Ask your supplier or vendor for the original product photos.
- Make sure the details are clear. If you’re selling shoes or clothing, provide sizing guides, details about the stitching, and so on.
- Keep your product titles simple but representative. You don’t need those old-school SEO titles like “buy XXX perfume” or “XXX perfume promo”. Just write a proper product title. If there are variants, put the details properly in the variant options.
- Use crossed-out prices if it makes sense and makes the offer more attractive.
- Choose shipping couriers that are affordable and actually available around your store or home. Don’t use some weird courier if nobody around you uses it.
- If you want to create banners, just use AI. Create something nice, but make sure you already know the required dimensions beforehand.
Basically, make the website as solid as possible.
You don’t have to rush it.
But don’t take forever either, because otherwise you’re just wasting your subscription fee.
Make sure every checklist item for building your online store is properly checked.
This stage is going to take quite a bit of time.
So my advice is: don’t immediately upload hundreds of products.
Just focus on the product category you’re actually targeting.
Few products, but make them really good.
Once everything looks good, now we need to check whether our website is actually ready to be flooded with customers or not.
How do we know?
Let’s move to number four.
#4 Operations
You might feel like:
“Okay, my website is ready to launch.”
The design looks good.
The product photos look good.
The prices are attractive.
Everything seems ready.
But sometimes, that feeling needs to be validated.
How?
Try buying your own product from your own website.
Open your website.
Shop on it yourself.
And make sure the whole process works properly.
And when I say the whole process, I don’t just mean the website flow—from the product page, to the cart, checkout, and payment.
You need to make sure it works all the way until the product is delivered.
This is basically your workflow.
From the moment the customer completes the payment, until the order actually arrives at the customer’s hands.
Let’s break it down slowly.
1. Website Readiness
Try shopping on your own website.
Personally, I usually create a dummy product with a cheap price and then buy it myself.
Click the product.
Add it to the cart.
Checkout.
Make the payment.
Try every single step.
Make sure everything runs smoothly.
No bugs.
No painfully slow loading.
Because slow loading can make customers change their minds.
You’re basically racing against time.
So make sure the whole process is smooth and seamless.
Make sure all payment options are active.
Make sure the shipping options are available.
And so on.
If there’s a problem, try contacting the YukBisnis team.
They’re actually pretty supportive.
2. Product Readiness
The second thing is making sure your products are actually ready.
We already talked about this in step number two.
Are you keeping stock?
Are you dropshipping?
Are you ordering from the supplier only after someone places an order?
Whatever the mechanism is, make sure it’s clear.
And just like the website, this process also needs to be smooth.
And yeah, depending on your business model, if you’re doing B2C or D2C, speed is really important.
The expectations around online shopping are getting faster and faster.
If possible, people want to order something and have it arrive in like… ten minutes. 😀
Don’t let your customer pay first, only for you to realize that the product isn’t actually ready.
And it’s not just the product that needs to be ready.
Your packaging needs to be ready too.
Think about what you’re going to use.
Bubble wrap?
Custom boxes?
Hard cardboard boxes?
Standard boxes?
And so on.
Don’t let your product get damaged during delivery.
That’s going to create a really unpleasant customer experience.
3. Tools Readiness
Besides the website, you also need to make sure all the other tools you need are ready.
For example:
A dedicated WhatsApp business number.
You don’t need to use WhatsApp API yet.
Regular WhatsApp Business is enough.
CRM, or Customer Relationship Management, if you need one.
If I’m not mistaken, YukBisnis already has a CRM feature.
But if it doesn’t, then you need to check what CRM options are available.
“What exactly is CRM?”
Basically, it’s like your order list, your logs, your notes.
Which order has already arrived?
Which one has been prepared?
Which one has been processed?
Which one has already been shipped?
And so on.
Basically, it helps make sure nothing gets missed.
And then there’s automation.
This one is optional.
Usually, if your platform already supports email marketing, then you just need to prepare the templates.
For example:
“Thank you for your order.”
“Your order is being processed.”
And so on.
If you think everything is ready, maybe ask a friend or family member to actually shop on your website.
Get another perspective.
See what they think is missing.
If everything is okay…
Now it’s time to go.
#5 Marketing
Aaaand here we are.
This is the peak.
Once everything is ready, now we can finally start preparing our ads.
“Why don’t we just advertise first, Wil?
We can figure out the operations along the way.”
Yeah, again, different business schools have different philosophies.
Some people just go for it and learn as they go.
But based on my experience, I would rather prepare everything first, and then start advertising.
So when the orders start coming in, you’re not completely shocked.
No dar der dor.
Imagine your campaign is performing really well.
Suddenly you get ten orders in one day.
If you don’t have a proper flow, everything can become chaotic really quickly.
And instead of being happy about the sales, you end up getting yelled at by customers because their orders are late or don’t meet their expectations. 😀
“Wil, what’s the worst-case scenario? What if we’ve prepared everything, but nobody buys? Wouldn’t all of this be a waste?”
Well…
This is actually where there’s one crucial step that should happen before you go through all of these long stages.
But I can’t really talk about it here because this episode would become way too long.
It’s called Product-Market Fit.
Basically, the product you want to sell has to actually fit the customer you’re targeting.
We’ll talk about that in another episode.
For now, let’s focus on the fifth step:
Marketing.
Before we jump into the advertising dashboard—whether it’s Meta Ads, Facebook and Instagram, TikTok Ads, Google Ads, and so on—we need to prepare a few things first.
I’ll break them down into several points so you have a guide.
1. Cookies / Tracking
First, make sure your website’s tracking system is properly installed.
Platforms like Shopify, and including YukBisnis, usually provide specific features for tracking your advertising performance.
So you can go into your Meta, TikTok, or Google Ads dashboard, get the tracking code, and install it on your website.
“Why do we need tracking, Wil?”
Simply put, tracking allows us to monitor whether our marketing campaign is actually performing the way we expect it to.
For the advertising platform, this is also how they learn what you’re trying to achieve.
It’s basically like:
“Oh, so this is the campaign goal you want?
Okay, got it.
Let me maximize it for you.”
You don’t want to tell the platform that you want people with criteria A to watch your video, but somehow people with criteria B end up watching it.
And then they have absolutely nothing to do with your product.
So cookies and tracking are really important.
And I would say this is one of the advantages of digital marketing compared to traditional, or analog, marketing.
Once tracking is properly installed, we move to the second preparation.
2. Product Angles
Create a list of product angles that you want to present to your potential audience.
And make as many as possible.
For example, if you’re selling perfume, let’s try to create some angles.
- A perfume where the person has already left, but the fragrance is still there.
- A fresh and luxurious perfume, but the price is basically the same as a convenience-store perfume.
- Specially made for people who sweat after the gym but still want to smell fresh and keep the fragrance lasting.
- And so on.
Once you have a bunch of good marketing angles, you just need to turn them into content.
The content can be photos or videos.
Because, in my opinion, content has become the backbone of marketing.
If your ads aren’t getting much interaction, usually the content simply isn’t interesting enough.
So this is where you need to run a lot of experiments with different angles.
Okay?
Tracking is ready.
Content is ready.
Now we move to the final part of marketing.
And that is…
Patience. 😀
Seriously.
Especially if you’re a new brand, you absolutely need patience.
Not only do you need to be patient with the money you’re spending on ads for experimentation, but you also need to be patient when looking at the results and testing all the different variables through A/B testing.
Things like:
- Audience criteria
- Whether the marketing objective is appropriate
- Whether the content is appropriate
- And so on.
It’s really difficult for someone to run ads for the first time and immediately succeed.
I can tell you that.
It’s pretty difficult.
You need time to experiment.
You need to mix and match all those variables until you eventually find your own formula.
And once you find that formula, you evaluate it.
For example:
“Okay, today looks pretty good. We’re getting a lot of people chatting with us on WhatsApp, but most of them are still asking very basic questions.”
That probably means the content and landing page aren’t informative enough.
Or:
“We’re getting people chatting with us, but nobody is buying.”
Maybe the offer isn’t attractive enough.
Or:
“Out of 100 people who chat with us, only 10 actually buy.”
Okay.
That could mean there’s something wrong with the sales funnel.
Or maybe we haven’t figured out a strategy to increase the offer yet.
And so on.
So you keep evaluating.
And you keep improving.
It never really stops.
Okay?
This episode has gotten really long.
Well, it’s the 50th episode, so I guess I’m allowed to make it a little longer. 😀
…
Thank you so much for following this podcast all the way to episode 50.
I really, really appreciate everyone who has been consistently listening to this podcast.
From now on, all of the podcast transcripts are also available on our website at commercesation(dot)com.
So feel free to check it out and read the transcripts there.
And don’t forget to follow, leave a comment, and share this episode if you think it’s useful for you or for someone else.
Thank you so much for all of your support.
I’ll see you in the next episode.
Wassalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.