Online Shop vs Retail Outlet (Part 1)

I saw the movie “Confession of a shopaholic” on DVD recently and I actually found the show to be quite entertaining.

The story takes us on a journey of a small time journalist and a major shopaholic, Rebecca Bloomwod, as she rises to the heights of her career as a wildly popular columnist for a financial magazine, whilst possessing no better knowledge on the financial world and all of its jargons than an average Joe. What made her so successful was actually her ability to translate the complex financial terms and jargons into a language that is spoken by most of us, shopping!

And hence the “girl with a green scarf (her pen name)” was born, a financial columnist that made the financial world simpler for everyone to understand and relate to.

From the inspiration of “the girl in the green scarf”, this blog entry of mine would be an attempt to help translate the e-commerce world into a more easily understandable language using real life metaphors.

Setting up an e-commerce online shop, is actually not that different from setting up a real life physical retail outlet.

Step 1 : Constructing your online e-commerce shop
The cost of constructing a brick and mortar shop can be quite substantial.

To purchase an average retail lot in a location that is mildly populated and accessible would easily cost you a few hundred thousand RM, and if you can’t afford to purchase out right the rent can be up to a few thousand RM every month for a fairly popular location in the cities.

And then there is renovation, I mean you would need at least some form of renovation for your shop before it can look attractive and presentable for all the potential customers. In this age, packaging is very important towards making a successful sale. The way you present your product and your shop is crucial, that is why when you are in big shopping complexes such as in the 1utama shopping center in PJ, you will find that all the shops are fairly well renovated to look good and appealing. The way we stack and present our merchandises are also very important, the lighting, the color and the furniture all plays a part, and that is why we need interior designers to help us renovate!

For an online shop,

That’s why when you are trying to setup an online shop; the first person you’ll approach would be a web design company. Website designing fees can range from a few hundred RM to a few thousand RM, depending on the quality, complexity and functions that you require.

How to choose the right website designers for your online shop?

If what you require is a simple functioning and basic e-commerce online shop without all those flashy graphics, you’ll need to fork out at least four hundred RM to get the job done; this would not include storage and hosting fees (which could easily amount to another few hundred RM annually)

The problem with getting your own custom made website is that you would have to learn how to manage your online shop using the CMS (Content Managing System) that was provided. This to some, could be quite easy to learn, but to others it can be a long and difficult tasks, keep in mind that not everyone speaks the computer language.

The other option is to hire another guy to help you upload and update the contents on your website. This option can be quite ridiculous for an active retailer since there are always constant updates! New stocks, price changes, promotions, sold out products and etc. Imagine the amount of time and money it would cost to hire another guy to do all these!

That is why at Trosworld, we have created a system that is so user friendly that you would only need to learn two things to manage your online shop.

1.     Basic typing skills and how to get online.
2.     Basic understanding on taking pictures and how to upload them to your computer.

The rest is really really easy.

One of the advantages of using Trosworld website would be your ability to change the look of your website with just a few clicks.

The cost of construction of your online shop at Trosworld is actually just your time and effort, no monetary cost is involved, building a website on Trosworld is FREE.

Blog Shops

There is an increasing trend to setup blog shops in the country, the main reason behind this I believe is because setting up a blog shop is essentially free. But setting up a blog shop would require a certain familiarity with the computer language that a lot of us may lack. Especially if you are looking to create a blog shop that looks pretty, you would need to have a basic understanding on how html works. The biggest drawback for a blog shop is actually the lack of a shopping cart which is the equivalent of a cash registry machine in the retail outlet.

Most blog shops resort to basic email communication between buyers and sellers and this could be quite cumbersome in the long run and it is troublesome for the buyers to purchase from their shop.

Imagine if you’re in a retail shop in a shopping complex, and you wanted to make a purchase, but instead of choosing that product you want and paying for it, you now need to email the merchant and wait for his reply before you are able to make that purchase.

At Trosworld, our free website comes with its own shopping cart, hence letting your customers shop more easily at your shop. Minimizing the work that the customers have to do before concluding their purchase. With each additional purchasing step, the more the risk of losing that potential purchase, hence we strive to shorten the purchasing process as much as possible.