Author name: Riccardo

Online selling channels for Rural Micro Enterprises This page talks about the many online selling channels for Rural Micro Enterprises. In specific, the arguments treated are: Marketing/Promotion & E-commerce; Business plan, Budgeting and Management skills; Financial Management in micro-enterprises; EU programme awareness/grants for rural micro-enterprise; Access to non-grant finance for micro-enterprises in rural areas; Building Capacity in Rural Micro-Enterprises; Pathways2market & customer identification; EU Single Market Opportunities for Rural Micro-enterprises; ICT Literacy for Rural Micro-enterprises; Online selling channels for Rural Micro Enterprises​ We will learn how to identify appropriate selling channels for rural enterprises and make the most out of them. Where? If you want to set up your own online store than you probably already have some idea of business, product range and potential customers of your online store. Think about exactly what kind of products and prices you will include in your shop. Is it worth it to open a specialized online store or perhaps your rural business should rather be offline? Or maybe you can use both online and offline channels, but just make sure you have considered all pros and cons.Selling products online requires answering one basic question: where? First of all you have to decide if you want to implement your own online platform or if you don’t have the time or money to create your own selling platform you can use third parties online selling platforms like Etsy, Amazon, eBay or even Facebook where you can sell directly to consumers without having a website of your own. Making use of these alternatives it is a vital part of a business’ sales strategy.Choosing where to sell products online requires evaluating the fit between channel and product. Finding the right fit means having a strong sense of the company’s products and its customers (What are you selling? Can it be sold online? Where do your customers buy? Will they buy online?), as well as an awareness of who uses various channels. That is why we strongly suggest you to start by defining your mission, vision, products, corporative brand and identity and costumers before starting with online selling.  How? There are some key principles in selling online. Some of them are based on common sense and others are related to online selling. Common sense: Trustworthiness: make sure your customer can trust you and your products. Consistency: make sure you are consistent with your corporative image, mission and vision. Usability: make sure your customer can easily access your products and knows how to use them. Quality of products and of sale process: make sure the sale experience is positive. After sale assistance: make sure you provide personalised assistance to your customer. Online related issues: Pictures: make sure your products are presented through appealing pictures. Language: make sure your contents and translations are meaningful and simple. If you use translations make sure they are done by native speakers and target oriented. Online support: make sure you do not loose your customer while using your online platform. Security channel: make sure you provide https:// security protocols for economic transactions. Privacy policies: make sure you respect data protection laws managing your customers’ data. Logistics: make sure you have all shipping and logistics costs or restrictions well explained. Advantages and disadvantages The advantage of using own online selling platform is that you can control the entire process and selling experience since the very beginning and you can choose if you want to provide an intimate shopping experience and familiar customer relationships or prices and features that you want to highlight for your products.The disadvantage of using own online selling platforms is related to initial set up and maintenance costs, as well as some logistic issues. If you have only few handmade products and your ROI is not big you might want to opt for third parties selling platforms.The advantage of using third parties selling platform is related to traffic and exposure as well as limiting troubles in selling online as you can give it a try and quit immediately if you are not convinced. You can start with these platforms and see if your product is well accepted and your ROI is good enough to think about going on your own. Sites like Amazon or Etsy attract individuals who are prepared to make purchases, whereas it is harder to generate meaningful traffic in your own website or channels. It can be a process of trial and error, and you can add a mix of social channels to a traditional website to get more traffic, more customers and potentially more sales. The disadvantage of using third parties selling platform is related to fees, that you have to pay to advertise your product that inevitably reduce your ROI, and to high competition in terms of products and prices.  What needs to setup a Rural Micro Enterprises? To setup a Rural Micro Enterprise, you need the following things: The power of choosing the right channels lies, in part, in defining correctly different types of customers. People shopping on Etsy, for instance, are primed and ready to buy unique handcrafted items. Whereas, Amazon and eBay have their own types of customers and work well for certain kinds of products. That is why it is so important to define your products and costumers before starting to sell online. If you have a rural business where you manufacture your own product, then Amazon/Etsy/AliExpress can be the best choice. If you are a reseller of existing brands, eBay might be easier for you, especially at the beginning. Just make sure you choose your channels wisely. Website. A website is the cornerstone of most small rural microenterprises online presence. Since people do not know you, make sure your contents and pictures convey your best corporative image. Shopping cart software. Any time you sell something online that is more complicated than one single item, a shopping cart helps. Check with your website hosting company to see what they offer. Make sure your platform runs on a secure communication channel https:// as it will enhance trust in your ecommerce. Payment processing. Whether it’s Paypal or the credit card processor that you use for in-person transactions, you’ll need to figure