Once you’ve set up a small business, you’ll soon realise the things that are a necessity and the things that aren’t. “Do I need to have my own website for my small business?”, is a question the Pedddle team are asked often. If you’re selling at markets and making product sales – is it really essential for you?
It can be a cumbersome other channel to set up, check and monitor, BUT a website can also boost your business’ traffic and even capture you some more sales. It also gives another avenue for customers to contact you, with potential future orders or even custom-made requests.
Read on and we’ll explain how to tell…
Do I need to have my own website for my small business?
Initially, testing your product is the most important thing to do. You may have done this at markets and found success – but if your products were seen online, could you have even MORE success?
First things first – test everything!
If you’re just starting out with your business, then product viability is the most important thing right now, and you have access to a plethora of marketplaces to list products and see how they sell. Getting out to in-person markets helps you define the market need for your products too. There is a caveat with this though; you have to find the right markets for your products! Not all in-person markets will be where your ideal audience is hanging out.
This means that you may find use for a website, as an extra avenue to find your ideal audience and get your business more seen by a wider audience generally.
A website can mean people can order from you before or after a market, and even collect their website orders at the market then.
Pros and cons to having a website
Creating a website can be expensive and time-sucking! Plus it takes a lot of energy and knowledge to drive traffic to your website and optimise your SEO all the time – never mind understanding the world of add-ones and plug ins. Would you need a developer? What kind of server should you use? We’ll attempt to answer below…
If you have been around a while and want to start moving towards a website, then we recommend that you buy your domain name first. You can actually point this at any kind of marketplace you like – even if your website doesn’t have your desired ordering or selling functions yet – and when you are ready, get people to visit your domain name.
It could even drive traffic to your mailing list, but the idea is that when people look for your website, it says something that drives traffic towards your business, even if your website isn’t ready to go live yet. If you don’t decide to use that specific domain name in the end, it can then still point to your new sparkly website, or another marketplace (i.e. Folksy or Etsy) or business-related avenue (like your mailing list or even your socials).
Don’t spend too much on a website!
We don’t believe you really need a hot-shot web developer at this stage. Check out Hey Pear (https://www.heypear.co.uk/) for help building your website or use platforms like Shopify, Wix or Squarespace – they are all pretty similar in their offering as ‘drag and drop’ e-commerce sites, but we do have a preference for Shopify, as it has so many benefits and gives you a good allowance for email marketing too. Lots of our Pedddle stallholders use this, and again it can get expensive – but it could pay off for you.
Your stock management can be sorted using a platform called Inventora, which allows mutliple platforms to connect and it manages your stock too. Click this link to find out more.
So, “Do I need to have my own website for my small business?” – the answer is, it’s really up to you!
Click to watch our recent YouTube video on this topic if you’d like to see Pedddle Founder Nicki talking about it.
We hope this helps – good luck!
“Do I need to have my own website for my small business?”, blog published in July 2024.