In social networks, a lot of free time spends a lot of people. Therefore, it is not surprising that such a huge niche is now a real market for manufacturers and sellers of goods and services. Surely you yourself could see an advertisement that is posted by some VKontakte online store. And this is normal, because due to the audience of the social network you can significantly promote your product and find new customers.
This is understood by an increasing number of entrepreneurs and just people who want to start making money from trading. For this reason, they all wonder how to open the VKontakte online store from scratch.
In this article we will try to clarify such a question and tell information about this.
What do you need to run the store?
To begin with, we note that in order to launch your own VKontakte online store, in most cases you don’t need so much. The main thing is the desire of the person who decided to do this, as well as his time and efforts. With these components, the success of your future store is guaranteed.
Yes, if we are talking about launching a serious project that works on an ongoing basis, it would be desirable to take shape (from a legal point of view) as an online store. In this case, VKontakte does not require any documents, the main condition is that your store does not violate the rules of the social network. As for your legal status, it can be such a legal form as an individual entrepreneur or a limited liability company. We will not go into details, let's just say - the design is not much different from how ordinary online stores and various services work.
In addition to the legal point of view, there is also a technical and organizational one. The latter determines how the trading process itself will be built - where you are going to buy goods, at what price to sell, in what assortment and so on. All these questions are addressed by any entrepreneur, whether it is a market trader or an online shop owner. It is imperative that the price where you intend to make purchases is significantly lower than the final cost of your product, at which you will offer it to the buyer. Due to this brand your profit will be formed.
In addition to the issue of procurement and implementation, it is important to consider where your product will be stored and how it will be delivered. Regarding the first point - it all depends on the quantity of the product and its nature (dimensions, weight and other). Many small online stores of clothes or accessories do not need warehouses, since all this can be stored at home from the owners of the resource. As for the trade in large household appliances, for example, in this case it would be more advisable to rent a warehouse.
Store form
From the previous question about the details of your trading, we will move on to another interesting point - in what form your online store “VKontakte” will have to exist. This means that there are several ways to start selling something on the social network in question. Which one to choose depends on your preference. For example, you can launch a special application of the VKontakte online store and work exclusively with it. You can develop a group and invite your customers to it, while posting product information there.Another option is to launch a public page that will publish product data on its own behalf, and customers will subscribe to it to receive updates in the news feed. Finally, the third way to create a VKontakte online store from scratch is to post on your page and add customers as friends.
Of course, these methods are not exhaustive, but they are the simplest and most popular among existing stores. They are based on the tools available to everyone within the social network, thanks to which the creation of the VKontakte online store is an extremely simple process that offers a ton of opportunities. We will also recall about them in this article.
Opportunities
There are several arguments for opening a store on the VK platform.
- Firstly, it is a wide audience and the ability to quickly (and relatively cheap) promotion. Starting a group, all you have to do is start inviting your friends to it. Those, in turn, must add more familiar people. If the materials left in the community or on the page turn out to be interesting enough for a wide range of users, the so-called “social coma” effect may work, thanks to which you will get a surge in popularity and new customers.
- Secondly, launching, for example, the VKontakte online clothing store is much cheaper than creating it on a separate platform from scratch. Create a public page / group or a separate profile, upload information about your products on it - and the simple but understandable to everyone shop is ready. With material and relevant data, this can be done in 10 minutes.
- Thirdly, such groups (VKontakte online stores) take advantage of the fact that in any case there is their audience on this social network. The reason is simple - there are profiles of tens of millions of people on the site, so the main task of the seller is to reach them. No need to think about creating a user base, as is done on a simple site.
- Fourth, the VK social network is an authoritative resource, including in the eyes of search engines. Due to its age and weight, the page of your store will probably be faster on the first places in Google than the untwisted zero site.
- Fifth, on the basis of a social network, you can create excellent user support. Open personal messages - and the buyer will write to you, ask a question or leave your recommendation. You can’t imagine a simpler approach!
Where to begin?
So how to create an online store "VKontakte"? What should be the first steps? First of all, we recommend starting with a theory. Look for other examples of stores that sell in your area. Learn how this or that function that developers offer their customers is implemented. This is useful because you will have at least some idea of what your future store should look like.
When it will be clear to you what’s going on, go on to practice and create a page or group, depending on what you want to work with. Each of the forms has its pros and cons.
Product: descriptions and photos
In fact, the most important thing in every store operating on VKontakte is content. These are photos and descriptions that your client will see. It depends on them whether the sale of goods will be completed or not. Therefore, we recommend that you prepare this information in advance - try to state everything as briefly as possible, but in such a way as to convey to the user as much information as possible about what you offer.
Advertising
The advantage of the VK social network lies in the ability to easily advertise its products. You can do this in several ways, starting from producing interesting content and distributing it over the network (shoot cool videos, reviews, make reviews and notes, depending on what you are selling); ending with the purchase of ad units and targeting.This is the topic of a separate article, let's just say this: the issue of advertising your store should be given no less attention than the content with which you will fill the store.
Sales organization
In addition to the shop itself, as we noted above, do not miss the question of organizing sales. This means that you should be able to offer the buyer as soon as possible the entire range of products that will be of interest to him. To do this, think about logistics - the delivery, dispatch and storage of goods. Again, this is a separate topic for the article, but in no case should be overlooked.
Website creation
If the store is successful enough, you can think about launching a website with your products in parallel. This, as a rule, requires more time and resources, but such a shop will look much more serious and authoritative in the eyes of the buyer. However, since this is an additional cost, working on a separate store site is possible only if the free version on the social network platform is successful.
Success stories
Finally, we will provide some information for those who doubt whether it is worth launching their online store “VKontakte” or not. There are many examples where a simple hobby in the form of a hobby for clothes allowed launching a large project that grew out of a store in the VK group. Or the other side of the issue: pay attention to the popular online stores on separate sites - they all have their own mirrors on the social network. If product descriptions are not posted there, then at least contact information and some stocks are present there.
This testifies, firstly, to the fact that VKontakte, like another large social network, is an excellent user base that must never be forgotten; and secondly, that, having the minimum amount of resources available, using the VK platform, everyone can start their own business. The main thing is a little imagination, desire and time.
Watch a video on how to open a Vkontakte store
