Is it really as simple as "opening a shop at $0" to open an IG Shop?

Compared with other online shopping platforms, the operating cost of IG Shop is superficially low. There are a large number of users on the Instagram platform, so you only need to put in the appropriate hashtag, and people will naturally see your posts. You can promote the products you want to sell through postings, hashtags, time-limited updates (IG Story), live broadcasts, etc. However, when your IG Shop develops to a certain scale, some problems may arise. In fact, the potential cost is quite a lot, even higher than that of opening an online shop at the beginning.

Have you thought about the following questions?

1. You can still download the most popular remarketing advertisements and targeted advertisements. However, because the order placement is handled manually instead of using the online store to connect to the tracking tool, you can't calculate the accurate conversion rate, and you can't get the most important and accurate data-which post brought you The most business? (Common fallacy: a post with multiple comments and multiple DMs can only represent a high enquiry rate and a high reach rate, not the same as a large business volume!)

2. Orders can only be received via message and DM. As the number of orders and messages increases, it is easy to have errors and omissions. At least one loses orders, while big one loses customers.

3. You need to manually record customer information and orders. After the store becomes larger, you will need to hire additional staff to process orders. How do you make sure that the data you and your employees have are synchronized?

4. After hiring more people, you will have a thought-you only want employees to get certain permissions, not the entire Instagram account can have permission to log in. The reason is that it is indeed very common for your account to be taken away by the staff after the online shop has been scaled up.

5. Have you ever thought, in fact, Instagram accounts will be blocked or hacked at any time? As soon as an online shop becomes famous, it is very common to be attacked by peers and the entire IG account is forcibly closed (and there is a chance that the account cannot be restored).

6. It lacks the brand image elements of its own stores and there is no membership system. Even if you sell a hot product and get many customers, it is difficult to maintain a relationship with them. In addition, as soon as your store has an explosive product, there will usually be a bunch of sellers to follow, and finally a common price war. As a result, you worked hard before advertising, just for others to make clothes for marriage.

Maybe you will start to think: "Ah, then after I do it, I can switch the platform~ all right?" This can be said to be correct and ideal. But often the situation you will face is that ideals are very sensual and reality is very skinny. Which entrepreneur will have time to gradually transfer the information to the online store after the business grows? Of course, it is to use up time to win more customers and more income. In fact, our company has also accepted this type of customers. The time cost for them to switch platforms is actually much higher than starting their own online store!