If you’ve started your small business and you are ready to start selling online, but you don’t have an existing website, what do you do?

Let’s say your company sells sports equipment. You had a conversation with a friend who is a website developer and learned a lot of unfamiliar terms: web hosting, domain, server, SEO, and more. If you conducted some online research, you would have fast realised how long it will take and how expensive it will be to develop an effective online shop.

At this stage you might feel that an online shop without a website is out of reach for you and give up. This is a sad scenario for business owners who dream of creating an online store but have neither the time nor the budget to get it done.

The good news is that times have changed and you do not need to create a website from scratch to sell online. Start selling on social media or larger websites first to feature your product where the customers are.

In this article, we are going to show you three ways that you can sell online without the need for a fully developed website. Use the Netcash Shop eCommerce shopping cart and website builder to create your ‘Instant Site’. Instant Site is fully customisable and integrated with the most popular digital platforms so you can sell across several platforms with a single Netcash Shop account acting as the central shop hub.

Create a free Netcash Shop eCommerce website and start selling online in minutes

You can create a free online shop in just a few minutes using the Netcash Shop eCommerce shopping cart & website builder. Netcash Shop users are not limited to selling only on social media, your Netcash Shop can easily be added to any existing websites and blogs instantly, no coding necessary.

Netcash Shop has ready to use plugins available for all of the popular web platforms like WordPress and WIX.

Above is an example of an Instant Site website created with the Netcash Shop eCommerce platform. This one-page website is fully integrated with the Netcash eCommerce Payment Gateway and a local courier partner. You can create your products, connect your payment options and manage your orders from 1 control panel.

Netcash Shop has numerous CSS themes available and over 800,000 free stock images to choose from, or upload your own. Add your business info, contact details, and links to social media platforms from your control panel and set up your own domain name (available in paid Netcash Shop plans) or use a free domain type “mysuperstore.netcashshop.co.za.” It is that easy, we take care of the rest.
By creating your Netcash Shop website, you’ll get these benefits:

• Launch your free website and be ready to sell in under an hour. Fast implementation!
• The website editor makes it simple to build, make changes and preview your website. No developer needed!
• The basic version of Netcash Shop is free! Your custom shop for free!

You can connect and edit your Netcash Shop website on your control panel: Control Panel > Sales Channels > Instant Site.

Facebook for eCommerce

Facebook has over 2.6 billion monthly active users and almost 1.8 billion daily active users. Facebook is the most popular social network across the world. Having a Facebook business page is essential to any business, online or offline. Facebook is a great way to increase your overall sales by showcasing your brand and interacting with customers.

If you don’t set up a Netcash Instant Site, you can set up your Facebook Shop and you can sell online without a website!
Your Facebook business page has a tab for Facebook Shop that allows businesses to upload their products and sell directly to their customers via the platform. Potential customers visiting the shop can browse products, make a purchase, view collections and compare prices.

Instagram for eCommerce

Your customers can also buy your products without ever leaving Instagram by using ‘shoppable posts’. Visitors click on the price tag visible on the product and this leads the customer to a description page.
Instagram also provides a solution where shoppers can buy products without ever leaving Instagram – Shoppable Posts. Visitors click on the price tag placed on a product which leads them to a description page. From there they can check out using the Netcash eCommerce Payment Gateway.

Your business page automatically populates a shop tab after you publish 9 shoppable posts which helps you organise and promote posts with tagged buyable items. More potential exposure for your business.

There are many benefits of selling on social media:

By selling on social media, you are tapping into a large, engaged audience. You have the opportunity to reach more people organically (for free) and you can interact with consumers and build lasting relationships through the content you post.

Use Netcash Shop to get started and sell on social media with just a few clicks. Log in to your Netcash Shop Control Panel, navigate to the Sales Channel tab and choose which platforms you would like to use to sell your products.

According to Sprout Social survey, 89% of consumers buy products from brands they follow on social networks. As a business owner you should be using social networks to talk about your products, attract new customers, and communicate with existing customers. You can open a shop on various social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram if you don’t have a website yet, or link your Netcash Shop to existing platforms instantly from your Netcash Shop control panel.