1、 Technical threshold and cost
Template website building: suitable for beginners, such as Shopify drag and drop editing and template libraries that can be quickly launched, but with serious homogenization, additional plugin fees need to be paid (such as $49/month GrabPay interface)
Customized development: Requires proficiency in HTML/CSS or frontend frameworks (Vue/React), fully customized development is suitable for enterprises with technical teams
SaaS limitations: Shopify and other closed systems have poor scalability, while WordPress+WooCommerce can achieve deep functionality for free, but requires self maintenance
2、 Operational challenges
Traffic acquisition: The single click cost in the European and American markets reaches $2.7, with a conversion rate of less than 3%. It is necessary to rely on content marketing (such as tutorial videos) to reduce customer acquisition costs
Payment risk: Cross border independent site fraud rate of 1.2%, PayPal risk control trigger rate of 27% for high customer unit price orders, funds need to be reserved to cope with freezing
Supply chain management: The return rate for tool categories is 8%, but the supply chain threshold is high, and product selection should avoid following the trend of “self promotion”
3、 Advantages and opportunities
Low threshold entrepreneurship: No need for physical store rent, flexible adjustment of business strategies, suitable for part-time or low-cost trial runs
Global market: Independent websites can reach global users, support branded operations, and avoid platform rule restrictions (such as store closure risks)
4、 The key to success
Differentiation strategy: Enhance the experience through AR try on, pre-sale countdown and other functions to avoid template based competition
Long term persistence: Online supermarkets and other formats require a profit period of 3-6 months, and a lot of effort needs to be invested in handling SKUs and after-sales in the early stage.
Overall, online store builders need to balance technical investment and operational capabilities, suitable for entrepreneurs who are patient and willing to learn market rules