The eCommerce has reshaped the way people sell and buy goods in recent years. A business owner who wants to explore the full potential of his business cannot simply trust an ad in a phonebook alone, it's important to make sure that their business has a decent online presence too.
However, wise business owners look beyond the trend and emotions and realistically develop their own vision on the value of e-commerce for them specifically. They explore both the pros and the cons to see whether this eCommerce thing is right for their business. In this article, we will explore the pros, or advantages, of eCommerce. What are some of the benefits of having an eCommerce website?
1. Extended Hours - 24/7 Potential Income.
Most people love the round-the-clock convenience of being able to buy anything, anytime and anywhere. Physical stores have limitations when it comes to working hours. But online stores are always opened. Think for a moment about your customers who don't work normal hours or are too busy to pop into your store to buy something during your open hours. This means that your limited working hours are preventing you from exploring your business' full potential. You're losing potential clients and potential income.
ECommerce websites are always open, 24/7.
With an online store, you can increase your working hours without necessarily increasing your operations costs. All you'll need to do is to automate your system so that customers receive confirmation emails after placing their order just to give them peace of mind.
2. Relatively Low Cost - Less Overhead
With an eCommerce website, you don't need to worry too much about expenses like rent, utilities, staff, store signs, store design, buying inventory, sales equipment, security guards, etc. It's true that eCommerce has its own costs, but in most cases, they are far lower than those of the traditional physical stores. Online stores give you the ability to sell many more items than you would with just a physical store. So stores can function with minimum operation costs, which means that you can beat the physical stores' prices and still have large margins.
If you're just starting out and are low on funds, you can choose not to hire staff right away; you can run your website by yourself in a garage and use drop-shipping to avoid a warehouse full of inventory. When you have grown to a certain level, you can hire staff to work for you. With the traditional physical stores, as your business grows you'll have to hire more employees. Sometimes, long queues can prevent people from shopping. With online stores, there's no waiting time. Each one places orders whenever and wherever they want to, which means that you can process a higher number of orders all day long.
3. Remarketing - Easy to keep in touch
In a physical store when people leave your store, they are gone forever. This means that you don't have how to track them later to further their interest. With online stores it can be easier to collect clients informations that can be useful to contact them later.
Remarketing is a form of digital advertising that enables you to place your ads right in front of people who have previously interacted with your eCommerce website. Data from customer's previous purchases and online activity can give insights about their interests which can help to deliver a personalized experience. For example, if from your website's analytics you realize that there some customers who abandoned their carts, you can use ads with sales or coupons to encourage those cart abandoners to finish their purchase. This makes the user feel understood, enhances the user experience, and helps to build customer loyalty.
4. Learn More About Your Clients
Since in most cases the online activity is tracked, your eCommerce can help you better understand your customers, including demographics such as locations and how they found you. And if, for example, you detect a certain source of traffic that is bringing customers, you can decide to focus efforts there and invest more in those sources since you know they are profitable. You can also use the analytics to understand which part of the sales process is failing and easily make the needed fixes.
5. Broader Customer Base - Sky is the limit
Online stores remove the location limitation that physical store have. Wherever there's internet people can access your store, whether it's someone from the next town, state, or even from across the ocean. With the use of mobile devices on the rise, no matter where the person is, they can access your products with a click. There's never been a time when the impulse to buy has been easier to indulge. This means a greater user experience for the customers because they'll be able to buy their favorite products and get them at their houses easier and faster.
Do you see the Opportunity?
It's not like eCommerce and traditional physical stores are competing, both platforms have their pros and cons. They both need a great customer experience, marketing strategies to set themselves apart from the crowds. We've seen many physical stores have an online store to complement their businesses and vice-versa.
These days customers are appreciating the convenience of online shopping even more. Rather than spending tons of hours searching physical stores, many are now making purchases over the internet even during breaks at work and even in harsh weather conditions.
Setting up your online store now will give you a competitive edge over those who have not yet embraced it. Especially now that customers are always looking for the quickest and easiest ways to purchase what they need while at the same time maintaining a busy lifestyle.
