In order for a business to grow, it needs to reach new customers consistently and learn ways to communicate effectively with the existing ones. But if you are already running or have run in the past a traditional brick and mortar store, you know how difficult it can get to achieve these two requirements. However, creating an e-commerce website for your retail store might just be the only thing you need right now to break through the limitations your physical store presents while increasing sales for its products.
Before venturing further into e-commerce business, you should know what e-commerce selling entails. It encompasses the transfer of information across the internet followed up by a commercial transaction. Therefore, it comes in various different formats. E-Commerce can be anything from a branded website to marketplaces like Amazon and eBay for selling through social media platforms to any such stuff. Due to the availability of multiple ways to sell to consumers over the internet, businesses are no longer bound by time and distance.
Personalisation can greatly enhance the online shopping experience for customers. Apart from the segmented email list based on location, purchases made and how much money a customer spent, personalization can also be achieved by retargeting a customer who abandoned his/her cart in the past by showing the ads of the products abandoned or greeting them with a name on their next visit etc.
Another advantage of an e-commerce website is that your online store will be open for business 24/7 whereas your physical store will only let you open from 9 am to 9 pm. Even with Facebook ads, you can attract someone only from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. But with an e-commerce site, you can attract almost anyone whether working in odd shifts or with time boundations or simply being lazy enough to go to a store.
One limitation of having a brick and mortar store is that it only allows you to sell products on a local level but with an online store you can easily sell your brands to customers on a worldwide scale. Your e-commerce site will also let you the ability to discover your customers whether they be in UK, Latin America or neighboring countries. Also, its drop shipping option will take care of pricing and shipping issues.
One of the major benefits of online stores is that it has a much lower start-up cost compared to physical retail stores where just the rent of store location amounts to thousands of dollars per month, not to mention the additional costs of employees, infrastructure etc. However, you can easily start your own e-commerce store single-handedly in a couple of hundred dollars, plus you will save plenty on employees etc.
E-commerce makes it much easier to show off products to customers as it provides the option to display best sellers in an effective manner. The reason I mentioned displaying best sellers is that they are proven since other customers have already bought it and are happy with their purchase. Also, you can easily showcase new products as well by including them in upsell and marketing campaigns.
Getting your customers to become impulse buyers is another big advantage that your online store can provide but your physical store can’t. All you need is an attractive product photography, the one with human emotions or vibrant colors and use them to create amazing ads that can drive impulsive buys. You can even use showcasing limited quantities or countdown timers to further the drive process.
In retail stores, we have often seen long lines at cash counters which makes the overall shopping experience, a painful one and deter many people from going to stores. But with online shopping, there is simply no waiting time. A customer can easily place orders in his own time schedule and from the comforts of his own home which, as a result, allows you to accept a high number of orders with ease.
In your brick and mortar store, whenever you want to grow your business to accommodate new products or hire more cashiers, you will need to find a bigger space, spend money on renovating and wait for your lease to end. However, with an e-commerce website, you can easily add countless products to your store without worrying about holding inventory or shipping products allowing you to scale quickly.
Operating a business is challenging and time-consuming in itself. But you can make it easy for you by investing in a professional website. Just remember, e-commerce is no longer considered a luxury in today’s times but more of a necessity. Without it, you are limiting the potential for growth. And with it? Well, you can answer that for yourself now.
