Businesses that should have an eCommerce website and why

Most businesses consider it irrelevant to have a complete ecommerce website, to them it doesn’t make sense rather they prefer simple brochure websites which makes things more difficult for customers.

As a startup business or established business, you should and must consider having an ecommerce website if the following conditions applies to your firm

• You want to extend your audience reach: Any marketplace selling only from a physical standpoint is only reaching about 25% of the market hence missing out on the 75%. From a physical location you can only cover those within the travelling distance of your shop. Having multiple shops won’t still compare with the reach of a standard ecommerce website. Ecommerce is a way of making that product not just available to particular niche but the entire country and the world in extension.
• You sell variety of products: Most products displayed in physical shops may not be very visible to the audience either due to the small size of the shop or the placement of the product on the shelf but ecommerce websites have the capabilities of showcasing far more products that cemented shop and if perhaps you have different items to offer, an ecommerce site will certainly be the single and most efficient way for you to display and sell.
• Your firm has a website but not an ecommerce website that generates traffic: Internet users prefers online options now hence if you have a website but it doesn’t give people a clear view of your products and services then you are missing out quite a lot of sales, and you are succeeding in losing your customers and prospective clients to businesses that are equipped with one. The next step to take since you already have a website with search engine history is to upgrade your site with ecommerce functionality; this will improve user experience and will also rank higher than a brand new ecommerce website.

Having a functional and well designed ecommerce website accrues quite innumerable benefits

1.       Increased marketing opportunities

Cross-promotional marketing, powered by your own website can boost revenue.

For example, if you sell coffee filters, you could work with a brand selling coffee machines to give their customers a 25% off discount on their first purchase of filters. This would drive value for both your brand, your partners, as well as your customers.

This type of promotional marketing opportunity won’t work if you’re only on a platform like Amazon, because you have to rely on the platform’s capabilities, their policies, and the customer’s willingness to purchase through that platform again.

2.       Broaden Your Brand

Diversify your product range and increase sales with intangible goods like eBooks that can be sold on your online store. Customers can also place orders for personalized items which make it easy to provide all the necessary information to suit their requirements.

3. Influence purchases:

Nowadays potential buyers go to the Internet to shop around and make decisions on what they want to buy and where to buy it from. Having your products showcased on a website will increase the chance of sales as you will be to show customers why your product is right for them.

Setting up your online store now will give you a competitive edge over those who have not yet embraced the world of ecommerce, in an age where customers are constantly looking for the quickest and easiest ways to purchase what they need while at the same time maintaining a busy lifestyle.

4. Low start-up and Running costs:

Compared to setting up and having a brick and mortar store to sell products, an ecommerce website can be designed and developed at just a fraction of the cost. When working with the right platform and a great digital marketing agency (like us!), an ecommerce website can be up and running in no time. 

A digital marketing agency can also ensure that your ecommerce website ranks well on Google, and they can automate your customer relationship functions. The entire sales process can pass through pre-defined steps meaning that customers can buy products, be added to communications lists and presented with offers that are perfectly aligned with their interests. 

5. Your business can be run from anywhere:

An ecommerce website will give you a unique advantage over the majority of brick and mortar businesses because you can run it from any location. In fact, this is exactly the reason why so many business owners now claim to be living the “laptop lifestyle”. As long as you have internet access, your email, a mobile phone and laptop, you can manage your business from wherever you are, be that at your office or from a Costa Coffee. 

6. You can go international and it can easily scale:

If you’re looking to take more of a market share over your competitors, an ecommerce website will allow you to do just that. Why? Because you’ll be able to sell to customers across the world with ease. Selling on a worldwide scale is a great feat because it helps you build your business quicker, broadens your marketplace and allows you to make more money than your competitors. 

A key benefit of running your business via an ecommerce website is that you can easily scale and grow in accordance with all other aspects of your operations. For example, if you’re running ads on Twitter, you can easily optimize these in line with your customer’s buying behavior. And, even if you find some dips in sales, you can adjust your social media marketing in line with these changes too. This is key point to make because the more you optimize and learn about your customers, the more of them you’ll attract. 

7. Cheaper advertising:

Digital advertising is inexpensive when compared to conventional channels and can be easily adjusted to fit budgets of all sizes. You could either make a switch to primarily digital the advertizing or use a blend of both to promote your entire business to the masses

8. Improved Customer Service and Flexibility:

When your ecommerce store is designed and set up right, the ease of browsing and ordering can far outweigh the extra shipping costs. This can especially be the case if you include a live chat that’s set up to answer your customer’s questions. Overall, an ecommerce store is a much smoother and convenient experience than visiting a brick and mortar shop. Not only does a customer need to leave the comfort of their own home, but they also get to avoid the bother of traffic and parking. ecommerce is going to grow from $2.3 trillion in 2017 to $4.88 trillion by 2021, and although most of that is going to come from popular marketplaces, there is no lack of potential for your own owned online store.At the very least, having your own website diversifies your online presence and protects your brand from being at the mercy of any single marketplace, and their changing rules. At best, a website is an owned channel that allows ecommerce sellers to increase profit margins and conversions.Your store can earn trust on large marketplaces with huge customer bases, but once you’ve grown to a certain stage, it’s time to create your own website.

9. Owning your brand:

Moving away from selling as a third-party seller on Amazon or eBay means taking more control of your brand as you spread to new platforms. When you solidify that brand on your own website, you’re telling customers that they’re buying from you, not an ecommerce platform. This gives you more opportunities to drive brand loyalty because you own the sale, and therefore the customer.

When you make a sale through your website, the customer is buying directly from you and they know your website. However, when they purchase from your store on Amazon or eBay or Walmart, you can also brand your products, drive customers to your original website, and stay in control as the brand behind the sale.

• Brand your products and boxes wherever it doesn’t conflict with Terms of Service to drive customers to your website.
• Add your website URL to your pages and logo wherever possible when it doesn’t conflict with platform ToS.

Connect with customers as your brand rather than as an individual

 

10. Diversity:

If your entire brand is invested in one platform, you could lose that brand at any time. For example, Amazon sometimes suspends even healthy accounts with no red flags, and while those accounts do often go back up, the business still loses money and customers while offline. It becomes essential for brands to move away from single channel to Omni-channel model.

Moving your ecommerce business multi-channel helps you spread risk around, so if something goes wrong, your business is still protected and you are still generating revenue. Plus, if your existing marketplace customers know your brand name, they can find your website and go directly to you to make a purchase. Owning your store opens up multiple touch points for customer to reach your business.

 

11. Improved searched marketing:

Owning a website allows you to use a range of marketing that you can’t do through a platform.

For example, SEO and SEM can both drive traffic and customers to your store. On your own website, you can optimize for search in a search engine, versus having to optimize for search within a marketplace. Optimizing marketplace listings for search will only go so far on a website that hosts millions of other listings.

Launching your own ecommerce store also allows you to utilize blogs and video to drive traffic and create leads and build relationships with existing customers. These activities all have the potential to drive massive revenue over time.

 

12.   You Can Go International:

If you’re looking to take more of a market share over your competitors, an ecommerce website will allow you to do just that. Why? Because you will be able to sell to customers across the world with ease. Selling on a worldwide scale is a great feat because it helps you build your business quicker, broadens your marketplace and allows you to make more money than your competitors. 

The only reasons why you might not need to consider having an ecommerce website in this century are:

• You aren't equipped to deal with a large volume of orders. Opening up your business to the whole country (and possibly beyond) will almost certainly result in a lot more orders. This is great news if you can handle the demand, but if you can't, things will very quickly turn sour, especially if customers aren't receiving the goods they've paid for. In the age of the internet, disgruntled consumers can ruin a company's reputation astonishingly quickly!
  
  
• You only want to target a small area. Want to keep your business local? If so, ecommerce may be the wrong choice for you, particularly if you don't have the means to fulfill orders from outside your chosen territory. That said, we have produced ecommerce websites for a few region-specific businesses, and they've done very well indeed - just make sure that visitors know right from the outset that your site only caters to one location!
  
  
• Your products are too complicated for ecommerce. Some things simply can't be sold directly over the internet. This is often the case for companies who specialize in bespoke items; it is possible to integrate some customisable features into an ecommerce website (for example, we have built sites that sell things like personalized clothing and customized labels), but after a certain point, it just becomes too complicated for the end user. Alternatively, perhaps you'd rather get people on the telephone instead of selling to them online - giving your customers a phone number instead of an online checkout allows you to speak to them personally, provide a better solution for their requirements, and perhaps even upsell your products and make more money!

@ Digiweb Company, we can develop a standout ecommerce website for your company at very affordable rate and we also offer advices relating to software solutions to your business so feel free to contact us today. If you are not still certain you need on we will be available to guide you through.