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What Are the Benefits of eCommerce – Why Every Website Should Be Selling Online Today

What Are the Benefits of eCommerce – Why Every Website Should Be Selling Online Today

 Do you run a business? If the answer’s yes, you should be selling online.

Are you looking to make the highest profits possible this year? If the answer’s yes, you definitely want to be selling online right now.

Do you sell products and services to customers locally or internationally? Once again, if the answer’s yes, you should be selling online.

Selling online is the art of eCommerce. Regardless of what kind of business you operate, eCommerce has room for every room. The consumer demand is there. Web design and digital marketing services are tailor-made for eCommerce websites. If you don’t already have a storefront online, get one. Here’s why.

Why Brands Don’t Do eCommerce

There are a lot of reasons why some brands haven’t created an eCommerce platform for themselves.

  • You’re doing well and you may not see the need to make more money or grow your business.
  • You have concerns about security and/or lack an understanding of what eCommerce does.
  • You don’t think there’s a demand for it. You tell yourself, your customers aren’t online so there’s no point.
  • You have products or services you don’t believe transfer to online sales and which are strictly in-person face-to-face interactions.

Sadly, when the pandemic hit and nearly every business in Canada shut down, these small business owners couldn’t sell in-person anymore. This meant no business income whatsoever. eCommerce could have come in handy this year, had you already an online storefront with products and services featured on your website.

Your Customers Are Moving Online so Join Them!

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, online shopping was gaining steam. Plenty of people continue to do their shopping in-store but if the pandemic taught consumers anything, it’s the benefits of shopping online. It’s easier. It’s faster. It’s more convenient.

Across every age demographic, the trend is the same. Customers are shopping online with eCommerce websites rather than going in-store. Prior to the pandemic, eCommerce was generating $70 billion a year in Canada alone. This year, there’s no telling what its value will amount to.

There’s a term used in business development and it’s called ‘future-proofing’. It is to develop processes, products, services, and elements of business that ensure your brand survives current and upcoming changes in the marketplace. If you want to future-proof your business, an eCommerce website is exactly what you need.

Are You Equipped For Your Competition in Business?

The most successful brands in the world have moved a part of their selling strategy online.

Even retailers like Walmart are deriving hundreds of millions of dollars off eCommerce, despite still maintaining brick-and-mortar retail stores.

Look at your competition. Do they have an eCommerce website? If they don’t, they will.

The pandemic’s only quickened what was already happening which is the moving of selling from offline to online. Eventually, to be successful in business, every brand will have to have an eCommerce platform of some kind to rely on.

Why we say these things is because there’s no reason to wait.

Let’s say we get caught in an economic shutdown again later this year or next, will you be able to continue selling – an eCommerce platform guarantees you will. It gives you a pathway to market to consumers anywhere. They don’t need to visit you in-person.

Don’t Be Limited by Location, Sell Worldwide If You Want To

In the past, if you wanted to sell in a specific city or country, you had to be there in-person with a physical store. Through eCommerce web design and marketing, this is no longer the case.

Depending on what you’re selling, you can go international and worldwide selling through a website.

You’re not bound to any location. Even if you want to remain a predominantly local business, expanding to the next city over is as easy as having a website.

In this way, eCommerce is real estate no small business can afford at your fingertips when you want it.

Lower Your Overhead Costs, Maximize Investment-vs-Reward

A lot of brands won’t even get involved with brick-and-mortar due to the high costs and competition.

When you open up eCommerce as a new channel through which you can derive sales, it eliminates the need for opening up a brick-and-mortar. You save on rent, utilities, and all the expenses that come with having a physical location.

It’s a far, far less of an investment and the reward can be significantly higher. A lot of business owners invest a portion of their savings on digital marketing and web design. Those that do will often find they net more sales in comparison to what they could do in-person. Here are some examples of eCommerce digital marketing services you may wish to look into

Create A Customer For Life with the Right eCommerce Strategy

When we shop in-person, we usually want to get in and out. We don’t have time to sit and do research on our smartphones, comparing prices, reading online reviews, and checking out a website before making a purchase.

Subsequently, from a brand’s perspective, you don’t have the chance to capture and retain a customer. They’re there, they make their purchase, and then they’re gone without a way to contact them again.

Compare that to when they shop online. Immediately, you get their email so you can funnel a customer into an email marketing campaign. You can advertise the benefits of your customer loyalty program. You can segment and personalize what products are being marketed to a customer based on location.

You also have a tremendous opportunity to upsell and cross-sell. In a face-to-face interaction, rarely is it appropriate to suddenly begin advertising products the customer isn’t there to necessarily buy.

Online though, upselling, and cross-selling on eCommerce is a science and expected on behalf of the customer. Thereby, you maximize every purchase ensuring a customer’s receiving the most appropriate purchase for their needs.

Another important note to make is, on eCommerce when someone makes a purchase, you get more info from them – location, email, and route of discovery.

You also accumulate a wealth of data that’s automatically generated, showing best-selling products, who’s buying what, and more. This info can inform development, marketing, and business practices, and ultimately help you further improve your revenues.

Benefits of eCommerce on Your Online Marketing

eCommerce isn’t just a strategy to sell more. It’s a way to create more momentum for your business online.

Even if you already have a website online, get ready to see a noticeable difference once eCommerce is set up.

An online storefront with your products and services, and the ability to purchase online is a big attractant for consumers. It naturally generates word-of-mouth advertising, gives you content to post on social media and highlight in emails and helps you generate brand awareness simply by existing.

On top of the support eCommerce gives to your online presence, if you do have a brick-and-mortar, you can still use it to direct customers there. Online and offline, it’s a major resource to have.

It’s also a great passive earnings strategy. An eCommerce shop is open 24/7. Revenues are independent of any salespersons or business hours. As long as you have inventory, you can sell any time of day to anywhere in your defined service area.

Setting up an eCommerce store is easy, low-risk, and low-cost. At the same time, it provides a return that exceeds what’s possible cost-to-revenue-wise in opening a new store. Connect with expert-level digital marketers at Unlimited Exposure and learn more about how to move ahead with a custom eCommerce strategy for your brand. Pick your products. Set up your store. Implement a marketing plan. Watch the dollars roll in.