Yes, definitely, ecommerce will be profitable in 2020!

We have been surrounded by many ecommerce enthusiasts, entrepreneurs, ecommerce solutions & service providers, so these discussions are the ones we come across every other day.

Over the years, technology has been responsible for the change in consumer behavior. The global retail sales score analysis from 2015-2023 assures that growth in the coming years. (Refer to the image for easy reference)

Though the share of ecommerce in the global retail sales is linearly increasing by only 2% percent every year, it’s significant when considering the global growth of ecommerce retail sales. As a research report by Statista tells us that last year it was 14.1%, and we expect it to grow upto 16.1% in 2020.

The arrival of the novel Coronavirus introduced another drastic and significant change in the dynamics. However, there were businesses in the market that explored the D2C(Direct-to-Customer) and O2O (Online-to-offline) business models; it wasn’t that widely accepted. Now that people are compelled to stay home due to lockdown and maintaining social distance is the new normal, business owners are thinking more about online business.

The blend of brick and mortar business with a digital idea of businesses can bring more significant benefits. All the existing businesses were giving a second thought about the adaption of this ecommerce culture. Innovations like voice commerce, headless commerce, PWAs (Progressive Web Applications), native m-commerce apps are trying their best to feed the need of consumers as well as businesses. Rather than considering them as the source of competition, you can leverage them to bring more sales for your business in 2020.

The research and study claim that it will definitely help you scale your business and discover new opportunities for growth. We recommend you to stop thinking and start trying ways. The benefits that you are getting on the marketplaces and digital platforms this year will not stay the same, and that’s why it is the best time to experiment.

Let us tell you some of the most common ideas that you can focus on in 2020 to flourish your business.

• Messenger for Business: Even when you don’t have any technical knowledge at all, you must be using Whatsapp messenger and Facebook Messenger for sure. In the times of lockdown, these messengers and digital payment ideas prove to be the blessing in disguise. If you are the owner of brick and mortar store, that’s for sure that you or anyone in your team have helped you manage your business digitally. So, you can count on these messengers as the primary source of starting your ecommerce business. Those of you have already tried; you took your first step in the online mode of business. Others can start with setting up their profile of WhatsApp Business. You can update the catalog, mark the orders, manage your customers with different flags, and stay connected with the away messages even when you are not present. It will be the best idea to share the products and streamline your conversations rather than scrolling through chats and selecting images distinctly for every customer.

• Social media: It doesn’t matter if you are climbing the rope of ecommerce or not; you must be well aware of social media platforms. Even when the main idea behind these social media networking sites is to grow a network, businesses are now using it to develop a network for over a few years. When Facebook proves to be one of the most important platforms to network, Instagram is allowing the businesses to shop directly, Pinterest makes it easier to share ideas. When the Facebook marketplace and Instagram let you shop, they will enable you to connect and communicate easily in the community groups. While interacting with like minds, you will get more ideas and even solutions to some of your major problems.In the same way, connecting with your customers helps them remember you and aids you in understanding their preferences. These days more than 51% of US adults are on social media and mind that the global count will be much more. Leveraging this as an opportunity, you can increase the awareness of your brand in the market.

• Set up your ecommerce store: Due to the new normal of social distancing, selling via your brick and mortar store will become tricky. The research by SalesForce tells that 36% of shoppers claim that they won’t go to a market like they earlier for shopping until the vaccine shows up. Now, where will all these customers will go? They will be checking for the availability of products in the online market and order from ecommerce stores directly. If you stick to the traditional style of business, you will lose these costumers. Creating an ecommerce store can be profitable for you in such circumstances, as you understood the pain point and came up with the solution. You will surely Ginnie points in your cart for helping businesses in the situation of crisis. Further, you can serve the nearby locations as well as scale your business without actually looking for expenses and budget of opening shop in the new location.

• Grow with marketplaces: We know that you want all the customers to visit your store, but they will check on the marketplaces and compare instead. By not losing a point there, you can register yourself on marketplaces in addition to that of an ecommerce platform. This will let you build your store and get sales from the marketplaces as well. At present, most of the marketplaces offer discounts to the businesses in their commission fees, ad promotions, and other charges. By counting on this opportunity, you can enhance of getting sales from more channels.

If you are an amateur who wants to start an ecommerce business from scratch, let us tell you about the shift in trends. The research by BazaarVoice says that you can start with these top five categories: hardware, sporting goods, vehicles & spare parts, arts & entertainment, and business essentials. To start building your store, you can register yourself at Builderfly and quickly begin your ecommerce journey.

We are always here to help you make your ecommerce venture a success. For any queries, feel free to drop us a mail at support@builderfly.com.