Are you planning to invest in the ecommerce business? There is good news for you – global ecommerce sales are expected to reach $6.54 U.S. dollars by 2023. Selling online has aided many businesses to become viable and profitable. It presents a huge scope for ecommerce businesses that helps people to conveniently shop online through virtual shops. Selling online helps ecommerce businesses of all size to reach a wider set of audience. Like every other business, ecommerce has its own sets of advantages. We have dedicated this blog to throw some lights on the benefits of ecommerce, irrespective of the size, type, and location of the business.
Advantages of Ecommerce
Like any other business, ecommerce offers some extensive perks that help businesses excel in a highly competitive market. The online marketplace is the best place to grow a business. Below are the plus points of using ecommerce for the growth of your business:
Faster Purchasing Process
With ecommerce, customers can conveniently purchase goods and services in comparatively lesser time than from physical shops. They can easily browse through unlimited product listings at their time from their comfortable space and purchase anything they like. When shoppers find the products they wish to purchase online and realize that they do not need to step out of their house, it is considered as a virtue. Moreover, the online products get delivered at the doorsteps at probably discounted costs.
Instead of moving out, walking down the streets, finding the right shop, and searching for the products they want in limited stocks, with online shopping, customers can get access to unlimited options in the products they wish to purchase without the need to move out. Apart from the wide range of options, customers get a faster response to any queries and issues in the online shopping procedure. The perks of online shopping are inclusive of easier access, faster response, and quick purchasing process. Not only do online sellers help the customers with buying the products, but also provide support after the purchasing of any issues with the quality or delivery of the products and services.
Low Operational Costs
One of the advantages of an ecommerce business is that it requires lower startup and operational costs as compared to all other forms of businesses. When it comes to a traditional brick and mortar store, the seller needs to pay a hefty sum for renting or purchasing a space to establish the store. Also, physical store owners come across a few upfront charges including store interiors, inventory management, sales tools, and so on. Moreover, the sellers of the physical stores need to pay the employees (if any) appointed in one or more of their store locations. If the physical goods incline to fall in the premium category, the store owners may also need to hire security staff for their store.
On the contrary, selling online can reduce operational costs as low as for Free! Yes, if you choose the right platform such as Builderfly Ecommerce Platform to set up your ecommerce store, you can create online selling store for free with the starter plan – no renting of stores, no hassles of inventory, and no need for employees working for you! Moreover, with gradual upgrades in the pricing plans, you can even create a native mobile application for both iOS as well as Android. From creating the store to designing, to marketing, to integrating selling platforms, to choosing payments, and to selecting the shipment modes, everything can be managed with a single dashboard using Builderfly. There are many more in the row. You’ll need to check it out and experience the difference.
A Bigger Market
Ecommerce lets you reach customers from around the globe. Customers can find your store and make their purchases at any time, especially through their mobile devices (termed as Mobile Commerce or Mcommerce). However, your website needs to be mobile optimized and the icing on the cake would be if you provide a mobile application for your ecommerce store. With a brick and mortar store, you are limited to the geographical barriers from the location of your store. On the other hand, the whole world is your playground with an ecommerce business. In fact, the introduction and increasing demand for m-commerce have dissolved every geographical hurdle in reaching a wider set of audience.
While brick and mortar stores work on the principles of branding and establishing customer relationships, online selling, along with these principles, is driven by generating web traffic through search engines. Today, it is quite uncommon to not follow a link seen in an advertisement that lands the online shoppers on a completely alien ecommerce store or website. This additional advantage can be a leaning point for ecommerce businesses. Unlike in physical stores, ecommerce businesses let the sellers retarget the customers easily using many ways including coupons, up-selling, cross-selling, email marketing, organic marketing, paid marketing, and the list goes on.
Personalized Experience
With an ecommerce website or store, you can deliver a personalized experience to your customers, which is not possible or inconveniently possible in the case of physical stores. Personalization helps in enhancing the customer experience without much effort. With the right tactics, you can create personalized web pages for different customers arriving at your ecommerce store. Based on the unique requirements of your target audience, you can personalize the store.
You can consider retargeting, email marketing, product recommendations, and personalized welcome messages for the customers. These targeted marketing and communication can help online sellers enhance their conversion rates significantly. By showing the most relevant content to the visitor/ customer, they feel more comfortable and motivated to take the right buying choices. As an online seller, you can assure the customers that their money is not wasted and neither are their choices of choosing your store, wrong.
Abundant Product Details
When visiting a physical shop, the information regarding the product is limited to the knowledge of the store owner. Especially if the product is manufacture-packed, the customers won’t be able to see the complete details of the products. On the flip side, in an ecommerce store, the customers get to view every detail of the product including the assembling procedure (if any), ingredients, the material used, the direction of usage, and so on. Generally, it is perceived that the more information provided, the higher the chances of getting sales. Moreover, many ecommerce websites and marketplaces today allow the sellers to upload product videos along with high definition product images. This additionally benefits the sellers by providing information, including the actual appearance of the product in the online store.
Another feature that helps in providing a detailed product description is the space provided for reviews and recommendations by customers who have experience purchasing from the store. These features let the customers who already purchased the products to add their reviews and experiences as well as upload real-time images of the products in use. In a physical store, there is no way to find whether the product is worth a purchase, without checking it out personally, which can result in either a good or bad customer experience.
Featured Products Promotion
Rearranging a physical store could be a nightmare for almost every seller. On the contrary, making changes in an ecommerce website/ store is far easier and hassle-free. Depending on the season, new arrivals, best sellers, offers, discounts, special prices, and so on, the online sellers can change the design of their landing pages quite effortlessly. For instance, when using the Builderfly Ecommerce CMS, the sellers can choose the templates of their choice, and with the drag and drop feature, they can make instant changes to their web pages in a jiffy. Finding the best products in a brick and mortar store is a daunting task for customers. While the physical store sellers need to explain every detail of the product that is the best pick when it comes to an online store, the customers do not need an explanation – visuals can speak oceans!
Multiple Purchasing at Once
In a physical store, the number of purchasing that can be handled depends on the size of the store as well as the number of staff available to attend to the customers. This is not the same in an ecommerce store; multiple customers from various locations can get attended as well as managed smoothly while delivering the best customer experience to each. There is no limit to the number of orders that can be placed simultaneously in an ecommerce store. Additionally, unlike physical stores, the customers do not need to wait in long queues to get attended by staff. The orders can be placed, processed, and paid within a matter of a few clicks, which is a considerably great advantage for the fast-paced digital lifestyle.
Conclusion
All the benefits listed above were only the tip of the iceberg. You must surely get into the ecommerce market to reap its extensive benefits. Especially if you invest in the right place, your ecommerce business is to flourish without limits. Have you checked out the world’s most powerful ecommerce platform, yet?
