Are you unsure whether you need an eCommerce website for your business? Read on to know whether having an eCommerce website is worth it or not.
The eCommerce industry has completely transformed buying/selling for both businesses and consumers. Online buying/selling is a win-win situation for both - businesses and consumers. As a business owner, you don’t have to invest so much money in the setup and maintenance of a physical store.
Talking about customers, they don’t have to go to physical stores in order to buy something. Users can buy whatever they want anytime, anywhere. All they need is a mobile/tablet/computer device and an internet connection.
Let’s take a look at some useful statistics:
- In 2021, the global eCommerce market reached a value of $13 trillion. According to IMARC Group, it is expected to reach $55.6 trillion by 2027.
- By the year 2040, it is estimated that 95% of all purchases will be through eCommerce.
- A study by Wunderman Thompson found that 65% of consumers expect to use digital shopping more in the future.
7 Advantages of Owning an eCommerce Store
Whether it’s a startup, small, medium, or large business, having an e-commerce website can benefit all types of businesses. Here are some advantages of an e-commerce website:
Get repeat customers
Repeat customers are those customers who have purchased from your store more than once. Be it an online or offline business, retaining the same customers is a lot less costly than acquiring new customers. There are different strategies you can use to increase repeat customers to your online store. Here are some of the best ones:
- Retarget the best customers and offer a unique discount
- Create a subscription model
- Send re-engagement emails
- Send personalized product recommendations
- Use retargeting ads
- Provide the best experience to your customers
- Add live chat to your eCommerce store
Beat competition
Without an eCommerce website, you won’t be able to beat the competition. With the rise in online shoppers, brands and businesses have started paying attention to online presence. No matter which business industry you are in, your competitors are already using eCommerce stores for their business growth.
So, create an eCommerce store and start promoting it using various online channels like search engine optimization, social media, PPC advertising, etc.
Lower setup cost
Have you ever compared the cost of starting an online store with a physical store? Starting an online store costs a lot less than an e-commerce store. You don’t have to invest in furnishing the outlet, rent, hiring staff, etc. Talking about an eCommerce store, the main investment would be its development. Once you get it developed, you can hire an agency for its maintenance.
Scalable
One of the main cons of running a physical store is that it’s hard to scale. When a physical store starts getting more traffic, managing it becomes a bit difficult due to limited space and staff. To scale it, you have to invest your time & money in hiring new staff and renting/buying additional space. This isn’t the issue with scaling an online business. Scaling an eCommerce business is less costly as well as less stressful.
24x7 online store
Having an eCommerce website is like a store running for you 24x7. Your audience can visit it anytime, anywhere. Don’t worry, you don’t need to be present all day and night in order to run your online store. On the other hand, running a physical store 24x7 won’t be possible without a proper team.
Measurable results
By connecting your eCommerce store with analysis tools like Google Analytics, you would be able to monitor and analyze crucial metrics like the number of users visiting your store, traffic source, conversion rate, user behavior, total sales, average order quantity, etc. With this data, it would be easy for you to understand your audience, their behavior, and make the right decisions. Talking about an offline store, it’s not possible to track in-depth analytics.
Affordable advertising and marketing
Like a physical store, an online store also requires marketing. Just creating the online store and leaving it idle won’t drive any traction. The good thing is that online marketing is very cost-effective. Unlike traditional marketing methods (like television, radio, print media, etc.), online marketing methods (like SEO, PPC, social media, email marketing, etc.) doesn’t require you to have a big marketing budget.
Final Thoughts
Building an online presence through an eCommerce store would help you drive more sales and also improve your brand awareness. If you don’t have a website and still relying on offline traffic, it’s time to create one.
Encircle Technologies is the leading IT company offering eCommerce website development using Shopify, WooCommerce (with WordPress), and Squarespace. For more information, contact us at support@encircletechnologies.com
Also Read: WordPress Vs Shopify For eCommerce
support@encircletechnologies.com
Encircle Technologies is an IT company specialising in the Web and Mobile app development services for all types of businesses; small or large, for all business verticals, across the world. We’re proud to say that our team has worked with some truly incredible partners over a short period of time.
