One fine day, some obscure shop selling traditional handmade face masks in a remote part of Africa decides to set up its e-commerce website. Suddenly, it becomes an online sensation and its products fly off the shelves thanks to the internet and online shopping. E-commerce has the potential to change the fortunes of businesses in a big way, and there are countless examples of them!
The benefits of e-commerce are manifold. If e-commerce website development is in your scheme of things to enter into the online market, you are on the right path. It doesn’t matter if your business is big or small, as long as you have a unique or cost-effective product or service, even you can reap the benefits of e-commerce.
You will experience the innumerable benefits of having an e-commerce website along your online journey. Here, we list 10 reasons why you should have an e-commerce website to help you cement your belief in it.
1. To Help Customers Buy Products Easily and Quickly
The boom for online shopping is because it has a distinctive advantage over going to a physical store to shop. It saves time and effort. Consumers can sit at their homes, search for their favorite items online, and buy what they like. Also, with an e-commerce website, you can sell your items across the globe. Customers have to just log in, search for items, add them to the virtual cart, and proceed to checkout. All this can be done in a matter of seconds without any hassle.
2. For Easy and Unlimited Product Listings
Even though your physical store may have space constraints, you can sell as many products as you want through your online store. It allows you to virtually display a range of products in unlimited categories. A powerful search and filter option integrated into the store during e-commerce website development gives your users the power to search for any specific product they want in a matter of seconds. They don’t have to go through the entire product range to get their favorite item. You can also suggest related items through upselling and cross-selling. An e-commerce website gives you the freedom to list and sell as many products as you want.
3. For Cost Reduction
Having a physical store means that you have many expenses to bear, and it eats up a large portion of your profits. From shop rent to employee salaries, from power bills to inventory, you end up paying a lot, affecting your profit ratio. With an e-commerce website, you reduce expenses drastically. Your initial investment is on e-commerce website development, and subsequently, you may need to pay for marketing. But again, you control the marketing budget. In fact, an e-commerce website is a boon for small and medium businesses to expand their growth and rake in huge profits.
4. For New Market Acquisition
With a physical shop, you are limited by location and space. But when you take your business online, its reach expands. One incredible benefit of the internet and an e-commerce website is your ability to target a global audience. So, a businessman in China can sell his wares to a person in the USA and vice versa. It gives you endless possibilities to explore newer markets anywhere in the world. If your product is a hit locally, you are sure it can get a global audience too.
5. For Local Business Expansion
When we talk about e-commerce websites, we usually think about global reach. But the converse is also true. An online store helps you reach out to your local audience too. You can list your website on Google My Business and other local online listing directories. A strong local business SEO will increase your visibility chances for the local audience. This works great for restaurants, gyms, universities, bakeries, and local shops.
6. To Discover Your Audience
When you build an e-commerce website and sync it with Google Analytics, it gives you information on your audience and website traffic. Which are the most visited website pages? How long did the visitors stay on the site? What is the bounce rate? The data you get from your e-commerce site is priceless. It helps you know your audience’s preferences and interests, allowing you to plan your marketing strategies effectively.
7. To Establish a Connection with a Targeted Audience
You collect email addresses and other relevant contact information when a buyer makes the first purchase. Similarly, signing up for your website also gets you the email addresses of potential customers. Now that you have their email IDs, you can send them emails informing them of discounts, offers, new product launches, and many other things, convincing them to buy from you. Web push notification is another way of enticing people to buy your products. Along with this, you can use the power of social media platforms to retarget and remarket your products to potential customers.
8. To Achieve a Higher Conversion Rate
Imagine having to visit a store according to its open hours! Is it so with an online shop? No! At commute time, while at home, while discussing the latest trends with your friends, you can shop any time of the day or night from an online shop. With an e-commerce website, you have the ability to entice customers through various means. Whether it is paid ads or blogging, whether it is through social media posts or influencer marketing, having a website increases your chances of converting customers and making profits.
9. To Scale the Business
If you want to expand your offline business, imagine the challenges involved in it. But with an online business, scaling is easy and doesn’t require as much effort. Take care to ensure that your e-commerce website development addresses future business scalability. If that is taken care of in the initial stage during website creation, then you can grow your online business easily whenever you are ready. You can easily expand your business based on market demands and customer requirements.
10. To Make Money Online
You make an e-commerce website to sell products and make sales. This is pretty straightforward math. But why online? Because the whole world is online. Millennials and Gen X spend six hours shopping online per week. 56% of Gen X shoppers prefer to shop online than in a physical store. In 2020, the total US e-commerce sale was $760 billion, which is nearly a 32% YOY increase. In just a decade, the annual e-commerce sales have quadrupled in the U.S. with Amazon and Walmart leading the race. But there are many independent e-commerce businesses that have flourished and continue their rapid growth. An e-commerce website gives you the perfect opportunity to make money and be a share of the e-commerce success story.
Concluding 10 Reasons Why You Should Have an eCommerce Website Today
An e-commerce website means that you no longer have to miss out on the opportunity for your business growth. It offers a level-playing ground for businesses, big and small.
If you are interested in e-commerce website development, Houston IT Developers will help you with it. We have charted the growth trajectory of many brands, and if you wish to be one, you can contact us today.
