Ravi Kumar
The Internet. The great and glorious portal to knowledge, long lost friends, learning and of course online shopping. Where once upon a time, many moons ago we were beholden to what the local shopping mall had, and potentially being able to order a specific colour or model type from a different store – we’ve now got no limits.
If you decided at 3 am that you must have a silk pillow from an indie brand you’d seen advertised recently and some green fluffy alligator slippers, the chances are you can have both of those things with free shipping and a money off coupon – delivered in a matter of days.
Statistics tell us that year on year buyers plow more of their hard earned cash into digital tills, and there doesn’t seem to be any decline in the near future.
But What Is eCommerce & How Can You Make The Most of It?
Simply put eCommerce is a commercial transaction that takes place over the internet, also known as ‘online shopping’.
To take advantage of this never-ending trend, you’re going to need to sell online. It isn’t a matter of if, it is a matter of when. But to understand why you should have your products or services online it’s better to understand the perks that come with making that decision.
- Small Brand? No problems – When you start dipping into the big pool of online sales, something that doesn’t matter is the size of your company. If your products are good, and your website is geared towards a smooth user experience, then you’re pretty much all set.
- Shrinking overheads – A brick and mortar store comes with a string of compliance, liabilities, design requirements, as well as rental and utilities. Switch all of that out for a warehouse or, your own house, and you’re going to cut your overheads in half at least.
- It’s just faster – When someone heads to a website, they intend to buy a product. They may be enticed in by discounts, or perhaps some well-placed advertisements but most of the time they’re ready to buy. When they hit your website, you can entirely create their experience. You can time the sign-up discount. Your call to actions can be laser pointed to their behaviour and what’s more? You have the details on everything they’ve done.
- Information – The information you can get from a single person scrolling through your website can give you a deeper insight into the buying habits of your clients. Did they come from Facebook? Or was it a verbal recommendation? Direct link? After they got to the main page did they go directly to a single product or browse? Those are the kind of details that will help you drill down to what your customers want, and how they use your site. Something you just simply won’t have access to in a store.
- Kerching! People spend more money online – Sales, discounts, sign up bonuses, gift cards – with the benefit of having it delivered directly to their door. Over the holidays, purchases are made in the early hours of the morning, something with which a physical store just can’t compete.
- The marketing for eCommerce tends the be exceptionally cheaper. Which might sound strange, because surely you’re competing with so many more companies, so it needs a more significant spend? Yes… and no. While you are competing for sales, the internet has the ability to make indie brands explode overnight. With just the right amount of social media marketing savvy, viral content is possible.
- 24/7 – It’s Friday, and it’s 9.30 pm, you’re watching a new series on Netflix, and you can hear the gentle vibration of your mobile phone. It’s email, after email being delivered from your reliable Shopify Email Hosting – alerting you that you’re making sales. Sales that you can only make when you have an eCommerce website, and hosting which keeps your site uptime as high as possible – so customers can make those late night purchase without interrupt or frustration.
- Return Customers – If you provided an excellent service, excellent delivery time and of course secured their permission to update them on sales and deals – then you can set up a beautifully automated funnel system. After the initial purchase, a ‘thank you for your purchase, here’s 15% off your next purchase’ email is a great idea. While they’re enjoying the rush of Oxycontin, serotonin, and dopamine from their original purchase, they’re more likely to buy again in quick succession. People are naturally pretty loyal when they find a brand that they feel represents them.
When it comes to giving a great retail experience, it doesn’t take bells and whistles – it takes a clean site, a pleasant user experience, paying attention to the analytics you have access to and listening to customer feedback. What you get in return is the ability to make sales every minute of the day, even while you’re asleep – and that is pretty cool.
