The Importance of eCommerce for Your Business in 2022
eCommerce has a great history since it was invented back in May 1989, when SequoiaData Crop introduced Compumarket, the first internet-based system for eCommerce.
In the emerging global economy, eCommerce has increasingly become a vital component of business Strategy and a solid catalyst for economic development.
From startups to small and medium-sized businesses right through to huge brands, there are a large number of companies that can benefit from their own online store, where they can sell their own products/services.
At the same time, the speedy influx of new technology in the retail experience has driven consumers of all ages to expect a convenient and connected experience that seamlessly aligns with their everyday lives.
If you’re still on the fence about launching your own eCommerce store, you may ask yourself why eCommerce is getting attention around the world.
This article is where you’ll find 13 benefits of having an online store as well as knowing the importance of eCommerce.
Why eCommerce Is So Important for Your Business?
The Importance of eCommerce — 12 Benefits:
1. eCommerce Helps You Reduce Your Costs
To have an online store it is not necessary that you have all your products presented in a physical space. In fact, there are different companies that operate online where they only show all their inventory through their electronic commerce.
This implies not only saving by not needing a rental or purchase of premises but also everything that involves electricity, the Internet, etc. Or if you want to have one so that customers have a physical space, it does not have to be as large as everything you offer. In either case, you will be reducing your costs.
2. eCommerce Helps Businesses Go Global
Directly related to the previous point, this fact allows you to put your products for sale anywhere in the world. People will not have the explicit need to travel to where you are to see what you have to offer.
If you are running a physical store, it will be limited by the geographical area that you can service, but owning an eCommerce website will give you the opportunity to increase your outreach. It’ll offer your products & services to customers around the whole world, regardless of the distance and time zone.
Furthermore, this eliminates all kinds of geographical and linguistic tango barriers. Your e-commerce translated into different languages will allow them to buy from different countries.
With eCommerce and mobile commerce as well, the entire world is your playground. Your products or services are within reach for a lot of customers who might be sitting in another corner of the world.
So, if you want to grow your online business worldwide, it is a great idea to start creating your own online store and localize it in different languages.
3. eCommerce Can Be Done With Fewer Overheads & Fewer Risk
Starting an online store can mean significantly lower start-up costs compared to a brick-and-mortar retailer. The retailer or the online business owner doesn’t have to take into consideration the high expenses of shop rental, hiring a salesperson to woo the customer, utility bills, security measures, etc.
This, in turn, will enable you to sell your products at competitive prices. Also, having an online store enables you to enjoy increased profitability with less risk.
4. eCommerce Can Broaden Your Brand & Expand Your Business
Having an eCommerce store can be used to broaden your range of products/services for sale, expand your business, bring you more customers, and diversify your sales. It’s the ideal way to take your brand from a traditional brick & mortar store to an innovative, well-loved one.
With eCommerce, there is no need to have more than one branch, just one singular online store allowing you to fully reach customers without having to worry about moving locations, you can just manage your online business from home.
It’s important to mention that, eCommerce will be helpful for both B2C and B2B businesses to boost their brand awareness in the market.
5. eCommerce Offers Better Marketing Opportunities
Your eCommerce site is the best marketing tool that you would ever have. Thanks to the internet, now anyone can market through online tools like social media marketing, email marketing, search engine marketing, pay-per-click ads, and SEO help you build very useful links with marketing automation.
For example, with good SEO, your online store will appear in the top results of SERPs (Search Engine Results Page). Also, social media networks will provide you with a platform to engage and build trust with your customers through reviews and ratings, as well as keep them informed with regular posts about your products and offers.
6. Your Online Store Will Stay Open 24*7/365:
Also, one of the great importance of eCommerce that eCommerce retailers can enjoy is store timings are now 24/7/365 as the eCommerce stores are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, compared to the regular stores.
In this way, retailers can increase their sales by boosting their number of orders. However, it is also helpful for customers as they can purchase products & services whenever they want no matter whether it is midnight or early morning.
Recommended by LinkedIn
7. eCommerce Is Easier & More Convenient
People’s lives are hectic; getting to a physical store means taking a lot of time and effort. So, starting an online store that means you can fit into your customers' busy lives, making the products they want accessible when they want them.
The enjoyable thing about eCommerce is buying options that are quick, easy, convenient, and user-friendly with the ability to transfer funds online.
Thanks to eCommerce’s convenience, consumers can save lots of time, and effort as well as money by searching for their products easily and making purchases online.
8. Personalize Your Shopping Experience
If there is one of the clear advantages of having an online store, is to be able to know (and monitor) what your consumer does. Physically, it would be very uncomfortable for a potential buyer to enter your store and you were all the time behind him asking what he wants or why he does not buy your product.
For example, eCommerce allows you to know at what point in the process you left the purchase halfway and even remember that you left it in the middle by sending an email.
This, in addition, can help you to improve your shopping experience for another occasion: shortening the steps to complete the order or offering those buyers products with similar characteristics.
9. Improve the Image of Your Business
Among the advantages of having an online store, there is no doubt that it also includes improving the image of your company. Offering a good online sales platform to users will give your company a great corporate appearance.
Not only will it prove to be up-to-date, but it will also show interest in facilitating consumer purchases. For example, it prevents you from traveling to the physical place of sale and allows you to compare prices from home.
In addition, thanks to what we have mentioned as loyalty or feedback, you can even implement improvements in your products that customers will value positively.
10. Easily Receive Feedback on Products
Have you always wanted to know what consumers think of what you sell in order to offer more or improve it? Well, the online store will allow you to receive that feedback so you can implement improvements in your business. Through star ratings, with the possibility of leaving comments.
In addition, the customer will feel heard after their purchase. There is no better way to thank the customers for their confidence in purchasing your company’s products. What’s more, if you offer quality you will have nothing to worry about.
Enabling a direct channel where others see what they can expect from a given asset is a great public exercise of trust in your business.
11. Ready for the Trade of the Future
This is another important detail of thinking about the long-term of your business. Search patterns and consumer spending, the advancement of technology, and the latest statistics estimate that by 2040, 95% of purchases will be made through the internet.
Therefore, we are not only talking about a trend of the present but also about what the commercial relations of the future will be. And just as if you are not on the Internet you do not exist, if your business does not sell on the Internet it is limiting its sales in a massive way.
12. Increase in Sales
Everything seen above is focused on one thing: being able to increase your sales. At the end of the day, your business is based on being able to sell more, and therefore it is what it is aimed at.
All the previous points contribute to the fact that the tenth and last advantage is that there is an increase in the purchases of your products. Reaching more customers, improving your products thanks to comments, or being available 24 hours a day will undoubtedly contribute to all of this.
The Role of eCommerce in Business and Selling in 2022:
We could see that the role of eCommerce has begun to be very important since the COVID-19 pandemic because, during the lockdowns, everyone has changed their ways of shopping and started to get almost everything online!
Here is the role of eCommerce in business and selling:
Final Word
In general, it’s typically pretty easy, low-cost and low-risk to start an eCommerce business. So long as you pick your products/services wisely, have an appropriate business plan, picked up the right partner to help you build your own store, there’s plenty of potential for passive income and high ROI over the long term.
Want to hear about how our eCommerce solution can do all of this for your business? Email us at info@ibs-al.com. We'll be happy to tell you all about it.