There was a point in time when consumers wanted a product or service, they went to a store and purchased what they were looking for. Times have changed. The internet has drastically changed the way that consumers shop for the products that they need and want from virtually anywhere in the world. Investing in eCommerce has never been more important to the success of small businesses than it is now. In fact, a study showed that even when customers browsed both online and in-store, 1 in 3 decided to go back online to make the purchase. This is your guide to how small businesses can use eCommerce to expand their footprint like never before!
Importance of eCommerce for Small Businesses
Implementing an eCommerce and digital marketing strategy as a part of your business plan will help your small business stay at the forefront of its industry. It reduces the chances that your business will fall behind its competitors. The integration of eCommerce will also open the door for additional streams of revenue. This is increasingly valuable as more and more consumers choose to shop online.
The biggest challenge for owners who may not be technology savvy is migrating to an online eCommerce platform. Partnering with a team of professionals that specialize in small business eCommerce and hosting services, will ensure that your online business strategy gets off on the right foot and make the migration process seamless.
Increase Your Reach
A brick and mortar store has a defined radius of potential consumers. For convenience, people are only going to travel so far to purchase products. This means that your small business reach is limited to your geographical area. However, with eCommerce, you can sell your products and services to anyone, anywhere in the world. This greatly expands the reach that your business has.
Increase Your Revenue
A direct result of your business reach increasing is that your customer base will also grow. This increases the number of sales and boosts your revenue. eCommerce makes it possible to increase your ROI (return on investment) and you will also receive payments for products and services much faster as online shoppers will pay before the product is even shipped to its destination. With eCommerce, the amount of growth you can achieve is unlimited.
More Cost-Effective
Opening an additional physical location can be extremely costly. You will also be subjected to the same geographical locations as your existing stores. An online store is a much more cost-effective alternative to expanding your small business because you do not have to worry about the large investment of building, buying, or renting another physical location. This allows you to keep your costs down while allowing for more growth opportunities. Is even more cost-effective to operate your own online store with the help of a professional developer and hosting service such as Alacrity Systems Development.
Provide Flexible Shopping
For most small businesses, it is not feasible to stay open 24/7 for your customers. This means that you may be missing out on potential customers who are not able to make it to your store within business hours. Offering an online alternative gives consumers the ability to shop from your store at their convenience and on their schedule.
Build Your Business’s Reputation
Word-of-mouth recommendations are still one of the best ways to attract new customers. This can be slow-go and hard to do with a physical location only. With an eCommerce store, you can ask customers to leave reviews on your store and social media pages. The best part is that these reviews are publicly available for anyone to look at it. This is a great way to build your small business’s reputation and influence potential customers to purchase for your business.
Increase Search Engine Traffic
Getting found online is highly competitive. Whether consumers end up buying online or in the store, they almost always start out researching on the internet. Investing in eCommerce and concentrating on SEO (search engine optimization) will make it easier for potential consumers to find your business. It will increase your search engine rankings. Developing a strong online presence is an art form. It is important to use professionals who have the expertise and understand search engine algorithms to make sure that your eCommerce store is designed with high performance in mind.
Keep Track of Inventory
eCommerce platforms take the hassle out of inventory tracking. Automation precisely tracks the number of each product available. Custom alerts can be set to let owners know when they are running low on inventory of products. Inventory that is not well-tracked can cost businesses a great deal of money. By automating the process, your small business will save on costs by only ordering products that are needed.
Ability to Automate Shipping to Anywhere in the World
The logistics of shipping and handling can be a major hurdle for small businesses looking to branch out to eCommerce. Your online store developer can help you automate product delivery that allows your business to ship any product to any part of the world.
Make Sure Your Small Business Stays Ahead of the Game
Alacrity Systems Development understands the importance of small businesses entering the eCommerce realm. We offer the very latest in Cloud solutions as well as expert development services that are tailored to ensure that small businesses have the tools that they need to succeed online. Our professional eCommerce team can build and host SEO web pages, develop and manage eCommerce stores as well as CRM systems and ERP solutions that will allow for smooth management of your business processes.
Let’s work together to make sure your business has a strong online presence. Contact us today and let our team build a reliable online store with the tools necessary to streamline your business and engage your customers through every step of the buying journey! Putting your small business online is no longer an option when it comes to keeping up with competitors, it is a requirement that your consumers expect.
