As Black Friday (now more accurately described as Black Late November) draws to a close and with a total estimated net spend of over £7 billion taking place across the period, more companies than ever are attempting to grasp consumers attention.
How confident are you of reaching your targets and slicing through all the digital racket?
From start-ups to SMEs, straight through to established organisations there’s still a massive number of businesses that have yet to invest in an ecommerce website, despite having products they could quite easily sell on such a platform.
Nowadays, in a competitive marketplace and alongside a convenience-focused society, consumers no longer want to travel to the high street to purchase products. Increasing numbers now prefer to shop from the comfort of their own homes. Which in turn makes having an ecommerce website all the more important.
When considering the negative impact that COVID-19 has had on the high street recently, in conjunction with the ever-increasing proclivity to shop online, is your company ready and equipped with an ecommerce website? Or are you bracing yourself to suffer a huge loss in sales?
If you are still unconvinced about the idea of investing in an ecommerce website, then hopefully this article will shed some light on the subject. Here we will examine the reasons why ecommerce is key for your business and we will examine the benefits that moving online brings.
Firstly, let us look at the numbers following an unstable year for the UK economy.
Ecommerce in 2020: Digital Buying Takes Hold
Digital online shopping has seen a marked increase amongst UK consumers due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Consumers from a variety of backgrounds have altered the way they shop during the national lockdown, and these are predicted to remain on trend into 2021 and beyond.
Consequently, it is a very real possibility that the high street may never fully recover.
As of Monday the 23rd of March, this year a national lockdown took effect leaving consumers unable to purchase products that were not seen as essential items. By Monday the 15th of June, non-essential stores were allowed to reopen. By then millions of people had taken to buying online. In actual fact, the COVID-19 pandemic is set to add £5.3 billion this year attributing to an eye watering total of £78.9 billion worth of online sales.
This rise in ecommerce sales is anticipated to be followed by a slight dip in 2021 and then before an additional growth spurt in 2022. This in turn means that ecommerce will account for an even larger proportion of the entire retail market.
Consequently, the post pandemic effect on traditional in-person sales will be felt for years to come.
The Benefits of an ecommerce Website
There is no doubt that an ecommerce website can offer a surplus of benefits.
Shopping online provides consumers access to shop around for the best price, view a large range of products, is time saving, and can all be done without even having to leave the comfort of their own home. Aside from that, what does it mean for you, as a business owner?
Here’s what we think the most important benefits of having an ecommerce website are:
Increased Customer Reach
An ecommerce website will place your business and its products in the hands of the buyer whatever device they’re using.
Whenever people want something you sell, all they’ll need to do is take out their smartphone or laptop, browse through your website and purchase the merchandise of their choice, all in a matter of clicks. In addition, an ecommerce website also acts as a new division of your business. Subsequently this can assist in reaching an even larger audience of prospective customers. Whether you’re an established business or a brand-new company there are always potential customers to serve that you may not yet have reached.
Sales Opportunities at Every Hour
An ecommerce website is available 24/7 meaning there are no limitations on when the consumer can shop for products be it 3am or 3pm. This couldn’t make the phrase “make money while you sleep” any more applicable.
Low Start up and Running Costs
In comparison, to setting up and having a brick-built store to sell products from, an ecommerce website can be designed and developed at a fraction of the cost.
When united with the right platform and a competent digital marketing agency (like us!), an ecommerce website can be up and running in no time at all.
A good digital marketing agency can also guarantee that your ecommerce website ranks high on Google, as well as automating your customer relationship functions. The whole sales procedure can move through pre-defined automated steps which enables customers to buy products, get confirmation and shipping info all without you or your staff having to do anything at all.
Alongside this they will be attached to a communication list allowing them to be marketed to in specific and personally-tailored ways.
You Can Run Your Business from Anywhere
An ecommerce website will give you a unique advantage over a physical location, as you can conduct it from anywhere in the world.
In fact, this is precisely the reason why several company owners now claim to be living the “the laptop lifestyle”. As long as you have access to the internet an email account, laptop and a mobile phone, you can pretty much manage your business from anywhere, be that your sofa, your office or even the Costa Del Sol.
You Can Go International
If you are looking to outsell your competitors then an ecommerce website will give you all the tools you need to enable you to do just that, allowing you to sell to people all around the world with ease.
Selling on a worldwide scale can have a dramatic impact, helping you to build your business more rapidly, widen your marketplace and allowing you to capitalise on market trends faster and at a lower cost than your more traditional competitors.
Easy Scalability
One of the benefits of running an ecommerce website is that you can easily scale and expand to accommodate the market and your business growth.
For instance, if your rolling, out ads on Twitter or any other social media network, you can easily promote these to match with your customers’ buying habits. Alongside this, if you discover a dip in sales, you can adapt your marketing to compensate quickly within a matter of clicks.
Cheaper Advertising Opportunities
When compared to conventional channels, digital advertising is inexpensive and can be simply modified to suit all business sizes and budgets.
Additionally, you can easily convert to primarily digital advertising or use a combination of both, to promote your entire business to a multitude of people. For instance, email marketing is one uncomplicated tool that is an extremely cost effective and easy way to send information to a segmented audience. (Checkout Mailchimp) if you’re interested in looking into an email marketing service.
Improved Customer Service and Flexibility
When your ecommerce store is designed and constructed correctly, the ease of browsing and ordering can far exceed the extra shipping costs.
You can incorporate a number of customer service features, such as live chat which can be set up to provide automated answers to your consumers most asked questions.
Overall an ecommerce store is a much more straight forward and convenient experience than visiting any high street shop. Moreover, the customer can avoid the bother of traffic, walking, parking and they can do it all from the comfort of their own home.
An Ecommerce Website from Cloud Digital Media
Taking all the above into account it is clear that having an ecommerce website is easier, entails lower costs as well as lower risks when compared to having a physical store (just look at Amazon).
As long as you have a well thought out business plan and products that are in demand. The web offers a dynamic income together with an impressive ROI.
Our experience in designing and developing ecommerce websites is heightened by our ambition to design extraordinary experiences for our clients and customers. This in turn means we can work directly with you as your digital colleague, to help your business, flourish online.
We work with you to develop a unique and functional ecommerce website coupled with a well-researched and robust strategy, focusing on ROI.
Our aim is to help you maximise your margins, guarantee good Google rankings and assist with expanding all-important customer loyalty.
