Consumer habits have been rapidly straying from browsing brick and mortar stores to scrolling through pages of items online. Many businesses have integrated an online shopping platform to keep up with the changing trends, but if your business is still debating between the pros and cons of opening an e-commerce platform, here are 5 reasons why you should take the leap now!
With a brick and mortar store, shoppers are typically located in the same geographical area as the point of purchase; however, an e-commerce platform decreases geographical limitations so your customers can purchase your items no matter their location Shoppers also start online -- according to Salesforce, 87% of shoppers begin product searches on digital channels, up from 71% last year
Customers save on travel costs and time, can locate products simply using a search bar instead of scavenging the many shelves of a physical location, and have the power to make a purchase instantly, whenever they desire
E-commerce platforms are inexpensive to set up but drastically reduce your expenses. Your business will incur less overhead fees. From rent, to personnel, to utility-- these unnegotiable costs with brick and mortar stores will be minor with an online platform. These reduced costs can then be allocated to selling your products at more competitive prices.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can help target your communication and advertising to customers who recently looked up topics related to your products and website.
By helping you understand how your market is searching online, you can develop a targeted strategy to expose your brand to more relevant customers and improve the efficiency of your advertising campaign.
To learn more about how to optimize your website for SEO, check out our five step tutorial here.
Web analytic softwares such as Google Analytics can track where people come from, when they leave your site, how long they stay for, most popular products etc. This information reveals your product’s weaknesses and strengths to help you optimize your inventory and maximize your revenue.
If the analytics show many of your customers leaving the site at the shipping page, you may decide that your next steps should include decreasing this cost.
Although this may be uncharted territory for your business, these benefits are reasons to strongly consider adapting to the changing consumer behaviours as soon as possible. Wix-e-Commerce, Shopify, or WordPress platforms are great ways to start!
