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E-commerce for Your Business
E-commerce Definition
We will assess what is the definition of e-commerce in a second, but first we should understand that e-commerce is no longer only for the big players.
E-commerce for your business has never been more relevant than it is today. Usually when we speak about e-commerce the first image that comes to our minds are the giants like Amazon and Alibaba. Yet today, the threshold for gaining your own online store for your business has never been lower.
Any small retail business today can build an e-commerce website to increase sales. An online store for your business is a huge benefit, since e-commerce sites are like sales associates that never sleep. Do you sell umbrellas? Someone might see it at 3am and think “Oh there has never been a better time to buy an umbrella!” and that’s where the real value is.
If you own a retail business, the question you should be asking yourself isn’t “why should I have an e-commerce site?” but rather “why don’t I have an e-commerce site already?”. Today all of our traditional sales tactics have a complimentary digital assistant. The complimentary assistance to your brick and mortar shop is an online shop.
So what is e-commerce? What is the e-commerce definition? According to Miriam Webster “activities that relate to the buying and selling of goods and services over the Internet” is what defines e-commerce.
A virtual store where you can advertise your stock 24 hours a day, seven days a week, all year round.
Advantages of E-commerce
E-commerce just means that you are selling a product online. Ebay, Amazon and Alibaba all offer the option to sell through their websites. However, what about making your own and foregoing the commission these companies take on your sales? Some of the advantages of having your own online store include;
Being beneficial to SEO efforts as you will have another page which will help Google equate your name to your niche, your content will benefit as you will be able to promote the sales you host on your online store and from an automated marketing perspective you will be able to consistently advertise your wares as well as sell them. Even if you’re asleep.
The advantages of e-commerce outweigh the negative (provided you are in a retail or wholesale business, other businesses do not have such a clear advantage for using e-commerce), for a small investment you can acquire your most committed sales agent.
The adoption of e-commerce has been so rapid and adopted by so many that mobile e-commerce (online shopping optimized for mobile devices) has become a speciality in it’s own right. E-commerce is so popular in the United States that 96% of American shoppers shop online, Americans also allocate on average 36% of their total shopping budget to online shopping.
In addition to tapping into a hefty share of the American shopping marketing, online shopping provides a more well rounded experience for your shopper. Typically a well designed e-commerce website will help the shopper navigate quickly and efficiently to convert to a sale quickly without hassle.
Another huge advantage of e-commerce is the relatively low cost. Think about how much you pay for rent on your physical storefront or warehouse, now I can all but guarantee, any option for building an e-commerce site would be a fraction of the cost of rent.
Don’t forget that online shopping also means online data. Which ads sent the most traffic that lead to conversions? What time a day do you find the most people are buying your products online? Who are these people? A well established e-commerce site can help you track the real results of your marketing efforts to tweak your marketing strategy accordingly and capitalize on your work.
There’s also no labor cost that comes with running an e-commerce. Christmas, weekends, federal holidays etc. you will not have to pay overtime or even base salary to this tireless sales machine.
E-commerce website builder
There are several options to go about building your e-commerce site, including cost effective easy to use e-commerce website builders. Solomoto offers a website builder as well as an e-commerce site builder for subscription clients.
If you’ve read the article and feel that e-commerce could be of use to your business and overall sales strategy, you should see if the Solomoto Store Builder is right for your business.
Thank you for reading and let us know about your experience with e-commerce.
Good luck!