Why Small Businesses Should Adopt E-commerce
02/10/2020 | Share:
Now more than ever, it’s crucial for small businesses to jump on to the e-commerce bandwagon. An e-commerce website can be a large investment of both time and money but if you’ve got the drive to succeed, you’ll really see a return on your investment. Here’s why we think small businesses should adopt e-commerce sooner rather than later.
Small Business Expansion
If you’re a small local business, it’s likely that all of the customers that visit your store live nearby or are passing through by chance. If you’re looking to grow your business, you’ll need regular customers from further afield.
By creating an e-commerce website for your business, people can visit your store from anywhere in the world and purchase from anywhere you offer delivery to. Whether that’s nationally or internationally is up to you!
Whilst it can certainly be a large investment, e-commerce is usually much cheaper than opening another brick and mortar store in a new area.
The safest option
Let’s not forget the current state of the world. In the era of a pandemic, more and more people are turning to online shopping for their safety. Don’t get left behind!
Businesses with e-commerce functionality during the pandemic and subsequent lockdown were able to function much more easily, albeit with restrictions in place. With brick and mortar stores closed, deliveries were the only option. Investing in an e-commerce website, however big or small, allows you to do business and stay safe at the same time. You’re also prepared if a national lockdown were to happen again.
Get noticed
Having an e-commerce website opens your business up to plenty of digital advertising opportunities that simply aren’t applicable to brick and mortar businesses (and with limits for even standard websites).
A website with e-commerce functionality can advertise using Google Shopping, which will show images of your products at the top of relevant search results. You’ll also be able to create a catalogue on Facebook and Instagram where people can purchase directly via the app. Pinterest also allows you to link your store so that your pins become shoppable posts, showing the current price.
You’ll also be able to benefit better from marketing emails. With a direct link to what you’re selling, people are more likely to buy in the moment or browse your sale.
Analytics Data
The benefit to an e-commerce store is that you’ll be able to access detailed analytics about how people interact with your site and your products.
This is a non-exhaustive list of things you can expect to see:
- Most visited pages
- Best sellers
- Time spent on page
- Demographics
- Abandoned items
- Which promotions increased sales
- Which promotion didn’t work
- Where your store traffic comes from
All of these and more will allow you to better tailor your offering to the people that visit your website.
Never miss an opportunity
The most obvious benefit to having an e-commerce store is that people can place orders when you are closed, for example, evenings, weekends or holidays. Nowadays, not everyone has time in their busy lives to visit stores during working hours. Going online means you get your well-earned rest outside of opening hours whilst the e-commerce business runs itself for a bit.
The upkeep
These are just a few reasons why making the move to e-commerce could greatly benefit your business. However, it is a long-term investment of effort and resources. You need to make sure you maintain your site, stay active and remain invested in running your e-commerce site just like you do with your physical shop. No slacking!
You’ll have lots to think about and implement, but doing so could revolutionise the way you do business and allow you to expand. Besides, if you ever need tips and tricks on running and maintaining your e-commerce website, our blog contains plenty of guides to get you started.
