From startups to medium-sized small businesses, right through the huge brands, there are huge numbers of organizations that can benefit from their own eCommerce website or mobile applications, where they can just simply sell their own products or services. In today’s competitive world and convenience-focused society, no longer do consumers want to venture to the high street in order to purchase any items, instead, the consumers want to shop from their own homes, making e-commerce a flexible solution for both businesses and buyers. The continued expansion of eCommerce would lead to downward pressure on inflation through the increasing competition, cost savings, and changes in sellers’ pricing behavior.

If you’re still on the fence about launching your own eCommerce store, then you may ask yourself why eCommerce is getting more and more attention in this situation of Covid also.

Here are the 5 reasons why e-commerce is very useful for you.

1. Always open

In general terms, traditional companies have restricted hours of operations, but an online e-commerce store can be open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. As this is highly customer-friendly as people can shop for any products that they want at a time convenient to them. Merchants will see revenue rolling in while they are still sleeping. After studying customer’s buying patterns and looking at statistical data, it is understood that customers make online purchases around 8-10 pm. Many of the shops and offices are closed around this time, online is the best option available for customers. 

2. Save costs

As compared with all the traditional stores, e-commerce businesses have substantially lower costs. Just think about fixed operating expenses, shop rent, and staff payment. These expenses are fixed and change only nominally with change in sales.  These expenses are directly brought down significantly with an online eCommerce shop. The lower costs allow eCommerce stores to be more competitive, leading towards significant increases in the market share and also helps people in doing their business.

3.Availability of payment options

Payment technology is evolving at a fast pace. From physical cash-based transactions to no-contact card payments and UPI payments, there are numerous payment options available.  Large value payments often come with attractive EMI schemes that greatly reduce the financial pressure on the buyer. Can all these payment options be made available in an offline store? Some of them can be, but not all. Increasing adoption of internet buying has seen the evolution of various payment methods for e-commerce channels. Multiple software solutions are available to expand, enhance, and provide safe e-payment activities. Contactless e-commerce transactions have smoothened the handling of transactions by reducing all the paperwork, management fees, and staff costs. These platforms are user-friendly, take less time than manual operations and allow companies to expand their consumer scope. Few popularly available options are:

• Credit card
• Debit card
• UPI payment
• Net banking
• E-Wallet

4. Better Marketing Opportunities

Marketing is changing. Loud and flashy marketing by throwing a lot of money at it may not give the return that you are expecting. It can be very expensive and not something that everyone can afford.  A well developed and feature rich ecommerce site is the best marketing tool that you would ever have nowadays to make a difference to your marketing efforts. Thanks to the internet, the market is wide open in front of you. Utilize the correct marketing channels like social media marketing, email marketing, search engine marketing, pay-per-click ads, and SEO to help you build very useful links and contacts. Your next client will most likely find you from the internet.  

5.Your Brand & Expand Your Business

Most social media applications like Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp have options to create a product catalog and expose it to customers. But does it give you a wow factor? Is it adding value to your brand? The answer is NO. Brand building is a long journey. Every established brand in this world has made its presence felt over years by small and continuous actions.  If you want your business to grow, you have to start working towards brand building.  A full featured eCommerce site and mobile application can do wonders to your brand image.  It can broaden your range of products and services, expand your business, bring you more and more customers, and diversify your sales. It’s the ideal way to take your brand from a traditional brick & mortar store to an innovative, well-loved one. 

Expanding your business with an e-commerce store does not require adding floor space, branches or staff. With an e-commerce store, you can do business without boundaries. Just one online store will allow you to reach customers without having to worry about moving locations, you can just manage your online business from home too. It’s important to mention that eCommerce is very much helpful for Both B2C and B2B businesses to boost their brand awareness in the market.