As a business owner, you understand or at least you should understand the importance of catering to your customer’s needs. By providing the products or services that your customers want you are creating happy customers that will eagerly purchase from you time and time again. That’s the nature of business!
Are you one of those people who has an existing business and are looking at ways to add value to your customers. Perhaps you’re looking for new ways to serve your customers and expand your business.
Have you thought about offering your customers a more convenient way to purchase your products or services? What I mean by this is have you looked at providing your customers with the opportunity to purchase online or be served online?
These days People love to shop online. It is convenient and can be done at any time of the day or night. This is great to utilise if your business model allows for it. This is referred to as eCommerce. If you’re not familiar with eCommerce, the simplest way to describe it is to think of it as a method of executing a transaction across the internet. If you purchase something online you are buying via an eCommerce solution.
An eCommerce website can sell a variety of products including music, books, training courses. You can even trade products via an eCommerce website. Any type of electronic transaction is classified as an eCommerce one. These types of transactions are quick and extremely easy for both seller and buyer. It is a perfect solution for selling all types of products, but especially digital ones. The customer literally pays and is then given access to their product, which they simply download. But it can also be used to sell products for in store pickup or sell services for face to face activities like consulting or even Yoga classes.
So why should you consider offering an eCommerce solution via your website? The following top reasons should persuade you to at least consider this model.
1. A way to help increase your bottom line. Allowing your customers to order or download products online will increase your revenue. This is especially true if your website is already popular attracting high traffic levels. Adding a convenient option such as an online store allows you to showcase your most popular products. In addition, it is a great way to run special offers and discounts. If you don’t have an existing website, a new one can be built for you that specifically incorporates the eCommerce model so that you can attract new customers and better serve your existing ones.
2. An online store provides customers with convenience. Your customers can order at any time and they don’t have to travel to your store to do so. If your business is small and consists of smaller items an eCommerce store can dramatically reduce your costs versus the standard brick and mortar store.
3. Depending upon your products or services an online store allows you to broaden your reach. You could potentially reach customers around the world. On top of this, you can make use of the popularity of social media and advertise your business there.
4. Setting up an eCommerce store is very easy and affordable. Depending upon your needs you have various options from using WordPress running the Woo-commerce plugin (highly recommended) or using something more detailed and complicated such as Keep (formally known as Infusionsoft).
5. This reason is huge and could almost be your tipping point. An eCommerce store allows you to tap in the mobile market. Just take a look around you and see how many people carry some type of mobile device with them. Having an eCommerce store that is optimised for mobile devices can literally mean that your business is in the hands and pockets of your customers every day! As an extension to this, your business can invest in a mobile app that compliments your eCommerce website to create a very powerful online presence that will serve your customers in ways you probably haven’t considered.
Overall adding an eCommerce store to your current business can help you increase your revenue and your profits. It will allow you to expand your market reach and provide you with a method of tapping into the mobile user market. While this sounds too good to be true – it is true!
If you would like to learn more, please shoot me an email to tim@timlumsdendigital.com. I’d be happy to have a chat with you about your specific business model and how it might fit with an eCommerce solution.
