Discover here the advantages of e-commerce. From reasonable financing costs to passive income, there are many good reasons to create an online store. These advantages of e-commerce will help you determine if this career is right for you.
Advantage n° 1 of e-commerce: reasonable financing costs
One of the advantages of e-commerce is that start-up costs are minimal, whereas it often costs several thousand euros to rent a traditional shop space. Not to mention initial costs such as signs, store layout, inventory purchases, sales equipment, etc. Traditional shops must also pay the Staff that runs the different sites. They may also need to hire security guards if they sell valuable items.
Online shops pay a maximum of €2,800 per year on Shopify for a virtual rental that also includes a user-friendly e-commerce platform, hosting, free Shopify themes, great applications such as Oberlo, and other interesting benefits. Depending on the type of e-business you run, you may not need to hire employees before you grow. If you choose dropshipping, you won't have to buy bulk stock, which will save you a lot of money. Your logo will cost you less than a store sign. Your business expenses are generally much lower in e-commerce. This is one of the most interesting benefits for new entrepreneurs looking to minimize their costs.
Advantage n° 2 of e-commerce: potential revenues at any time
One of the advantages of e-commerce is that online shops are always open. With your Facebook ads, you can attract customers day and night. Most stores are open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. By being available at any time, you can attract customers who would have picked up their item in store if it were open. You can also attract people with staggered schedules or who do not have time to shop in stores. For orders placed at night, you do not need to have a night shift. You will never need to recruit security guards.
Advantage n° 3 of e-commerce: an international market
E-commerce allows a new brand to easily sell to customers around the world. Your customers may be located in the United Kingdom, South America or neighbouring countries. With dropshipping on AliExpress, many items offer ePacket or free shipping options. This allows you to set competitive prices and shipping costs for international customers.
Advantage n° 4 of e-commerce: an easy presentation of the best sellers
With online sales, it is easy to highlight your best sales to present them to customers. While it is true that you can open a traditional shop to sell certain products, customers will have less difficulty finding bestsellers online. You want customers to buy these bestsellers because they are proven items. Other customers have already bought them and they are happy with them. If you want to introduce new items to customers, you can include them in your incentive sales, e-marketing or retargeting ads.
Advantage n° 5 of e-commerce: a personalized online experience
Personalizing websites, one of the benefits of online sales, can improve the online shopping experience. It is also possible to segment email lists according to purchases made, geographical location, or even the amounts spent by customers. You can also retarget a passing customer by showing them an ad for an item they have added to their shopping cart and then forgotten. If your online store has a login function, you can display a welcome message with the customer's name when they log in. Batch selling can help the customer to buy more at a better price, which increases the average value of orders. You can also customize incentive sales based on the items that have been viewed by the customer or their purchasing behaviour.
Advantage n° 6 of e-commerce: cheap employees
Hiring employees is more reasonable in e-commerce. You can outsource your activities to virtual assistants in countries where the cost of living is much lower. An online store requires fewer employees than a traditional store. In particular, you do not need to recruit employees to launch your online activities. You can start and conduct an online sales activity alone.
Advantage n° 7 of e-commerce: impulsive purchases easily encouraged
With e-commerce, you can encourage your customers to make impulse purchases. All you need is a beautiful product photo, with bright colours or full of emotion, to create ads that will lead to impulsive purchases. You can also use a variety of tactics by displaying countdowns or presenting limited quantities.
Advantage n° 8 of e-commerce: the simplicity of retargeting or re-marketing
It is easy to create retargeting ads to retarget customers in your domain when you have an online business; this is one of the most profitable benefits of e-commerce. You can create a Facebook pixel. You can use Shopify's Shoelace application to refocus customers who visit your store without making purchases. In e-commerce, you can retarget people who add an item to their shopping cart but abandon the order or those who consult a blog article without ever making a purchase. You can easily collect email addresses using pop-ups or lead magnets and continue your marketing operations with customers after the sale.
Advantage n° 9 of e-commerce: a less intrusive experience for customers
Some people hate going to a store because they have to interact with employees. Whether they are informed of promotions or invited to share their shopping experience, they may prefer to shop online because they feel less annoyed. To contact the owner of an online store, simply click on a live chat feature, send an email or a Facebook message.
Advantage n° 10 of e-commerce: easy access to customer data
E-commerce allows you to easily access data analysis about your customers. Most people are reluctant to give their e-mail address or postal code in stores. In e-commerce, you can obtain the name, postal address, e-mail address and telephone number of your customers. This gives you at least three different ways to contact them and establish a relationship with them. You can even invite them to complete market research, send you their birthdays, etc. If you invite them to create an account, you will get even more information to better serves them.