Why creating an online store and selling on the Internet is important in 2022?

In order to promote its services or even sell its products, many companies choose to set up an e-commerce site on the Internet.

In 2020, 78% of Quebecers would have made, at least once, a purchase on an online store. Indeed, today, all sectors of activity are concerned with e-commerce through various online stores and this solution has become almost essential to make your business grow.

Without further ado, we are going to show you why you, too, have every interest in creating your e-commerce site today.

Contents

• The different types of online store: 
• Benefits of an online store
• Disadvantages of an online store

>The different types of online store: 

There are two types of e-commerce sites; one is intended to sell physical products which will be sent to the customer's address, and the other one is the sale of services such as website referencing, website creation or the creation of web applications . 

An online store to sell services

The sale of services with a website consists of targeting either individuals (B2C) or businesses (B2B) using an interface accessible on the Internet.

At first glance, managing an e-commerce site intended for the sale of services only may seem simple, since there is no stock management or logistics management. Nevertheless, for services, there is a lot of competitiveness and you will have to position yourself as a reference or an expert in your field.

For the realization of an online store to sell only services, requires a long preparation. You have to do a lot of work on analyzing your competitors’ moves in order to stand out as much as possible. 

An e-commerce site to sell products

The objective of an online store intended to sell products is to offer a catalog of items to customers around the world or to a country that would be the target of your products, with the objective of selling objects, then ship them and generate revenue.

The most important thing in this field of activity is visibility. Since to be profitable your e-commerce site must succeed in attracting maximum traffic as well as be based on a well-established strategy so that your visitors do not leave your online store before making a purchase. 

In addition, an e-commerce site is much less expensive than a physical store; however having an online store that generates income constantly requires a lot of work. Indeed, you must provide regular work in view of the strong competition already in place. 

Benefits of an online store

The online store of a company must reflect its activity, this interface on the Internet will aim to disseminate information related to your products or services.

We give you some advantages that we have noticed when creating an e-commerce site for our customers:

Internet: a limitless market

Today, the Internet has become an essential means of communication. In Canada, 92% of the population uses the Internet either from their computer or on their mobile. That is to say that you have access to almost 35 million people and therefore 35 million potential customers for your online store.

In other words, we therefore advise you not to ignore this means of communication which has proved to be more than flourishing in recent years.

The high visibility possible thanks to an e-commerce site

Indeed, a physical store will generally target residents who are close to it, while an online store can reach anyone on earth.

After all, depending on your choices, and depending on the products you sell on your e-commerce site, you may prefer to only reach one country. 

And do not forget that an online store is accessible 24 hours a day as well as 7 days a week, unlike a physical store whose hours are much more restricted.

An e-commerce site requires a much lower budget than a physical store

Indeed, a physical store must bear several operating costs. If you own a store then you should know that you have to pay your premises, your employees and the various charges related to your store each month.

While, for an online store, the costs associated with it are extremely low. 

The fact that the various charges related to your e-commerce site are considerably reduced will allow you to offer significantly lower and attractive prices.

You should know that the main costs of an online store are mainly related to the creation of the site, the maintenance of it.

In addition, a plan of costs for marketing concerning your e-commerce site such as spreading awareness about it, and your unique selling point that makes you different from competition. The plan could include the strategy or marketing methods aimed at attracting as many customers as possible on your e-commerce site. If these methods interest you, we advise you to visit our services page of Oshara: web marketing agency..

Develop marketing actions with concrete results thanks to the information of your visitors

It is true that in a physical store, customers are generally not very inclined to give their personal information, while on the Internet only a few clicks allow you to obtain a large amount of information about visitors to your e-commerce site. . In addition, most people on the Internet agree in 99% of cases to give their information.

You will therefore be able to collect a lot of data which will then be useful for your marketing actions such as their date of birth, their address, their number of children, their purchasing habits or even their telephone number.

These are valuable since they will allow you to better target your customers and increase your conversion rates by further personalizing your emails and marketing actions.

The possibility of offering an infinite number of products on your online store: 

On your e-commerce site, it will be very easy to add or delete a product.

Moreover, unlike a physical store, an online store does not have to have a large stock; you can even add a plugin or an agency to it that will take care of the logistics so that you do not even have to look at the stock. The number of products you can offer on your e-commerce site has no limit!

Finally, if you have both an online store and a physical store, you can first launch your product on your e-commerce site to measure whether it has real sales potential. If so, you can then launch it in your physical store and manage inventory. 

The price of the average basket is higher on an online store

We noticed that the average basket was generally higher on an e-commerce site than in a physical store. This turns out to be all the more the case for online stores that offer delivery costs from a certain purchase threshold, in order to encourage visitors to make more purchases on your e-site trade.

You will be able to analyze the behavior of your users

Generally, when you have an e-commerce site today, there is an array of tools around them that will make your life easier and improve both your productivity as well as your online store. If you are interested, we have written an article on the subject which is this: 9 essential tools to complement your online store . 

In particular, you will have at your disposal analysis tools such as Google Analytics which is one of the best known today. This one will allow you to obtain precise data on your e-commerce site, but also to measure the effectiveness of all your marketing campaigns.

Faster purchases from your visitors thanks to an online store

An e-commerce site allows users to make purchases anywhere and at any time. This is why when the user feels the need for a product or service, he can go to your online store and buy it directly, he does not need to go there. than to comply with your opening hours. 

The delivery services have been significantly improved, hence the time for receiving packages has become much faster.

An e-commerce site allows you to reach new customers

Indeed, since an online store is not blocked in a specific place on earth, it is therefore open and accessible to all people browsing the Internet and therefore visible to potential customers who would never have visited the city where your physical store is located.

Personalization of your actions for each visitor

By using the data collected on your e-commerce site, you will be able to automate tasks for your visitors and customers, which will aim to build loyalty to your brand and your products.

Disadvantages of an online store

Limited interactions with customers

Unfortunately, you won't be face to face with your customer and therefore persuading them to buy is more complicated, but also understanding the customer's needs or wants is much more difficult.

However, it is possible for you to find alternatives to this with, for example, the possibility of discussing with an expert for users and of exchanging directly with your potential customers.

Computer failures on your e-commerce site can have negative consequences on your ability to sell

For example, the slow loading of your online store or the complete failure of it can permanently scare away your visitors and also lead to the fact of not being able to sell your products.

No testing or trial possibilities for your customers

This disadvantage especially persists in the textile industry, the fact of not being able to try certain articles, will be able to slow down some of the visitors of your e-commerce site. You must then reassure them about possible returns and fully reimbursed. This is also the case for products such as perfumes, selling them on an online store can be complicated. 

But some brands, to overcome these difficulties, take advantage of innovations such as virtual reality or themselves develop new means such as Ikea, for example, which has made available a tool that allows you to replace a piece of furniture in your home with an item that you sell, all in 3 dimensions.

The Internet is a formidable platform today, because you can reach anyone on earth and therefore also display your products or services to them using your e-commerce site. This is why it is interesting to develop a business there or to expand your activity in order to attract the maximum number of customers to your online store.

If you want to know more about the subject or if you want to have your e-commerce site developed by an agency specializing in this field for 10 years, do not hesitate to consult our services or simply contact us for a free consultation and support, tailored to your needs and your budget. 

We are a web marketing agency specializing in web development and SEO and we have been helping entrepreneurs and companies for more than 10 years to succeed in their digital transformation and move to the 1st page of online search results. 

While waiting for the next column, if you have any questions, call us . 

See you soon