Why should you have an online shop? Is it just a waste of time, money and resources? It is if you don’t utilise it and let it go to waste. E Commerce is an ever expanding industry, our purchasing habits have moved online more and more every single year. A few stats to show why you need an online shop:
E commerce is growing 23% year over year (Big Commerce)In 2020, ecommerce sales are expected to account for 15.5% of retail sales worldwide. (Oberlo)
62 percent of online buyers shop at least once per month (Episerver)
Still tentative due to the costs? Let’s break that down too. For this example we will assume you are going to use Shopify. Their cheapest plan is €30 per month plus 2.9% of every sale and 30c per transaction. We will say you sell €140 worth of product a month from your brand new online shop. The total cost of your online shop will amount to €34.66 per month. If we say you make a quarter profit on all of your sales you can cover the cost of your online sales
Now that we’ve given some stats and a brief financial breakdown, let’s move on to some points.
- Your online shop can generate “passive” income for you. I say “passive” because you’re still going to have to push it or advertise. However, providing you’ve a decent social media presence you can easily manage to generate sales from your online shop.
- According to KPMG the number one reason for purchasing online was because they’re able to do so at any hour. By having an online shop you’re not restricting yourself to selling within your opening hours or people being around to buy from you.
- You can reach customers who would never have bought from you before. You can compete on a national and international level, pushing yourself beyond just the locality you are in.
- Your risk is greatly reduced due to having essentially no overheads beyond stock and your website. You also don’t have to pay for staff because you don’t have to physically be there, and taking the old phrase, “time is money” you don’t have to cost yourself your time either.
- Beat others to the punch. Shopping is moving more and more online every year, if you can establish yourself in the market before others do when why not? This allows your brand to be the “go to” versus your competitors.
- Easy to do to a good standard. Platforms like Shopify and Woocommerce allow you to easily set up a shop in a day with nearly unlimited amounts of customisation.
- Take people who visit your store and retarget them using ads. People browse online all the time, and you can turn these browsers into customers. Facebook and Google Ads level of retargeting really lets you drive sales and if utilised correctly can be the most useful weapon in your arsenal.
The argument of physical versus online store is one that is going to get closer and closer. If you were to put the cost of rent or rates into online advertising you may very well see how one could greatly trump the other; but that’s an argument for another day.
All in all though, not having an online shop means you’re potentially missing out on a lot of customers and knowledge about these customers. A strong online presence is key to every business these days and surely allowing customers to purchase online is key to that too.