If you have a virtual storefront rather than a physical presence on the high street, you already have a significant cost advantage over more traditional rival firms and that is why E-tailing is growing so rapidly compared to retailing.
Here is a look at the reasons why sales through e-commerce are continuing to grow and why you should consider making the most out of what some are even calling the holy grail of retail.
No geographical boundaries
One of the fundamental advantages that e-commerce offers is the fact that there are no geographical boundaries to hold your sales back. If you have a physical retail store then you are simply limited to the number of customers who walk in to purchase whereas you can sell to anyone anywhere when you have an internet store.
A good example of how this gives your business such an edge is if you were looking for cheap BB guns for instance. An online search would quickly reveal that online retailers can offer keen prices and great delivery options. This is due in part to the fact that e-tailing often has lower costs than retailing which means that those savings can be passed on to customers who should be able to get a better deal on what they want than if they went into a shop on the high street.
High visibility
It is often easier to gain new customers and sell more of your products online in comparison to a traditional retail outlet if you can achieve high search engine visibility. The difference between physical and online retail is that the former is driven primarily by branding and relationships, whereas the latter is mainly driven by the traffic generated from search engines driving customers to your site.
One of the aspects of being online and using search engines to grow your business is that you will often find customers will follow a link in their search engine results and end up on an e-commerce site that they had previously not heard of, providing an additional source of customers which can be very lucrative.
Costs
Cost has to be considered as one of the most tangible benefits associated with e-commerce and the good news is that this will often mean that you can afford to offer discounted prices which are very attractive to customers but still enjoy a good profit margin.
Advertising is one of the key costs involved in e-tailing and you have to spend money making yourself as visible as possible, which can be achieved in a cost-effective way if you use social media and pay-per-click to generate traffic.
Personnel costs can often be lower as you often need fewer employees to satisfy orders due to the fact that a lot of the process can be automated up to the point of packaging and despatch. The other significant cost advantage is of course the fact that you can make substantial savings on your overheads if you do not have any physical retail premises costing you rent and rates.
Other advantages
With an e-commerce site customers can often find the product that they want with just a few clicks and if you do not have the physical limitations of a store to worry about, you can provide more detailed information and a greater range of items to browse than you could with limited physical retail space.
When you look at all the advantages offered by using e-commerce to drive your business forward it is easy to understand why more businesses than ever before are looking to climb aboard and enjoy the benefits.
Jon Armstrong is a sales and marketing consultant. He especially enjoys maximizing business opportunities in the modern economy.
