1. Overcoming geographical limits
With a traditional store, we know you can offer your products and services only to potential customers located in the area that store covers (street, neighborhood, town). With an online store, the whole world is your playground. In addition, the development of m-commerce, i.e. e-business on mobile devices, has further reduced the importance of your store’s geographical location.
2. Search engine presence brings new customers
The main success factors for a traditional store are brand recognition and customer relationships. In online sales, in addition to these two factors, search engines also affect your business. It is not unusual to gain a customer who reached your website solely by following links and through internet searches. Such a customer had never even heard of you before, yet became your customer. This additional sales channel can be the turning point in deciding to start doing business online.
3. Lower costs
One of the most tangible benefits of selling online is lower costs. Part of the money saved this way can be passed on to customers by offering them discounts on purchases in your online store. Here are just some of the ways to save when selling online:
Advertising and marketing
Search engines, pay-per-click systems and social networks, through which customers find you, are just some of the marketing channels that can be extremely cost-effective.
Headcount
Automating ordering, invoicing, payments, inventory management and other operational processes reduces the number of employees needed to run an online business successfully.
Business premises
This needs no explanation. An e-commerce merchant does not have to bear the cost of business premises.
4. Easier product discovery
Well-built online stores intuitively guide customers toward the products they are interested in. On-site search reduces the time needed to find a product. Try comparing that with a traditional store. Some sites can remember customers’ preferences and needs, making shopping even easier. All of this usually leads to satisfied customers and repeat purchases.
5. No travel costs
It is not unusual for a customer to have to travel long distances to reach a particular store. E-commerce makes this journey virtual – the customer reaches the store in just a few mouse clicks.
6. Enables product comparison
E-commerce makes comparison shopping easier. There are several online services that let users browse multiple e-commerce merchants and find the best prices for a particular product.
7. Enables promotions, sales, coupons and group buying
Although promotions, sales and group buying have equivalents in traditional stores, they are much more convenient and easier when shopping online.
8. Allows extensive product information
There are limits to how much information about a product you can display in a traditional store. It is practically impossible to have enough staff to answer all customers’ questions about the products they might buy. An online store lets you publish a large amount of product information in a way customers can easily find and understand. Most of this information is provided by the manufacturer anyway, so the merchant has no additional costs for creating and maintaining product information. All of this makes it easier for customers to complete a purchase.
9. Creating targeted communication
Using data the customer provided during previous purchases or at registration, and by using cookies, an online merchant can access a wealth of important information about the customer. This in turn can be used for communication, by sending the customer relevant messages about products they are likely to be interested in. For example, if you search for a particular product on Amazon (Amazon.com), you will automatically be shown a list of similar products as well. Amazon will also probably offer to contact you if similar products go on sale.
10. Always open
Shopping hours today are no longer 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Today’s customer shops 24 hours a day / 7 days a week / 365 days a year. E-commerce never closes. From the merchant’s perspective, this increases sales, and from the customer’s perspective, being able to shop at any time of day is a significant advantage.
11. Creates a market for niche products
When it comes to niche and rare products, such as spare parts that are no longer manufactured, buyers and sellers can hardly find each other if they rely on traditional retail alone. Online, finding such products is just a matter of using a search engine.