15 Oct E-Commerce: How to Make Merchandise Fly off Your Virtual Shelf
The art of selling things is very, very old and has changed over the course of human history. Almost every major communication and news distribution advancement has influenced the way we conduct business and changed the style of trade and marketing. It is simple; finding new ways of selling products is a primary concern for people in our current society. Everybody needs to sell something from time to time and of course we need to buy things on a daily basis.
With new technological advancements, new styles of selling things have popped up. That’s why we have phone sales, television sales and so on. The latest thing when it comes to commerce is e-commerce or the use of the Internet to promote and sell goods. This is a very versatile way of moving products since the web offers a lot of flexibility when it comes to merchandise presentation, information and promotion. As with all the new technological advancements, we have new options at hand and of course better accessibility.
Wide customer access and worldwide availability
These days, almost every electronic device has access to the Internet be it a PC, a laptop, a phone, a tablet, a TV, a fridge or a stove. Now I’m not saying people use their stoves to shop online but customers can literally browse your goods and buy things while, for example sitting on the toilet. It might sound funny but if you play your cards right, you can expand your customer base greatly. The reality of things is that you can establish a shop which is open for browsing 24/7 and where people can place an order at any time without the need to communicate with a store clerk. You can also offer your product to people all around the globe without having a physical presence in the majority of countries. Wi-Fi is available almost anywhere so people can even order thing while on vacation or while commuting from work or sitting in the park. If done right, you can even make your e-shop your primary revenue due to the fact that you are not limited by your shops location or the local competition. It is a known fact that it is very hard to get people to buy products in your shop if there are local shops that people are used to shopping in. The force of habit is very difficult to tackle with. You will have to lower your prices, offer frequent discounts and function basically with no income until you feel that you have gained the trust of the local customers. It is also very important to have a stable website which is always going to be online.
Cost efficiency
The price of opening and maintaining a real, physical shop as opposed to an e-shop is ridicules. If you are having problems of gathering funds to physically expand your shop to another town, it might be a smart move for you to go for an e-commerce solution. You will manage to bring more income in and expand your customer circle. You can avoid the need to pay rent for the physical space; you will also pay less for workers, since you will need fewer employees to manage the shop. Designing and setting up a web shop also takes a lot less time than doing the same thing with a real shop.
How to set up your E-Shop
First of all, you will need a website – this is pretty much obvious. If you already have a website, it needs to be modified to adapt to this new function. This isn’t something that you can tackle by yourself if you don’t have a lot of experience with web design. Hiring a good and experienced web design and SEO team can help you avoid a lot of problems with faulty website functions.
The thing most people don’t understand is that word on the web travels very fast and if you open an e-shop that doesn’t function properly from the very start, you will lose a lot of credibility and a lot of money. Getting your customers to trust you again is a lot harder than getting them to visit your site for the first time. Also, your e-shop needs to be designed in such a way that it meets the needs of your customers, depending on the goods you are selling. A well designed website will help you get better conversion rates (this basically means to convert as many visits into sales as possible) since most people tend to leave a website within a matter of seconds if they can’t find the thing they are looking for within this time frame.
Establishing a community of customers that trusts your website and shops there regularly can help you a great deal since you will get quality feedback and free social network marketing. These customers can help you upgrade and develop your e-shop to meet the requirements of your customers and increase your sales further.
SEO, Marketing and E-Marketing
Setting up your website so that it is highly ranked on all search engines is no small feat. This is a thing better left to trained professionals who have experience in this kind of work. Managing to get your site to rank as a highly relevant result for a search that includes the sale of a certain type of product is crucial since it will help you get customers who have never heard of your company and people tend to trust the first page of search engine results.
While you are advertising your physical shop through more common media like TV, newspaper and so on, it is a good idea to promote your website as a part of your services offer and through that, raise the number of visits on your website. Doing the opposite is also a good idea.
Good SEO teams will also help you with e-marketing through guest blogging, blogging, social network advertising and so on. You can also try getting some sort of funding if you present your project as a startup. In this situation it is necessary to have a good plan to have a successful startup campaign. Building a name for your company is always a good thing and no media platform offers more room for this than the Internet.
