Here at drumBEAT we’re proud to say we’ve helped multiple clients across the globe achieve sales results beyond their expectations. Using our expertise to create powerful ecommerce stores has been some of our favourite projects. From the design of the site to the SEO and PPC behind the scenes, ecommerce stores are exciting and rewarding for the team here as well as the owners themselves.
Here’s why we think ecommerce stores powerful and here to stay:
Smaller costs than a physical store
An appealing benefit to ecommerce stores are the low start-up costs. Physical retail stores can cost thousands to get off the ground and then to rent thereafter. As well as the building, there’s things like signs, flooring, decoration, equipment and more things that crop up throughout the process. With a store come staff too, their wages are another element to cost.
Ecommerce stores often entail a virtual rent, however it’s a fraction of the cost of a physical store. Shopify and Oberlo are just a couple of examples of excellent ecommerce platforms with hosting, free themes and other benefits. Where employees are concerned, only when you reach a certain level in your business will you need to begin hiring staff. In place of a shopfront sign you can get a logo designed for a fraction of the cost.
For new businesses and entrepreneurs, ecommerce store costs are often an attractive idea.
No closing hours
An ecommerce store can take orders at any time. This is convenient for everybody, whether they work 9-5, night shifts or generally leave things til last minute and need a late night fix to their forgotten gifts.
Using Facebook ads, you can attract people at whatever time you want. Whether it’s 2am or 11:00pm. Ecommerce stores can appeal to a range of target audiences depending on who you want that to be.
No location limit
Whether it’s clients in the US, in the UK, Europe or Asia. With options such as drop shipping, affordable shipping is easily accessible. By taking advantage of these options you’re able to competitively price your products.
Where a physical store would be primarily visited by people from the area it’s located in and the surrounding areas, an ecommerce store is open to custom from people across the globe.
Easily display your bestsellers
A physical store can be designed to show off products in a way which encourages people to buy them, this takes man power and effort. Finding bestsellers on an ecommerce store is instant, convenient and takes a fraction of the time to set up. You know your best sellers are received well by customers, that’s why they’re best sellers. That’s why you want them showcased to push towards future buyers. Don’t forget to include these products in your upsell strategy, your email marketing and retargeting efforts.
Affordable staff
Outsourcing to virtual assistants based in countries where the cost of living is lower makes for an affordable hiring strategy. Another benefit is that the volume of employees needed will be significantly lower for an ecommerce store. You don’t need people manning a physical store for the entirety of your opening hours and you don’t need somebody taking orders from customers. To start an ecommerce business there’s no need to have a group of employees when you begin, you can hire when the business is ready and can afford to do so.
Push impulse buys
Effective photography with clear, quality images is a great tool for encouraging people to buy products that they perhaps wouldn’t usually purchase. Human emotion, vibrancy and images in context are invaluable for ecommerce stores. They’re something that physical stores don’t have.
Have you ever been on a website and they’ve said there’s limited stock or a countdown on an offer? These are tactics that you can use on your ecommerce store to push visitors into making a purchase. In a physical store, people often get irritated by pushy shop assistants and can be put off buying. These tactics have the opposite effect on customers.
Automated retargeting / remarketing
Retargeted ads are one of the most profitable ecommerce benefits. By using a Facebook pixel, using Shoelace Shopify app to retarget your visitors who visit your store but don’t buy. There’s opportunity to target those who go the next step and fill their baskets but don’t complete the purchase. With an ecommerce store, it’s quick, easy and profitable. It’s much harder, if not almost impossible, to do with a physical store. If you manage to get their email address in an email store you can send offers but they’re often ignored.
After customers have completed a sale, which usually requires an email address, you can carry on marketing these people post-sale.
Customers know they aren’t going to be greeted by invasive sales workers
Have you ever been shopping and there’s overly pushy sales assistants trying to sell you everything in sight? With an ecommerce store customers can swerve that and receive a less invasive sales experience. With ecommerce, the option to contact the seller is there, there’s sometimes even a live chat option, but that’s at the choice of the buyer. One of the most appealing factors to ecommerce customers is the convenience and speed – they aren’t going to be slowed down by pushy promotions.
Quick and easy data analysis
Where, when, which products and customer demographics. All information that you as an ecommerce store can gain in a matter of minutes. In a physical store, some people may feel reluctant to hand over personal information such as post codes, phone numbers and email addresses. Whereas, with an online purchase this is standard procedure.
With this information and their permission, you have a number of ways in which to communicate with these people. Send marketing surveys, offer sign ups and other ways of marketing your business to them. Push that it’s to benefit them and they’ll engage with you easily.
Process more orders at once
In a physical store you can only process as many orders as your staff can get through at the till. With ecommerce stores you’re able to process multiple orders at once to keep your customers happy and gain as many sales as possible.
As your business grows, you have the option of hiring staff to process orders. With no waiting time, online shopping is becoming the nations favourite way to shop. On the customers timescale, no delays and multiple order processing – it’s a win for everybody.
Quick business scaling
From increasing ad budgets on successful ads to expanding the volume of your site. Ecommerce upscaling is quick and easy. With your physical store, upscaling requires change of premises which comes with extra costs, more staff with more wages and other costs to your premises. With an ecommerce store you’re able to add products to your website, create extra categories for new lines easily and for free.
Add a blog and you can grow business organically
A blog is a fantastic platform to organically grow traffic to your ecommerce store. The best part about it, it’s free. For a lot of physical stores they spend fortunes paying rent on stores in prime areas. You can write, publish and optimise a blog from anywhere with an internet connection, for free.
If you’re looking to build or improve an ecommerce store, don’t hesitate to get in touch witht the team!
Call us on 01427 808870
or
Email us at [email protected]
