First of all, let’s explain a little bit about what ecommerce websites do in general.
An ecommerce website is a website that markets its products through an online store, this is great for businessmen who are seeking to expand their products’ existence in the market and make their services more renown to the public. Branding a product through an online store is becoming an ever growing trend due to the many benefits it offers.
Today, users are able to purchase almost “anything” online (yes, I mean anything), even today’s meal!
So I guess we can all imagine what fantastic benefits ecommerce websites has, and still is, providing for people around the world!
Let’s name a few of the “advantages” we can enjoy with online purchasing:
Yes, it’s so much easier to sit down and browse a shop rather than actually going to a shopping center and exerting too much energy. Why not just buy a whole trolley-full of stuff with just a few clicks? Phew, the saved time and effort!
With an ecommerce website, you’ll have a better chance at “monitoring” your customers’ purchase habits and interests hence, supplying them with products that meet their demands. This will allow you to build lasting relationships with leads and customers resulting in a more engaging website that would eventually drive traffic towards your online store.
It’s easy to say that online stores never close, they’re always open and busy. This in turn, increases the income of the company running that site as more products will be sold a day.
Most, if not all online stores ship worldwide, or at least to other countries besides their own. This is a definite advantage, as you’re not only selling products around the clock, but you’re also selling them around the world!
Cutting Costs!
Ecommerce websites help your company reduce costs, how?
1.Staff: Not as many staff members are required to run an online store due to the complete automation of payment and inventory management.
2.Reducing travel costs: With a one click purchase you can enjoy with an online store, you won’t have to travel long distances to reach desired stores and markets.
3.No commercials needed: You won’t have to pay for product advertisements. Ecommerce websites just need a description of the product you are marketing.
Hard to believe that there are any disadvantages for ecommerce websites after listing down all the cool things you can enjoy if you’re running an online store, but yes, we all have our “dark side”:
There have been lots of cases where a certain product gets “damaged” on the way. Now if that happens, most retailers have to return the product and price. Other cases have happened where the customer may claim they never received the product at all. Now in both situations, you can never really know if the product was damaged “on the way”, or if the customer really didn’t receive the package in the first place…
Another trust issue lies in the fact that anyone is authorized to set up an ecommerce website. This could result in many mishaps and reliability issues restricting customers to only purchase from renown online stores.
When purchasing a product from an ecommerce website, you must provide some personal information your credit card number and mailing address. This could sometimes result in disasters such as credit card fraud or identity theft!
Although you could in fact warn a friend about a certain shop around the corner if you have experienced any bad situations. However, with an online store, reviews are open for the world to see! One bad feedback (depending on what it is) could do you a lot of harm.
When purchasing a product from an online store, you can’t really see its “quality”, say you’re buying a top, how can you see if its fabric is worth its price, how would you know if it is damaged? You’ll have to depend on your luck if you don’t actually know the retailer, especially if it says “no returns!”
So with a good overview on what you will be benefitting from as well as what you should look out for, it would be safe to say that building strong and friendly relationships with customers and people around you will boost the advantage of running a great ecommerce website built on trust and reliability, because that my friend, is what will get you, on day, selling like eBay…Good luck!
