With the current rise in online purchases, it’s easy to get left behind if you haven’t embraced eCommerce selling. Setting up an eCommerce website isn’t as scary as you might think, and will help increase sales and bring your products to customers old and new. It’s an important part of your marketing strategy and will allow you to reach a wider market.
1 Recent eCommerce solutions make it easy
While there are many DIY options, they have serious limitations, especially if you’re not technical or just don’t have the time to set up and manage them. 10+ years ago, eCommerce was a hassle to set up. Now though, we generally use WooCommerce to build our eCommerce sites as we’ve found it to be the best fit for our clients 9 times out of 10. It’s robust, reliable, easy to use, straightforward, and its functionality suits most businesses. It is also easy to personalise and make it your own. It offers a wide selection of secure payment gateways for extra peace of mind for you and your customers. All of our sites are fully GDPR compliant, with an SSL certificate for online security.
2 Re-marketing
Having an eCommerce store is not just about the immediate sale. Once you have a customer you can reach out to them in the future. Whether you want to market directly to people who’ve bought from your site or those who left before making a purchase by means of Facebook Pixel, Google Ads or other integrated solutions.
You have a ready-made email list to use for promoting your products and services, can share offers and promotions, and share relevant information and news. You can even send out follow-up emails checking they were happy with their purchase, and asking for reviews.
3 Helps you to expand your customer base and grow your brand
Having an online presence helps you to get your brand out to a bigger geographical audience, reaching further than a local business could hope to. It strengthens your place in the market and brings immediate recognition between your products and your brand.
4 Your business is available 24/7
An online store isn’t limited to standard opening hours so your products are available round the clock for immediate ordering. This appeals to people’s need for instant gratification; most online shoppers want to search for products and order them there and then. Being open all day, every day means you won’t lose out on sales to your competitors who do have an online shop.
5 Social media can be used to drive traffic
With the increase in social media use it’s much easier to drive traffic to your website with a carefully thought out marketing campaign. Being able to buy your products online is a great hook to drive traffic to your website, which in turn increases the engagement you have with your customers. Posting useful content on your social media platforms, with clear calls to action ‘Buy Now’ and ‘Available in our online shop’ will make people more likely to buy.
6 You can influence purchases
Having an online shop allows you to do some sneaky influencing once you’ve got people through the ‘door’. With the use of ‘related products’, ‘people who bought this also bought…’ and ‘staff picks’ or ‘products of the month’ it’s possible to draw attention to your other products, which your website visitors may not have previously been interested in or been aware that you sold.
Conclusion
If you aren’t selling your products online, you’re likely losing a huge chunk of the market to your competitors. The initial investment needn’t be huge, and will bring dividends and help you reach people who want to buy what you are selling. A well designed and built eCommerce website could be the difference between sinking or swimming in the current market.
Get in touch to discuss your requirements, or if you have no idea where to start, and we’ll help you get the best website for your needs. We’re always here to help, so if you have any problems we won’t leave you high and dry.
Email [email protected] – or call 01964 542916 for a chat and a no-obligation quote.