What is eCommerce in business and how can you maximise the potential at the least possible cost and sell a bundle of product?
Let's start by defining eCommerce
eCommerce software is the engine behind the scenes of an online store, making it possible to easily manage inventory, add or remove products, calculate taxes, and everything else required to manage a website and fulfill orders.
In short it is your online store.
This year of the intrusion into our lives of Covid-19 has seen a rapid rise in home shopping where sales have risen so much that to not participate is like signing a go slow order.
13. 39% of consumers looked to emails from retailers for information on deals and promotions, and 38% used online search to find deals. (Source: National Retail Federation) 2020
They are outstanding figures for several reasons. They show that:
- You must have an online store
- Email marketing works really well
- Keyword use is necessary
- Newsletters will also work
You just cannot ignore stats that point you in a specific direction. Shopify one of the biggest suppliers recently posted that:
What is eCommerce in business and just how big is it?
$4.2 trillion
Global eCommerce sales are expected to top $4.2 trillion USD in 2020 and reach more than $6.5 trillion by 2023. More than 2.1 billion shoppers are expected to purchase goods and services online by 2021
Shopify
Have you got the message yet?
There are many ways of killing this cat and certainly one that will suit you.
- You can host locally using an online provider or
- Use a SaaS provider to do it for you. (Software as a service)
The answer probably depends on the size of the business and the involvement you want.
However don't be mislead, this takes a lot of setting up and maintenance on a daily basis but the results will be worth while.
My Daughter bought a fixed clothing business with main street frontage. The first chore was to do an online store so that customers could see what was available and even order online.
It had to be tied into the order program and sales dockets. It has improved her business greatly and she has had orders from far and wide.
What is eCommerce in business and setting up a store.
How to set up online stores
First of all you can get someone to do it for you. There are many SaaS providers that would love to take your money and deliver results in the form of additional sales. Or perhaps you want to do it yourself.
The internet world has both WordPress websites and a range of code driven sites.
The most well known is Shopify a site that is reasonably priced however the addons can get you.
The WordPress world has Woocommerce a plug in that sets up the shopfront for free until you start wanting performance.
WooCommerce is a flexible, open-source commerce solution built on WordPress. The company started in 2008 as WooThemes and in 2017 decided to focus exclusively on eCommerce. Today, WooCommerce empowers small and medium businesses to build exactly the store they want and sell online.
With any of these they will be time consuming to set up but on automation when in full service. Buyers will see style, pricing, stock levels, delivery instructions and anything else you want.
Finally you are building a new part of your business, a side that will stand alone if you wish to walk away from bricks and Mortar.
How to start your online store
First of all choose a method to use. I follow with a list of applications you can try .
- Shopify for getting up and running quickly
- Square for selling in-person and online
- Selz for a full-featured drag-and-drop store builder
- OpenCart for total customization
- BigCommerce for access to multiple storefronts on one platform
- Gumroad for selling digital products
- 3dcart for built-in marketing and management features
- Big Cartel for smaller stores with custom products
- WooCommerce for adding a shopping cart to an existing WordPress site
- PrestaShop for a free platform
- E-junkie for selling across multiple platforms
- Ecwid for selling on social media
- Wix for simultaneously creating a store and a blog
Secondly use a standard WordPress site Wealthy Affiliate get some training and build your own eCommerce site for a very low outgoing cost and even lower maintenance costs.
Both are very comparable however a hosting and Woocommerce plugin will be considerably cheaper.
If you currently have a WordPress site then Woocommerce is the answer
Over one third of all shop sites currently use woocommerce on WordPress mostly based on price and ability.
Online shopping is exploding so it is time to start exploring and increasing your market and keeping competitors at bay.
By clicking above you can get free access to websites and training that will take your journey forward quickly to better results.
Conclusion
This is not on the nice list. It is on the have to do today list as the first item of the day. Then every day until you are finished.
The world has changed and online shopping has taken over as people find buying so much easier from an armchair. Social distancing aside it provides pricing advantages not seen before.
You can 10 X your business without many extra costs providing substantial income generation.
eCommerce is a product of today.
Be there.
