Have you been thinking about selling your products online?
E-Commerce websites have become largely popular over the time. There are a number of significant benefits to having a website with shopping cart.
Benefits of an e-commerce website:
Your shop is always open
By having an e-commerce website, your store is effectively open 24/7. You are able to sell products even when you sleep. Many customers do their research online before making a purchasing decision and a lot of this happens during evening hours. By giving your customers the opportunity to purchase your product there and then, you’ll have a huge advantage over your competitors who don’t have a website with shopping cart.
You can sell outside of your region
One of the biggest benefits of e-commerce website is that it will vastly expand your reach. It will enable you to sell your products outside of your region, potentially to the whole world. With physical products the main limiting factor could be the shipping cost. On the other hand if you have unique enough product, customers would gladly pay more for overseas shipping. With digital (downloadable) products, there are no delivery charges so selling e-books, software, training manuals, videos or songs is a piece of cake.
Better SEO
Larger websites usually tend to perform better in search engines. It has been proven that Businesses who’s website has more than 300 indexed pages in Google generate over 200% more leads than businesses with fewer than 300 indexed pages. Because every product generates at least one page on a website and your product description contains your relevant keywords, e-commerce websites are easier to find, than just a small static websites.
Increased credibility
According to a research by WebCredibility.org, offering e-commerce functionality on your web site means it will be perceived as more credible by internet surfers.
Better connection with your customers
Satisfied customers tend to come back. By having an option for purchasing online, people will have a reason to come back to your website and it will be easier for you to connect with your customers via email newsletters, product updates and social media.
Things to consider:
Ongoing maintenance and updates
One thing to consider before rushing to your favourite web developer are the cost associated with having an e-commerce website. While the biggest cost is in building the actual website, there is some ongoing cost involved as well.
Apart from the web hosting (say $20 / month) and domain name registration ($40 / year), there are the credit card fees (usually 1.5% - 3.5% of a transaction) and secure SSL certificate ($100 / year). These are not big charges - all up it’s less than $35 / month, but the biggest investment in maintaining the website will be your time.
You’ll need to keep an eye on the website, process the incoming orders and update your products when the specifications change. Your e-commerce website should make this easy for you by giving you an option to track stock levels, generate invoices and packing slips for processed orders and automatically notify customers of any changes to their order.
Packaging and Shipping charges
It should be easy for you to deliver your product to the customer across the country. This is why e-commerce is great for anyone selling small size products.
While an online shop is ideal for selling books, electronics and home made soap, selling a hot tub or a buldozer would involve some hefty shipping charge.
Check with your local post or courier company on the average delivery fees to different regions. You can also setup your shop to calculate delivery charge based on the final weight of the product so you don’t loose money on shipping.
So when does it make sense to sell products online?
If you have a product that you can easily deliver (either by post or digital download) then selling it online via e-commerce website is something worth considering. Setting up a website with shopping cart doesn’t have to cost you arm and a leg and if it’s done right, you could easily get your return on investment back within the first six months. After that it’s all profit!
Your website may very well be the most powerful marketing tool at your disposal. Not only it is your point of contact on the web and the place for your clients and prospects to find out information, but your website also has a huge impact on your prospects’ purchase decision. In fact a whopping 97% of the 200 surveyed buyers—from companies of all sizes—say a provider’s website has an influence on their ultimate purchase decision.