For traditional bricks and mortar retail shops, a move to selling their products online can be a brilliant opportunity. Let’s look at 10 Reasons to Convert Your Retail Business Into Ecommerce.
There are many reasons why existing retail businesses hold a significant advantage online over new start-ups.
We’ve compiled our top 10 reasons your retail business is perfect for an Online store.
10 Reasons to Convert Your Retail Business Into Ecommerce
- Proven Products = Lower Risk
- Existing Infrastructure
- Understand Inventory
- Established reputation
- Physical Presence
- Supply Chain
- Real customer service
- Available for Pick Up
- Your customers are already online
- The Technology is here
Here are our 10 reasons your retail business is perfect for an Online store.
10 reasons your retail business is perfect for an Online store
1. Proven Products = Lower Risk
This may be stating the obvious, but your products really are the key to a successful e-commerce store.
As an existing business, you already have products that people desire and at prices, they are happy to pay.
In this simple way, established businesses have a substantial advantage over start-ups as they have an existing collection of proven products at their disposal.
What could be better than going to market with products you already know people love and are happy to spend their hard-earned cash on?
2. Existing Infrastructure
Running a retail business, you will already have all of the appropriate set-ups required such as:
- Business Registration, Set up & Agreements
- Banking, Merchant Bank Account and Bookkeeping system
- Insurance and Legals
Every brand new online store spends significant time and effort to ensure all of these are in place before they can start.
3. Understand Inventory
Understanding inventory is one of the biggest challenges facing new online store owners. Thinking of a product in terms of Item Number, Description, Quantity, Size, Cost etc can be a huge adjustment for new businesses.
Existing retail businesses that already are familiar with an inventory system find the transition to an online store much easier as they are simply replicating online what they are already doing in-store.
4. Established reputation
A business’s reputation is highly sought after and can take years to establish. If you are an owner of an existing business, your reputation is already established and hence the trust you get from online customers will be much higher.
5. Physical Presence
Don’t underestimate the value of the physical presence your shop holds. Having a physical presence not only gives you a boost in advertising your brand awareness to passers-by, but it also increases the credibility of your business online. People take peace of mind knowing that an actual store does exist, should they wish to pop in.
6. Supply Chain
Establishing a reliable supply chain can take months of even years to acquire. New businesses often experiment with numerous suppliers in the lead-up to their online store. Much disappointment can be avoided by having the right suppliers, so this again is a huge benefit for existing businesses.
7. Real customer service
Customer service is another area that physical stores can excel in. By running an actual store you can handle customer support enquiries on the spot by your staff. Frustrations from potential buyers who get no response from customer service can lead to missed online sales. This is a huge opportunity for stores.
8. Available for Pick Up
Not many online stores give customers the ability to Local Pick up of bulk goods. By having a physical presence you can easily provide your customers with the ability to pick up their goods in-store for convenience or to save on shipping. This can be a great advantage over online stores that do not offer this as an option.
9. Your customers are already online
Shopping online is the future of shopping and it is here to stay. Your customers are already shopping online, so you might as well join them by providing your goods to them in the most convenient manner possible.
10. The Technology is here
Lastly but certainly not least, this is probably where things have really ramped up in the last 5 years. Technology such as WordPress, Pay Pal and Woo Commerce has allowed businesses of all shapes and sizes to sell online quickly and effectively.
As you can see, there really are so many compelling reasons for traditional bricks and-mortar retail shops to embrace technology and start selling online. What is there to lose?
Take your online store business to the next level with a Pixel Fish Ecommerce Website.
Check out some of our latest Ecommerce Website Design projects.
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