[dropcap]A[/dropcap]s the digital marketplace continues to expand, this has many implications to small business. Some of the implications are exciting, like opening up a small business to a worldwide marketplace. Because it’s never been easier to learn how to create an online store with WordPress, the challenging and daunting issues are more manageable than ever.
Here are several ways the growth of e-commerce is changing the landscape for small business.
Ease of Fulfilment
WordPress has easy to use “plugins”. Plugins are like apps for web building. Within WordPress are e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce which all you to create a shop, shopping cart, checkout page, take payments and manage fulfilment. And, you don’t need to be a coding genius in order to set all of this up.
You simply install the plugin and WordPress does most of the rest. The plugin takes care of complicated things like taxes, shipping and can be used to set up customer contacts. Accounting becomes easier, because everything is automated and documented through the e-commerce program.
Grow Your Customer Base
Rarely can you get the owner of a small business to suggest they want to stay small. The aspirations are almost universally to grow a small business into a large one. A small business is usually limited to local customers. Even if your small business could supply global products and services, physical location can be limiting. However, with an e-commerce site, the world is your clientele and your challenges become getting your name out into the world, not moving your store.
This becomes especially true due to digital formatting which allows you to standardize your prices, take care of taxes and shipping and know the built-in costs of all of it. No surprises which can thin out your profit margins.
Operate Anywhere
There was a time when the best bet for the success of a small business was determined by its location. In a digital world, location is become all but irrelevant. Unlike most small businesses, an ecommerce store can exist anywhere. You can set up shop on an island and as long as you have working internet and access to shipping.
Why not operate while swinging in a hammock with your toes dragging the sand? Obviously, it will be more expensive to ship from some locations, but there is no reason your business can’t function from any modern location.
Targeting Audience Via Digital Marketing
The digital word provides us many things, including digital footprints. What we do online can be tracked, not necessarily in an Orwellian way, but via “metadata”. Using analytics and digital marketing agency techniques allows e-commerce sites to target online shoppers who are most likely receptive to their business models.
Instead of trying to find a storefront in a favorable location to attract foot traffic, an e-commerce store must find consumers online, but that means customers of various profiles from all over the world. Analytics help you make sure your message is well received and has the desired effect: increase sales.
Niche Market for Local Merchants
As industries like SEO (Search Engine Optimization) have become sophisticated to such a degree they can grow an ecommerce business’ presence for local merchants. Search engines now use algorithms which better reflect old phone books, particularly the Yellow Pages, where local businesses rise to the front of the search pages.
Having an online business helps get your store become findable in searches. If you are findable in searches, it is the modern equivalent to having an advertisement in the old Yellow Pages. Plucky customers might look with a magnifying glass for other listings, but the ones that stand out get the most use.
Customers Are Better Informed
Because customers are not limited to items offered inside of a building, they have access to more information and are therefore better informed. By creating an online store, you have the opportunity to use your store as a place for information.
Customers can learn, in real time, about the products they are shopping for and the more information you provide, the more loyalty you can create with your customers. And loyal customers are valuable. Not only do they buy from you, but it is expensive to generate new customers, making loyal customers that much more valuable.
Lower Overhead
Because an online store doesn’t require heating, air conditioning, lighting, water, and other utilities, it has lower overhead than a physical store. Additionally, an e-commerce store requires fewer employees, no rent or lease payments and can run around the clock every day without wasting money on all that is required in a physical store.
These things make an e-commerce site attractive. Your store can attract customers from around the world, fulfill worldwide orders from anywhere and with lower overhead. And every dollar you don’t have to spend on your business, to borrow from Ben Franklin, is a dollar earned.
Conclusion
E-commerce is not going away. The internet and ubiquitous access is making online stores a necessity as well as an opportunity. The easy access to e-commerce technology that makes having an online store easy forces the question, why isn’t your small business online? The continued growth of e-commerce has many implications to small business. Mostly, it means that small business has access to the worldwide marketplace if they are willing to enter it.
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