In an increasingly connected world, the growing influence of e-commerce is undeniable. Consumers are adapting their lives to keep pace with digital advances. Although demand for online stores is growing, you can still meet business owners who completely rely on Desktop versions, ignoring their clients’ preferences. Here are seven reasons why your company needs an e-commerce website now.
1. Communicate 24/7/36
Your website will work for you as an online catalogue as well as a store. Do you remember the feeling when the market had only been closed for five minutes, but you couldn’t even take a quick look inside? Well, this is not an issue anymore - quickly update the information on your site and your customers will be aware of new arrivals, campaigns, discounts, special offers and other valuable information.
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2. Respect your customers privacy
At a time when e-commerce can offer a highly personal shopping experience, customers are taking full control of their acquisitions. Online technology, combined with the ease of mobile connectivity, allows people to make informed decisions on their purchases in real time.
3. Expand your reach
With an e-commerce website you can significantly expand your reach. However, there are still questions about what is the most profitable business model (home delivery, drive and collect, click and collect, etc.), so you should prepare a plan and implement A/B tests to find which is the right one for you and your customers.
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4. Increase your advertising effectiveness
While corporations spend millions on distributing brochures and taking part in expensive exhibitions, you can skip all that by having a responsive e-commerce site. Your potential clients will easily find your offers online. Work on your site’s visibility - consider SEO and online marketing tools. Remember: campaign results are fully measurable.
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5. Get found
While many consumers are becoming more optimistic about their economic prospects, most of them are still looking for less expensive brands, and it’s no secret that most searches start with Google. From a consumer demand point of view, a strong driver of online sales growth is the need to save consumers time and shop right away.
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6. Sell now
According to research by Google and Nielsen, we are much more impulsive when it comes to purchases via mobile search than we are using desktop. Within one hour of validation, 55% of consumers makes a purchase.
As many as 83% make a purchase within the next 24 hours.
More than half of the mobile audience visits websites on their phone, and then confirms/validates their product research or brand elsewhere.
7. Crush your competition
Consumers are habitual, and as technology enhances our lives, we are making more and more purchases based on our buying history.
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In conclusion
Mobile searches are becoming even more popular than ‘traditional’ browsing, especially when it comes to the key parts of decision-making: Awareness, Research, Validation, Intent and Purchase. So now you have the choice – pay attention to your customers’ habits to give them more chances to find your products, or ignore them and plug away with printed brochures and meetings.