Why ecommerce must be a part of your retail strategy

 For retailers who have no online ecommerce presence, they are missing out on the ability to draw in new customers on a daily basis. Ecommerce is here to stay and the recent research indicates that it is growing by ten percent a year here in the U.S. and nearly twenty percent a year internationally. Here are just a few things you need to know about ecommerce and how it will expand your bottom line.

Benefits and costs for everyone

For potential customers, your ecommerce presence is what they want. The benefits of online shopping include money and time saved and Gen Y and the Millennials do more of it than anyone else. If this is a target demographic for you, you must have an ecommerce presence or you will just be sending them to your rivals. It helps you as a retailer to stay even with your competition and provide opportunities to do things better than them.

Gain new customers and cut operating costs

An ecommerce presence allows you to attract customers who might otherwise never walk into your store. You have the opportinity to pick up new traffic from the search engines that you might otherwise not attract into your retail location. Your operating costs for your online store will be almost nothing. It is based online and saves on the costs and overhead you have at your physical location. Who couldn’t use more customers and some extra profit?

Target your brand and provide more value

Online ecommerce allows you to bring added value to your potential customers by providing them with more information than they would normally get at a retail location. You don’t need staff on the floor and the information can be more detailed. In addition, your data can determine all sorts of things from when they like to shop to what products they are most likely to be interested in and buy. As your site grows, and your keywords expand, they will be picked up and indexed by the search engines and thus improve your overall rankings.

Ecommerce has become an intricate tool and strategy for today’s retail operations. It helps you identify new customers, boost your online brand awareness and make conversions you might otherwise not be able to do at your retail location.

-Written by Kevin Sawyer