90% of users use search engines to find out about a product before going to a physical store, this makes that an online store not only serves you for selling products and services but also an online store is a catalog available to anyone who can see the merchandise that later they will find in the physical store.
Not all companies need to have an online store (sometimes it is enough to have a professional website) but if you want to dedicate yourself to electronic commerce there is no doubt that you need an online store. However, it is very common to find that many companies sell merchandise and still do not know the possibilities that the Internet puts at their disposal today.
How an online store benefits small businesses.
The goal is to sell fast online. That’s why it’s important to take care of your store’s web positioning. If you decide to start one, here are some of the advantages or benefits you can get:
a) You can have a global market at your disposal 24 hours a day: Unlike physical stores, you can sell wherever and whenever you want. You will win new customers from different parts of the world. You’ll make sales cycles faster. Pressing some buttons is simple and people don’t need to scroll a lot to buy from you.
b) You can reduce expenses: If necessary, you would not need a physical store. There are even ways that you don’t even need to have merchandise. As you see having an online store is very advantageous in every way for your business entrepreneurship.
Features of the online store.
An online store must have the following characteristics so that it can be useful:
Products: With its photographs, features, and prices. Ideally, they should be positioned and separated by categories or sections.
Payment Methods: It is desirable that all possible forms of payment be offered and even given the possibility of selling in other currencies to approximate a global market.
Shopping cart: Having a good and colorful shopping cart is essential to make sales happen faster and more securely.
User register: It is highly recommended for loyalty produced user systems. However, many companies that use virtual store creation software do not use them.
Ratings and comments: We are on web 2.0 and each product should offer the possibilities to comment, share on social networks and be valued and compared.
Attractive design: A good homepage and good attractive design are crucial to selling online. Having tools with “slider” or slides help sales a lot, also an adequate position of the products.
What is an online store for?
The design of an online store has important benefits for small and medium businesses in the short, medium and long term. Having an online store will already make it possible to increase the market share, since we reach a large number of distant customers in the space, regarding the physical situation in which we develop our activity. This is an immediate benefit. But there are other benefits no less interesting. In general, good design gives an attractive image of our business to users. The image we will project is that of a serious and modern company.
Adapted to changes and new technologies.
Likewise, if its structure is consistent, it will facilitate the indexing of our Online store, to the extent that we will facilitate the work of the search engines. But there is more through an online store, it is possible to offer complete information about the products we sell and about the services we offer. Through photographs and videos, the client will have access to visual audio information. Through product descriptions, they will also contribute to search engine positioning through our online store. Third and last, any marketing company for the promotion of an online store is much cheaper than the promotion of a physical store.
This all is a great benefit, in terms of cost savings in advertising and promotion. Attracting customers on the Internet is very cheap, different studies around the world show that every day more people buy via the Internet either from their computers or from their mobile phones. The advantages it offers are so many that there are no reasons why not to try and position yourself on the web, and it is also an economic resource to increase the business. So don’t miss the opportunity to sell through your very own online store.
