Traditional-ecommerce

With the rise of technology in the 21st century, doing business online has become easier.  Traditional offices are still around but more business people are choosing e-commerce instead of setting up physical office space.  Even some major corporations are downsizing their business in favor of online businesses.  Here are the benefits of e-commerce over physical office spaces:

24/7 Availability

24x7-Online

Physical offices are limited by their opening and closing times.  Employees work only on certain times of the day.  More employees equal more expenses.  E-commerce stores are always open round the clock.  As long as your website and online shopping system works, customers can send their orders online.

Wider Audience

Reaching out to an online market increases your visibility and expands your target audience.  If you have an idea for a new product but the local market is not interested in it, you can find a market in other parts of the world.  You can reach out to niche markets with highly specialized interests even if your potential clients are scattered around the country or world.  You are not restricted to your local area.With e-commerce, the sky’s the limit as far as clients are concerned 

Cost Reduction

Setting up your own online business is relatively cheap compared to renting physical office space.  You do not have to store your inventory in your home’s warehouse.  You do not even have to ship products into your own home.  All you need is to pay for website hosting and online software called “shopping carts” for taking customers’ orders.  You can set up your own shopping cart, but you need technical knowledge about websites to do so.

cost-savings

You can reduce costs by advertising your business on Multiply and Facebook instead of paying for billboards and newspaper ads.  As long as you know how to target clients and put in some time for marketing, you can promote your business online.  You can also use search engine optimization tools to write fresh content on your website to increase the number of visitors on your website.

Another way of reducing costs is by having a small business phone in case customers have questions that they want to ask you in person.  Unlike physical stores that need fancy phones for connecting to different departments, you can simply use a mobile phone or landline for your communication needs.

Most importantly, you do not need to hire employees to process orders immediately.  Most shopping carts have basic order management systems that are automatic or that allow individuals to process their orders manually.

More Available Data on Customer Behavior

All merchants must have the ability to analyze their customers’ shopping habits to find out which products sell or what the sales volumes are for different times of the year. This means gathering the right data for analysis.

Physical offices need to track their purchases manually, which is time-consuming for both the owner and the employees.  In contrast, e-commerce stores use tools that automatically receive information every time a customer purchases something from the store.  Some of the data that can be analyzed include:

–          Frequency of customer orders

–          Which product is sold frequently and what times and days they are purchased

–          Times of the day with the heaviest and lightest traffic

–          Revenue generated by each product

Author’s Bio: Henry Conrad is a 29-year-old game developer from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Aside from gaming and being a tech junky, he also dabbles in creative writing, which allows him to create great storylines and backgrounds for his characters. Follow me on Twitter and join me in Google +

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