E-commerce website provides an opportunity to company/businesses to post their products or information about their products and services to their customers 24 hours a day. It enhances the presence of the company on social media platforms and also increases potential customers. Many customers prefer to buy online to save the time, so, this is a great advantage for brands to generate their revenue by posting their products online on their e-commerce website.
With the help of an E-commerce website, people can buy products online; they have certain options to select the products online as per their need and want. The customers can pay the amount via credit card or any available option on the website. The customers can put their desired products into shopping cart, make payments and ensure the deliveries of desired products through website.
On an e-commerce website a customer can buy gifts for family and friends and can use shopping cart to select desired products. Almost everything is available on internet; the customers/netizens just visit on online websites, choose their products and make online payments. Sometimes, it also happens when customer’s order got delayed due to some reasons, or the product does not reach at proper address. In this regard, customers can make a complaint at the ‘goods return’ section. So, the company ensures the delivery of the products at customer’s doorstep.
On an E-commerce website the customers can post their comments and give their feedback regarding products & services. This feedback helps the owner of the company to bring improvement in their products or services in longer run and to build strong customer relationship. Therefore, in today’s digital era, E-commerce development is very important especially in competitive environment. The benefits of E-commerce website are as under;
- It Overcomes the Geographical Limitations.
If you have a business which does not have online presence and only have physical location than it would be limited by the geographical area where you can provide your services. But with the help of an e-commerce website you can target everyone beyond the boundaries. Moreover, the compatible e-commerce website on mobile devices has also brought revolution to eliminate the limitations of geography.
- New Customers Can Come Through Search Engine Visibility.
If you have a physical store than you need to drive it through branding & relationships. Whereas if you are online you must need another important driver along with these two drivers, that is to create and bring traffic from search engines. Because, it is not unusual for customers/consumers to follow a link in search engine results and land on e-commerce website, which customers never heard of. So, to enhance and bring traffic on e-commerce website is very essential and requires technical expertise of digital marketer or social media team either in-house or outsourced.
- Minimize the Cost.
One of the best & positive advantages of e-commerce website is that it can be made in lower cost as per the need and want of a client/business. The benefits from the part of this could be passed to customers in form of discounted prices; hence, other costs can be reduced.
- Advertising & Marketing: SEO, SEM, PPC & Social media traffic are some of the online advertising channels that can be cost effective.
- Personnel: Checkout, billing, payments, inventory management, and other operational processes reduce the number of employees required to run the e-commerce setup or businesses of your organization.
- Real Estate: A business/entrepreneur that provides products or services online with the help of an e-commerce website does not need a prominent physical location.
- Quick Selection of Products.
On an E-commerce website, the customers can select the products or services as per their requirements. They can click through intuitive navigation and can use a search box to narrow down their products search immediately. Many websites remember customer’s preferences and also shopping lists to facilitate them for their repeat purchase.
- Eliminate Customer’s Travel & Cost.
The customers/consumers do not require visiting physically to any store/business that has their online presence/website. It allows customers to place their orders online and can easily access the store/business virtually with just a mouse click.
- Provide Trade-Off & Comparison Shopping.
In the current digital era, the customers have the advantage to go online and select the company, visit their websites and search desired products/services. The internet provides multiple e-commerce websites to customers to choose their best products and services on reasonable prices as per their budget. The customers can compare products & prices and make buying decisions accordingly.
- Provide Huge Information.
There is a limitation of the information regarding products or services which a company intends to provide to any customer/consumer. It is physically displayed in the premises of a store/shop. It is very difficult and expensive for a company to equip employees to respond to the quires of the customers who need information about the products/services. E-commerce websites can do it and make additional information available to its customers/consumers.
- Make Targeted Communication.
All the information is received by the owner/company, when a customer visits the E-commerce website and fills the form by placing his/her order. The cookies of the computer store the data which is accessible to the merchant/businesses that get the information and utilize it to build the relationships with customers and retain it for future market offerings, promotions.
The companies/businesses can easily communicate with customers via email, messages. For example; if you search for a certain product on alibab.com, you will be automatically shown listings of other similar products. Moreover, alibab.com may also email you related products.
- Remain Open All the Time 24/7.
E-commerce websites are open for 24/7. The customer/consumers can visit on E-commerce website anytime and place their orders. The online business provides flexibility to the owner/company to receive many orders. So, we can say that from owners’ point of view ‘There comes number of orders’ and from customer’s point of view ‘It is always open’, and is more convenient for online customers/buyers.
