If you’ve ever done online shopping, you must have evaluated the product by seeing the available product images. But what if you were presented with a poor-quality, blurry, static product image on the online store? Would you still buy the same product? The answer is a big NO. Unlike a visit to the traditional brick-and-mortar store, you don’t get the option to pick a product and assess its quality during online shopping.
You instead try to judge the product and its quality by seeing the product image. It would be an understatement to say that many online conversions result from uploading top-notch product images. If you own a relatively new or old eCommerce store and are struggling to generate sales, making changes in the product image quality can bring a huge difference.
While eCommerce store owners understand the importance of uploading top-quality images to their online store, many don’t know the best practices of doing it. It inadvertently hurts the bottom line. To help you improve your store’s user experience and boost online sales, we’ve curated this epic product image guide for eCommerce store owners. So let’s quickly go through the below-shared practical tips or settings that can get you visible results.
Tips for Improving Product Images for Your eCommerce Store
Upload a Product Image in all Available Colors
Instead of telling visitors that you offer a product in three more colors, show them the different available options with the help of images. Visualization helps people make better decisions than mere statements.
For example, if you sell luggage in different color variants, click an excellent product picture in all the available color ranges. The viewer should be able to see the product in the desired color he clicked on. This one change can bring a massive difference to your online sales.
Maintain a Balance Between Website Performance & Image File Size
Have you ever visited any online store whose catalog and product images took an extended time to load? If yes, you’re not alone. Various eCommerce stores are yet to optimize their product’s image size and website performance.
If image loading time and page loading time are not aligned, visitors can immediately leave the store for other better-performing sites. You should ask your SEO manager and website developer to work together with the product photographer to fix this problem. Together they can ensure the product image size and resolution are pitch-perfect.
When uploading the desired image file type, always store and upload product images in JPG format. This format is supported by many online store platforms, including WooCommerce, Shopify, etc.
Allow the Shopper to Zoom in & Zoom Out Without any Hassle
Irrespective of the product you’re selling online, it is crucial to allow the prospective customers to easily zoom in and zoom out by clicking on any part of the picture. This feature lets customers get a closer and relatively clear look of the product. If you’re into the clothing business, you can leverage this feature to your advantage.
Customers can get to zoom in and display any intricate design or detail that sets your product apart from others in the market, ultimately leading to increased sales. You can either check whether the platform you’re using to run the eCommerce store is offering this functionality or contact a web developer to do the needful.
Maintain Brand Consistency Throughout the Product Images
Branding is a crucial component that can make any brand appear more reliable than others. As a store owner, you wouldn’t want your website images to look like random picture pieces picked up from the internet. When it comes to product images, store owners can subtly include their brand style to exert the much-needed influence.
To maintain branding and consistency across all uploaded pictures, pay special attention to the lighting, product placement, background, modeling, etc., while clicking the picture. Inconsistency in product images can be distracting and can prevent store visitors from making a purchase. To impart a professional and more reliable feel to all the product images, always ask the concerned professional to abide by the brand guidelines.
Upload Pictures from All Viewing Angles
It might sound like a piece of cliché advice, but you’d be surprised to know that not many eCommerce stores have incorporated this into their website. When shopping online, people don’t get the benefit of picking a product in their hand and analyzing it from different angles. But you can fill in this gap by offering advanced, and high-resolution product images clicked from various angles.
When the same product is viewed from different angles, it highlights details that a static image or a specific angle fails to cover. It is why when you visit eCommerce giants like Amazon, Flipkart, eBay, etc., you get the option to view a product from different angles. It lets you know how big or small the product really is. It also enables you to gauge the product better.
If the product you’re selling has some unique details, don’t forget to highlight it by clicking pictures from relevant angles.
Customers Survey on improvement of the Product Images in E-Commerce Grocery
While product descriptions are essential for online shoppers, quality product images are equally important. According to a survey, approximately 75% of respondents said that product images are very influential and help them make a purchase decision. The same poll also disclosed how around 22% of respondents returned the purchased product because it looked very different from what it looked online in the product image.
Online shoppers want to see product images because it gives them proof of texture, color, shape, design, and more. Well-taken pictures instill a spark among potential buyers, inclining them towards a particular product. It also gives shoppers a clear idea of what they will get for the offered price. If you can provide this one thing that customers yearn for, you can definitely boost your online sales.
Your sales revenue gets boosted by bettering the Product Image Quality.
The necessity of having high-resolution and quality product images on an online store cannot be emphasized enough. In today’s age, a lot depends on how products look and feel. With eCommerce players doubling down on product imagery and visual content, you cannot take the risk of being left behind. If you have uploaded multiple good-quality pictures of every product to woo your visitors but still aren’t getting impressive results, try adopting the tips shared in the guide.
After analyzing various eCommerce stores across different niches, it has been found that stores offering the best product imagery content perform better than the rest. This guide suggests some of the best and most practical tips that have the potential to skyrocket your online sales, so give them a try for visible results.
FAQs
Which image format is best for eCommerce websites?
JPEG and PNG image format is the best for eCommerce websites.
What size should WooCommerce product images be?
The recommended size of WooCommerce product images is 800×800 pixels.
What size should Shopify product images be?
Shopify recommended product image size is 2048 x 2048 pixels.
What is the best image size for online?
The optimal file size for images on an eCommerce website should be less than 200 KB.
Selling your products online can be the most-effective way to reach out to a wider audience and increase awareness of your brand. Need not to say this can help you boost your sales severalfold.
As per records, 61% of the customers agreed that they made more purchases online during and after the covid-19 pandemic proving that e-commerce is the future of sales.
Still, most vendors hesitate while starting their online sales. The biggest reason to get confused is “which platform to use for selling their products for the greater benefits”.
One option is to create your own e-commerce website that gives you complete control of the sales. Other options are online marketplaces like Amazon and Flipkart which are already being used by millions of customers and are capable of increasing your product visibility.
If you are also about to start your online business but are confused about which platform to choose, we are here with the answers to all your questions.
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Let us begin with understanding the basic difference between an online marketplace and an e-commerce website.
“E-commerce is a powerful tool to connect the unconnected to global trade” – Arancha Gonzalez
Difference Between the E-commerce Website and Online Marketplace
Although both online marketplace and e-commerce websites are built with the purpose of selling products, they are quite different from each other. Let us understand the key differences between the two:
Online Marketplace
Ecommerce Website
These are similar to the real-life shopping mall that offers a variety of products from different sellers. Three parties are involved: customer, seller, and website administrator. Example: Amazon, Flipkart, etc.
Here a single seller displays and sells his products. It is similar to a bakery shop selling self-made cakes and bread.
Existing traffic on the website makes it easier to get instant customers
Need to make efforts to attract the target audience
Can be set up quickly, mostly in a day or two. The vendor can immediately start selling after the registration is complete
It takes time to build and manage a website. Reaching your target audience is rather more time-consuming.
Extra costs like plan fees, referral fees, etc. are involved. Moreover, these websites keep a good share of the profit obtained by selling your products for themselves.
Once you have settled the website there are minimal costs involved in maintaining your e-commerce website.
Now, when we know the basic differences between these two platforms, we can move forward to discuss the details of each of them.
Although there are plenty of online marketplaces available, Amazon and Flipkart have cornered the Indian e-commerce ecosystem for a long time, and each of them is a veritable gold mine for you if you know how to use them to their full potential.
Similarly, building your own e-commerce website can also be extremely productive if used correctly. So, if you want to maximize your profit, you’ll have to choose the right platform for selling online.
Each of these online selling platforms has its own set of benefits. Let us understand each of them one by one.
Selling with Amazon
Founded in 1994, Amazon has emerged as the leading e-retailer across the Globe. As per a survey, the net sales of Amazon grew up from US $88.99 billion in 2014 to US $469.81 billion in 2021, which is a growth of more than 400%.
Annual Net Sales of Amazon
The prime membership of Amazon offers rewards like 2-day delivery, video streaming, music, etc. It is preferred by most of its customers who are quite engaged in shopping.
Amazon hosts a maximum number of vendors on its platform and is known to have the highest reach across the globe.
Amazon Seller Registration
Selling on Amazon requires you to go through a registration process, similar to what you would do for creating an online channel.
Amazon seller registration is a three-step process as mentioned below:
The seller on-board process allows you to decide your product category, create listings, and enter your product details.
On Amazon, you can list your products for free, provided you are willing to give up a certain percentage of your sales in exchange for visibility.
You can also opt to pay a small fee to make your product listing a featured item, which will appear at the top of the search results.
Benefits of selling on Amazon:
Reach
Amazon has a massive user base and a presence in several countries, which means that you will have a huge audience to cater to through your products.
Visibility
Amazon puts a lot of emphasis on product listings, owing to the fact that customers usually browse through products before they decide to buy something. In fact, product listing is one of the most important aspects of selling on Amazon.
Data
Amazon offers a lot of insight about your customer base, which you can use to increase your sales and make better marketing decisions.
Delivery & Returns
Amazon provides the seller with FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) service. This means that Amazon will take care of your product delivery and customer care. Moreover, when a customer returns your product Amazon will bear the logistics.
Branding
You can use Amazon’s platform to build your brand, leveraging the website’s popularity among customers to attract more buyers.
Selling with Flipkart
As per a survey, Flipkart Private Limited reported revenue amounting to approximately 433 billion Indian rupees in the financial year 2021. Additionally, the e-commerce player had an increase of 25 percent in its revenue, compared to the previous year.
Unlike Amazon, Flipkart is more of a niche player and hosts fewer sellers, but that doesn’t make it any lesser of a great place to sell online.
Flipkart Seller Registration
The seller registration procedure for Flipkart is similar to Amazon, but it can take 1-2 days to get the business up and running with the required paperwork submitted to the company while Amazon takes 24 hours to approve the account. In some cases, the process may get delayed but it gets resolved once you contact seller support.
Benefits of selling on Flipkart
Niche Audience
Flipkart has a niche audience, which means that you get the opportunity to cater to your target customers, making it easier to retain them.
Visibility
Flipkart puts a lot of emphasis on high-quality product listings, which means that you can maximize your visibility on this platform just by providing quality products.
Data
Flipkart offers a lot of data that you can use to make better marketing decisions and improve your sales.
Sales
You can receive payments through Flipkart’s payment gateway, which means that Indian customers and those from neighbouring countries can also shop from your store.
Delivery & Returns
Flipkart handles the cost of delivery or picking returns. They also provide a customer care facility for your product.
Branding
You can use Flipkart’s popularity to build your brand, and get more customers to your store.
Selling With Your Own Website
As per a survey, 52% of the sellers stated that they only sell through their own website, while 42% sell through both their website as well as an e-marketplace, and only 6% stated that they only sell their products through an e-commerce website.
According to another survey, in 2020, the private labels shared more than 50% of repeat purchases under all categories. The largest repeat purchases were recorded in the cosmetics category i.e. around 75%. The other categories such as grocery, wellness, furniture, etc. also showed a hike in repeat purchases.
Creating your website
In comparison to selling on any e-commerce website creating your own website can be a tedious job. You will have to manage a lot of different aspects right from payments, and orders to setting up a full-fledged store.
This might even be cost-intensive and way more difficult than the simple process of registering and selling available on other e-commerce platforms.
Benefits of selling on your website
Store control
You are the owner, you set the rules. So, you do not have to worry about any change in terms, designs, or priorities. You can change your product priority. You can also design your website in accordance with your product to improve customer retention.
No comparative purchase
Online marketplaces offer hundreds of options to buyers in your product category. This might reduce your visibility. On your website, buyers only see your products and are able to appreciate the quality and variety you have on offer.
Amount deduction
Other than sharing a certain percentage of profit with the e-commerce platform you use, there are several charges that you are expected to pay. These may include plan fees, referral fees, etc.
Analytics
Instead of just being dependent on the data provided by the e-commerce platform, you can choose your own analytics. Google Analytics can help you identify your best-selling products, and most visited products, track buyers’ activities, etc.
Brand loyalty
A customer buying your product through an online marketplace platform will recommend that particular website in return for your product quality. However, if the purchase is made directly from your website it becomes a means of oral publicity.
Conclusion
So, which option is better? We say it is completely your call.
In this blog, we have tried to list all the pros and cons of owning an e-commerce website as well as selling through an online marketplace like Amazon or Flipkart.
However, no matter which option you choose for yourself just remember that looking at the current scenario selling products online is not a choice but a necessity. So, if you have decided to sell your products online, you have already made a step towards success.
Looking at which option to choose, with their unparalleled brand recognition Amazon and Flipkart are a great fit for first-timer and casual sellers who do not want to spend much time worrying about customers and related issues.
Also, selling your products here cut down the risk percentage. Amongst these Amazon is arguably the largest e-commerce platform while Flipkart has a loyal customer base, that trusts the site for quality.
At the same time, they may not be suitable for keen sellers owing to a number of hoops like fees and competition. This might also create difficulty for the small businesses to make their presence felt on these platforms.
At such a point, creating your own website can help you make your presence felt, maximize your profit, and increase your brand loyalty.
FAQs
Is it better to sell on your own website?
Yes, selling on your own website is always better than selling on any online marketplace because you don’t have to share the commission with the marketplace but building an audience can be quite a tedious task.
Can I have my own website on Amazon?
No, you cant have your own website on Amazon, you can only sell your products via Amazon.
Do I need an e-commerce platform to sell online?
It is not necessary to have an e-commerce platform to sell online, you can sell through various online marketplaces or through social media.
The heart of any eCommerce store lies in its landing page. However, creating a high-converting eCommerce landing page can be a real task. In this blog, we will share with you the 13 powerful tips to help you create a winning landing page for your eCommerce store.
An eCommerce landing page is the one on which a visitor arrives as they click an advertisement or other link to the website. The primary aim of this page is to motivate the customers to make a purchase through the website.
The landing pages are standalone web pages and are specially designed to motivate the target audience to become customers. These pages lay the foundation of a website’s customer retention and conversion rates.
Having several personalized landing pages can help an eCommerce website to approach different target audiences simultaneously. As per Hubspot, the leads can be increased by as much as 55% only by having 10-15 different landing pages.
In short, landing pages are an opportunity for any eCommerce store to engage their hard-earned visitor and improve conversion. But, how can you actually make a landing page that is sure to turn a visitor into a customer? This becomes a bigger issue with the marketplace full of so many competitors. But you don’t have to worry about this, as we have got your back.
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Here we are with the tips that are sure to help you build a high-converting eCommerce landing page.
13 Powerful Tips to Help You Create a Winning Landing Page for Ecommerce Stores
1. Personalization
No, we are not asking you to personalize the content of your eCommerce landing page for every single customer. However, we are asking you to customize your content as per different target audiences.
Does this mean creating several landing pages? Yes. This is what we are talking about. This task can be overwhelming but the results will surprise you for sure.
To do this, you will first have to choose the different groups of target audiences that your website is trying to serve. This can be done based on several factors such as age, gender, occupation, etc.
Now, you will have to create separate landing pages for all these groups. Make sure that every single feature of the landing page be it designs, images, content, etc. should be according to the selected target audience
2. User-Generated Content (UGC)
With so many products available in the eCommerce marketplace mostly the customers get confused and finally end up buying products from their old reliable store. However, including User-Generated Content (UGC) as a part of your landing page is one of the most powerful tools to build a trustworthy relationship with your visitors and convert them into your customers.
UGC works like a social proof which is actually a very strong psychological phenomenon. In this, someone commences an action under the influence or guidance of another person.
How do you do that?
Share the screenshots of the satisfied customer reviews or other forms of content that come directly from users. Basically, these are the earned media or content that is not created by you and comes from a third party. This appears more reliable to your visitors who may directly move on to buy your product after reading a great review. UGC is known to increase eCommerce conversions several folds.
3. Call to Action (CTA)
Yes, we know having a CTA button on your website is basic. But, not every website is capable of creating the urge that compels the visitors to click this button.
To increase your conversion rate, it is highly important to have a clear, loud, and undeniable Call to Action button. An eCommerce website should have minimum friction on the landing page to make the CTA directly visible to the viewer.
This means that your CTA button should appear right in front of a visitor without any distraction. Our aim here is to create a singularity of purpose where the visitor feels the urge to complete the CTA.
Placing a hero image of your product and limiting the clutter are a few ways to make your CTA clear and your landing page convincing.
4. Mobile Optimization
As per a survey, around 50% of internet access comes from mobile phones. Hence, it becomes extremely important to optimize your website content for the convenience of mobile users.
Another survey states that there are around 6.648 billion mobile users across the globe. This counts for approximately 83.72% of the world’s population.
Mobile optimization will make your website accessible to all these people at any moment of the day and increases the chances of engagement multiple times. As more engagement means more sales this is sure to give you an edge over your competitors.
5. Design
Basic design rules are a must to abide by while creating the landing page for your eCommerce website. There is a lot more to a landing page than just looking good. Make sure it serves the actual purpose of its existence.
Certain features such as high-quality images, clear content, organized sections, etc. make your landing page look more alluring.
The design of the page must be chosen considering the psychology of your target audience. For example, if your target audience includes teenagers a bright, innovative, and exciting design would be preferable. Similarly, a sober and steady design might appear appealing to the older audience.
6. Create Urgency
Your landing page must trigger urgency in the audience. It should make them feel to take the desired action at that very moment.
Certain ways used to create urgency, with examples are mentioned below:
Creating scarcity: For example “Only two left in stock”
Setting a deadline: For example “Order before midnight to avail of the offer”
Offering bonus incentive: For example “Free Gift for first 5 customers”
Such sentences are designed based on the psychological phenomenon known as the “mere urgency effect”. It is meant to prompt people to take action. Hence, this can be used on the landing page to motivate people and make them buy your product.
7. Remove navigation
Providing your customers with multiple options on the page can get them confused. There should be only a single clear call to action. Other navigation links present on this page can serve as distractions.
The landing page of your eCommerce website should mark the end of the visitor’s journey. The only thing the visitor should do after arriving on this page is to buy the product. This is why a landing page is considered a standalone page.
8. Benefit Oriented
Your visitors are not your students. So, you need not teach them about every detail of your product. Instead of this, try to introduce them to the benefits that your product can provide them. For example, if you are selling laptops and tell your customers about the high-quality intel core i5 processor and 128GB memory of your product, most people would not notice its importance. However, if you tell them that the laptop is very fast and capable of storing 35,000+ photos, it is sure to attract attention.
9. Extra Benefits
A hotel offering complimentary breakfast or a restaurant giving you a free dessert, are examples of the extra benefits. The impact these simple tips have on their customers does not need to be described. We have all been there.
This example explains the significance that little things can have on human psychology. You can also use a similar strategy to improve conversion rates.
As per a survey conducted by Statista, around 53% of the users prefer to buy products that offer free delivery while 41% of users buy them for coupons or discounts. This percentage even surpasses the percentage of people influenced by UGC, which is around 35%.
Hence, providing your users with extra benefits is an excellent way to improve your conversion rates.
10. Videos
Videos are an excellent way to connect with your audience. If a picture is known to speak a thousand words, we say a video is capable of speaking a million.
With camera phones in every hand, video content has become a part of our day-to-day life. People share interesting videos on their social media every day. Therefore, creating innovative video content is also an amazing way for unpaid marketing. This will help you reach the indirect audience as well.
Also, videos are an amazing way to explain the benefits of products that may not be evident through pictures or mere writing. They provide the customer with a better idea and image of the product.
11. Focus
Make sure that your product remains the focus of your landing page. Most websites make the mistake of providing too much information.
Your target is to make the visitor answer the call-to-action and multiple options can hamper the focus. Therefore, the primary product should be clearly focused on and presented on the landing page. Maintaining focus is the key to a high-converting landing page.
12. Compliment your ads
Most visitors arrive at your website navigating through your ads posted on different platforms. This indicates that your ad was attractive and compelling enough to bring them to your website. Therefore, it is equally important to match the user expectations complimenting your advertisement.
Make sure your landing pages reflect the same energy as your ads through which customers reached the site. This is to provide the users with a smooth and satisfying experience.
Identify the ads that bring traffic to your website and develop an effective landing page that matches the text of the ad. Especially the heading should match the ad content. For example, if the main point of attraction of your ad was a free gift, include the same in your headline as well.
13. Testing
Creating a winning landing page can be a task. It is easy to get overwhelmed with the amount of work and get carried away with the number of colours and designs available. Therefore, it is important to have a baseline that guides the formation of the landing page. The focus of this baseline should be to increase conversions.
Once the design and content are ready, put your page to testing. This will help you figure out the inconsistencies in your page. The testing should continue even after the page has been launched to keep improving it and remain updated.
Conclusion
The primary motive behind creating an attractive landing page is to boost the conversion rate of your eCommerce store. While this blog gave the tips to help you create a winning landing page, you should remember that keeping the needs of your target audience in mind would always help you evolve and perform better.
The most successful websites focus on generating a positive customer experience and optimizing their content to make their customer journey smooth. Following the example and looking at the competition in the market, it has become necessary to create a landing page that is capable of boosting conversions.
FAQs
What makes a good eCommerce landing page?
UGC content, high-quality images, clear content, organized sections, and different landing pages are some of the elements that make a good eCommerce landing page.
How many landing pages should the website have?
On average having 10-15 different landing pages is great as it will increase your leads by 55%.
What is a landing page in eCommerce?
A landing page is a page where your customers first visit after clicking on your website, the main purpose of the page is to convince your visitors to buy the products.
Today, building an eCommerce store does not only depend upon the quality and quantity you provide but it also largely depends on the marketing techniques you apply. In the case of having a Shopify store, when you have created, customized, and uploaded products, your work here is not done yet, now it’s time to promote your Shopify store to attract more customers and boost your store’s sales. Promoting a Shopify store is not a bed of roses, it depends on your marketing budget, products, and attainable time. But with proper planning of decent marketing techniques, everyone can become successful in boosting their Shopify store.
In this article, we will be discussing different ways how you can promote your Shopify store.
Number of Shopify shops by product category as of 2021
Building a Shopify store online is one task, but to make that store work successfully there is a need to invest your time, efforts, and money in its marketing as well. The following are some ways in which you can promote your Shopify store:
Promote Your Shopify Store Using Email Marketing
As per Statista, the global email marketing market was valued at 7.5 billion USD in 2020. In 2021, according to Campaign Monitor, 64% of small businesses depend upon email marketing as their major source of customer acquisition. Such statistics indicate the superiority of using email marketing for your eCommerce store. So, one of the best ways to promote your Shopify store is to indulge in email marketing. However, there are certain things that you should keep in mind while choosing email marketing, like:
First of all, you need to prepare a proper email list in which you have to add the current clients and the targeted customers. This will help you get connected to the interested audience of your eCommerce store, thus helping in converting leads into customers.
After connecting you can start sending your welcome emails, giving information about your new product launches, discounts, and more to have better chances of attracting potential customers.
In email marketing, your content is the key to earning revenue and boosting your Shopify store to the customers. The content includes an eye catchy headline, body, and a call to action. Make sure that the headline should be such that it can connect with your target audiences and enforces them to open up your emails.
After the headline, the body of the content should be as such that it asks and excites customers to move forward to call to action. According to an analysis by Sleeknote 2022, pop-up notifications of emails containing countdown timers convert better leads into the respective sales than the ones with countdown timers. So, adding a countdown to your marketing email can be a plus point for your business.
With all these tips in mind, you surely can take great advantage of email marketing in promoting your Shopify store.
Social media platforms used by marketers worldwide (2021)
When we talk about promoting a Shopify store, social media marketing is of the utmost importance. Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and Instagram are the topmost social media channels for promoting your eCommerce store. The Following are some of the ways you can use social media to promote your Shopify store:
Unique and Effective Content
People relate to true stories. No matter what social media channel you are using, make sure to provide valuable, relatable, and organic content narrating your brand. Organize events, polls, competitions, and other features to engage the audience with the product of your Shopify store. Upload videos on how to use your product or other high-quality images and videos depicting features of your products and services. You can also take advantage of special days to promote and grow your Shopify business by giving special offers and discounts on such days. In this way, you will be able to get more attention, likes, and engagement from the audience.
Influencer Marketing
It is one of the best ways to create brand awareness and build trust in the product. The influencers have a large number of followers and when they promote your product, your store gets exposed to a huge audience which will ultimately help you reach more potential customers. Influencer marketing is observed to grow from $1.7 billion in the year 2016 to $13.8 billion in 2021. This huge increment indicates that investing in influencer marketing for promoting your Shopify store is a great idea.
Advertisements on Social Media
Paid advertisements are the best option to introduce your store to new audiences. You can use interest targeting and demographics to know about the interests of your target audience. Your ads on different social media platforms help attract more people to your store. Thus, this is another way you can use social media as a great advantage for your Shopify store.
Promote Your Shopify Store Using Display Ads
Promote Your Shopify Store Using Ads
According to Statista, display ads have reached 238 billion USD IN 2021, accounting for the largest ad spent share.
Display ads convince people to take a look at your product or services, and if they find them fascinating or valuable, it will help convert the leads into customers. The quality of the content of an ad must be catchy, trendy, and relatable to your store. You can also create personalized content according to your target market so that they may get attracted to visit your online store. You can opt for either native advertising or contextual advertising to promote your Shopify store.
If you have an online store and still have not entered the field of blogging, then you must be unaware of the power of blogging. As per HubSpot, the businesses that indulge in blogs can generate 55% more visitors than those that don’t.
Your Shopify store comes with a built-in blogging engine. While everyone is looking for different ways to promote their Shopify store, one great technique they often forget is to take advantage of blogging on Shopify. So, you can create a blog related to the products you are offering as it will help you generate more traffic and a better chance of increasing sales. Another great reason why you should invest your time and effort in this is that it can also help you to gain the email addresses of audiences and convert them into your email subscribers.
Thus, by writing SEO-friendly blogs, you can increase the traffic enabling more people to notice your product resulting in increased sales. It will also help your website to rank higher on Google and thus more the chances of lead conversion.
Conclusion
In this time of increasing competition in the market, promoting your Shopify store is not just a choice anymore it is a necessity now. Marketing your product is extremely essential to drive traffic to your online store, generate leads and ultimately increase your sales.
There are a huge number of stores present on Shopify, and if you have to stand out from all of your competitors, you must adopt different promotion techniques like email marketing, blogging, social media marketing, etc. Thus, all you have to do is to prepare and execute a remarkable promotional strategy according to your needs and budget and observe the wondrous increment in your sales.
FAQs
Can I do promotions on Shopify?
Yes, you can. All you have to do is go to the marketing page on Shopify and there you can create as well as manage your marketing campaigns for promotions.
Does Shopify include a blog?
Yes, your Shopify online store comes with a built-in blogging engine. Setting up a blog regarding your store’s products can help you build a community.
How does Shopify email pricing work?
Shopify allows you to send up to 10,000 emails per month for free. After that, you only have to pay for what you use at 1 USD per 1,000 additional emails sent.
How do I get people to buy from my Shopify store?
You can attract potential customers to your store in the following ways:
World eCommerce business emerged in the year 1982 by a company named Boston Computer Exchange where the primary motive was to sell computers online. These days, the eCommerce business is thriving as people are looking for new ways to become bosses of their businesses. The eCommerce trend is even going higher since the world has hit the pandemic. It has given ample opportunities to various business executives and entrepreneurs for selling their products and setting up their online stores.
However, setting up an online store is not enough. In this time of increasing competition, it is essential for you to indulge in great marketing strategies to attract more customers.
One of the best ways to market your store is to run ads for the store on different platforms. This way, you will be visible to a large audience and thus, more chances of attracting potential customers. So, before starting an eCommerce business, certain things must be taken into consideration to effectively generate revenue from the online purchases made by the customers.
Now that you have prepared your mind to be your boss, you should be thinking about the initial steps towards a successful eCommerce platform. Here are a few important keys that you should consider:
Design a superb website.
Use high definitional quality for your product display.
Make a distinctive selling presentation.
Ensure an outstanding customer network & support.
Create a marketing budget.
Apart from all these, fetching traffic to the online store to reach a more targeted audience is also a prerequisite. Therefore, before you offer customer support to your clients, you have to make sales of your products first, through an exceptional voice.
Thus, you have to keep in mind all of the above-mentioned key points are necessary and should work hand in hand for you to run your eCommerce business successfully.
Many entrepreneurs often open online stores and focus on any one of the key elements and run into a loss. So, to prevent your business from losses, make sure to have a proper plan in hand.
Factors for Selecting Ecommerce Platform
Now that you already have a business plan for launching your eCommerce store, there are a few key points that you should consider before investing in the online store. These are as follows:
Costing
Different eCommerce comes with several packages, you should always go for the one that looks cost-efficient to you. Often it is seen that lump sum payments have resulted in a bad investment. Therefore, prepare a budget in your mind and stick to that. You can select web hosting after comparing the prices with different providers to get the best deal.
Web Designing
The website should look user-friendly for the customers. From the capture page to the sign-out page your customers should get an excellent experience so that they keep coming back to shop from your online store.
Various eCommerce platforms make their websites theme-based. You can get these themes free of cost or even pay prices ranging for the premium themes.
Function & Programming
You can also customize the functionality of our eCommerce business with the help of coding and programming methods in the background. This can benefit you if you are trying to set up your online business effectively and competitively as compared to others.
Security
Customer data protection should be on the top priority list for an eCommerce business owner. There will be a lot of payment transactions happening on your online store page. Therefore, you should select the platform where the data of these customers are secured properly. Hence, your company will not lose any loyal customers.
Maintenance
To run a successful eCommerce online site, you cannot pay the fee once and get done with it. You will have to check if it is working smoothly and effectively to reach your targeted audience or not.
If the eCommerce site has no subscription price then you have to pay for an SSL certificate which is a yearly cost.
Per Month Hosting
You can independently host your eCommerce business which has no subscription cost as a hosting charge. For instance, Woo-commerce is such a platform that will help you to get the hosting management depending on the traffic of the web.
Business Software Integration:
It is indeed frustrating to begin from the scratch and shift to a new platform when your eCommerce has a business software aligned. Therefore, you need a platform that can smoothly combine with the existing system and provide solutions without any extra price.
Advertisement & Sales
A comparison amongst the best eCommerce platform for running ads for enhancing the digital platform is necessary. When you go through the evaluation process, you should keep in mind that every platform has its unique advantages and disadvantages regarding advertisements. On the other hand, you have a specific budget. Therefore, choose a platform that can suit your requirements.
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Top Platforms to Run Ads for Your Ecommerce Store
Cost-per-click of ads on social media platforms worldwide (2021)
The eCommerce market is highly competitive. Hence, every entrepreneur is searching for new ways to promote their goods and services. Often marketing the products becomes a complicated task and sometimes even after putting in the effort, it does even reach the targeted audience.
Again for a single user or entrepreneur, it becomes a tedious job to do all the tasks like handling social media, tracking products, checking emails, testing, analysis, etc at one time.
So, to ease up the things a bit and take the most advantage of your marketing strategies, the following are some of the best platforms where you can run ads for your eCommerce store:
Google Ads
Google Ads – Best Platform to run ads for eCommerce store
No one can beat the efficiency and effectiveness of the strategies led by Google in the digital marketing industry. Google’s marketing platform is running the digital business for a long time. All the analysts and marketers have appreciated the advanced tools present in Google ads.
A user can use the Google Ad services via paid promotion on SERPs. For advertising purposes, the users can use the Google Display Network facility from where the ads will be produced on relevant websites. To get new clients or even boost up your brand, Google ads can be the best platform.
It was previously known as Double click where there was a combination of establishing tool buildings and an interface for huge data. There are few platforms like Shopify or Magento which can smoothly connect to Google ads via API.
There is no doubt in the fact that Google is known to everyone all over the world. Also, a great benefit of using this platform is its excellent display network. So, in case you want your brand name to reach a huge audience of shoppers, then it can be very helpful.
You can manage analytics, surveys, optimizations, tagging, or even display ads, etc from this platform.
Pros
It is ideal for small businesses.
It is an affordable platform to run ads.
Provides a huge networking display giving accessibility to over 2.3-3.0 billion audience searches.
It boosts brands easily.
You can integrate it into any other software for marketing.
Cons
Rates can rise up to $100,000-$150,000 each year for larger business units.
Customer service is limited.
Marketers can often get confused and face difficulty in handling the software.
Microsoft Bing – Best Platform to run ads for eCommerce store
After Google, Bing has also reached popularity over the years in networking and ad promotions. According to Microsoft, around 14.5% of approximately global market share is ruled by Bing.
As an entrepreneur, if your target audience consists of shoppers, then you should go for Bing ad services. Also, a feature in Bing is launched called Bing shopping which is the same as Google Shopping Ads. This makes it a great and efficient platform for running ads for your eCommerce store.
Pros
The competition between Bing and Google is less. It has been observed that the cost per click on the ads here is around 70-72% less in regards to that of Google ads.
If you want a different set of audience bases, then a Bing ad is apt for you. The best part of advertising on Bing is to get the ad promotion on AOL, Yahoo, etc. add campaigns.
Cons
The features of the tool are not as advanced as compared to the other ad platforms.
The target audience reach is less in comparison to Google ads.
Facebook Ads Manager
Facebook ads – Best Platform to run ads for eCommerce store
In 2022, no one can think of advertisements without social media ad campaigns. Here, the first name that comes to mind is Facebook Ad manager. This is a popular choice for all business units to promote their brands across a large audience. Starting from whirly ads to extensive stories, there are numerous features in these social media platforms for promoting any brand.
To fetch relevant customers based on their interest, behavior, demography, etc. these social media ad campaigns are the best idea for your eCommerce store.
According to the studies of 2020 data, it is seen more than 2.7 billion people are on Facebook. Therefore to reach potential clients and users making use of this platform is important. Facebook ads definitely play a vital role in advertising your brand, selling the products, and retaining loyal customers.
Pros
It is easy to reach a large audience.
Different and unique formatting for ads.
Cost-effective & budget-friendly.
Reaching the targeted clients becomes easier according to their age, gender, demographics, and interests with the help of this platform.
Cons
Small brands may face challenges to get specific ads.
The conversion data is not reliable due to the latest Apple IOS 14.5 update.
Instagram Ads
Instagram ads – Best Platform to run ads for eCommerce store
In this context, you should know two vital things about Instagram;
81% of Instagram users utilize the platform for enquiring about the products and brands.
Around 130 million users tap or click on the shopping-related posts per month.
The promoters can either create reel videos or image-based ads for branding the products or services entitled to them. It becomes easy for reaching the targeted audience here. Moreover, you can link the ads directly to your shopping websites or product pages which again results in a significant amount of customer engagement.
Pros
Reaching the target audience in less time.
The effective sale is guaranteed through the unique ad formats for instance stories, IGTV videos, reels, etc.
Any client can purchase the product without even logging out from Instagram as the ads displayed are aligned with the landing page of the products or websites.
Cons
It can be an issue for aged clients to purchase products or services via Instagram as many are not very well-equipped with the platform yet.
The contents posted on the Instagram platform require top-notch visual strength. This will make your brand different from others and people will be bound to choose your service. So, all this can be pretty expensive at times.
YouTube Ads
YouTube ads – Best Platform to run ads for eCommerce store
To enhance brand promotion and awareness, YouTube is doing fantastic business all over the world. The best part about these ads on YouTube is that they are helpful to drive enough traffic to your store. Therefore, if you are planning to set up your online store, YouTube ads can be a considerable option that can successfully give you revenue leads.
Pros
Youtube is a part of Google’s promotion. Hence, there is already a strong data presence and tremendous capability to reach the audience.
It can reach different and diverse clients all over the world in less time.
You can expect inbuilt engagement of customers, viewers, or audience. For instance, if anyone is researching educational videos, the YouTube ads in between can take them to your store landing page through video ads.
Cons
It is a bit expensive as compared to other platforms.
Often users skip the videos because of the format of the ads displayed.
Twitter Ads
Twitter ads – Best Platform to run ads for eCommerce store
Twitter started in 2006 as a popular social media platform. This is probably not the first platform that comes to people’s minds when they think of running ads. It is mainly created for opinions and news from people all over the world. So, this makes it a meaningful platform with a huge user base that should be taken into consideration for running ads.
Pros
The high engagement rate with the Twitter ads is possible as Twitter has a re-tweet option with which it becomes easy to reach more people and get more views.
Cons
Twitter ads are expensive as compared to Facebook ads.
Pinterest Ads
Pinterest ads – Best Platform to run ads for eCommerce store
Pinterest plays a significant role in marketing via visual illustrating ads similar to Instagram. It also helps in boosting the audience’s reach like any other social media platform. In core search results, there is promoted ad facility provided by Pinterest which are shown as pinned posts. This is a great way to get your store the visibility it needs.
As of January 2021, it is seen the number of female audiences is 78% as compared to the male audience on Pinterest. The platform helps over 444 million users every month and 91% of weekly pinners in their shopping decisions.
Pros
The conversion rate is pretty high here.
Pinterest is less annoying or disturbing for the users who are using Pinterest as the ads are less interruptive.
Cons
The platform is not user-friendly in terms of sales in comparison to Google Ads.
Amazon ads – Best Platform to run ads for eCommerce store
Amazon mainly focuses on reaching customers who love shopping. This helps to portray the products in the key results or search results. Therefore, it becomes an easier task for the shoppers to get a view of the wide range of products available on the site which is offered by your eCommerce store.
The easy way to set up the interface and ad portrayal help to make the advertisement process smooth. Moreover, the customers can see them and select their products in a quick time.
Cons
As an entrepreneur, you have to pay an extra referral fee apart from the advertisement rate. The amount may go up to 10-15% approximately depending on the variation of the products.
Amazon has few strict rules for the sellers. For instance, at times, there are shipping rates, order cancellation charges, etc.
Taboola
Taboola – Best Platform to run ads for eCommerce store
Taboola is significantly known for its advertising base, especially for the newbie business owners looking for marketing platforms through advertisements. Exceptionally creative promotional ads have campaigned through this platform. They either use informational content or advertorials which they produce on the sites.
Taboola ads do not resemble anything like regular advertisements hence, it becomes a hassle-free task to engage customers’ interest. Again the presence of domestic tools for advertisements helps in tracking, publishing, and producing the regional promotional campaigns. It serves best for brand promotion, brilliant audience visibility, and other contexts in various marketing channels.
Pros
Awesome customer response.
User friendly.
Smooth campaign report projections.
Uncomplicated calculation of performance metric possible.
Cons
Approval of the contents from Taboola is a very time-consuming process.
Points to Consider
Pay per click policy is more on Google shopping ads.
Bing Ads till now, is not as great as compared to Google Ads as it faces challenges in reaching more audiences.
Fashion, DIY, Beauty, Jewellery, Shopping, and Food – Ads regarding all these fields on Instagram reach targeted clients in an uncomplicated way. The best way to showcase the product or service is to use HD images or Reel videos.
Similar to Instagram, Facebook Ads work hand in hand.
To make successful revenue from clients on Youtube, the creators should focus on explanatory videos or review videos. These videos should be high end and there should be accurate clarity. The exact visual presentation of the products or services and comparison between other services or products can help clients understand it in a better way. It enhances more chances of an effective sale.
Twitter can be a platform for boosting service or job-related brands. The audience present on Twitter is mainly school, college-goers, or even freshers or working employees looking for a job change or part-time jobs. Again, any teaching or education-related brands or websites can also fetch customers from there.
The female audience is mostly found on Pinterest. Thus, this platform has a beautiful opportunity for brands dealing with crafts, DIY, and gardening products.
Brands that have a high-profit outcome and already have a stable customer base should opt for Amazon ads.
Ad Platforms & Conversion Rates
There are several contents available on the internet every day. Now when you are planning to set up your brand you have to understand that the conversion rate should be high to get a successful sale of your products and services.
What is the Conversion Rate?
The digital retail market is growing every day and is becoming highly competitive. Setting up an online store is not an easy task if you are not getting any sales.
Imagine you have already a promising website with an amazing product display. The reach of the product is also high. Hence, there is a decent amount of traffic.
You have to make shoppers buy the products from the website and not only view them. Here comes the concept of conversion in the eCommerce business. In simple terms, conversion rate refers to the number of conversions divided by the total number of visitors to a website.
It can be dependent on a few things like the cost of the product, the niche of our industry, and of course your audience. Therefore, all conversion rates in every eCommerce industry are not the same.
Advertising Channels and Their Conversion Rates
Average conversion rate by advertising channels
According to Heap, Google ads stand number one in turning the high conversion rates of 8.2%. Next up are Bing ads with a conversion rate of 7.6% on an average. Facebook has a conversion rate of around 4.7%, Instagram 3.1%, and Pinterest 2.9%. Other ad platforms which turn to fewer conversion rates but are effective are Twitter (0.9%), Snapchat (0.6%), and YouTube (0.5%) respectively.
Conclusion
The primary aim of social and digital ads is to manage traffic and bring about more revenue. With the evolution of digital media and content marketing, an entrepreneur needs to select a faithful platform to showcase their products and bring more sales. Therefore, before choosing any of the ad platforms, you should check the limitation and advantages of your own business and brand. It should match the appropriateness of the platform to reach more audiences and engage them successfully.
FAQs
Which platforms are the best for online advertising?
The following are the best platforms for online advertising:
Google Ads
Facebook Ads
Instagram Ads
Bing Ads
Twitter Ads
Amazon Ads
Can I advertise online for free?
You can advertise online for free by registering with Google My Business. It is a free tool that enables you to create a listing for your business so that it can be easily located on Google searches.
Which is the number 1 eCommerce site?
Amazon is the number 1 eCommerce site, not only in America but also in most other countries.
Which social media platform is the best for my business?
The following are the best social media platforms for your business:
If you have ever thought of starting an online business, you must have heard about “Dropshipping”. This is one of the most trending businesses across the globe and is growing really fast.
The main reasons for the dropshipping business model to succeed are: You need not be exclusive about what you want to sell, you don’t need a lot of money for buying products, and you do not need an inventory to stock the products.
As per a study, the estimated value of the global Dropshipping market which was US $128.6 Billion in 2020 is expected to grow and reach the US $ 476.1 Billion by 2026. Hence, you can imagine the pace at which this market is expanding. However, if this term seems unfamiliar and you are still wondering what are we talking about. Don’t worry! We will explain everything in detail. Keep reading.
Dropshipping is kind of an online retail fulfilment method. Here, you don’t buy or stock products. If you have a basic understanding of marketing and selling products, an online store, and a laptop, you are ready for this business.
It has opened the doors to eCommerce for people not having big budgets. But, how is it done? Let us explain in steps:
First, you prepare a list of products you want to sell online.
Next, you find a supplier who sells these products at minimum cost.
After this, you set a higher price of your choice for all these items in your online store.
When a customer orders this product from your store, they already pay you the retail price.
Using this money you directly order this product for your customer, from the seller.
You mention the details of the customer in the delivery instructions. Hence, you don’t have to take care of shipping either.
Now, the difference between your price and the seller’s price is your profit.
But, why would anyone buy a product at a higher price instead of buying it from the seller?
The answer is simple. The Internet is vast. Not everyone has the time and energy to scroll across the web and look for cheaper options. Mostly people prefer to buy from some renowned website or go through the top 3-4 options that appear in the search engine.
So, all you need to do is focus on the right marketing techniques.
There are two ways you can get into dropshipping business. If you are well-versed with all the details you can build your own online store from scratch. However, if you are still new to this field you can also buy a pre-made dropshipping store. In this blog, we will focus on pre-made dropshipping stores.
What is a Pre-made Dropshipping Store?
Pre-made dropshipping stores are the ones where everything required for the online store such as sellers, products, payment gateways, etc. has already been set up by the store builder.
If you do not have the time for building a dropshipping store yourself, you can also buy a pre-made one. There are several market places where people buy and sell such stores.
There are majorly four types of dropshipping stores available in these markets:
1. Basic pre-made dropshipping store: Here, the store builder has set up all the basic requirements of the store. However, brand identity, name recognition, or customer base, have not been set. These stores are available at the price as low as $50.
2. Turnkey dropshipping store: The store builder in this case sets up everything and then just hands over the store to the buyer.
3. Fully-established dropshipping store: These are the pre-made online stores that have been run by the builder for some time already. These stores have a developed clientele, sales, brand identity, etc.
4. Custom-made dropshipping store: It is the same as the basic pre-made store. However, the buyer can get it customized as per his needs.
Out of these, you can choose the option that suits you the most and then buy that for you. If you are already into this business and know the ins and outs, we would recommend you to go for a basic pre-made store. They are inexpensive and serve your purpose. However, if you are looking for something with a certain profit-building capacity, fully-established stores, although costly, can be the best option. They have been in the market for some time and hence, can become a source of regular income, with estimated profits.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Buying a Pre-made Dropshipping Store
Like any other investment, there are certain advantages and disadvantages associated with buying a pre-made dropshipping store as well. Let’s have a look:
Advantages of Buying a Pre-made Dropshipping Store
The advantages of buying a pre-made online store are:
Lesser Chores: Your burden is reduced by having to build everything from scratch.
More time for business: If you have your requirements listed, you can easily buy an established store and start your business right away.
Reduced miscalculations: If you are not yet experienced in the market, buying a pre-made store would help you avoid or at least reduce your miscalculations.
Additional learning: When you buy a pre-made store, you also get to learn the intricacies of the store builder. This may prepare you to build your next store yourself.
Disadvantages of Buying a Pre-made Dropshipping store
Even though it is a great source of business, several disadvantages also accompany a pre-made Dropshipping store. They are:
Less control: Especially in the case of an established pre-made store, the buyer has lesser control over its development.
Pre-existing niche: The products on the list have already been decided by the builder. You do not have much liberty to search and choose more products of your choice.
Foregoing suppliers: The store builder chose the product supplier at the time of setting it. This gives you less control over features such as prices, quality, etc.
Build-in brand identity: Owing to the already developed store, it has a brand identity that is recognized by the buyers.
Greater investment: If you try building a dropshipping store yourself it wouldn’t cost you much. However, buying one can be expensive.
So, when you have understood the basics. Let us understand how to determine the value of a pre-made dropshipping store, or what you should know before buying a Dropshipping store.
Things to Know Before Buying a Pre-made Dropshipping Store
If you are a retailer who is thinking of buying a pre-made Dropshipping store, you certainly need to estimate its value before you agree with the price quoted by the seller.
There are a number of factors used by the sellers to determine the cost of a Dropshipping store such as supplier list, logo, web address & domain, social media accounts, etc. However, the authenticity, accuracy, and profundity of these factors have to be analyzed by the buyer.
In this section, we will look at the 5 points that you need to verify before you give a thumbs up to the deal.
Previous Statement:
The most basic but reliable step will provide you with the most crucial information. Look at the monthly profit and loss statement of the store. Although there is no standardized pricing model, the usual price for buying a store varies from 10 to 30 times the monthly profit of the store. Therefore, as a buyer, you will have to ask for the documentation of the store.
Examine the documents for expenses, revenue, and profit earned by the store. Also, look for the rate of returns and refunds. This will give you an idea of the quality being served by the associated manufacturers.
Analyze User Traffic Information:
Ask the seller to provide you with access to Google Analytics on the website. Here, you must keep in mind that using certain bots and third-party buyers some sellers can inflate user traffic. However, the Audience review function of Google Analytics helps you to recognize such activities. Some of the features that you can look for to identify fake traffic are:
Extremely high or very low bounce rate: This can serve as a very strong indicator. Look for bounce rates above 90% or below 10% to identify fake traffic.
Small average duration of sessions: If the average duration of sessions is too low i.e. around 30-50 seconds, it may be fake traffic. For an authentic online store, this duration should be longer as the shoppers browse frequently.
Low pages per session: On average, an authentic buyer sees at least 2 pages per session. Anything less than this can be a sign of fraud.
Find the Source of Traffic:
Use Google analytics and visit the Acquisition Overview to find out the source of traffic turning to this website. This section divides the source of traffic into various categories such as organic search, referral search, affiliate traffic, paid search, etc.
For an authentic Dropshipping store, the maximum traffic should be derived from organic searches and minimum from paid sources. This also means that the store is appearing higher in Google searches. Also, there are a number of tools available to evaluate the SEO of the store.
Check their Social media Handles:
Social media largely dominates our daily lives. For any online business to succeed it must connect with its customers using this powerful tool. Therefore, the number of followers or engagements a brand gets on social media also defines its potential.
Look for Email Subscribers:
Email marketing has been recognized as one of the most potent sources to boost conversion rates. An authentic email subscriber list is proof of a profitable store. This is because a long email subscriber list means more leads and ultimately, more opportunities for conversions. You can also ask the seller if they are using any email marketing tools.
We often come across the question of whether e-commerce or retail is best for a business. E-commerce is a replica of business that enables individuals and companies to sell their services or products via the internet. On the other hand, retail refers to the brick and mortar businesses, in which individuals sell their goods or services from person to person in shops, malls, and localities.
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According to Statista 2021, total retail sales, both online and offline, amounted to 24.2 trillion USD, out of which 19.1 trillion USD was generated by the brick and mortar retail channel and around 4.9 trillion USD was generated by the eCommerce sales channel. In the same year, global retail sales accounted for a growth of 9.7% as a whole and eCommerce accounted for around 19.6% of total retail sales.
The digital form of business has seen a great increment specifically in this pandemic. But at the same time, the heavy revenue generated from retail cannot be ignored. In this article, we will discuss different factors that will help you know what is best for your business between eCommerce and retail.
Retail Ecommerce Sales Worldwide from 2017 to 2022
In the following points, we will discuss a comparison between eCommerce and retail from different perspectives:
Which Has Lesser Prior Investment?
Ecommerce Starting an eCommerce business may sound like an expensive process but with proper planning and execution, one can start running it on a budget. The investment required to start your eCommerce business in India is nearly 5-10 lakh rupees. It includes building your business website, hosting, domain, sales and management tools, web development, and advertisements.
Retail Investment in setting up a retail store can be an expensive process. A retail store has to invest in various things before selling its product. These include building, buying, or renting a store, paying license fees, hiring staff for multiple positions, paying location tax, investing in filling up the store with sufficient items to attract a customer, and other necessary resources relating to business and government. All such expenses make setting up a retail store far more expensive than starting an eCommerce store.
So, comparatively, the cost of investment is lower in the case of eCommerce than in retail. The advantage of owning an eCommerce store is that it reduces the cost of setting up a brick-and-mortar store or hiring delivery staff. This is because eCommerce stores send their manufactured products to branches such as Amazon, FedEx, Ship Bob, Flipkart, etc. for order fulfilment. After this, it is the responsibility of these branches to pack, track and send the order to the buyer.
Ecommerce It is easier to maintain eCommerce compared to a retail store. But there are still some complications that need to be checked from time to time so that the store can run smoothly. For example- you need to maintain a warehouse or any proper space to keep the products safe and accessible for dropshipping. Since you are not directly connected with your customers, you will have to keep a check on analytics to track customer experience and discover their new tastes and likings. You will also need to keep a check on the timing of product delivery to avoid negative feedback from customers.
Retail The retail business is considered to be a bit more complicated in terms of maintenance. This is because for various reasons like there is a need to maintain a proper brick-and-mortar store and inventory, and maintenance of an adequate communication balance on both sides in real-time with suppliers and customers. Also, you have to keep a regular check on your staff if they are handling the customers politely. You will have to train them and make them more knowledgeable about the services and products you are offering so that they can deal with the customers pleasantly and accurately.
It is easier to modernize the stock in an eCommerce store. But this task becomes pretty difficult with retail stores as for updating products, you need to set up meetings with suppliers now and then. So, in case of ease of maintenance, eCommerce is a better option for your business.
Share of consumers going to brick and mortar stores by country in 2021
Which Has Better Profitability in Future?
Ecommerce With eCommerce comes a great benefit which is unlimited access to customers. Once you are over the internet, there is no limit to the number of people you can reach. Ecommerce allows you to showcase your products and services to a large number of people, therefore, no limitation to any particular locality. Moreover, you can always expand your business and attract new customers via smart and modern marketing techniques. These include offering free shipping, discounts, gift cards, reward points, etc. All this ultimately ensures better sales and thus, better profits.
Retail Retail stores do not have very wide access to the customers as they have limitations due to their fixed location. However, this does not mean that there are no benefits of a retail store. Even in today’s time, many customers do not feel satisfied until they can touch and feel the products themselves. So, the customers who are still skeptical about online shopping contributes to the sales and profits of retail stores. Moreover, there are fewer chances of online fraud with retail shops, as the customer doesn’t need to provide their personal information including emails, mobile numbers, bank details, etc.
In this case, eCommerce will be the clear winner because the products and services of eCommerce stores are visible to a huge audience which makes for a large potential customer base and thus, better sales and profits.
We compared e-commerce and retail stores based on investment, performance easiness, and profits obtained. Although there are factors like trusted quality and physical interaction that make retail stores better than eCommerce ones. But after making an overall comparison and looking at the future of the digital world, we concluded that eCommerce stores are the best way to expand your business and earn more profit in the future since it offers a wider reach with less investment.
However, you can also take another way which is you can opt for omnichannel retail as it allows you to buy products either online or physically through the real stores to keep your customers satisfied in all the possible ways.
FAQs
What is the difference between eCommerce and retail?
Retail is something that can be conducted in a brick-and-mortar store, online, between persons, or through direct mail. However, eCommerce refers to electronic commerce which means commercial transactions that are conducted only through the internet.
How owning an online store is better than physical stores?
Owners of the online stores can sell and ship their products and services to a large number of people with fewer investments as buying a website is easier and more economical than buying a physical store.
What is the biggest challenge faced by eCommerce?
One of the most significant challenges faced by eCommerce is the security issue. Ecommerce involves a great deal of personal information and even a small technical issue can create huge damage to a business’s operations and image.
What is a retail store?
The most common example of a retail store is the conventional brick-and-mortar stores like Walmart, Best Buy, etc. However, retailing as a whole includes goods or services sold through stores, kiosks, or even on the internet.
Arbaz Sayed
