Emerging market trends have showcased the rapid increase in eCommerce businesses around the world. The industry has grown exponentially in the last two years, especially since the time the pandemic started. According to a study conducted by Nasdaq, it was found that in less than 20 years, 95% of all purchases made will be online.
Currently, there are only two main reasons why people do not choose to shop for goods online:
- Long delivery times
- Not being able to physically see the product
These are both valid points, but they do not apply to the service industry. Another point to note here is that since there is going to be a big generational shift in the next decade, nearly all adults around the world will have grown up in a world with smartphones and Amazon.
While this may seem quite scary for some of the older generations, or ‘boomers’ as they are not-so fondly called, it doesn’t mean that your business needs to suffer because of it. The only constant in this world is change, and you have to change with it unless you want to get left behind. Taking your small business online, even partially, can add immense value to your current business.
You do not need to shut your brick-and-mortar office, close down all shops, and start an eCommerce site for your company… at least not yet anyway.
All you have to do is adapt with the changing times and focus on creating value through a digital presence. If you are still not convinced that having an online presence is for you, you should continue to read the main reasons why you must take the digital leap today!
What an Online Presence Can Do
Increase Credibility in Your Niche
The biggest benefit of creating an online presence for your business is that you can increase your credibility. If you make something as simple as a website, you will be able to legitimise your business instantly. It is a low-cost effort taken that has a high reward.
If you have a store, you can register it as a business online on search engines like Google. You can ask your customers to leave reviews for your brand, which will build on your credibility and increase the trust for any potential future customers. Most people search online and research to understand more about the product and company before making a purchase, and reviews play a big role in this scenario. 85% of the customers say that they trust online reviews as much as they would a personal recommendation.
These steps help service-based operations as well. You don’t have to spend a fortune to create an elaborate and detailed website from scratch. You can work with a web designer and get one made out of the many popular CMS platforms available to enhance the value of your company.
Additional Marketing Value
There are ample opportunities to market for both online and offline stores and companies if they have an online presence for their organisation. There are multiple channels that they can use to spread the word about their products and services and increase their revenue. Social media is one such powerful tool. By investing in online marketing, a small business has the chance to grow exponentially because they don’t have to rely on just traditional and on-ground marketing methods, which can prove to be quite limited.
Small businesses can choose to advertise on different websites and online journals, publications, social media platforms like Facebook, pay for online advertising… The options are endless.
Global Audience
The internet is a world-wide source of income and revenue. You can reach out to virtually anyone in the world in order to sell your products. When you have an online presence, even the sky isn’t the limit. The global audience you can tap into can increase your sales, your visibility, and overall have a positive impact on your company. It offers all businesses an unlimited chance for growth.
Improved Customer Support
There are a lot of nuances involved in providing customer support offline. It is a lot slower and you are restricted by factors such as reachability, store timings, etc. If you have an online presence for your business, your customers can reach out to you at any given point. They can send you an email via your website or even a personal message on any pages you might have created on social media.
It becomes easier for customers to reach out to you and for you to respond to them as well. Queries take less time to solve, and if you are willing to invest in a chatbot for your site, you don’t even have to respond to most of the questions. The entire process gets automated and you only have to get involved if your customer needs personal attention.
Increase Longevity
When you take your business online, you automatically increase its lifespan. Companies become more future-ready with the help of different digital marketing and advertising tools. You have an entirely new and different market to appeal to, which means you can invest your resources into building their products or services to meet the existing demands. It becomes easier to track market trends, develop consumer insights, and focus on creating data-driven strategies that will help your business grow.
Benefits of Taking Businesses Online Today
Now that you know what taking your small business online can do for your company’s future and growth, these benefits should provide the additional motivation you need to take the leap today.
Lower Operational Costs
If you set up your online store for your business, you can greatly reduce your operational costs. Instead of hiring multiple salespeople to promote and sell your product, you can work with digital advertising options. You can reduce costs further by creating an online purchasing platform so that you do not even need a physical store. This reduces the number of people you need to hire as well as the other resources such as rent, setting up your office, and other collateral such as paper for billing, back-end offices, etc.
Small businesses, especially when they are starting out, need to save as much on costs as they can. They need to maximise their profits in order to better establish themselves in their industry. Creating an online presence for your business will help you along your way.
Easier Viewing of Products, Services
If you have a product catalogue available on your website, it becomes a lot easier for your customers and potential customers to view your offerings. This works even if you have a physical store for your company and you want to showcase your products to a buyer. All they have to do is visit your website and go through the range of products, select the ones they like, and you can showcase the products for them.
This also gives your physical, on-premise customers a chance to visit your website, which will help develop your brand image and credibility.
Create a Brand Image
Branding is a crucial step for any small business. Large agencies and corporations spend thousands, sometimes millions of dollars into creating a strong brand identity for themselves. If you are a small business owner, you will not be able to afford this expense, but there are ways you can still have a brand identity and image for your company.
Offline stores especially face trouble maintaining and showcasing their branding efforts. If eCommerce businesses and small-scale business owners make the effort to create an online presence for their company, they have an inexhaustible and unlimited platform to showcase their brand identity. You also have full control of the image you want to create and project on to your customers. It becomes a lot easier to translate the branding into your offline stores and advertising efforts as well.
Access to More Advertising Tools
Working online gives you a lot more access to advertising in terms of the number of tools as well as the reach. You have a global audience that you can reach out to, and there are multiple platforms to help you reach there. Google itself offers paid advertising options, which means if someone is looking for a specific service or product you offer, you can show up on top of the search engine if you invest in paid advertising. It is a great way for you to promote your small business, and you can set the parameters on the level and type of visibility you want.
More and more companies are choosing to spend on online advertising and look at it as an investment. In 2020 alone, nearly US$380 billion were spent on online advertising globally. Once you start researching for a little while, you will see the benefits of online advertising easily.
24/7 Access to Online Store
Traditional means of shopping had a lot of restrictions, especially when it came to timings. Stores opened at 9 am and shut at 10 pm, giving your customers limited time and access to your products. If you take your small business online, your eCommerce store can be accessed from anywhere and at any time. This means your customer can finish their work, go home, relax, and spend time and energy into buying your product.
24/7 access to a store translates to 24/7 access to sales. So, investing in an online store for your product or service will only help you increase your revenue.
There are different tools for small business owners and entrepreneurs to grow their business, as long as they are willing to make the shift to go online. They do not have to create a full-fledged online store to be able to access these benefits. Business owners will be able to see the advantages even if they simply create an online presence.
Sabisuu is a platform that promotes small-scale businesses for services without the exorbitant digitalisation costs. It is focused on creating an online marketplace for different services and making it more accessible for all customers. By joining Sabisuu, you can lower operational costs, list all your services, get verified to build brand image, enjoy affordable advertising tools, and manage your business without using multiple different software and systems.
So, what are you waiting for? Join Sabisuu today!
