The Benefits of E-Commerce: Why Your Business Needs an Online Store

Since the dawn of the internet, many online companies have been seizing the power of e-commerce to help grow their business. With the ability to reach millions of customers worldwide, improve your brand image and bring in extra revenue, having an online store is quickly becoming a must have for businesses.

If your business doesn’t have an online store, then you’re missing out on the many benefits of e-commerce. No matter what you sell, or where you sell it, almost every business can benefit from having an online store.

Don’t believe us? Here are the top reasons why your business needs an online store today.

Improve Your Search Engine Visibility

The first benefit of having an e-commerce store is the instant improvement in your search engine visibility. When you make an online store, you’ll have to make an individual product page for every item you sell. Although this might sound tedious and a lot of hard work, the benefit is you’ll be able to rank for a lot of new keywords.

By having an individual product page for every item you sell, you’ll be able to target more individual keywords that will bring you more traffic. As a rule of thumb, most web pages on a website only target 1 or 2 keywords. If you add hundreds of new product pages to your website, then you could potentially bring in thousands of new customers a month.

Not only will these individual product pages increase the chances that people find your website, but it also allows users to share your pages with their friends through social media. Sharing these individual product pages on social media and other websites help drive more traffic and build up your website’s authority.

Reach New Customers

With an increase in your search engine visibility and rankings comes an increase in customers. Isn’t this what every business wants? As you probably know, more customers usually equals more profit. Not only do e-commerce stores attract new customers to your website, but they also allow you to sell to customers you never thought was possible.

Perhaps you’re a national business which mainly sells in the United Kingdom. Why limit yourself to just the UK? With an online store, you could be reaching thousands of new customers across Europe and even America. Having an online store allows you to tap into the international market with little effort.

By targeting new keywords that you didn’t use to, such as brand names, product names and item names, you can attract hundreds of new customers from all over the world. Not only does this increase your revenue, but it also helps improve your company’s image.

Improves Brand Image

One of the biggest benefits of e-commerce stores is the wonders it does for your company’s image and brand. If a potential customer is searching for a product and lands on your website, then the chances are they are looking to buy it. If you don’t have an online shop and require the customer to come into your store, then they’ll be disappointed and most likely look elsewhere.

If one of you competitors has an online store and you don’t, then they instantly look better. Having an online store not only makes your company appear modern and up to date, but it also shows that you listen to customers.

Accepts Multiple Payment Methods

How many times have you had to turn someone away because you don’t accept a particular type of credit card? By allowing your customers to pay with different payment methods, you increase the chances of getting a sale.

When customers shop in store they are often limited to two payment methods, card or cash. One of the benefits of having an e-commerce store is the ability to accept multiple payment methods. Many customers around the world have PayPal and is regarded as one of the safest payment methods available. Since they only deal with online payments, you need an online store in order to use them.

But it’s not just PayPal that’s popular. Ever since the launch of Bitcoin in 2009, many online retailers and businesses have started to accept these new “cryptocurrencies” from customers. By accepting more than just the standard card and cash payment methods you naturally attract more customers to your business.

Brings In More Revenue

One of the most obvious benefits of having an e-commerce store is the fact that it brings in extra revenue. Maybe your business is doing fine at the moment with the amount of clients and sales it has. But what if you could get hundreds of new customers for just a small investment? The economic decision would be to do it.

It might sound like a lot of extra work, but you’d be surprised. Not only would you keep your current clients and customers but all your new online customers would be dealt with automatically. The beauty of having an online store is how almost everything is done for you. The customer buys the product online, and everything is processed automatically including payment, invoices, and receipts. All you have to do is make sure you send the item to their address as soon as possible!

Leave It to the Professionals

Now you know about all the benefits of e-commerce, it’s time to get your slice of the market. Without an online e-commerce store, you could be potentially missing out on hundreds if not thousands of customers a month.

With the internet playing a massive role in the way people shop nowadays, having a strong online presence and e-commerce store and essential for every business.

If you need a custom e-commerce store built for your business, then we can help. Here at Purplebox Digital, we’ve developed numerous online stores for a variety of clients to help them harness the power of selling online. To see how we can help you take your business online, contact us today.