our modern era, e-commerce has witnessed widespread spread and has become an important entity used by major sectors and commercial companies because of the huge sales numbers it achieves, amounting to billions of dollars annually.
If you are planning to start your first online store or you are thinking about moving and expanding your current business into the world of e-commerce, you must learn about the importance of e-commerce and how it can contribute to increasing your profits, expanding your business horizons, and gaining more customers.
What is e-commerce
E-commerce is the process of buying, selling, and exchanging products or services over the Internet, so that all money transfers, commercial and government transactions, and trading in securities and digital currencies are accomplished over the Internet without the need for any physical presence of money, the customer, or even the store.
E-commerce has many forms. It may be between one individual and another, or between one company and another, or between an individual and a company or a government. There are also various ways in which you can display products online, the most prominent of which are:
- E-commerce platforms, such as Amazon, eBay, etc.
- Custom websites, by programming a website for your online store with the help of specialized programmers.
- Content management platforms , perhaps the most prominent of which are WordPress (with the distinctive WooCommerce add-on ), Shopify, BigCommerce, and others.
- Social media and mobile applications.
Encouraging statistics about e-commerce
- In 2021, 2.14 billion people around the world made purchases online, with global e-commerce revenues reaching nearly $4.9 trillion, and 54.8% of these sales were made via mobile devices.
Revenues are expected to rise to $6.4 trillion by 2024, and may reach $8 trillion by 2026. - Statistics also showed that during the fourth quarter of 2022, each online shopper spent approximately $3 per visit to a store or commercial platform. Food and beverage categories were the most spent category per visit, reaching $4 on average.
- Some statistics also indicate that 36% of Internet users search for products through online stores.
The importance of e-commerce
Many people wonder whether moving to the world of e-commerce is really feasible. In fact, it is definitely the right move at the present time. Why might you wonder? Well, here are some of the most important golden points that clearly indicate the necessity of moving to the world of e-commerce without waiting or thinking.
Reduce startup costs
One of the most prominent obstacles facing any start-up business is securing start-up capital, which includes fixed assets, such as real estate and the tools and equipment needed for the store.
Well, all of these elements are very limited or even non-existent in the world of e-commerce . All you need to establish an online store is to reserve cloud hosting , secure a domain name for the store, and design the store through content management platforms, such as adding WooCommerce to the WordPress platform.
Save a lot of time and effort
In your online store, any product, wherever it comes from, will be one click away from the consumer without the need for the hassle of leaving the house, shopping, putting effort into searching, and wasting time. This is what attracts many customers and makes them prefer online shopping over traditional shopping.
As for you, this advantage represents saving a lot of time needed to organize, arrange, price, and archive products, in addition to the time and effort of conducting periodic inventories, sales and profit statistics, and other things that you can do in your online store in very simple steps and without any significant effort.
Less business risks
E-commerce reduces many of the potential risks to which traditional stores are exposed, such as emergency incidents such as fires, theft, damage or stagnation of products, and the resulting financial losses.
In addition, the importance of e-commerce in reducing the risk of product damage comes from one of its most prominent types, which is retail chain selling. This type of e-commerce does not require you to purchase any products or have a warehouse for your store at all.
All you have to do is activate and link the order channels with the stores or companies whose products you want to display, then display those products on your store. When the customer orders that product, he pays for it and the order is sent directly to the parent manufacturer. You can then either receive the product yourself and then send it to the customer. Or send it from the company to the customer directly through special delivery channels.
You will find such a great delivery feature on WooCommerce plugin and you can easily implement it in your WordPress store.
Entering a new market and new customers
The importance of e-commerce lies in the ease of spreading the brand and the speed of reaching new customers. The Internet is within everyone’s reach, and by using the right marketing strategies, any product becomes in the eyes of millions of customers every moment.
Customize and design the store in a different and attractive style
Content management platforms, such as WordPress, allow you to design your online store easily and at a very low cost compared to the costs of a traditional store. Through the various templates and plugins on WordPress, you can fully control your store and customize its form and content to suit your brand, attract customers, and facilitate their purchase and payment processes.
Cross geographical boundaries
Through your online store, any consumer can buy any product from any country without moving from his home, and if your store is based on the retail chain sales system (dropshipping), the producing company guarantees that it will be shipped and delivered to the consumer’s hand, and this is what encourages him to continuously deal with your store.
Expand your brand horizon
When you want to expand your business, you will not need to open another store and increase the number of employees and products as is the case in traditional stores. All you need is to provide high-quality products in an attractive and comfortable manner that meets the needs of customers around the clock. Thus, you can impose a strong presence for your store or brand on the Internet. ; This expands the horizon of your brand and increases the speed of its spread and reach to customers.
Cutting off time limits (the store is open 24/7/365)
One of the most prominent milestones that demonstrate the importance of e-commerce and make it easier and more widespread is that stores and commercial platforms remain open around the clock and daily. At any time, day or night, you can manage your business from your home and stay in touch with your customers, which increases your sales and saves time and effort compared to traditional stores.
Through premium WordPress plugins , you can even create and set up a smart autoresponder that helps customers, while browsing your store, reach their exact order without the need for them to contact an email addressr or a specific number.
Launching new products that are not possible in traditional commerce
The spread of e-commerce has helped promote many electronic services and products that cannot be sold in traditional markets.
We mention, for example, selling books, electronic files that are read and heard (audio files), and even viewed (video files), in addition to a long list of services that can be sold through your online store, such as article writing services, website design, visual identities, electronic cards, and many other goods. Which increases mobility and spread in electronic markets.
Providing statistics and data about customers easily and accurately
Content management platforms such as WordPress provide your online store with the advantage of keeping a complete record of your customers’ data and products, and you can collect statistics for buying and selling transactions. This information helps you develop e-marketing strategies for your products and attract more customers by knowing their exact needs, shopping style, and preferences.
Broader prospects for marketing strategies for the store
E-commerce provides broad horizons for developing marketing strategies, easily displaying products to customers, and creating advanced methods for viewing them remotely. For example, you can link your store to all social media accounts in very simple steps, so that you can display your store’s products to your followers through their personal accounts, and with one click, they will go to the desired product within your store.
Receive customer opinions easily and effectively
Content management platforms such as WordPress allow you to know how satisfied customers are with your online store’s products and share their positive experiences to encourage other customers.
Through the product and service evaluation system, users can rate them according to star ratings or comments. They can also share and add their opinions and suggestions, which makes them feel like they are true partners in your company and that their opinion is important and valuable. Thus, you gain their trust and continued dealings, and it also encourages them to indirectly market your products.
In addition to the above, there are many technical services that provide you with great services and facilities in managing customer service and creating a support and technical assistance center for your store easily and in simple steps. At the forefront of these services is the Zaitoun service , which is a service that facilitates providing support to customers in online stores.
High security in payment transfers
Online sales are safer and more reliable in terms of payment and money transfer, as they depend on the presence of a third intermediary through which the payment process is made. Every commercial website is required to have an SSL certificate that provides customers with secure browsing and ensures that their credit card data is encrypted when they enter it to complete purchases.
We can now clearly see the importance of e-commerce and the most prominent reasons why customers switch and even prefer and enjoy e-shopping more than traditional commerce. There is no need to wait any longer, it is a no-brainer. Hurry to create your online store now because this will increase your chances of establishing your presence early in the competitive market and gaining more new customers.
