The Coronavirus has exponentially accelerated the virtualization of life. Experts estimate the transition to an online economy, which would have taken five years under normal conditions, has grown during the last three months.
Areas of our life such as health, education, shopping, news, meetings and remote work have increased their online presence rapidly in the first months of 2020. The demand for products in stores like Ebay and Amazon, has led the latter to hire more than 100,000 new jobs in the midst of the global crisis. Amazon also had to inject 350 million dollars to improve working conditions, including salary raises and improvements t of its distribution chain.
To Invent vs To Reinvent ourselves.
Many individuals and companies wonder if it is time to ride the wave. The definitive answer is “YES”, they will have to do it at some point. The change in consumer habits and the increase in Internet traffic globally [56% in relation to the average accumulated in the last 90 days] are clear indications.
Online product sales have skyrocketed globally compared to the past year. The conditions imposed by the COVID-19 epidemic, such as social distancing, limits on crowds of people and more, seem to indicate that the rise in online sales will be a sustained trend for at least the next two years.
Ecommerce and Online Brand
Is it time to sell my products online or to join an online sales platform?
Large online markets such as Amazon, Etsy, Ebay, Mercado Libre and Walmart are an excellent alternative because we can enter already consolidated distribution networks.
There are still many limitations and they always work against product owners. Clients still have the option to investigate, navigate, and compare products through searches on different platforms and devices. Additionally, through local searches and by using simple strategies we can be connected to specific and geo-localized communities, a certain zip-code or a specific city.
What are the Advantages of having my own e-commerce?
1-Customer Data Base
1-The first great advantage of having your online store is the possibility of gradually building your own Customer data base. A solid customer data base allows us to create social media strategies, channel traffic to our site, learn more about the habits and behavior of our customers and create more engagement. All of the above will lead to a progressive increase in Sales. Your own Client data base will always allow you to have a better and greater flow of data, and the opportunity to make better decisions.
Questions such as: what version of a product sells the most in a certain geographical area? At what time of day do I have peak visits? What are the hot spots on my website? These are questions that help make concrete decisions and optimize expenses. Today we have available data that was unattainable five years ago. New data informs us which are the best or least selling products, and how to duplicate customer bases with related audiences.
2-Branding.
Branding in your own ecommerce is personalized. When you sell through the big markets, it is the brand of the big markets that is associated with Customer satisfaction. When the sale is made directly between the Client and his e-commerce, the distance between the brand and the product is shortened. The customers’ relationship with the Brand as they satisfy a need for a product and solve this need is much closer. As a result customers will return to their brand when faced with a new or related need.
3-You will always have the last word.
You are the “BOSS”, controlling what you see of each of your products and the flow of Inventories. Today we announce this offer, tomorrow we offer free shipping, and the day after tomorrow we introduce this new product. The relationship with your customers is closer so you can implement “cross-selling” and “up-selling” strategies that add a lot of dynamism to the online sales process.
In your own e-commerce there are no rules to follow, you make up the rules!
These are just three advantages of having your own ecommerce, we can list hundreds more.
However, is it really worth for an e-commerce to compete with big business?
Large stores have a global focus, millionaire investments, favored web positioning and development teams working 24 hours/day. These details make it very difficult, if not impossible, to compete and obtain medium and short term results. As long as there is a budget and product availability, in my experience, different solutions can help with new brands and ecommerce. We need to maintain our online presence with our own ecommerce and market a limited group of products focused on specific demands. At the same time, we also need to be present in these large markets.
This strategy allows us to have greater diversification, a staggered and sustained growth, and better control of expenses.
How many products do I need to start my online project?
You can start your e-commerce with six to 10 products. They can be physical and even digital. The type of electronic commerce that you must implement will largely depend on the nature of the products and the type of customers.
Development time and integrations with other platforms usually do not take more than 30 days.
Having your own online store is an important step to consolidate your internet presence. Starting to establish loyalty relationships with your customers, reaching new audiences, acquiring loyal customers and building a Brand strategy are viable marketing mechanisms if we have our online store.
Ferminius
SEO and Marketing Specialist
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