Ever since the pandemic kept everyone inside their homes, people have transitioned into purchasing online. As you’ve seen from other entrepreneurs, e-commerce is a great venture to try. However, you might be hesitating to launch your e-commerce store for a long time now. Will you allow another year to pass by without making the first step?
Launching Your Online Store This Year
It’d be wise to start your e-commerce journey as soon as possible as economic experts predict by 2040, 95% of all customer purchases will be through e-commerce. Try getting on board for your own business before it’s too late.
Here are eight reasons why 2024 is the perfect time to open an e-commerce store:
1. Low Barrier To Entry
Money matters when it comes to business, that’s why many innovative ideas remain etched in people’s minds due to lack of capital. Besides, renting a brick-and-mortar retail store and sufficiently stocking it with goods can be financially draining.
But with an e-commerce store, the monetary requirements are budget-friendly. You can start with a basic hosting plan on any e-commerce platform of your choice. With a small, flat, monthly fee, you can start advertising your products and wait for customers to make orders.
The low startup costs will enable you to channel the bulk of your capital to business improvement.
2. Already Established Infrastructures
With an e-commerce store, you don’t have to reinvent the system. Perhaps, your worry is how you’ll be able to distribute ordered goods to your customers.
Once your customer orders goods online, it’s the company’s responsibility to pick the product from you and ship them to the customer. Of course, they charge a fee for such order fulfillment services, but the price is reasonable for the convenience it provides. Calling on professionals like http://redstagfulfillment.com/ and others like them could help you in shipping.
3. Post-Pandemic Effects
The COVID-19 pandemic changed the business world in more ways than one as the viral nature of the disease made people reluctant of getting into close physical contact with strangers in public vehicles and shopping malls.
To better safeguard themselves from infection, more people have resorted to online shopping because it involves less traveling and social interactions. By opening your e-commerce store, you’ll be tapping into this rich customer base.
4. Wider Reach
A brick-and-mortar store is disadvantaged when it comes to the potential reach. Mostly, only those people in the vicinity will purchase goods from the store, and people from neighboring towns may not even know about your existence.
But by taking your store online, you’ll be able to reach an unlimited number of customers. You may be based in the US, but customers from all over the world could order your goods. Such a big customer base can exponentially increase your profit potential.
5. Bright Future
As mentioned, it’s predicted 95% of all purchases will be transacted through e-commerce in the next 20 years, and this is an exciting trend for many industries.
As of 2016, the US alone already had 209.6 million online shoppers. These people browsed products, compare prices, and purchased goods online at least once. The 2024 projection for the country stands at 230.5 million online shoppers, and you expect this figure to keep rising.
Globally, e-commerce sales have already reached USD$4.8 trillion. You can get part of this by establishing an active e-commerce store and enhancing customer experience to exceptional standards.
6. More Business Models To Choose From
By hosting your goods and services online, you can operate your business in various types of models, including but not limited to:
- Business to business (B2B)
- Consumer to consumer (C2C)
- Consumer to business (C2B)
- Business to consumer (B2C)
- Business to government (B2G)
Such a variety of choices is beneficial since you can tailor your business to the most viable and profitable option.
Also, you can choose from several transactional partnerships like the following:
- Retail sales
- Wholesale
- Dropshipping (selling products manufactured and shipped by a third party)
- Subscription (charging periodic fees to customers for access to software or websites)
- Digital products such as courses, templates, and video games
- Services such as online coaching and telehealth
7. Abundance Of Tutorials
If you know your way around the web, you can find incredible information on how to start and manage e-commerce stores to ensure maximum profitability. Indeed, you can find free written and video tutorials on nearly every aspect of your online business.
Here are some of the things you should learn:
- Popular e-commerce platforms and how to choose the best one for your business
- How to set up an e-commerce website
- How to invest in Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Choosing themes and templates
- Adding products to your online store
- Basics of electronic fund transfers
- How to advertise your products
- How to improve customer satisfaction
- How to optimize your e-commerce store for mobile devices
8. Great Work-life Balance
An e-commerce store gives you more control over your working hours. Whether you’re the early bird or the night owl, e-commerce has got you covered.
The setup stage can consume a considerable chunk of your time, but once everything’s set up, maintenance should not be an issue. You may never need to spend more than two hours daily on your online store.
As such, you can work from anywhere, especially if you travel a lot. You can also maintain your full-time job and use an e-commerce store as a part-time gig.
What about being your own boss and never having to report to anyone? It’s the advantage of having your platform.
To Wrap It Up
Nothing should stop you from creating your e-commerce store this year as the advantages of this move are evident. Even if you run a physical store, the importance of having an online presence can’t be overemphasized.
In the coming years, hosting your goods online might become compulsory rather than optional, if you’re to survive the highly competitive business world. The earlier you start, the better your chances of thriving. A large percentage of business-minded individuals utilize portals like Store Coach to buy, sell, build e-commerce stores. For over a decade Store Coach has helped level the playing field in the world of eCommerce by offering free training that teaches entrepreneurs how to compete with the major online retailers
