The online presence, regardless of its industry, is crucial for its success. Despite the advancement of the Internet, some businesses still don't realize that most of their customers will visit their websites before making a purchase. The focus of this part 2 article is to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of owning your eCommerce platform.
e-Commerce's Benefits
1. Own the data
A company's operation can be streamlined and optimized through analyzing and organizing data. In other words, when you have an e-Commerce site, you control all data: who are your customers, what are their browsing habits, what are trending among customers, and so on. So, with an in-depth understanding of your customers, you can make data-driven decisions and beat your competitors.
2. Own the Customers.
Owning database gives you direct access to your customers. You can easily remarket to customers who leave their carts by reminding them about you and staying in touch. Developing customer-brand relationships results in a stronger brand presence and greater brand awareness. By gaining insight from customer data, you can ultimately create a more personal and lasting connection with your customers.
3. Personalization
Customers today want personalized content and seamless experiences, and running your e-Commerce site allows you to customize content such as product recommendations and promotions. You will benefit significantly from this opportunity when your e-Commerce site offers the ability to customize the content for your customer needs, which is very difficult in most e-Marketplaces.
e-Commerce's Downsides
1. Start-Up Costs.
Building one's website involves extensive research and a lot of investment in time, money, people, and processes. Thankfully, e-Commerce platforms such as Shopify make it easy to get your site up and run quickly.
2. Work from Scratch.
There is no ready-made e-Commerce traffic, so you will have to build everything yourself, including SEO for exposure. Everything from inventory to packaging to delivery will need to be handled by you. Your e-Commerce site and brand need to be marketed more effectively to get customers to buy your products online. So you must make sure your website is found when customers search through Google and other search engines. An SEO-optimized e-commerce site makes it easy to buy products online, but a poorly designed website will not be trusted or browsed.
Final thoughts
Establish a Hybrid approach.
After considering all the factors, what would be your preferred method? The best way to operate is your own, not following anyone else's rules. However, this option does require a significant investment in terms of time and money. Wouldn't it be better if you implemented both? You can improve your results by allocating your efforts according to timeframes, business maturity, and markets. The best of both worlds - listed in an e-marketplace and able to run your own eCommerce site. Thus, you can also take advantage of the massive traffic on different e-Marketplaces while simultaneously targeting your customers' shopping habits on your e-Commerce site.
You will enjoy immense growth opportunities if you partner with the right service provider. Get a better start with Zooloo. Our team is happy to assist you with your journey towards digital transformation. Please contact us at sales@zooloo.asia.
- Find some tips on B2B Sales Strategies
- Looking closer at Marketing Strategies
- Read about The Digital Transformation Journey
- Learn more about our “Digital Backbones”
Tags: #CRM #MicrosoftDynamics #digitaltransformation #B2B #digitaladoption #digitalintegration #digitalsolutions #wholesaletradesector #wholesaletrade
