Why Your Business Needs An E-Commerce Website?

The way businesses work has changed dramatically due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to social distancing, businesses that relied on having a crowd of people together like restaurants, cinemas and sporting events suddenly shut down, making millions of people jobless overnight.On the flip side, many businesses have thrived due to the lockdown. Many others have started to provide goods and services that are available at the customer’s doorstep with the help of eCommerce websites. The only way to do it is through the power of eCommerce website development . As an increasing number of people work from home, businesses have modified their Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) to include eCommerce in the mix. In fact, with many governments banning businesses like eat-in restaurants, cinemas, malls and sporting events, all of this is now being done online- food delivery aggregator apps have partnered with restaurants to deliver takeout food across the city, clothes retailers are focusing more on their eCommerce websites, services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and others have made cinemas irrelevant and sporting events are now held live without a single ticket being sold.All this leads to one question- how are these businesses reinventing themselves to go online? For some, it’s quite easy- subscribe to a service and you’re done; for others like those selling things, they have had to focus more on their eCommerce websites. Many small and medium businesses, who relied on word-of-mouth and goodwill to get sales, are now forced to align their businesses to go online.With this, there has been a big demand for specialized skills like that of eCommerce web designers, eCommerce web developers, graphic designers, social media marketers, copywriters/content writers and so on.

Why do businesses need an eCommerce website?

It is a matter of survival. No one knows what the future holds. With the work-from-home trend at its peak and people-gathering restrictions at most places, businesses are forced to get online and compete on a level playing field. Old family-run businesses now compete with startups that may sell the same or similar products at extremely competitive rates.Though some businesses take the shortcut of selling their wares on established eCommerce marketplaces, there are always others who may be reselling your products or selling lower-priced products on the same platform.The only way to retain your goodwill and take complete control of your products is by getting an eCommerce website developed from scratch or revamp your existing eCommerce website.

What goes into making an eCommerce website from scratch?

This depends on how many products you sell- the more the products, the more time, effort and money it will take to get the website up and running.There are many more factors of website development you have to consider-

We won’t go into detail. Each of these factors require the services of professionals. This is not considering the cost of maintaining the website, where you will need an SEO executive, content writer, web designer and eCommerce manager to run the whole eCommerce website division.

How long will it take my eCommerce website to bring me profits?

That depends on many factors like,

1. Competition

It would be safe to say, there is cut-throat competition in every business niche. If you are a startup furniture manufacturer competing with IKEA, you may have low levels of eCommerce orders initially. On the other hand, if you are a medical device seller, you could get good online sales as your product is a health necessity.

2. Website traffic

If your website is easily found online and gradually gets a lot of traffic, you can expect good conversions slowly but surely. Getting the traffic to your website is the hard part- you have to make your website user-friendly, ensure it adheres to the latest SEO guidelines and is marketed well amongst your target audience. Realistically, getting organic website traffic will increase gradually, with all of you and your teams’ efforts.

3. Unique products

Are you selling what everyone else is selling? What is unique about your products? You have to ask these questions to yourself to stay a step ahead of your competition. For example, you can sell the latest trendy T-shirts in the market at a rate that isn’t available anywhere, getting you good brand awareness, traffic and conversions.

4. Marketing strategy

This is the hard part, you have to get your target audience to know you are online. To start with, you can SMS/email them the same or offer some discounts that will entice them to buy online. You also need to be active on social media, post interactive and interesting content to increase followers and redirect them towards your website.

5. The investment made

All of the above isn’t possible if you do not have a sizable budget. You cannot run your website half-heartedly. You have to invest in hiring an experienced SEO executive, digital marketer, website designer, website developer and graphic designer to work together in making a website and promoting it in the best way possible.Remember, patience is the key here. It might take months (or even years) to get some kind of profits from your eCommerce website, but a step in the right direction can take your business to heights you never imagined.

Wrapping Up

Getting a website made is akin to opening a new branch for your business. The eCommerce website development industry is, therefore, gaining a lot of ground across the world. There will be many expenses you will have to bear while getting the website up and running,some will be expected while others may be unexpected expenses. Whatever happens, be patient and committed to the cause of getting your website made. If you want to get this done but do not have the time to do so, it is best to hire experts who will guide you to take your eCommerce website to a benchmark you dreamt of. Rentech Digital has done this for many of their clients, is the next one you?