Despite the rapid growth of the e-commerce segment and the intensive development of technologies, not all entrepreneurs understand what is the advantage of an online store for business, especially if there is already an offline point of sale. But, it is in this case that the advantages of online stores are manifested best.
So why does a modern entrepreneur need an online store? Depending on whether you already have an existing offline business, it can be both an addition to it and the main source of income. However, most online shopping stores must use the UPC code or barcodes for their listing items. You can buy cheap UPC codes directly via online third-party UPC code sellers with 100% trustworthy functionality. So it is not a big issue whatsoever.
This is not just a “business card” created for show. It is a complete and very effective sales tool. There are quite a few advantages of an online store compared to an offline store. Let’s go through the main ones.
Table of Contents
RENT PRICE
Renting even a small retail outlet located in a shopping center will cost you several hundred or even thousands of dollars a month, then, in the case of an online store, all your costs will be reduced to a monthly hosting fee. If you look at the average prices on the market, then this is about $ 10 for a regular account and up to $ 30-40 for a VPS .
Even for a site with daily traffic of several tens of thousands of unique visitors per day, the cost of hosting payment is unlikely to exceed $ 100 per month. So the savings are obvious.
LAUNCH SPEED
A team of good performers is able to launch a working turnkey online store in just 2-3 weeks. Moreover, the very next day after the launch, its owner will be able to receive income.
In the case of an offline retail outlet, it may take you more time to search for premises alone, not to mention the paperwork and all the “delights” of communicating with representatives of the local bureaucracy.
REACH AUDIENCE
The advantage of an online store in this case is that there are no restrictions in the form of a street, district or city. If you deliver goods throughout the country, then you will be able to trade throughout the country. There is no problem to receive an order from the capital, and send a parcel from a small town several hundred kilometers from the recipient.
The owner of an online store gets access to a huge market, the audience of which is comparable to the total number of Internet users in the country. The main thing in this case is to single out the target segment of potential customers and find ways of effective communication with them.
CONSTANT AVAILABILITY
24 hours a day, 7 days a week – your store is always available. Even when you are sleeping. Everyone has their own habits and there are many people who simply do not have free time during the day. They prefer to make orders online, and sometimes at two in the morning.