It’s getting tougher every year to make an impact in the world of ecommerce, yet there has been significant growth. In 2015, online sales were worth $1.6 trillion. In 2018, that figure is expected to be $2.5 trillion.
However, ecommerce is becoming very crowded. Statistically only one in every twenty online shops will sell more than $1,000 in a given year. Yet still every year, hundreds of thousands of new stores are opened. Those that are more successful are more likely to have a brick and mortar presence. This is because of two main factors: firstly, they have the experience with their products to know how to sell them and they also have the infrastructure to support their growth.
That doesn’t mean that ecommerce is going to be easy. There are several challenges that brick and mortar stores will need to overcome to be a successful ecommerce store as well. Here’s a quick overview and some simple solutions:
Online stores need traffic and getting that web traffic can be a challenge. There are several ways to get traffic online including social media, search engines and paid advertising. Some of these are more successful than others – but it can vary from business to business.
Remember that search engines are probably the one source of traffic you can’t ignore but getting to the top of any search engine is an uphill struggle. Only good SEO will help, including:
For every sale online, there are going to be two or three abandoned carts. This can be disappointing. However, with the right abandoned cart technology, you can recover some of these potential customers and increase sales.
Another factor is to ensure that your online shop is user-friendly and that the cart process is simple.
In many brick and mortar stores, there are those little extras near the checkouts which are generally impulse buys. Online it can be harder to display these as they can get lost on the website. That’s why you need to consider cross-selling software.
One of the hardest challenges for ecommerce sites is getting the products to customers. Courier companies don’t always have the best reputations, but it’s the ecommerce store that can sometimes have its reputation damaged when packages don’t arrive as expected.
Therefore, you must carefully select couriers and ensure they match your expectations.
Conclusion
Ecommerce is an important market and brick and mortar stores should move into this area if they want to grow. However, it isn’t an easy market to crack without good online and logistic skills. Ensure you know how to market your online shop and get your product to customers successfully.
Do you sell online? What challenges do you find?
Let us know in the comments below.