E-commerce plays an increasingly important role in the way in which products and services are purchased.
E-commerce systems such as a website can be used to market and sell to customers, and to provide after-sales support. E-commerce can also be an important part of strengthening relationships and improving the efficiency of your dealings with suppliers and other key trading partners.
Benefits of selling online
Selling online has a number of advantages over selling by conventional methods, including:
- Relatively low set-up and operational costs. You don’t need to pay shop assistants, rent high-street premises, or answer a lot of pre-sales queries.
- Quickly process orders & reduce costs; Customer orders can automatically come straight into your order database, without the need for any manual data entry.
- Reach a global audience.
- Compete with larger businesses by being able to open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
- Receive payments quickly from online transactions.
- Attract new customers who would not normally have been able to investigate your type of high-street outlet.
- Enjoy the benefits of being able to easily view and compare shopping trends.
- Use your online shop as a catalogue for existing customers.
Online selling will work best for you if you have:
- Defined products or services that can be sold without human intervention in the sales process.
- Fixed prices for all types of potential customers.
- Products or services that can be delivered within a predictable time-frame.
Avoid online pitfalls
Customers will be put off by:
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unprofessional designs
- websites that appear unsecured or dishonest
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out-of-date or incorrect information
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difficult and confusing site navigation and purchasing processes
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poor order fulfilment and late delivery
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lack of customer support
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lack of vital ordering information (payments accepted, returns, deliveries etc.)
Remember – when selling through an online shop, you don’t normally have any personal contact with your customers, so you need to try harder to make sure they can find the information easily without your help. Clear product descriptions, prices and estimated delivery times will help them feel secure in purchasing from your website.