Top 8 Reasons Why Your Offline Business Needs To Go Online

It is foolish to ask ‘why does my business need to go online?’. We tend to repeatedly seek answers to this usual question only to make ourselves believe that the right time hasn’t come or we are not ready yet. If you delay the digital adoption, your business may suffer a tragic loss. For traditional retailers, adopting new technologies for online selling through eCommerce development is the future of retailing and a purpose for sustainability amidst the huge market competition. 

There is a lot of saying about putting your brick & mortar shop online or doing business through the internet. But, we do very little about it as the venture sometimes appears too risky or too complicated. However, there are too many good reasons to embrace eCommerce to scale your business. Here are the most convincing reasons to become successful with an online business.  

Prior to exploring some effective reasons, let’s see some stats so as to why you should embrace digital shop that lets you tap into real potential to grow your business. 

In the mobile-driven technology world, consumers prefer online shopping for many reasons. Find reasons in the figure below. 

Figure 1 Consumer preference for online shopping

Some more stats:

• Global online shopping market size to hit 4 trillion in 2020

• 300 mn online shoppers in the US alone by 2023

• 8%  increase for eCommerce retail sales by 2023

• 70% of digital window shoppers is likely to purchase within an hour

• 49% of mobile users use the phone for shopping 

• 49% of traffic generated through mobile phones 

• 54% of online sales to be driven by mobile devices alone by 2021

Figure 2 the mobile commerce growth prediction from 2017-2021

Note: Your traditional brick and mortar store must be optimized with digital store features and it should be optimized for mobile devices.  These two features are essential to enhance user experience. 

Reasons to start doing business online  

1.Better company image 

Companies of every size today are having a successful online presence. If you don’t have one, you can lose to competitors who have already online stores. It is indeed important since customers want you to have one and it decides your prospects. 

2.Convenience for consumers 

The traditional retail stores usually do business from a location either in person or by phone or mails. Wherein customer flow is concerned, it may have it or may not have it. The most obvious reason could be people today lead busy lives and they prefer opting out for visiting a physical store.

The opposite scenario is likely with eCommerce stores. They instantly search for the products and services they want online as it saves them time, money and definitely effort. This has most probably led to success for online store giants Amazon and Alibaba. Smaller business may find hard to find such heights, but eCommerce is meant to support your business success more than a traditional store. By leveraging the marketplace extension for your Magento eCommerce app development, you can build a thriving business with support from Amazon or eBay. 

3.Low costs 

For the unprecedented growth of mobile commerce, people tend to shop online more than what they do offline. It usually means you generate more businesses too. At the same time, it is also a cost-effective option for online shop owners. 

Building an eCommerce business ensures you have the flexibility to manage your shop with ease which is really affordable. Besides, it is easy to set up without spending many resources as generally seen with a physical store. 

With so many choices like social media marketing and maintaining a free self-hosted WordPress blog, you can interact with customers and boost user engagement.

4.Global market reach 

A traditional physical store cannot help you reach the global audience, whereas it is possible with online stores. 

By now, we already know that a large number of people have internet access and they prefer shopping online through websites. Here, you can build user engagement and target the entirety by building your online store. 

Also, the market is becoming bigger as more and more underdeveloped countries make the internet accessible to a large number. We must say it is the right time to improve connectedness and set your business for growth. 

5.Diverse product range 

It is easier to scale with a wide range of products and services if you do business online. Your eCommerce storefront offers ample space to put your products on display. However, the physical store may not give you a similar benefit due to space scarcity. 

6.AR/VR powered in-store experience 

Users are more inclined to have in-store experience allowing them to see things from real near proximity and get extended personalization. With the predominant AR/VR or gamification technology and interactive product shots, true in-store shopping experience is now a reality. It helps with the consumer needs to see, touch or try the product in real-time through mobile apps across Android or iOS efficiently. For example, the furniture store giant IKEA has long embedded AR application in its iOS app. Using Apple’s ARKit technology, users can visualize a product of their choice against the home setting and come to a data-driven buying decision. 

You can achieve a similar dimension with your online store and drive instant buying decisions for buyers which is amiss with the traditional store. 

Getting this additional feature for your online store from a mobile application Development Company is easy. Find the service from Bytes Technolab.   

7.Service open for 24x7 

Contrary to the offline store, online stores can work round the clock. It is fun that when you are resting; your visitor is browsing and navigating through your store. So, you can easily draw customers during the night as well which is far from offline stores. 

8.Better customer support 

The amazement of Artificial intelligence is omnipresent everywhere, which is transforming user experience at an optimal level. With embedded chatbots or digital personal assistants into your online store, customer queries can be solved rapidly. As you solve more customer queries, you can address customer issues faster and concentrate on revenue generation. 

Conclusion

Hope these reasons are convincing enough to guide you through the successful digital journey. It is true that online stores or eCommerce are purpose-built to yield you more benefits than offline stores. If you want to get started with a robust and scalable online business model, get in touch with the right web development company. Hire expert professionals like Bytes Technolab who can help you.