E-commerce has fundamentally changed the way we shop. As a consumer, you have probably already experienced some of the benefits of e-commerce, but when you are thinking about starting your own online business, you may be wondering what the benefits of e-commerce are. Here are five advantages of e-commerce.
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Eliminate location and availability restrictions
Internet is known to reach people. This means that when companies conduct their business online, they have the same skills. In a physical store, customers are limited by the proximity of the store and its opening hours. You can access your website anytime, and also the payment gateways monitoring you can do though if you choose the service of exactly.com. In addition, with the rise of mobile commerce, e-commerce has another advantage: it is accessible to everyone with a mobile device. Customers are only limited by the coverage of their cellular network, which goes virtually anywhere.
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Reduce time and money
Bills for rent, electricity, telephone and general office maintenance can increase expenses for physical locations. By putting your business online, you reduce or eliminate many of these overheads. It is also much easier from a logistical point of view since one person can do the work of several people. Take mass communication with customers, for example. Sending a mass email to a customer list is easier than sending 100 direct mails (paper, snail mail, personal, etc.). In addition to customer-facing processes, internal processes are also easier on the wallet when connecting to the internet. For example, transaction costs are reduced because the shopping cart software that customers can use to register for themselves does not require hiring a cashier. And as if that wasn’t enough, eCommerce marketing is often cheaper, too, as online advertising tends to cost less than traditional marketing channels.
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It shows you how you can improve
When it comes to learning more about your customers, a brick-and-mortar store is not up to the task of e-commerce. With tools like Google Analytics, it is much easier to access information about your sales and customers at no additional cost. Would you like to know how a product has been developed in the last three months? How many repeat customers have you had? Unless you keep extreme records, you won’t have easy access to this kind of data in a physical store. This data provides information on the buying behaviour and interests of your customers, which is invaluable in improving your business.
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Accelerate customer service
When customers contact you, they want quick responses. Thanks to email and live chat software, e-commerce businesses have no problem meeting this need. Additionally, these flexible forms of customer service can extend beyond the opening hours of a physical store. E-commerce businesses also offer the convenience of delivering products directly to the customer’s doorstep without having to challenge traffic.
Conclusion
When it comes to e-commerce, both consumers and businesses benefit. An online business not just helps the business to grow but also helps the customer to fulfil their needs which they can’t do in the locality.
