You may have noticed that there’s a certain theme to this week’s blogs. At Canadian POS Corporation, we believe strongly in our ability to provide Canadian business owners with solutions. And that means that we’re committed to helping them avoid problems. As we pointed out in our last blog, by providing POS payment solutions, we help merchants avoid the problems that come with running “cash only” businesses.
In today’s blog, we’d like to round out our series of “Problems You Avoid” blogs by highlighting the benefits of e-commerce. Here are four problems you avoid by selling your products online:
1. Having your hours of operation limit shopping for your customers. The doors of your physical store location can only stay open for so long. Unless you run a 24/7 entity – which not many business owners do – you’re bound to have a number of people miss out because they’re unavailable to shop while your store is open. Selling your products via your website allows you to cater to those customers around the clock.
“With ecommerce websites you are not restricting your potential customers, as they can view your website at any time of day,” writes Laura Morris-Richardson of U.K.-based JDR Group, “This means as a business, you are maximizing your sales and profits. How can your sales be further maximized? You can do this through a range of sales initiatives such as special offers and online marketing initiatives.”
2. Having to change the price tags on a large number of items. Online stores make it so easy to change prices and product descriptions. Any time you have a sale, for example, it’s as simple as updating the website with the new information. In your physical store, you have to replace signage and revise price tags. This, of course, is a lot more time consuming. Heidi Richards Mooney of Women In Ecommerce notes that this is a great benefit of selling products online.
“Another added benefit of an e-commerce store compared with a physical store is the ease in which changes can be made,” she writes, “Take for example changing the price of a product; with an e-commerce store prices can be changed in the back end by simply changing the products’ price field. In a physical store you may very well have to change the price tag on each individual product, the price on the shelf and even your inventory system.”
3. Only being able to sell to members of your local community. Opening up an online store enables you to market your brand to a worldwide audience. It breaks your business free of the limitations set by geography. “You can be anywhere around the world and still successfully oversee your e-commerce business,” says Morris-Richardson, “The essential items you need in order to oversee your e-commerce website from anywhere are; having access to emails, the Internet and phones.”
4. Incurring costs associated with property. Selling your products online does not bring about a requirement for more space to run your business. “The difference in cost can come down to thousands and thousands of dollars,” notes Mooney, “Rent, utility expenses, property tax, and insurance alone can add up fast. On top of these expenses, typically a physical store owner will have to hire many more employees than that of an e-commerce store owner.”
For more information about how Canadian POS Corporation can get you set up with a fantastic e-commerce solution, give us a call at 1-877-748-2884 or email us at info@localhost.