7 Reasons Why You Should Create an eCommerce Store

As of 2023, there are approximately 2.64 billion online shoppers worldwide, accounting for over 33% of the global population. This huge consumer base can be a strong reason why you should build an eCommerce store.

In addition to the expansive reach of online shoppers, developing an eCommerce store offers lower expenses, scalability, and more, compared to traditional brick-and-mortar stores.

These benefits help extend markets, increase sales, and empower businesses.

This article will show you seven advantages of having an online store, along with real-life examples from successful brands – a perfect read for those considering eCommerce website development services.

The 7 Reasons Why You Should Develop an eCommerce Store

1. Increased Brand Awareness

Brand awareness represents the familiarity and visibility of a brand among target audiences, influencing their perceptions and purchase decisions.

An online store can significantly enhance brand awareness by expanding your reach to a broader audience.

Firstly, an online store accessible by anyone with an internet connection, helping you reach customers beyond geographical boundaries.

You can sell your products or services to consumers worldwide without having to build many physical stores.

Secondly, with effective search engine optimization (SEO) strategies, your online store can rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs).

It means that when users search for products or services related to your business, they’re more likely to come across your website than other online stores because the top three Google search results attract more than 50 percent of all clicks.

An online store also provides opportunities for content marketing initiatives, such as blogging, guest posting, and video marketing.

Creating valuable and relevant content related to your industry or products, you can attract organic traffic to your website, establish your brand as an authority in your niche, and increase brand visibility.

An exemplary eCommerce website known for its exceptional content marketing strategies is Sephora.

This global beauty retailer displays various beauty-related content, including makeup tutorials and product reviews.

One of Sephora’s standout content marketing initiatives is its Beauty Insider Community, where customers can interact with each other, share beauty tips, and discuss product recommendations.
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Additionally, Sephora’s blog features expert advice from beauty professionals, interviews with industry influencers, and behind-the-scenes looks at new product launches.

2. Lower Overheads

Lower overheads refer to the reduced operational expenses incurred by business owners, particularly in comparison to brick-and-mortar stores.

In the context of eCommerce, lower overheads mainly result from the cost reductions in several areas, including:

• Physical storefront. No need for expensive brick-and-mortar locations, which finally help you save on rent, utilities, and maintenance costs.
• Staffing requirements. eCommerce businesses often require fewer employees since there’s no need for security personnel or store managers, leading to savings on salaries, benefits, and training expenses.
• Inventory management. Online stores can use drop shipping or just-in-time inventory management systems, minimizing the need for warehousing and storage space.
• Operational efficiency. You can integrate automation tools and software to streamline various business processes, including order fulfillment and customer service.

One advantage of lower overheads for eCommerce is the ability to offer competitive pricing to customers.

With fewer expenses to cover, online retailers can afford to price their products more competitively while still maintaining healthy profit margins, attracting more customers, and driving sales.

Lower overheads also allow eCommerce businesses to invest in other areas of their operations, such as marketing, customer service, and product development, enhancing the overall customer experience and expanding their product offerings.

3. Boost Sales Opportunities

Another reason why you should build an eCommerce store is its sales opportunities.

Online stores enable you to showcase your products 24/7, allowing customers to make purchases at their convenience regardless of their time zones, locations, and business hours.

With eCommerce stores, business owners can also implement cross-selling and upselling strategies.

Through strategically placed product recommendations and bundles, online stores can encourage customers to purchase additional items or upgrade to products with higher prices, thus increasing average order value.

For example, Kora Organics, a skincare brand based in the US and Australia, adds a “Make It a Ritual” section on each product page to display related products that help improve consumers’ skin.
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Meanwhile, The Scott Resort & Spa, an Arizona-based hotel, shows other rooms with higher values on every product page, encouraging customers to upgrade their services and boosting its revenue.
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Unlike physical stores that are bound by their geographic location and local customer base, an online store can go beyond these limitations.

Through digital marketing channels and strategies, you can attract visitors and customers from diverse demographics and geographic regions.

This broader reach not only increases your brand visibility but also diversifies your customer pool, reducing reliance on a single market segment or region for sales.

4. Better Customer Insights

eCommerce stores can provide better customer insights through various means.

Firstly, they can use analytics tools to track user behavior, such as browsing patterns, products viewed, and time spent on the website.

Analyzing this data, businesses can understand trends and patterns in customer behavior.

For instance, if many customers consistently browse a certain product category but don’t complete purchases, it may indicate either a lack of appealing options in that category or issues with the checkout process.

Understanding these insights allows businesses to make informed decisions about product offerings, website design, and marketing strategies to better cater to customer preferences and interests.

Secondly, businesses can set customer feedback mechanisms in the online store, such as surveys or review systems.

This system allows direct interaction with customers to understand their needs and opinions, as well as provide valuable insights into areas for improvement and strength.

eCommerce stores can also use predictive analytics to forecast customer behavior and preferences based on historical data.

The process involves examining past purchasing patterns, browsing behavior, and demographic information to predict what customers are likely to buy next or what products they may be interested in.

For example, if a customer frequently purchases running shoes in the spring, the store can use predictive analytics to suggest similar products or related accessories ahead of time.

Leveraging this kind of insight, businesses can personalize marketing efforts, optimize product recommendations, and even adjust inventory levels to meet anticipated demand.

5. Enhanced Customer Convenience

eCommerce store isn’t only improving areas from the business side, but also the customer side since it helps enhance the eCommerce customer experience.

An online store can offer a user-friendly website or app interface that is easy to navigate and search, allowing customers to find products quickly and efficiently.

Additionally, it can have features such as saved payment information, one-click purchasing, and guest checkout options to streamline the buying process, reducing the time and effort required to complete a purchase.

With accurate product descriptions, high-quality images, and detailed sizing guides, a good eCommerce site also helps customers make informed purchasing decisions without the need to visit a physical store.

In addition to the mentioned strategies, providing instant customer support is another key way for online stores to enhance customer convenience.

Offering live chat support, customers can quickly get assistance with their inquiries or issues while browsing the website or app.

This real-time interaction allows for immediate resolution of concerns, such as order status updates and troubleshooting technical issues.

Implementing chatbots or automated response systems can also further enhance efficiency.

Chatbots can offer instant responses to customer inquiries, eliminating the need for customers to wait for an available human agent.

If you use advanced chatbots, you can even personalize interactions based on customer data and behavior.

They can give tailored product recommendations, offer personalized promotions, and engage in natural language conversations.

H&M is the ideal example of chatbots in eCommerce.

It provides outfit recommendations and links to the products on the website, serving as a personal stylist for stay-at-home customers.

6. Easy Scalability and Flexibility

eCommerce platforms are highly scalable, allowing you to easily expand your business as it grows.

Here’s how:

• Cloud-based infrastructure. Cloud-based hosting solutions allow eCommerce stores to easily scale their infrastructure up or down to accommodate changes in traffic and workload.
• Flexible inventory management. You can have flexible inventory management systems with eCommerce platforms, easily adding or removing products as needed and liquidating excess inventory with minimal effort.
• Website redesign. Flexibility allows businesses to quickly respond to market trends and update their product offerings or redesign the website without significant technical barriers.
• API Integrations. Integrating with third-party APIs for services such as payment processing, inventory management, and shipping allows eCommerce websites to extend their functionality as the business grows.
• Scalable database solutions. Using scalable database solutions such as NoSQL databases or distributed databases enables eCommerce stores to handle large volumes of data and transactions efficiently.

7. Competitive Advantage

Building an eCommerce store is essential for remaining competitive in the market.

It helps you stay ahead of competitors, attract tech-savvy consumers, and differentiate your brand in a crowded marketplace.

Firstly, you can gain a competitive advantage by winning the best eCommerce website design.

Winning awards for website design can attract attention and make the eCommerce store a leader in the industry, setting it apart from competitors.

A perfect example comes from Zulu Longines.

This online store got Site of The Day from Awwwards, a popular online platform and community that recognizes and awards outstanding website designs.
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This recognition not only boosts the store’s credibility but also enhances its reputation, potentially driving more traffic and sales.

With eCommerce store features, business owners can also add unique capabilities that offline stores can’t offer.

For example, you can gamify your eCommerce website to add interactivity like what Black Star Pastry does.
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This food delivery business gamifies the homepage by using multiple cards to display the menu instead of implementing a standard navigation bar or grid layout.

To navigate through the cards, you can drag and drop the cursor or click the arrows at the bottom of the homepage.

Another eCommerce capability you can apply is personalized recommendations.

This feature doesn’t only make your store stand out but also increases sales as over 90% of consumers are more likely to shop with brands that provide relevant offers and recommendations.

Check out Stitch Fix for an example.

This online personal styling service uses a combination of data science and human stylists to curate personalized clothing recommendations for its customers.

By collecting information about style preferences, size, and budget, Stitch Fix delivers a curated selection of clothing items tailored to each individual’s tastes and needs.

Compared to brick-and-mortar stores, eCommerce websites allow you to provide online-only payment methods like cryptocurrencies.

Embracing cryptocurrency payments like Bitcoin and Ethereum can appeal to tech-savvy customers and position your eCommerce store as innovative and forward-thinking.

This strategy can also open up new markets and attract customers who prefer to use digital currencies for online transactions.