6 Reasons Why Your Business Needs To Move Into Ecommerce Now

Mario Didier
Founder, East Side Mafia

In case you have not heard the latest news in March 2017, Lazada is now selling Taobao products directly on their platform in Singapore.

This is to compete with Qoo10, which already has a large market share of the local ecommerce pie.

Both companies are backed fiercely by large corporations.

Alibaba.com holds a majority stake in Lazada, and Singapore Press Holdings(SPH) has also led a recent $82.1 Million Funding round in Qoo10.

With all these big players pumping millions of dollars into these platforms, there’s no question that ecommerce website development is where the future lies.

Are you a business owner in Singapore that sells products of any kind?

If you are, here are 8 Reasons why you should be selling those products online right away.

1) You will be able to reach new customers through Search Engines and Social Media

Every day, there are millions of users searching for the stuff they want to buy on Google and Facebook, and people reading articles like this.

Imagine being able to tap into this multi billion dollar market, and being able to sell products that you already are keeping stock of, simply by having an online store.

You will be able to increase sales, cover operating costs, and reach out to a much larger audience, not to mention being able to sell your products internationally, with the Singapore Government funding up to 70% of your overseas ecommerce expansion. 

2) Allow your customers to shop Whenever they want, However they want, and Wherever they want

If you only own a retail store, or even a chain of retail stores, you customers have to go all the way down to your store to buy your products.

Imagine you sell women’s and men’s shoes.

Chances are, when your customer’s buy your products, they will share those purchases on social media to their friends and relatives.

If someone in their social media circles feels like buying that similar product, do you think they’re going to wait till they’re passing by your store to buy it?

Of course not!

They’re going to do a Google search, and buy from the first few stores that comes up in their search.

If your online store appears in those results, the chances that you make that sale is pretty high.

This can amount to thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in extra revenue monthly.

The power of social media referrals is something that all businesses can no longer afford to ignore.

3) You probably have a growing social media following, but your customers have to go to your place of business to buy from you.

Why not sell directly on Facebook?

Did you know that through certain ecommerce social media integration, you can now integrate your online store DIRECTLY into your business Facebook page?

Imagine how many customers you can acquire through these channels?

Take a look at the screenshot below, if you don’t know what this means.

memebox-facebook-page

4) You will stop losing money to Showrooming (Important!)

Showrooming is when customers go to a store to view and try your product, and then buy it online.

This has become a great source of pain for traditional business owners, who are losing out big time to online retailers.

However, if you have an online presence, there are many measures that you can take to stop the “showrooming” customers from buying from your competitors, by using in store prompts to direct your customers to your online store or mobile app.

There’s nothing we can do to stop showrooming, but we can stop them from going to our competitors or the online marketplaces!

There is also the latest trend, which is “Webrooming”, which means customers searching and researching the products online, BUT subsequently buying them in the retail store!

By having a strong online store presence, you will be able to take advantage of this segment of the market too.

5) Online stores are cheaper to maintain and have lower running costs.

It goes without saying that online stores are easier to maintain than a brick and mortar store.

Unless you’re Mustafa centre, and have the budget to run operations for 24 hours daily, your business is limited to retail hours.

Few businesses can afford to stay open for prolonged periods of time, with increasing staff salaries, higher rentals, and the gloomy economic outlook.

The cost of running an online store?

Hosting can cost from between $40 – $100 per month, and that’s all you need.

Inventory, marketing and shipping can all be automated and outsourced to third party providers.

In addition to this, you can claim up to 40% of your online store website development through the PIC scheme, which is ending this year in 2017.

6) Customers Just Love Shopping Online Now

According to this report, online retail sales in Asia Pacific is worth a staggering $834 billion.

Consumers are getting comfortable with shopping on their phones and at home, with no salespeople to disturb them, where they can shop anywhere they want.

People love shopping before they go to bed, while eating lunch alone, on the way back home.

Even in the office while at work.

There is a very huge trend that’s been growing fast in ecommerce, and if we don’t take advantage of it now, you’ll be left behind, like the businesses that refuse to adapt and have become history.

Conclusion

Starting an ecommerce store requires a very small investment, and now that the Government is supporting local businesses to go online by allowing you to claim 40% of your ecommerce design and development, we feel that businesses from all industries should be taking advantage of this.

From consumer electronics, clothes, even semiconductor companies are now taking their products online to ride the booming ecommerce train.

Are you brave enough to take your business to the next level?

Speak to an ecommerce website design expert today.

 

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