The Benefits of Adding Ecommerce

No matter the size of your business, you can benefit from the growth of ecommerce by adding creativity to your product offerings.

Ecommerce orders have grown more than 146% since April 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the face of online shopping forever. The convenience of shopping any time, day or night, without having to leave home has made online retail a multi-trillion-dollar industry.

The web design and marketing team at Twin State Technical Services often describes a website as your “salesperson that never sleeps.” A well-designed ecommerce website is one of the best ways to market your business and increase sales.

Creative ways to take advantage of ecommerce

Ecommerce is there at exactly the moment your customer is making a purchasing decision. Shoppers do not have to wait until your physical store opens and then remember the specific item they selected. They can simply order it right when they find it.

Convenience is the number one reason people shop online. (eMarketer)

While physical product sales are the most obvious to take advantage of with ecommerce, there are some creative ways you can approach them to help you sell more and offer your clients more value.

But for those businesses that do not sell physical products, that doesn’t mean you can’t also take advantage of the benefits of having an online shop. It just takes a little out-of-the-box thinking.

Creative solutions regardless of you size

You do not have to sell a lot of products, like Amazon or Walmart, to benefit from ecommerce. With a little creative thinking, your business can benefit from selling products or services online. Try these creative ecommerce additions to your site.

1. Bundling Products

Often product bundles can accomplish two things:

• Help you sell more products
• Make life easier for your customers

For example, if you sell paints for model airplanes, you could bundle a quart of paint with a paintbrush, sponge, and paint remover for a slightly lower price than if the items were purchased separately. Your customer gets what they need to complete their project, and you sell something they may not have bought from you initially.

2. Prepay for a service

If you’re a service provider, like an HVAC service company, you can take advantage of the convenience of online ordering by offering your annual maintenance plans online. It makes it easy for a customer who might be thinking about their HVAC maintenance at midnight to go ahead and make the purchase without having to wait.

3. Offer gift cards 

Many types of businesses from chiropractors to pest control can use ecommerce to sell gift cards online that can be used toward their services. And if you add a discount option, such as buying a gift card saves 7%, people may end up buying one for themselves to use later for the savings.

4. Sell online books or guides

If your organization is science or education-based you may be able to offer a type of educational book or guide for sale online. You don’t have to write a full book to create something of value that people would be willing to purchase for a few dollars. For example, if you own a local nursery, you could offer a guide, or even a podcast, about plants in your area and growing techniques.

5. Webinar series

Many companies have specific knowledge on a topic that people would pay to learn more about. For example, if your company does carpentry work, you could offer a paid webinar series about how to build an outdoor deck. Adding ecommerce to your site would allow people to sign up and pay for your classes online, and you have opened up a new sales channel.

Is it hard to set up ecommerce?

One thing that holds businesses back from selling on their website is that they think the process is difficult. Actually, selling online can be set up in less than a day. Here are the three steps that you’ll take to set up your website to accept online payments. Here are the three steps that you’ll take to set up your website to accept online payments.

1. Secure a payment processor

You have a few different options when it comes to either setting up a merchant account or finding a way to take payments online that will be deposited into your bank account. The transaction fee varies by company, but it’s generally in the 3% to 4% range. (PayPal charges 2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction.)

Options include:

• Stripe or Square (Account set up usually takes minutes)
• PayPal
• A bank that offers merchant accounts (takes longer, but rates may be better)

2. Install an online cart on your site

If your website uses WordPress, then WooCommerce or Shopify plugins are popular choices; others are available that can be easily added to your website to add all the components needed for an online shop.

3. Set up your products in the cart software

The cart software will typically have a template for each product or service you offer. You add product images, pricing, descriptions, and even coupons.

 

Learn more and join our upcoming webinar!

Sign up for our free online event on June 11th, 2020 from 8 - 9 am.

Need a great website that sells?

Twin State Technical Services designs great websites that not only sell, but also are easy to use and look great on any type of device, including mobile. Find out what revenue you can generate from an attractive website with ecommerce added.

Let’s talk about your website! Contact us today at 563-441-1504 or reach out online.