How eCommerce Conquers Brick&Mortar Stores

eCommerce — what is that and how can it help business owners? It is something that you and people around you use almost if not every day. And at this time when the Internet seems to take over the world, it is quite a big deal when thinking about expanding your business and satisfying your customers more and more. In simple terms — eCommerce stands for electronic commerce and basically is a term for any type of business that is conducted through the Internet. The most common example of eCommerce in action probably is online shopping.

The graph below shows the number of Internet users worldwide from 2005 to 2017 (in millions), collected by Statista. As we see, the number of the Internet users have increased dramatically in the past years. This huge increase is explained by easier access to computers and the modernization of countries around the world. Also, the increased utilization of smartphones has given people the opportunity to use the internet more frequently and most importantly with more convenience.

Convenience is something people value very high and will always strive to achieve it in every possible situation. People like to make things easy and do their tasks without extra work. And why wouldn’t they? People don’t even have to bother themselves with leaving the house to get food, not to mention other stuff and experiences that can be purchased online. That is exactly why business owners should strive to make the shopping experience more convenient and easy, luckily — eCommerce exists and probably is the best solution to keep up with the trends and satisfy consumer behavior.

With a well-managed store, you can fit into your customers’ busy lives and save a lot of their time — guaranteed customer heart winning situation. The increased use of the Internet is followed by increased use of smartphones and tablets — people are browsing online while traveling on public transport when lying at home on the couch or on the beach, and while waiting for food.

Customer can filter the offered goods and the online shop will show only the desired things and with selected attributes in a second.

Below I have zoomed in at the first glance very basic filters for online store Magebit did — Alice McCALL. Filters are basic and simple, nothing much you think, but imagine all the time they can save. During the sale season shops are crowded even more — everyone wants the same good quality goods for a lower price. We all have experienced the situation, when we spend a lot of our precious time on looking for a piece of clothing and when we have found the perfect match, it turns out that our size is sold out — what a waste of time! While using online store, you don’t have to go through tons of clothing without knowing whether they have your size or not, the online store will just filter out the available pieces in the needed size.

Another benefit that goes with convenience — eCommerce allows you to stay open 24/7, this comes along with an opportunity to expand your global reach, forgetting about geographical limits. You can continue selling while sleeping or on national holidays. You can also forget about the distance your customer is from your actual shop. Your customers might be shopping in Europe while your American buyers are sleeping — you serve everyone, always.

All this is nice, but the main aim of the business is to get as much profit as possible. Luckily for you, when having an online store you keep more profit. Sounds pretty attractive, right? eCommerce site doesn’t operate on physical place and the platform already has the automation process built-in including checkout, payments and other operational processes. Meaning that you avoid lots of costs, such as rent and few salaries. While running an online store it is also easier to make your marketing strategies to work — you can advertise yourself for free and how much you want to on social media. Did you know that 1 out of 5 minutes that are spent on mobile in the USA are spent on Facebook or Instagram? Perfect environment to reach more people and make them visit and shop at your online store.

It is pretty obvious that the number of Internet users will only grow. We see that kids nowadays learn to use a tablet earlier than they learn how to walk. The Internet is the present and totally is the future and now is the best time to enter the eCommerce while the market is not overfilled.