Online stores are growing in popularity among both merchants and customers. An online store can be opened as it is or it can support the sale of a physical store.
Marknad offers versatile and flexible solutions for companies of all sizes who want or need to open an online store. E-Commerce has the following benefits for merchants, including:
1. Opportunity to reach a larger market
A physical store enables the service of cyustomers in, for example, the whole of Finland, when tourists choose to shop in store. The idea of โโE-commerce is that it reaches a much larger market geographically, as the customer’s location or hometown is irrelevant.
For example, online stores can serve small niche audiences that are spread across large areas. Many stores that have a limited target group and would not benefit from a physical store, can easily reach their customers trough the Internet.
“For example, online stores can serve small niche audiences.”
On the other hand, e-commerce also makes it possible to serve a large number of customers – also internationally!
2. The company is easily scalable
E-commerce can also start small and grow over time, because, for example, the size of a business premises or the number of people living in the vicinity does not become a bottleneck for growth. Once an online store is set up, new products can be added almost without limits.
Of the E-commerce platforms, Marknad is known for its scalability. An online store built on Marknad automatically guarantees that there are sufficient technical resources for each customer. And the most important thing: At Marknad, the costs are also scaled. In other words, an online store on Marknad costs the merchant nothing when there are no sales.
3. With E-commerce, work is not bound to neither place nor time
In a traditional brick-and-mortar stores, the business owner or merchants are usually responsible for everything from morning to evening. When situations change and, for example, sickness absence occurs, the seller personally must extend more and more.
Running an online store is often easier for the merchant. Online stores do not have opening hours, during which the seller should be present, online stores are open automatically around the clock. The merchant only needs to take care of the daily operations of the store, such as sending products to customers. For example, it can be done once a day when the time is right.
“Online stores are open automatically around the clock.”
4. The costs of an online store are lower than those of a brick-and-mortar store
And since E-commerce is not tied to location or time, its costs remain low compared to traditional businesses.
When there is no physical store, there are no expensive rental costs for business premises. There is no need for service staff behind the counter from morning to evening, and no cleaning service is required. An E-commerce warehouse can be stored in a low-cost space, and work can be done when costs are at a minimum.
5. The popularity of online shopping is growing
Customers want to shop online and they have become more and more used to e-commerce. It makes sense to serve people where they want to make purchases.
Of course, web shops do not exist for the merchants, but for their customers. As online stores become more commonplace, customers have also benefited from them. For example, they can now order home products that would otherwise not be nearby – possibly across the country.
Shopping on the internet goes smoothly and can be done at the right time when it suits the customer best, even in the middle of the night, as no opening hours should be taken into account.
The popularity of e-commerce is growing, and more new customers are finding the online shopping opportunities. Therefore, now is a good time to plan and open an online store.
6. An online store can sell almost anything – including digital products
The range of products already available online is large. Everything from basic goods to more complicated service packages is available. Products that cannot be sold online are few and far between, if such things even exist. An online store can be opened around practically any product, idea or product line.
E-commerce encourages new innovation. An online store can offer things that may not be profitable to sell in a physical store, such as digital products and services.
What is there not yet out there in the world that you could sell through E-commerce?