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In today's reality, marked by major changes in our ability to travel or serve our customers in person, the idea of joining the online sales channel appears to be one of the few options to maintain our activity as small and medium-sized businesses.
We know that the digital world has many facets and that it can seem a bit confusing and uncertain when we have been used to interacting with clients face to face for a long time. For this reason, we want to share with you 3 advantages and 3 disadvantages that we believe the world of online sales has for an SME, so that you have more information when it comes to taking this leap.
You won't be surprised to read that online commerce experienced explosive growth during phone number in philippines 2020. According to Smart Decisions, it grew in 8 months more than was predicted for the next 4 years. This could be a direct consequence of travel restrictions, the good thing is that according to the CCS, 74% of consumers intend to stop going to shopping malls to make their purchases in the future, that is, online shopping is here to stay.
On the other hand, retail sales decreased by 19% between March and August 2020 and according to Accenture, 79% of Chileans plan to continue shopping in local stores, and 85% plan to buy more locally sourced products, that is, consumers are looking to consume more responsibly with the environment, an objective that is far from what large stores can offer them. In short, your potential customers are increasingly getting used to making their purchases through online portals and are looking for micro and small businesses to meet their needs. What are you waiting for to reach them through digital commerce?
Disadvantage Number 1: “We need to acquire knowledge of the digital world.”
To sell your products through digital channels, it will be important for you to go through an adaptation process. The differences between selling in person and selling online are countless and you will have to acquire knowledge that will allow you to make the most of this new way of selling.
In this process, it is important to ask yourself questions such as: What digital tools should I acquire to reach my clients? What alternatives do I have to offer my clients now that I am not seeing them face to face? It will be important to establish payment methods that are appropriate for online sales.
You will also have to choose the distribution channels to use to reach them, and this decision will require you to learn how to use different platforms, such as social networks. You will have to ask yourself: Where can I find my client on the Internet? Where does my client find products? For younger people, it may be easier to incorporate the use of these platforms, but many times you will have to invest time in training yourself to use them correctly.
Advantage Number 2: “Reduce and decrease costs.”
One of the biggest problems with maintaining a physical store is the high fixed costs that must be incurred to keep it running: renting an office, warehouse or commercial premises, paying electricity and water bills, payment machines, among others. These costs are essential in a physical store, but you have an option to get rid of them: an online store. Although online stores do not have costs, these are much lower than those of a physical store.
To have an online store you can create a website that includes product selection, a shopping cart and online payment methods or join a marketplace, any of the options can have very low prices, even under $10,000 pesos per month. In addition to this, to have a good online presence you have to be part of social networks, which are free unless you want to generate advertising. Without a doubt, there is no way to go wrong when comparing costs, the online store is definitely cheaper.
Disadvantage Number 2: “Being there 24/7.”
While you can save a lot of fixed costs by leaving physical stores aside, there is something you cannot escape: time. A person spends an average of two and a half hours a day on social networks and, in Chile, according to the study “El Chile que se viene” (The Chile that is coming), published by Cadem and Jelly, 68% of those surveyed use WhatsApp constantly, that is, at least every hour during the day.
At the same time, 39% use Facebook and 35% use Instagram with the same frequency. This is a clear indication that it is necessary to constantly interact on social media just like our customers. They demand 24-hour availability, they want to find information easily, they want to see constant posts, they expect to get quick answers, they want a contact number to call and they want to be accompanied in the purchasing process. In online commerce we can reduce many costs, but the cost in time is not one of them.