The Coronavirus has also contributed to an increase in social media usage, especially in countries such as the Philippines (64%), Spain (47%), Italy (45%), UK (38%), and Germany (26%).

Which are the advantages of going for it?

So opening an e-commerce is evidently an advantage if we think of the increase of users each year, especially facing adverse situations as the Covid-19 confinement:

1. Allows connecting with your customers that cannot go physically to your store;

2. Opens an additional store to customers that might not know you or are outside your location;

3. Brings a modern touch to your brand;

4. Give your customers the chance to better analyze your product and be more engaged;

5. Facilitates the worth-of-mouth effect over your product, which, if positive, can bring you, new customers, from different channels out of your reach.

Why should I think it twice?

We actually don’t think is a bad option if we analyze the overall benefits, but you have to be aware of doing things in a strategical and adequate way because a bad e-commerce implementation could be worse for your brand image.

So you should prepare beforehand:

1. Be sure to have nice photographs of your products as well as a great description, think that this is the only way for the customer to see the product and should feel safe and sure of what they’re buying;

2. Have ready any calculations of the transportation costs, some of the applications/plugins might directly offer the calculation of the costs depending on the country, but still, you have to be aware of what you’re offering (included, not included, depending on the geographical zone, etc.);

3. Have a careful look at the user experience process, for example, the way they purchase or when they include the products into a shopping cart;

4. Be sure to have online security process and certificates, the minimal thing you have to have is the lock in your URL, but then all necessary local and international seals that verify and give security to the user to purchase and give their credit card information;

5. Be sure to have the capability of attending the users’ online demands, an efficient customer center is vital for concluding a lot of purchases.

These are only a few aspects to have in mind before launching your e-commerce, but once you have everything prepared and if well implemented will give your business a new life and opportunities. Have also in mind that an Omnichannel strategy, one that can allow combined efforts online and offline, would be a wiser strategy because sends your public to different touchpoints.

If you have decided that e-commerce is the step to take, congratulations, it is a big one and also an intelligent one. We can help you not only to put in place the online tools but to guide you in the whole digital strategy, your buyer persona, the user experience steps, among others.

Send us an email or contact us and we can talk through the different options. We’re specialized in helping small and medium companies to bring digital life to their brands in a simple and affordable way.

You can also read this article in español and in français.

(1) Source: The global state of digital 2020 -Hootsuite