You want to launch your online store and create an e-commerce site? First of all, let's remember what e-commerce is and what are the advantages to launching it!

What is e-commerce and how to launch it?

Also called e-shop or online store, an e-commerce site is a site on which we have the opportunity to order, pay, buy goods or services. It includes: the catalog of products or services, their detailed prices and a shopping cart. It can be defined as mail order selling on the Internet, i.e. a sales technique in which the buyer and the seller have no direct link. Transaction, order and payment are done remotely, via the pages of the website.

Advantages

• Products that are always visible.

Availability: An online sales site is available 24/7! It is thus visible at any time, the schedules thus do not penalize you any more on the sale of your products or your services. Thus you reach consumers with shifted schedules by opening an e-commerce site. In short: customers can order wherever they want, at any time of the day or night!

Targeted advertising: Marketing tools are more than ever at your disposal to make your products and services known throughout the world and thus reach thousands of consumers. You can create social networks for your brand, take care of the design, promote your services and products with photos or videos, generate content ... (today tools like Insta Shopping allow you to sell your products directly through this platform).

You can also do digital advertising with tools like Facebook and Google. These tools are essential in your marketing strategy to reach many potential customers and generate sales without delay.

This targeted advertising also allows you to go beyond your initial geographical area, and thus make your products known and make sales in the world!

Personalized digital showcase: The advantage with e-commerce is the possibility to create a commercial site with a chosen budget and to have the possibility of a maximum personalization... An online sales site allows you to present your articles in your own way, to put forward the products that you wish to sell quickly, your favorite articles, the favorite products of your customers... And this in a varied and personalized way. 

Tip: Your merchant site must be adapted to mobile because m-commerce (i.e. online sales made on a mobile) represents a large part of e-commerce. According to an exclusive RetailMeNot study on e-commerce and m-commerce trends in France and Europe "Mobile boom by 2020: smartphone sales will reach 17.5 billion euros in France, representing + 95% growth in sales since 2018"

• Lower costs

Getting started: The creation of an online store is accessible to everyone today, many platforms offer the creation of an e-commerce site: simple, fast and personalized. The logistic costs are thus less high if you wish to launch for the first time in the online sale. You avoid the costs of labor and the premises that you must buy or rent.

Simplicity: The buyer can order and pay more easily. As a result, the fixed costs for the seller are lower. He can thus make his customers benefit by offering lower prices than in a physical store.

Speed: Online, the choice, the selection of the articles, and the payment are done in a few clicks. While in store, the customer can suffer a long queue or even negotiate with the salesman! Mail order simplifies the whole purchasing process.

• Significant number of users

The e-commerce sector has been booming for a few years, as shown by the latest report from FEVAD (Federation of e-commerce and distance selling). As a result, more and more users are active on the platforms, both to buy and to ask for advice or make product recommendations. Faced with the weight of this ever-growing community of buyers, sellers are increasingly expanding the features available on their online store to stand out from the competition. For example, we see more and more delivery options appearing on e-commerce stores. 

The disadvantages 

Strong competition: E-commerce being easily accessible through the Internet, competition is tough. According to a study by FEVAD (2020): "Last year, the online offer was further expanded with more than 190,000 merchant sites listed by Fevad, an increase of 15% over one year. In total, the net balance of new sites is 25,000, which corresponds on average to a new site in France, every 30 minutes."

Large online sales sites are present on the web, so competition is tough against giants like Amazon, Fnac, CDiscount, Veepee and many others... 

But the smallest merchants sites nevertheless make sales and manage to make their place on the market of the online sale.

• Responding to customer demand: 

No trial: With online shopping, there is unfortunately no possibility to try or test your order. You can't check the size of a particular dress, or a particular pair of shoes, or whether an item is of good quality. 

No real time contact with customers: When you have a retail store it is easier and faster to respond to your customers' requests. On an online store, the response rate is variable and it is easy to lose potential buyers because the response time is too long or the information is not given clearly. We advise you to create a Help or FAQ page so that your customers can find answers to their questions quickly. You can also create detailed product sheets so that all information is visible to consumers. Customer reviews can also be visible on your site to help future buyers not to make mistakes (e.g.: size, material, feeling ...)

Tips : 

• You can organize pop-up stores several times a year to present your products to consumers.
• The return policy is an important purchase criterion for buyers and some e-commerce companies even offer their customers to return the package for free!

• Maintenance costs can be high: 

IT: In case of technical difficulties, it is necessary to have efficient technical assistance! Without training in programming or web development, it may be difficult to solve some problems. Each e-commerce solution has its cost. In some cases, a monthly subscription or a percentage of the turnover will be necessary for any software in SaaS (Software as a Service). For open-source software, you will have to hire a webmaster, an agency or buy paid modules. This is the case for Prestashop for example.

Logistics: Poor logistics management can result in unforeseen additional costs. It is therefore important to adopt good logistic management from the beginning. Your supply strategy for example is a crucial step in good logistic management because a good organization in the management of your stocks will allow you to avoid the stock shortage or a too long delivery proposed to your consumers.

The cyber-buyers are very attentive to the various modes of delivery proposed by a site of online sale because they wait to receive their parcel quickly. You must therefore adapt your delivery methods, for this purpose, comparisons of carriers are available to offer you different types of shipments, with negotiated rates.

Many articles are available on our blog to help you start this great adventure that is e-commerce.

Convinced? All you have to do is choose the ideal e-commerce solution for your business.