How retailers are selling onlineHow retailers are selling online
Retailers Are Ending Up Being E-tailers
E-tailers are merely sellers who utilize the internet to offer their goods/services to their customers, rather than actual shops. There are 2 kinds of e-tailer, one classification where e-commerce is the only operation carried out by the business; examples of such organisations consist of E-Bay, Amazon, and Dell.
The other type consists of e-commerce as part of their general marketing method, whilst still having a physical, `bricks and mortar` tore, where consumers can still enter and buy the good/service. Examples of this kind of e-tailer are Dixons, Tesco and WH Smith.
Those business who run simply as ecommerce shops have the ability to attain higher revenue margins, due to their established and operational expenses being much lower than that of a traditional store. They do not have to pay any rent on a building– whilst they still frequently need to pay for their Web Hosting, the cost is much less, there are no added rates for such overheads as water, electrical power, gas, etc.
Labour expenses are significantly less, where one person could realistically run a site, plan products and answer enquiries via email; this is not likely to be the case where a full-time shop is included.
On top of these cost differences, an online store can be viewed/accessed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, from only one place. Shoppers in China, for instance, can acquire goods at the touch of a button from a UK based e-tailer, however would have a hard time to make the 10,000 mile big salami to go to the real store!
It is becoming essential for sellers to have at least some type of internet based gain access to, whether this is a website whereby goods/services can in fact be bought, or simply educational, so consumers can preview products and gather info on the shop in general (for example, their closest retailer or company phone number/contact information) before they visit.
E-tailers need to recognize that it is not enough to simply have an aesthetically pleasing web site, which has lots of item information along with fantastic pictures and comprehensive item reviews; this is all well and good, but useless without enough knowledge of Online search engine Marketing (SEM) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in order to target the needed traffic towards the site.
Even something as easy as an appropriate domain can have a big distinction on the number of people visiting your website– they ought to be kept little and succinct, ideally without a hyphen, as people tend to forget these and this could lead to them being sent out straight to your rival! Word of mouth marketing is valuable, so by using an address that sounds exactly how it is spelt can work marvels for spreading positive info.
SEO and SEM practices change routinely, and there is no assurance that any particular techniques will work. The best way to make sure a good ranking on the online search engine is to use an `specialist` like Digital Cornerstone to work full-time at increasing the chances of traffic being directed to your site. Whilst many web designers may declare to be proficient at SEO, there a fairly few personnel currently in the UK with any real in depth knowledge of the topic, so it is worthwhile investing the extra time/money on ensuring your business is well represented within the online search engine rankings, and going after that very important # 1 area.