Is e-commerce right for you?

If you're an internet-savvy person, chances are you've heard of e-commerce. For the uninitiated, e-commerce is the selling of goods online, shipping your orders out to customers. While major players like Amazon and Alibaba continue to rule, there are still niches left to explore that offer a lot of potential.

When you sell something unique and of value to your customers, people will start resonating with you as you grow. With that, here's how to go about e-commerce and what you'll get out of it:

Reach More Customers

Maybe you're already a store owner or maybe you're just starting out. When you have an online presence, you naturally reach more customers than you would with just a physical store. As you engage more with your audience, you build trust and brand awareness. And your website is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week!

Get Started with Online Marketing

When you want to promote your business online, an e-commerce website provides you with links to your products, which form the starting point of your social media marketing. And when you find yourself with happy customers, you know that your links will be shared—creating great publicity for your brand.

Be Customer-centric

If you're already a familiar name in your neighborhood, customers will feel even more reassured when they see you online, and it'll save them the trouble of having to go to your physical store every time they want to buy something. You can even offer incentives to customers who become regular online shoppers.

Connect with Your Audience

When you get SEO right, you'll reach people who might not have heard of you before. And if your website is designed well, you'll get more paying customers. Your website is an extension of your brand story and your values, so people connect more with your brand when your website inspires confidence.

All that said, expect e-commerce to have a few pitfalls. Do critical market research before you spend major resources on your online store. You might want to start with a pop-up store and build from there.

Zoho Commerce is an online, cloud-based e-commerce platform designed to suit the requirements of any small- to medium-sized business. If you have questions about getting started with Zoho Commerce, write to us at support@zohocommerce.com.