Have you been toying with the idea of expanding your business and selling your products online? But are you still not completely convinced that it’s a good idea? Read on below for three reasons why opening a webshop is a smart move – as well as a solid investment in the future of your business.
Reach Beyond Your Local Community
Let’s start off with the most obvious advantage of having a webshop: It makes it possible to sell your products to a much bigger audience. Sure, a physical store placed in the right spot in the city can be very successful with local customers and maybe even people from neighboring cities – but a webshop lets you receive orders from all over the country, perhaps internationally as well.
Of course, this won’t happen without you investing in advertisement. But unlike expensive banners all over the city, you can get a pretty good deal on ads on e.g. Facebook or Instagram. If you’re unsure of your own webmastering skills, there are many options through which you can sell your products online besides building and running your webshop completely by yourself. If building it is the issue, there are many great templates out there – or you could hire a developer to help you. If you need more ideas for boosting your business online, Web Retailer is a great source of inspiration and knowledge. For instance, you’ll find guides to selling your products on Amazon Prime and managing sales taxes on eBay there.
The Pandemic Changed Retail
Another big reason why having a webshop is more important than ever is how the COVID-19 pandemic affected retail on a global scale. When the first lockdowns started, consumers suddenly found themselves confined to their homes and without access to their usual haunts. Instead, many turned to online shopping – both to kill their boredom by expanding their closets and collections, but also for mundane things like grocery shopping and ordering takeout.
Even though more and more countries are lifting restrictions, statistics show that customers’ love for online shopping has come to stay. In fact, it’s only predicted to grow even further over the next couple of years. So, if you want to make sure your products are available in the space more and more people are taking their shopping to, starting a webshop and advertising on social media is definitely the way to go.
The Future is Online
Speaking of what’s to come, the tech world is currently racing towards a whole new way of living our everyday lives: the metaverse. To most people, it still seems like somewhat of a vague concept without much relevance to the general population – but if experts are to be believed, the metaverse will soon become a full-fledged reality.
Over the course of the next 20 years, developers will slowly, but surely chip away at challenges such as quality and believability of design, accessibility and preventing abuse. By the 2030s, the metaverse will be integrated into much bigger parts of our work lives and hobbies – and once we reach the 2040s, AIs, avatars and real people will almost be able to perform the same tasks and be next to indistinguishable in the metaverse.
Naturally, this also opens up a world of new doors for retailers who choose to sell their products online. Our best advice is to make sure to establish an up-to-date webshop and a strong digital presence and take advantage of technological advancements as they’re happening. This will allow you to secure the continued success of your business in this new, exciting, digitized future.
