Not everyone that has a company has jumped on the online portal bandwagon. In fact, quite a few have been adamant about remaining traditional when it comes to how they operate their business. Those who have not yet made the leap are actually losing out on the many opportunities that being online presents.
For starters, more than 80% of people in the US use the internet on a regular basis. Add to that the fact that a lot of them actually do comparison shopping online before deciding on an item to buy, and companies who are selling online have seen a surge in revenues during the holiday season by as much as 25%. It has also been seen that more and more people will be doing a lot of their purchasing from online entities in the coming years.
If you are still not convinced, here are a few more reasons why having an online portal should be greatly considered.
- Visibility – being online lets you reach markets that you never thought possible in the past. In fact, it opens up numerous opportunities to sell to markets that want your products but don’t know where to find them. If you are not thinking of creating an e-commerce site however, your online presence can still give you the kind of visibility that other mediums cannot give you and at a fraction of the cost too.
- Interaction – another reason why a few companies find being online beneficial to their business is that they can get to interact with their market. This allows them to not only find out what their customers want and need, but also what they think about the company, the products that are being sold, and what their competitors are doing. You get invaluable information from being online since people often love to comment and give feedback when they have the internet as a shield of anonymity. While you do need to take some of the suggestions and comments with a grain of salt at times, these are still crucial to how you produce and sell products to your market.
- 24/7 Sales – you cannot expect to man your traditional store 24 hours a day, and 7 days a week, but an online store can help you sell your products 24/7. You don’t need to monitor your site to ensure that you can facilitate these sales since you will get email and text notifications (depending on what system you use, that is) whenever an order goes through, so you can take care of any deliveries the next day. This is what allows you to generate revenues that you never expected to before since you can now sell to people who make spur-of-the-moment purchases late at night.
- Do Business Anywhere – as long as your products can be shipped to anyone anywhere, and you have access to your online portal, you can still conduct business while you are away from home. If you are looking to travel but cannot do so because you need to watch the store, you can do so now without having to worry too much about not making any money while you are away. You can continue selling your products via your online portal, and you can rely on a few of your personnel to take care of deliveries and shipping while you are away.
