Thanks to technological advancements online selling offered business owners a whole new channel to reach global customer base. Today, not taking your business online means losing on potential opportunity to multiply your retail revenue. Check out our infographic "E-commerce store vs Brick and Mortar Store" for 14 most important reasons on why you must take your business online:
Infographic by GO-Globe Web Design Bahrain
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Ecommerce vs brick and mortar |
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| E-commerce Store | Brick and Mortar Store |
| Lower Set-Up Costs (Rent, utility bills, and staff are not required) | Higher Set-Up Costs (Rent, utility bills, and staff are required) |
| Targets global customer base | Targets customers from surrounding areas only |
| Low Operational Costs (Completely automated process from product selection, invoice generation to payment) | High Operational Costs (Requires dedicated staff for each process) |
| Easy scalability without any additional costs (Can add unlimited number of products through CMS) | Limited scalability due to space and infrastructure constraints |
| Easy to Manage - Live/Work from anywhere around the world | Remote management is not possible - Requires physical presence at the store |
| Operational 24/7/365 for customers | Operational daily for 12 hours max, excluding holidays |
| Complete product details available to ALL customers through product description, images, and videos to guide buyers to make a right decisions | Impractical to explain full product details to each customer, especially during rush hours and peak season |
| Online customer reviews build brand advocates, which can help to promote the products through email and social media | Relatively harder for customers to leave and share reviews, missing on potential promotional opportunities |
| Offers personalized shopping experience based on the previous buying habits and history | Not possible to offer personalized shopping experience as it is impractical to remember the buying habits and previous buying history of customers |
| Easy to change the pricing and product offers with no additional resources | Whenever a product price is changed, each price tags have to be changed manually |
| Easy to contact customers via email alerts and other notifications | Lacks instant medium of communication to connect with customers |
| Real-time tracking of product inventory and efficient inventory management | Real-time accurate tracking of product inventory is nearly impossible |
| Easy to run advanced promotional campaigns and exclusive offers to a segmented customers based on their buying history | Not possible to run such an advanced promotional campaigns and offers |
| Allows targeting customers who left without completing purchase using Ad re-targeting or email notifications | Impossible to follow-up with customers once they leave the shop without completing purchase |
The benefits of an online store can far outweigh brick and mortar stores, unless you have the large budget and staff that can be invested in both. The main benefit of why e-commerce stores is a must is its flexibility and its ability to reach a global customer base as well as considerably lower set-up costs.
Lower set-up costs for an commerce store means as a business owner you’ll bypass the expenses for rent, utility bills, and many other staff requirements that you would otherwise have to allocate for traditional brick and mortar stores. As you would naturally save a large capital on rent, bills, and staff, with e-commerce you can also minimize operational costs. From product selection, invoice generation, payment up until delivery are all automated through online system.
Ecommerce allows retailers a flexible room for scalability without extra costs and a support to add unlimited number of products through back-end CMS, while brick and mortar stores are extremely limited due to space and infrastructure constraints.
Ecommerce businesses are easily manageable from anywhere around the world and is operational to the world 24/7/365 at large, while brick and mortar stores require physical presence for smooth operation and it can be operational for 12 hours max on a daily basis, excluding holidays.
Through ecommerce stores, it is possible for the retailer to offer a complete product details to customers through product description, images, and videos guiding them to make a right decisions. For brick and mortar stores, it is relatively unattainable and impractical to explain full details to each customer and it becomes a bigger obstacle during rush hours and peak season.
Online customer reviews are an excellent brand advocates that can help to promote products through email and social media, which is a definite benefit for ecommerce stores and not possible for brick and mortar stores.
With e-stores, retailers can offer personalized shopping experience based on the previous buying habits and history and is extremely easy to change the pricing and product offers without additional resources. For brick and stores, each individual price has to be re-printed and replaced manually, creating unnecessary resources drainage.
With e-stores, retailers can contact customers via email alerts and other notification and is possible for real-time tracking of product inventory as well as running advanced campaigns, which aren’t possible for traditional stores.
Lastly, through e-commerce retailers can use ad re-targeting and email notifications to prompt customers who have left without completing a purchase. With traditional brick and mortar stores it is impossible to follow up once a customer is left the store without completing their purchase.
