Balochistan Point Voice of Nation
By: Muhammad Zulfiqar
E-commerce is a perk for both the brick-and-mortar shops and an online store. There’s a lot that the Internet is treating the businesses with, and the pleasures are gonna increase with the passage of time. As a startup, a businessman faces a lot of challenges from obtaining capital to a lack of sufficient budget. However, the e-commerce comes to rescue you right when you face any of these problems. How does it happen? That’s what I am here to talk about!
Reduced Business Expenditure
Like I said before, a startup business is a pain and it gives nightmares due to financial constraints. You can always switch to an online store while faced with monetary hurdles for running a physical store. However, keep in mind that running an e-commerce business requires less but an ongoing investment. In Pakistan, Homeshopping & Getnow are excellent platforms which are offering online selling opportunities to local vendors.
It Allows You Multitasking
You can do a job or continue your studies along with running an online store. The e-commerce work requires timely and not continuous work; therefore, you can get the time out for a job or studies. Even though its open 24/7, you have don’t have to stick around all the time and just need to keep your contacts open for customers. However, you may not be able to manage both when your online business starts flourishing and also when there’s a seasonal rush. So, you have got to calculate your timings and manage things accordingly.
Low Cost of Advertisement and Marketing
Placing an ad in a newspaper or running a commercial on media requires a lot of money. It’s even difficult for established businesses to spend so much on advertisement. On the other hand, it’s out of the question for a newbie businessman to invest in marketing. No worries because the Internet is there! What is more, the marketing on conventional media is for everyone. However, the online advertisement allows you to reach your potential customers only, and that’s worth your time and also more efficient. For instance, you can send newsletter emails to the buyers who subscribed to your website and update your client via a Facebook page. There are other potential options, too, that you can always benefit from.
It Allows You to Be Flexible
Businesses need constant updates and amendments according to the time and demands. A brick-and-mortar shop doesn’t allow you as much flexibility as an online store does. You can always update about the upcoming sale on your main Facebook or Instagram page without doing a lot of expenditure. Also, you can update your cart without actually physically maintaining it and start taking orders immediately.
Attracting Customers Becomes Easy
It’s difficult to attract buyers who haven’t bought from you before. Customers only trust you once they actually buy from you and they are satisfied with your products and services. Therefore, attracting customers becomes a challenge. However, the online sources let you show pictures of your products to the interested buyers without bothering them. For example, you can sponsor your cosmetic store page on Facebook and the interested girls will like it, eventually. When they’ll scroll through their timeline, they will come across your updates and pictures and this will catch their attention.
Bringing It All Together
Online shopping is benefitting local businesses as nothing has done before. Perks, like doing advertisement without spending much and saving maintenance cost, are some ways through which e-commerce has changed the business scenario altogether.
Published in The Balochistan Point on October 2, 2018
