Is there still room for growth in e-Commerce?

by | May 24, 2019 | Blog

Yes, according to statistics, there is room, and the rapid growth is predicted to hold steady. The global online retail industry appears to be healthy, with clothing sales leading the way in 2018. So where is the entry point and can new-comers really enter this massive market?

According to Statista:

In 2017, retail e-Commerce sales worldwide amounted to US$2.3 trillion and e-Retail revenues are projected to grow to US$4.88 trillion in 2021. The top 3 online stores’ revenue amounted to almost US$100 billion in 2017. Online shopping is one of the most popular online activities worldwide, but the usage varies by region – in 2016, an estimated 19 percent of all retail sales in China occurred via Internet, but in Japan the share was only 6.7 percent. Desktop PCs are still the most popular device for placing online shopping orders but mobile devices, especially smartphones, are catching up.

Chart information from Statista

So, with steady growth indicators predicting a profitable future for online retail, what are people buying online? Clothing is the most popular online shopping category worldwide, with 57% of global Internet users having purchased clothing online – which leaves much room for growth. As payments systems improve and checkouts on handheld devices become more user friendly, we are likely to see these trends increase.

How To Join

Entering the eCommerce market is not difficult or expensive. It does take time and creative thinking, but it can be easily achieved and profitable for those who are willing to explore their options.

Dropshipping is a low-cost way to launch an online business. As a business, your role is to promote the product you want to sell, then, when a customer places an order, you send the order to the dropshipper who dispatches the product to the customer directly.

Your store is the intermediary between the supplier and customer.

The benefits to your business are:

No storage or inventory concerns

Low overheads

Low start-up costs

The drawbacks to your business are:

Lack of control over shipping times

No control over product quality

Dropshipping is increasingly popular, even with larger sellers. The removal of storage costs and direct dealing with suppliers can actually benefit your business. Warehouses might be close to the location that you are distributing to, meaning that the items make one direct transfer from warehouse to customer, cutting costs and times. This model works for B2B retailers and B2C alike.

Multi-Channel sales are an important way to expand your business. While you might include an omnichannel marketing strategy to guide traffic towards your website, it is more beneficial to open your point of sale to more channels and bring your product to your customer.

Adapting your checkout to work on multiple devices is only one step. You also need to consider selling your service or product on sites, such as Amazon, or Facebook. Having the opportunity to expand to brick-and-mortar is also important for product sales, as the industry is still thriving, despite headlines to the contrary. Brick-and-mortar retail sales still outstrip online sales by about 61% of the market.

Payments processing, the final and most vital part of your online business, is too often ignored. Despite all the advice and technical means, online businesses are still failing to secure sales because of their carts.

While reasons and rates of abandonment vary across different sectors, the average statistics show that the solutions to conversion could be easily made. In the travel industry, it is a lack of information that sees people abandon their carts more than any other motivating factor.

Information from SaleCycle

To deal with cart abandonment, you first need to understand your industry, then you need to use the best payments service provider for your industry. Their API and UX should be able to be adjusted easily to work for your business and brand, and address the issues that your industry faces over cart abandonment.

For example, a great PSP has the ability to offer processing of various forms of payment, gives instant response and provides a payments gateway that is secure and adaptable. Moreover, they will offer your payments processing for the local market, so if your online business is international, your PSP can process payments in local currency. This is vital to closing a sale, as many customers will navigate away from the sale when they discover that their local currency is not accepted.

Finding your space in the eCommerce market means having the means to accept your revenue. Working with a PSP can help ease the stress of regulations, chargebacks and associated fees. Your PSP should be skilled enough to know how to help you secure your cart and improve ROI fast.

Overall, there is room for new-comers to the online market. Many businesses are focusing on niche markets or emotionally manipulative consumerism tactics. While this is the current trend, the bigger picture shows an approach that recognises these fads and uses them in the short-term will be more successful than an online retailer who focuses on following the crowd.

ECommerce has space for those who understand how to connect different Internet services to provide a seamless B2B or B2C or C2C experience. More than sales, eCommerce is about seeing patterns and joining the right dots at the right time to serve the immediate needs of a fast-paced and hungry consumer market.

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