Is ecommerce worth it right now?

Ecommerce has been around for a couple decades now, but it’s taken the world by storm in recent years thanks to our reliance on it during the pandemic as well as the emergence of ecommerce platforms and new methods of ecommerce, such as dropshipping.

In this post, we examine the pros and cons of ecommerce.

Why you should start an ecommerce business

There are several advantages to starting an ecommerce business today:

  • It’s accessible
  • It’s cheaper than traditional commerce
  • It’s profitable
  • It gives you access to a larger customer base
  • It offers higher returns on investment
  • It’s scalable

Let’s talk about each of these advantages.

Ecommerce is more accessible now than ever

In your head, “ecommerce” might mean acquiring a bit of inventory to sell, building and launching an online store to sell that inventory from, and shipping every order out yourself.

While this is certainly one way to do ecommerce, it’s not the only way.

There are numerous ways to do ecommerce these days.

One of the most popular is using an all-in-one ecommerce platform like Shopify, BigCommerce or Ecwid. Website builders like Squarespace and Wix also have ecommerce features.

shopify business

These platforms have hosting built in and offer pre-designed website templates, so you don’t need to worry about dabbling in website development yourself.

You can even build an ecommerce store with WordPress using the WooCommerce plugin.

Ecommerce features are also available on multiple social media platforms, including YouTube, Facebook and TikTok.

You can even sell products from marketplaces like Etsy, eBay and Facebook Marketplace.

Dropshipping is also a contender as is print on demand. With these two solutions, a third-party company handles inventory, shipping and returns for you.

And as far as accessibility goes, an ecommerce business gives you the ability to be more flexible with key business functions, such as having the ability to offer multiple payment options.

It’s cheaper

Ecommerce businesses are cheaper than traditional commerce businesses for the most part.

You don’t need a storefront to sell from, so as long as you have somewhere to store all of your inventory, you don’t necessarily need to rent a commercial space to start an ecommerce business.

You also won’t have a physical store to operate and maintain for customers.

Plus, because your business is online, you also don’t need to spend money on local advertisements, such as billboards, local TV commercials and fliers.

It’s profitable

According to data collected by Statista, the global ecommerce industry will reach a market value of $4.12 trillion by the end of 2024.

This makes ecommerce a profitable business model to utilize.

While you do have to worry about the cost of materials and shipping costs, 21.9% of all retail sales will be made online by 2025. Plus, Statista’s data predicts the number of online shoppers around the world to reach 3.6 billion by 2029.

This means the internet has a lot of potential in terms of being able to sell your products and make a profit.

You have access to a larger customer base

One of the biggest benefits of selling online is having access to a much larger customer base than you would if you only stayed local.

For example, reaching a global audience with social media marketing strategies allows you to market your products to customers who live in another state, another country or even another continent.

This is a big reason why ecommerce has such a large potential to earn you more profits.

You’ll earn higher returns on investment

When you bring your business online, you have the unique ability to target customers based on interest.

You can do this with your own content or through paid advertising. For example, Facebook and Instagram ads allow you to customize your ads by only showing them to certain demographics or people with certain interests.

You can also reach your target market by creating content for your niche on your blog or social media profiles.

You’ll build an email list or social media following that are filled with leads you know are interested in your niche.

You’ll earn higher returns on investment as a result as people who are interested in a niche are much more likely to shop online for that niche than the people who randomly walk down the street in your store’s neighborhood or wherever your advertisements are displayed.

Ecommerce scales easily

When you run a traditional brick-and-mortar store that turns into a successful business, you need to purchase a larger commercial space.

You still need to do this with an ecommerce business, unless you want to store inventory and process orders from your own home forever, but with a traditional commerce business, you need a space that has room for inventory and a storefront.

The truth is, when ecommerce businesses see success, all you need to do is get better hosting, if you don’t have it already, and make sure you have enough inventory to keep up with demand.

Why you shouldn’t start an ecommerce business

An online store definitely has its advantages over a traditional store, but we should at least talk about the disadvantages that come with running an ecommerce store.

It’s up to you to decide if these disadvantages will deter you from starting an ecommerce business:

  • Shipping inventory creates complications
  • Technical hurdles
  • New security threats
  • More competition to deal with

Shipping

Traditional stores are easy when it comes to sales and transactions: a customer places an item into the shopping cart they’re lugging around, brings it up to a cash register, pays for it, then leaves the store with their new purchase. All you need to do is ensure you provide exceptional customer service throughout this process.

Online shopping throws a wrench in this process and makes it much more complicated.

Once your customer places an order, you now have to process it.

This involves figuring out which shipping service to use, figuring out how to charge customers for shipping, packaging the order properly so it survives shipping, creating a shipping label and getting the package to your shipping courier.

packing order
Source

If the item arrives damaged, you now have to deal with rectifying that issue and possibly processing a return.

You can avoid shipping issues by dropshipping or using a print-on-demand service, but for all other types of ecommerce, processing orders and returns is likely where the majority of your time will go.

This also means you lose out on that personal connection you make with a customer.

When you have a traditional store, you get the opportunity to speak face to face with your customer and make a connection related to your niche about whatever it is they’re buying from your store.

With an ecommerce business, most customers don’t communicate with a store unless there’s an issue.

Technical hurdles

Traditional stores have computer systems for inventory management, accounting, employee management and security systems, but online businesses rely on technology for a lot more than that.

You’ll need a website with ecommerce capabilities and will need to figure out how to build that website and use the ecommerce features of whatever platform you choose.

Getting an ecommerce business is a lot easier to do these days, but these technical hurdles may be difficult for you to overcome if you’re not used to dealing with technology outside of the small handful of apps you use on your phone.

New security threats

A brick-and-mortar store can get robbed. Even the credit/debit card machines you use can be hacked.

However, ecommerce businesses come with security threats that can bring down your entire business.

These include hacks and DDoS attacks that threaten your website, and hacks that target your social media accounts.

And because you’ll likely be handling your online store on your own for quite some time, you’ll also need to handle security threats on your own.

You can use a website security company like Sucuri to catch malware and block DDoS attacks, but digital security is a lot different from break-ins at a physical location. You can’t just call the police and share security footage with them.

In most cases, dealing with security threats to your website and social media accounts means locking the hacker out and cleaning up whatever mess they left.

Most get away scot free.

More competition

A traditional store has its fair share of competition, whether it’s from other stores like it in its area or from its neighbors.

However, because ecommerce businesses have the ability to reach global audiences, they also have to deal with competition from all around the world.

Your best bet as an ecommerce business is to optimize marketing strategies by improving your marketing efforts, using advanced ecommerce marketing strategies, and using advanced marketing and sales strategies altogether.

Is ecommerce worth it?

Ultimately, you need to decide for yourself if the advantages of ecommerce outweigh its disadvantages.

But if you ask us, yes, ecommerce is completely worth it, especially with the internet being as dominant as it is today.

There’s just too much potential for sales when you open your business to the entire world.

If you want an easier time getting started, use an all-in-one ecommerce platform like Shopify or BigCommerce.

These platforms handle hosting for you and have pre-designed templates you can use. This takes care of some of the biggest technical hurdles you’ll face, including web design, performance and security.

If you’re worried about processing orders, consider getting into dropshipping or print on demand instead of processing your own inventory.

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