Retail is tough. If you’re in the business, you’ll know all about it and despite what people may think, online retail or e-Commerce is equally as tough, if not more so perhaps, than traditional brick and mortar setups. Why? Sales are difficult! Full stop! You’re trying to convince someone to part with their hard earned money in exchange for the product you’re selling. God knows it’s the same with service provision. “Why should I go with this company instead of this other one”, will be the question rattling around the heads of many potential buyers. That’s why the world has sales people and marketing execs and digital marketing departments and social media gurus and so on. 

Let’s concentrate on e-Commerce for a bit. People are under the illusion sometimes that e-Commerce is a magic wand, the solution to all their business and sales woes. “Once we have the online shop going, we’ll be completely fine, a lot wealthier even, I venture.” It’s not always the case. I don’t want to damn my own service provision here but a one and done e-Commerce setup is not always the goldmine that people are led to believe. Can it be? Yes, 100% and absolutely, with the right guidance, strategy, management and attitude in place. Attitude I hear you ask? You cannot, and I stress cannot “fall” into e-Commerce, and expect to sit around and wait for the money to come rolling in! It doesn’t work like that, at all. It requires patience, dedication, and as mentioned the right marketing and management strategy in place. 

If you have decided to take the leap to e-Commerce, then great! Well done, you have opened yourself up to a potential global market instead of the mere sliver of pie your brick and mortar shop provides. In order to get at the whole pie, you’ll need tools, sharp cutlery, like a management and marketing strategy, social media posting, customer service etc. As I’ve said, you may have the nicest website in the world at your disposal, but if no one knows what it sells, where it is or if it even exists at all, then that’s all that it will remain, a shiny box of treasure in a vast unrelenting sea of sand. 

You’ve made the decision to sell online. Now you need to commit. You need to get serious about management of your site, marketing and social media strategies. Then and only then, does e-Commerce not only become the solution but a key to a vast wealth of potential global sales.