A site for more eyes: The e-commerce opportunity for exporters

Online shopping continues to experience rapid growth around the world. For Canadian exporters thinking about entering or expanding south of the border, consider this: In 2015, e-commerce sales in the U.S. increased 14.6 per cent to $341.7 billion, accounting for 60.4 per cent of total retail sales growth¹.

Admittedly I’m biased, but you should definitely at least consider setting up an e-commerce site to maximize sales. All the facts point to e-commerce as an opportunity that is simply too big to be ignored.

So, what are the advantages of e-commerce, and what obstacles can it help exporters overcome? I’m glad you asked.

Companies need to adapt to today’s customer and the only way to do this is by selling through multiple channels. Making e-commerce part of your business frees you from the geographic boundaries of brick-and-mortar locations and allows you to establish a global presence. No matter where they are located, you can connect with customers 24/7/365 — without requiring staff on-duty at all times.

It also seamlessly accommodates purchasing from mobile platforms, an increasingly vital consideration. At Shopify, 61 per cent of all traffic and 46 per cent of orders from our merchants originated from mobile devices².

Imagine having all pertinent information including customer data, orders and inventory, and accounting all centralized in one space. Add the fact that hosted e-commerce platforms typically integrate with a variety of accounting software, and it can be a real time saver. You can easily access everything you need though a simple admin. Plus, most e-commerce platforms also provide multiple staff accounts so employees can easily login and update information as needed.

We believe that companies need to sell wherever their customers are — online, in store, on social media, anywhere. Having an online presence makes it easier for customers to find you. And e-commerce can make everything from browsing to delivery fast and easy, which shoppers will appreciate.

Value-added features like demo videos, informative articles, product suggestions during checkout and a 1:1 chat tool help you engage and upsell while building a personalized relationship with customers. E-commerce platforms make it easy to respond to queries quickly and make customers feel like they are getting superior service.

Shopify, for one, also makes it simple to customize content meaning you can tell your story your way. It is much like a display window — you can dress it up how you like! This makes it flexible enough to be an effective sales tool for exporters with a B2B focus as well as those offering services. As a first step, many of our customers choose to invest in high-end product photography, as this tends to convert well into ROI from online sales.

And to reach more eyeballs without depending on traditional advertising, companies can explore more cost-effective digital marketing initiatives using SEO, Google AdWords, Facebook, and so on.

While B2C gets much of the attention, B2B is by far the largest growth area for e-commerce. A Frost & Sullivan research report3 forecasts B2B online sales should reach $1.9 trillion in the US, $2.1 trillion in China, and $6.7 trillion globally by 2020.

Research also confirms that multichannel sales strategies create loyalty and result in higher total and per order sales. A Forrester Research report4 states 74 per cent of B2B buyers research and 30 per cent complete over half of their purchases online. And the majority of B2B companies say their buyers spend more overall when they engage through multiple sales channels.

Last, but not least, using a hosted e-commerce service can have significant cost advantages over both fully custom sites and bricks-and-mortar stores. On Shopify, for example, a merchant can set up an online store in under an hour and there is no need to have any previous design or technical knowledge. Companies pay a very reasonable monthly subscription fee — there is very little start-up investment and no need to sign a costly or lengthy lease. Plus, it scales up easily as you grow. SSL encryption ensures your data remains secure.

A quick Google search pegs the average cost of developing a custom solution in the $10,000 to $20,000 range, with the upper range much higher than that.⁵ In addition, you pay for hosting, any site maintenance or future upgrades, and ongoing site security.

While there are drawbacks to e-commerce — you can lose the more intimate face-to-face relationships, for example — the advantages far outweigh them. With the right platform and the right story to tell, you can extend your reach, expand your customer base and dramatically increase sales.

¹ Source: US Department of Commerce
² Source: Shopify mobile usage, December 2015
³ Source: Internet Retailer
⁴ Source: Internet Retailer
⁵ Sources: Include Executionists and Codeable