One of the biggest differences between traditional businesses and online businesses is cost. Due to the wide range of services and hosting packages available for eCommerce, start-up costs for eBusinesses is very low in comparison to a brick and mortar store. The areas where you really see a difference are in financial outlay, location, and marketing.
1. Financial outlay. An eBusiness doesn’t rack-up nearly as much overhead as renting facilities such as office space, warehouses, and staff. Many accounting functions are built into eCommerce software packages that are very user-friendly can be customized to many types of businesses.
2. A traditional store relies predominately on location for attracting customers. If you aren’t where the customers are, you have to spend a lot more on marketing to find and attract them. An online store can attract customers from around the globe, potentially expanding your market by millions of customers.
3. That brings us to marketing. While a traditional store can benefit from online marketing, business owners still have to rely on local marketing venues to get the word out around town. This can be costly and ineffective. An online business often has built-in marketing tools that attract a wider customer base and they’re often free or at a very low cost.
Even if you choose to start a traditional business, it’s still necessary to have an some form of online presence to stay competitive. This will help you service customers outside of your immediate geographic area and provide better interaction between you and your customers.
1ShoppingCart online store software is an example of a company that offers their customers better ways to do business online. Companies like these host online stores in a straight-forward way and without a lot of hassle. The better ones provide all of the tools a company needs to offer a high level of customer satisfaction.
I’ve never really gone all out with the small ventures that I’ve done in the past. But the one that was proven effective on my end was selling and marketing goods online. I’d probably do the same thing on a future endeavor. But of course, I wouldn’t pass up a chance to get into the traditional setup sooner or later (if given the opportunity to expand).
Online business is a fast growing industry and is more convenient for customers.
Right now I’m more interested to venture into online businesses. The greatest advantage is that you don’t have to rent any physical space or look for any location because when online, anybody can just land at your website and view your products/available services.
Online business future is indeed green and promising- right now I am thinking of venturing in an online business 🙂
I agree, online business is more practical especially to those who are just starting and who cannot invest much… as soon as you get the hang of it, you may then venture to the riskier ones. Yahweh bless.