Is It A Good Time To Launch An eCommerce Website?

With internet sales increasing by over 20% since lockdown commenced (as a percentage of total retail sales - Office of National Statistics) launching an online store is both an excellent idea, but also a challenge. If you were to look at the viability of an eCommerce website you'd have to consider who your competitors are and if there is an opportunity to take a slice of the market. Obviously if Amazon is one of your main competitors, and we looked at this issue in our blog post here, then you need to think carefully about your marketing stategy to ensure that you can compete in your market.

Is there any point to launching my product online?

Well having had several months of lockdown there is nothing, but good news for smaller businesses wishing to grow online sales. It proved to be a profitable time for a large proportion of our eCommerce customers and we have seen phenomenal increases in sales for many of our eCommerce stores. With the right product, and the correct digital marketing, then it is possible to make in-roads into your market and be highly successful.

What should I be looking at to sell online?

There are obvious things that have captured the nation's heart during this year of COVID, and they have all related to enjoying being at home more. So we've seen growth amongst our customers in the sales of garden related items like garden furniture, pots and planters, and plants and bulbs. Alcohol too has proved popular, and customised products have also done well.

Products that are niche have also sold well during the past few months. If you can get the combination right of a good eCommerce website, strong marketing on social media, and targeted digital marketing, then you can be successful.

Prim and Props

Prim and Props sell seasonal decorations, and in all honesty our initial advice with the company was to start off on Etsy, and then decide about having an eCommerce website. Our approach to any prospect is to give them the best advice that we can, regardless of whether this means a sale for us or not. We partner with our clients, and so honesty is essential from the off so that clients know that they can trust us. However, Prim and Props were adamant they wanted an eCommerce website so that they could offer discount vouchers, price breaks and keep in touch with their customers. Stock management was also a strong requirement and since Prima and Props offer seasonal products that are incredibly different, and can be customised, we thought they could generate strong sales through the website. We recommended they set up Facebook and Instagram accounts that linked to the website, and to sell their products through Etsy. With Etsy we knew that Prim and Props would have the exposure that a new business needs, and that this would lead to increased sales on their website.

The website was well received by Prim and Props, and indeed it has enjoyed incredible success. The iPages software is very easy to use and so new products could be uploade quickly, and branded roundalls were used to let customers know when products were either out of stock, or coming soon.

As the product range increased  so did the product attributes. This ensured that Prim and Props could place their items in easy to search categories, which made the user journey much simpler.

Inventory management made their multi-channel sales process so much easier, particularly with so many items being sold so quickly, and others being ordered before they had come into stock.

Conclusion

It's been an exciitng venture for Prim and Props and one that shows that with the right product and marketing then launching an eCommerce website is a viable option for anyone. If you have an idea then do get in touch, and let us help you to make your idea a reality.