Ecommerce is here to stay and rightly so, it offers a massive marketplace to all, including those, who, could not afford to start trading using a traditional retail model.
It is relatively cheap to begin trading online, however, there are numerous costs that are often overlooked, but which are paramount to the success of any e-commerce operation.
Here are four of the areas to be considered.
Cyber Security
Just like a physical retail operation, an online store needs to be secure from those who wish to profit from it illegally. Cybercrime accounted for almost £800m worth of losses in 2015 alone and poses a real threat to ecommerce businesses.
Ensuring your company is protected by using a company such as Nettitude who provide cyber security and a range of other related services for companies all over the world is essential.
Comprehensive cyber security not only saves potential losses to profit, but also provides peace of mind.
Website Maintenance
Those who have built a website before will know that “going live” is by no means the end of the process, it needs to be maintained.
The site needs constantly updating, tweaking and monitoring to make sure it performs well, new content will need to be added regularly and changes will need to be made to meta data, for example, to ensure good search engine optimisation (SEO).
For medium and large companies this will call for a team of professionals and not just one super talented geek.
Digital Marketing
Digital marketing comes in many shapes and sizes, but to really get ahead and get noticed, you need to invest some money in it.
Pay per click (PPC) and boosts to social media messages can mount up and so a measured approach that tests the water before investing large sums of capital is to be recommended.
In addition to this, building a database of email addresses is crucial and provides an effective and inexpensive way of sending out information, promotional materials and new products.
If you capture information from visitors to your website, this can provide a good way to kick start the database.
Shipping Costs
Customers don’t like shipping charges and if you can’t offer free shipping or shipping at a price that is not going to put potential customers off, you could lose a lot of money.
There are several ways of lowering these cost to customers including getting a better shipping deal from your own suppliers and then passing that saving on to your customers.
Ecommerce is a thriving and vibrant sector and one which, if approached correctly, can be extremely rewarding and lucrative.
