Thinking of launching a website for your lifestyle business? You’d be surprised how building an online presence can make a huge difference. Not only will you stand out from your competitors, but it’s a terrific way to engage with your audience and show that you’re serious about what you do.
Here are some of the top benefits of building a web store for your lifestyle business:
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1. It Builds Credibility
Credibility is #1 when it comes to growing a business. There are customers who don’t just take business owners seriously unless they have a website. By making a website and building a large follower base, your customers realize that what you’re doing is making an impact. It shows that you’re reaching out to larger audiences and various age groups, being not just limited to a brick and mortar store.
2. It’s Inexpensive
All you need to do is start an online store for your business is get a domain name and a basic web hosting plan. This costs about $100 a year and is easy to set up. The biggest benefit from this is the low starting costs. You can use your website to boost sales and get more customers online to cover this up. Later, your website will pay you back tenfold for the initial investment you made.
3. Smooth Shopping Experience
Your customers will have easy access to your inventory and place pre-orders. You can update your stock and make sure items are always available for sale.
Having a website translates to a smooth shopping experience since all customers have to do is create an account, log in, add items to the cart, and check out. Some customers prefer paying by card instead of COD (Cash on Delivery) and you can offer various payment modes for their convenience.
4. Run It From Anywhere
One of the distinct advantages of running a web store is that you can operate it from anywhere in the world. With just a laptop, you can be at any place you like and not have to worry about manually responding to customers.
There are features like virtual AI assistants, chatbots, and machine learning tools that make it easier to respond to customer queries. Your customers can also reach out to you via email in case they run into any specific issues which these automated tools cannot deal with. In short, it cuts through the clutter and makes running your business a lot more hassle-free.
5. Get Insights & Access To Web Analytics
When you build a web store, you get access to insights and analytics that you could never imagine. Things like bounce rates, what your customers like the most, which products are best sellers – you get answers to all these via data analytics. Your analytics dashboard can give you a glimpse of what you’re doing right and wrong.
If you’re thinking of launching new marketing campaigns, you can monitor their performance by doing A/B split tests. There are reporting tools you can take advantage of which give you insights on daily, weekly, and even hourly sales.
Special shipment tracking software is linked to fleets installed with GPS which syncs with these tools and gives business owners additional insights into logistics.
6. Create An Online Portfolio
If your lifestyle business is offering specific products or services that aren’t available anywhere else, you could put that up on your website.
Your web store will also act as your portfolio since your clients can see your various offerings online. To set up an ecommerce website for your business, you can hire a WordPress consultant to help you out. WordPress has many readily usable themes which you can use to instantly launch your brand.
Shopify themes have plugins and extensions which add versatility to your online business. You can get more details about this by talking to a web consultant for hire and getting their professional advice.
7. Engage With Your Audiences
It’s a convenient way to reach out to users who connect online. There may be visitors looking for specific products in your neighborhood that you aren’t aware of. If your webstore is location-specific, you can reach out to customers in your neighborhood and surrounding areas. Launching an online store is a great move for local lifestyle businesses because you become region-specific.
However, if you offer worldwide shipping then that’s a different story. You’ll reach out to different geographies which means a global customer base. This is a unique advantage that’s enjoyed by online businesses, be it in lifestyle or any niche, which you cannot do as a brick and mortar or offline store. Optimizing SEO makes it easier for new visitors to find your content on Google and makes it accessible via various social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.
You can connect with your customers on these platforms and run your store 24/7. If you’re not available always, you can hire virtual assistants and agents to manage your customer emails and inquiries.
8. Showcase User Generated Content
User-generated content like video testimonials, product reviews, and customer feedback makes for unique content on your website. People want to hear what makes your products special and you can showcase your customers’ thoughts online.
When new visitors are checking you out, they won’t be hesitant to shop at your store. There are also customers who prefer getting a look at lifestyle products online before they decide to unplug and visit your store in-person. You can reach out and get them to convert from a lead to sales and turn them into your loyal customers if you do this right. Overall, it’s a smart move since word of mouth can only do so much in real life, but not when it comes to the online world since it’s a lot more powerful.
Conclusion
These benefits just scratch the tip of the iceberg when it comes to launching an online store. You may find your online business to be doing really well compared to your initial offline store. In fact, there are many brands like Amazon, Target, and Walmart who started as physical stores and later expanded online. The best tip is to start with a niche and set a marketing budget to promote your ads.
Start simple and don’t go overboard in the beginning. With time, when your website gains traction and you get more customers visiting your webstore, you can spend more resources promoting it.
About Carson Derrow
