If Black Friday of 2019 proved anything, it is that small businesses must also have an eCommerce website that is well optimized for search engines.
This year’s Black Friday sale was the biggest yet. Americans spent $7.4 billion online on Black Friday and $4.2 billion on Thanksgiving Day. Consumers spent a total of $11.6 billion online over the two days. Black Friday2019 was also the biggest day ever for mobile sales – $2.9 billion came from smartphones. This proves that people are getting more comfortable with using their smartphones to buy online.
According to Fiserv, Black Friday “bricks-and-mortar” retail sales were up 4.2%, with the greatest increase over normal shopping activity seen across electronics and appliances, sporting goods, and clothing and shoes.
Advantages of eCommerce
In addition to the lower startup cost, a major advantage of having an eCommerce is that your potential customers, from anywhere around the world, have access to your products or services – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Basically, you store is always open for business even while you’re on vacation or asleep.
eCommerce Platform
Thousands of new eCommerce stores are launched every year and new online retailers have no shortage of options when it comes to picking a platform. Some of the most popular and user-friendly eCommerce platforms are Shopify, Magento and WooCommerce. Few of Surge Synergy customers, including Kruwear, a men’s clothing store uses WooCommerce.
As of December 5, 2019, about 4 million eCommerce stores around the world use WooCommerce. WooCommerce is particularly friendly to new eCommerce merchants because it combines ease of use with incredible power, flexibility, and features. WooCommerce, an eCommerce plugin used in combination with WordPress is an online, open source website creation tool. WordPress is probably the easiest and most powerful blogging and website content management system (CMS) in existence today. WordPress has dozens of free, customizable, mobile-ready designs and themes/templates. It makes creating and managing an online store simple, with reasonable levels of flexibility and several vital features such as inventory and tax management, secure payments and shipping integration. WordPress’ plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. Plugin can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites
Advantage of eCommerce plus Bricks-and-Mortar plus Local Pickup
Most major retailers such as Macy’s and Nordstrom are adding a new mix to their shipping option – Local Pickup. Once the customers select “Local Pickup,” in the checkout page, the store packages the product and wait for the customer to come and pick it up during a store’s regular business hours.
This option allows online shoppers who want to avoid crowded stores but don’t want to wait for delivery. It’s also good for the stores, because it attracts additional shoppers. Local Pickup is also more profitable than delivering to customers’ homes.
Local Pickup is not only limited to big boxes. Small businesses can also utilize this option. It is included in WooCommerce and can be easily incorporated in a small business’ WordPress website.
