Online Business vs. Brick-And-Mortar Business

Building Confidence

Your customers are looking for convenient ways to shop, but they have to feel secure in the process. Online businesses are responsible for protecting customer privacy. It is not enough to keep your customers safe and secure, you have to constantly communicate it to them. Posting your Privacy statement on your site conveniently is a good start, but there is more.

Explain your customers what is done to keep their information secure. Assure them that the information they provide you is neither shared nor sold with a third party. Describe the technologies in the background ensuring customer safety. Give details, without getting too technical, about how encryption technology works. When you put in plain words the security measures you take your customers will appreciate it and they are more likely to trust you.

Dealing With The Extra Space

Now that you don't have to physically store every product you want to sell online, you can increase your virtual inventory without increasing your rent. You can offer a larger variety of products increasing your customer base. If you are a manufacturer, you can offer drop shipping your products for other businesses. (Drop shipping is the concept of the manufacturer-shipping product directly to the consumer instead of shipping to a wholesaler.) If you are a retailer, you can have products drop shipped to your customers directly.

Location Location Location

Brick-and-mortal retail is all about location. The right location can make or break your business. The same is true for online business, except it is virtual location that matters. Your online business relies on store visitors just the same as a brick-and-mortar business. Online businesses get most of their visitors through the search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN. The better position you have the more traffic your site will receive. On the Internet, traffic is everything.

Price

The bigger market presents you with more opportunities, but it doesn't come without a price. The fierce competition dictates competitive prices. You have to be able to set the right price for your product that allots for a reasonable profit margin while maintaining your competitive pricing structure. Many people that shop online are more price conscious than brick-and-mortar shoppers.