In one week’s time, the province of Ontario will officially be lifting its mask mandate. As of March 21, masks will no longer need to be worn in schools, restaurants, bars, grocery stores, banks, gyms, movie theatres, pharmacies, convenience stores and libraries. They are still required, however, on public transit and inside hospitals, medical clinics and long-term care homes. As a business owner, this helps you to get back to what we once called “normal”.
With that said, it’s important to remember that COVID-19 hasn’t miraculously disappeared. Many consumers will continue to exercise caution. That will include selecting online shopping options over in-person experiences. With the popularity of e-commerce only continuing to rise, it’s wise to keep focused on your online store even after pandemic restrictions are lifted.
It lets you track your customers.
One of the top benefits of having an e-commerce site is the help it gives you in getting to know your customers. The information attained through the online shopping experience lets you create campaigns that unique focus on the wants and needs of your supporters. According to the Business Development Bank of Canada, the beauty of e-commerce is the amount of information you can harvest about your customers thanks to web analytics.
“You can track where they come from, where they go on your site and what they buy,” informs their website, “You can then use the data to optimize your online store. What are your most popular products? Where do people leave the site? What design tweaks and promotions generate increased sales? You can also use many of those insights to boost sales in your physical store.”
It’s a growing trend.
Although it should go without saying, online shopping is a growing trend. It was popular before the pandemic and all signs point to it continuing to grow in popularity long into the future.
“At the start of 2015, less than one-third (31.16 percent) of the global web traffic came from mobile devices,” reports Ying Lin on Obero.ca, “Fast forward to just six years later to the start of 2021 and that number has skyrocketed to 54.8 percent, marking a 75.9 percent jump.” These statistics were presented by Statista in 2021.
It lowers your operating costs.
With a continued focus on e-commerce, a business owner can reduce his/her business hours at his/her brick and mortar shop. As well, he/she can choose to close up shop on certain days. This minimizes a number of costs including electricity and payroll. As the BDC makes clear, it’s inexpensive to set up an e-commerce operation thanks to low-cost platforms.
“These services make it easy for entrepreneurs to start an online store with everything from an attractive, mobile-friendly site to taking payments to managing inventory and shipping,” says their website, “They can also integrate sales and inventory management between your online and bricks-and-mortar operations.”
Do you have a strong e-commerce platform?
Syncing your payment processing with your online shopping cart is now easier than ever with Unity Payments’ e-commerce payment solutions. We provide a direct connection to our powerful and reliable processing network, which can help eliminate the costs and complexities of dealing with a third-party gateway provider. To learn more, call us at 1-800-661-3761 or email us at info@unitypayments.ca.
