Online shopping
Some people still think that online shops are not worth it. Yet, every month we see evidence that Internet users are increasingly comfortable with doing their shopping online, while being warm in the comfort of their own home (or offices!). Online shop do offer a lot of advantages : no need to get anywhere, they're open 24/7, they have a wide variety of products available, it's easy to compare items, etc. In fact, in September 2011, 24.2% of adult Quebecers spent an average of 265$ online. It represents an estimated global purchase of 350M$! [source french] If you don't sell your products online yet, you should join the bandwagon and put them forward with some Facebook ads or even a Google Adwords campain.
Onlines shops are now an unavoidable part of any marketing strategy to sell products or even services. There is more and more testimonies about shops that didn't think online selling was for them that finally launched and online shop and often, you hear them say they should've done it a long time ago. M Blaise Renaud, CEO of Renaud-Bray, a quebecer book seller, was quoted a few years ago saying that online sales wouldn't be very strategic for his enterprise, because they hypothetically represeted only 1% of the revenues of the company. Today, after investing in a new website and a 40 000 square feet distribution center dedicated to online orders, Renaud-Bray shows an online income of 6,5 million dollars, representing a whooping 5% of the company's income. [source french]
Some sellers hesitate because according to them, their products isn't intended for online sales or that buyers won't look online to purchase their products because of the natures of the item sold. Sounds familiar? If you're thinking in those lines of thoughts, note that enterprises that got into online sales before their competitors often become the leaders in their respective fields. A few examples : Aldo (shoe retailer) made more than 39M$ in online revenues from people buying shoes without even trying them on. Via Rail, a canadian passenger train company, registers more than 50% of its ticket sale online! We even see more and more enterprise aandon the brick and mortar shop for a purely digital selling space, such as Complètement CupCake, a baker that sells only online, or LegitMTG, a collectible cards website. Both don't have a physical shop you can visit. And don't forget eBay or Amazon!
Your customers are there, online, waiting for you to sell them your stuff. In fact, about 85% of potential buyers do a search online when they intend to purchase a product or service. Make sure you're in their search result!