In 2021, retail e-commerce sales amounted to approximately 4.9 trillion U.S. dollars worldwide, according to research by Statistica. At the same time spending at physical stores has dropped.
While that was strongly influenced by Covid restrictions and distancing measures, the trend is clear: online shopping is gathering steam.
You should be getting a piece of the online pie
Whether your business sells goods, services, or both, your customers are searching for you online. Your website is more than simply an online storefront or basic business card. It can be a tool for marketing, customer acquisition, sales and compliance.
It’s common to see businesses underinvesting in their website and social media branding – not spending time or money on staying up-to-date and in touch with customers, or providing a subpar customer experience. These days, it’s highly likely that your website or social media channels are your customer’s first experience with your brand.
Does your business provide a great user experience for your online customers?
To capture as much online business as possible, your website should be easy to navigate, mobile adaptable, and have a simple shopping cart and smooth transactions so customers can pay you with ease. Your social media presence will depend very much on meeting your customers where they spend time online, so it will vary by industry and target market, but it should reflect your business’s values and drive engagement and sales.
These are some absolute basics, so if your online presence isn’t clearing these low hurdles, you should talk to an expert about how to improve it.
How much should you spend?
Although we’re far from being website or social media experts, we can help you figure out an appropriate budget to invest in your company’s online presence. We’ll take into account factors like how much growth you might see, how much time you’re spending on it now, and how much money your business can afford to allocate.
Ascend Solutions are specialists in this field. Please get in touch if we can be of assistance.