Why a Simple E-commerce Extension is What Small Businesses Need

The COVID 19 outbreak has changed the way we do business forever. To stay in the game, businesses need to digitize and adapt their business models now more than ever. If you are not already offering online sales (payment & delivery) and/or Contactless Curbside Pickups, you will continue to lose a growing portion of your business to competitors.

A simple e-commerce extension to your website can provide basic functionality to accept online orders and payments without the bells and whistles of a complete e-commerce website. Below are the reasons we believe adding a simple e-commerce extension to websites is the way forward for small business owners.

Social distancing is essential for employers, employees, and customers

Social distancing has become the new normal for the safety of employers, employees, and customers. More and more customers now prefer to not walk into a store even if the required safety practices around wearing masks and sanitizing hands are strictly followed. A single case of COVID 19 transmission via the store can create significant bad publicity and do lasting damage to the business.

Customers will shift to competitors who are ‘online’

Unless small businesses are quick to adapt, a large portion of the sales could shift to larger businesses that have already implemented or are in process of digitizing sales via e-commerce solutions, online payments, contactless pickups, etc.

No heavy upfront investment required

A full-blown e-commerce website is tedious and time-consuming to set up and can cost a couple of thousand dollars at the bare minimum. Apart from the cost of developing the website, some businesses may be required to invest in creating a digital portfolio, i.e. taking professional photographs of the products that they sell and writing detailed product descriptions. No small businesses can afford to make such a large investment in the current scenario. A simple e-commerce extension can give businesses the flexibility to add more functionalities and products to the website as they grow.

Reduced operating costs in the long term

Moving a sizeable portion of the business online could provide significant savings to businesses in the long term through reduced operating costs. Businesses can operate from smaller outlets providing savings both in terms of rental and energy costs. Without the need for assisted selling, stores can also function with lower manpower.

We are one of the leading web design and development companies in South Jersey. We can help you quickly implement an extremely simple and cost-effective e-commerce addition to your website with the option for Contactless Curbside Pickups. If applicable, we can also set up contactless online estimating. We look forward to helping a limited number of retail outlets prepare in advance as the economy opens up. Get in touch today to understand more about how we can help you set up a simple e-commerce website extension with contactless curbside pickup.

If website development is on your mind, you can also check out our blog post about the best practices to keep in mind for developing a website.