3 reasons why now is the time to launch your webshop

1. Thanks to the global pandemic more people are buying online than ever before

The Covid-19 pandemic has permanently changed the way we do business. The ongoing lockdowns and restrictive re-opening of non-essential businesses meant a lot of people started looking online.

In response, many retailers launched or enhanced their own webshops. Enabling them to bring their products to market through click & collect or delivery options while their physical shops are forced to be closed.

There was already a growing trend for retail towards online sales (ecommerce) and this was accelerated considerably due to the pandemic.

So while revenue in ecommerce increased and customers, even those belonging to older consumer groups above age 60, became more enthusiastic about ordering from the internet, there is just one question left: what is stopping you from launching your own webshop?

Online shopping is here to stay, that is crystal clear. It is also fair to say that ecommerce will soon represent the digital base of retail - webshops are no longer simply a 'nice to have’.

2. Setting up a webshop can be so easy

On first glance building a webshop seems quite complicated and risky. What, if no one wants to order from me? How do I create a webshop? 

In case you have a physical shop, there are some customers that know you already.

If not, you should write a business plan first, before creating a webshop. Define your product offers, your target group and keep an eye on direct competitors.

Unless you plan to program your webshop all by yourself, there are numerous, simple solutions for you to create a webshop. 

The best choice would be to first start looking at experienced providers like Shopware, Shopify, Magento or Woocommerce. Choose an offer, design according to your taste and in the blink of an eye you can start selling online.

Which provider you choose to develop your webshop depends on your business, expectations and ideas.

• Shopware is an allrounder with renowned clients like Philips, tigha, Mars and Aston Martin. You can choose between 3 available editions: Starter, Professional or Enterprise.
  

• Shopify is set up quickly and easily. Here you can choose between 3 different offers as well or test Shopify for free for 14 days.
  

• Magento - which is the ecommerce solution of the Adobe Experience Cloud - might be the right choice if you are looking for a personalized offer.
  

• Woocommerce provides you with a plugin instead of another, new platform which makes it especially personalizable. Woocommerce is contemplable in case you want to design your webshop individually and get as many options as possible.

3. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel - get inspired by best practice webshops

The number of webshops increased rapidly over the last years. Competition is high - but this also provides you with an advantage: it got even easier to find inspiration and learn from the best of the best, best practice examples of webshops are countless.

Especially in case you already have an additional store and an existing customer base, you are already one important step ahead of other new webshops.

Let’s take a look at amazing example from the world of ecommerce:

Reef

The Reef webshop makes use of the Shopware software and lets you dive into an easygoing, summery spirit with help of large beach-themed pictures, casual font and colorful details in order to sell their sandals.

Lollapalooza

The music festival Lollapalooza uses a Shopify platform to sell their merchandise. Easy, clear navigation, a color-changing header, creative designs on white background  and graphical product-category suggestions attract the attention of visitors.

Nestlé Nespresso

Nespresso, part of the world’s largest food and beverage company Nestlé, distributes its coffee capsules and high quality coffee machines via a Magento ecommerce solution.  The beautiful imagery reminds of a pinterest page and makes you crave a good Nespresso coffee immediately while icons in the navigation bar ease your search.

Daelmans Stroopwafels

Daelmans is the synonym for dutch Stroopwafels. In order to make people everywhere - not only in the Netherlands - enjoy their famous waffles, Daelmans set up a webshop with help of a Woocommerce plugin.  Besides mouth-watering graphics and their product offers, the Daelmans webshop provides their visitors with Stroopwafel history, stories and even spotify songs.

So, what are you waiting for? Create your own webshop now and read in our next blogpost, how you can upgrade it with a loyalty program!