5 Ecommerce Hidden Costs That You Should Know About 5 Hidden Ecommerce Costs You Should Know About
You've done it!
You designed the perfect digital application, created a beautiful website, and have plans for marketing your business. You've even created your social media accounts to create a audience. Now you're prepared to take the world of digital media by storm.
Only one question. How will you go about selling the software you have developed?
It is tempting to try to build an ecommerce solution at your own expense instead of investing in an online platform. But there are so many aspects to think about like processing payments, the customer experience when shopping, charges, fulfillment of the product, and tax/VAT conformity. You'll find yourself having trouble trying to manage it all.
There's a myriad of eCommerce tools and platforms available that can help you run your business. However, finding the best one is going to take some research.
Luckily, we're here to assist you! Check out five online store costs that aren't obvious and are worth knowing.
1. Customization
Your shopping cart for your site should reflect your brand. According to research conducted by Kissmetrics, 93% of consumers think that appearance is an important element in buying. Making sure you create a seamless shopping experience that encourages visitors to make a purchase is a daunting task.
A platform for e-commerce can help you build a storefront, but be wary when they insist on using an unwieldy, rigid non-branded and unprofessional customer experience. Some solutions will even charge you for upgrading to a custom-designed storefront. But it doesn't have to be like this!
2. Maintenance
Keeping your ecommerce website functioning requires regular maintenance. It's a 24/7 job to make sure users can complete purchases on your website any time regardless of the device. A customer's likelihood of having to quit your website will increase by 90% when the site is taking more than five minutes to load. An e-commerce solution that is reliable will help with this for you, so that you can focus on other important aspects of your business.
3. Tax/VAT
In addition to a full-time fiscal professional, no one has enough time or the patience to become an expert on domestic and international tax laws. If you're hoping to take benefit of the booming global economy it is essential to accept payment across the globe. The customers feel more secure paying for digital products when they can pay within their language and currency and that the correct taxes are accounted for. If you don't have a properly-equipped e-commerce platform, you'll be taking a lot of time and money making sure your business is tax compliant.
4. Fraud
It is important to realize this fraud is a major issue in e-commerce companies. Fraud comes in several forms in e-commerce companies. It is important to be aware of what you should be looking for: credit card transactions that are not present, risky payment methods, unethical or fraudulent vendors, large chargebacks, identity theft, and more. This isn't meant to scare people away from establishing a business, however, it's crucial that you make every effort in order to protect your business. An ideal ecommerce platform will have built-in features to protect your business from fraud.
5. Internal resources
Managing the eCommerce function of your business requires a significant amount of time and resources. This requires a lot of dedication, coupled with a heavy investment of time, money and effort. You will end up spending a large amount of your budget building and managing an e-commerce site on your own and then the maintenance once it's completed. It's amazing how much you can save by outsourcing the heavy-lifting of managing your businesses' eCommerce. Imagine all that extra time you could be spending on developing new products or establishing new markets!
The truth is that running an effective e-commerce site requires lots of effort. Luckily you don't have to bear the burden on your own. Full-Service ecommerce platforms like enable your business online to develop a successful ecommerce experience and increase the size of your company.