eCommerce

How to sell also on Sundays

Even the subtitle could be reason enough for some to answer the question clearly. The trend is clear: the Association of Swiss Mail Order Companies VSV and GfK Switzerland estimate the value of the goods ordered in 2017 in online and distance selling with recipient addresses in Switzerland at CHF 8.6 billion. Another CHF 250 million is estimated for the value of online orders placed by foreign providers for Swiss goods to be sent to a collection point near the border and imported into Switzerland themselves. The total of CHF 8.85 billion is 10 % higher than the corresponding figure for the previous year. Compared with the total volume of retail trade in Switzerland estimated by GfK for 2017 at CHF 91.9 billion, the value of online orders in Switzerland and abroad is 9.6 %. Depending on the sector, the value varies between 2 % and around 30 %.

The pace of business is decreasing day by day. This is due to the convenience of customers, which in turn is the driving force behind most innovations in the current age. What does a business have to offer in order to generate as much attention and customers as possible?

• It offers a wide range of products or services
• It has a reasonable price-performance ratio.
• It is accessible and reachable at practically any time.
• It offers good customer service
• He delivers the goods directly to your front door incl. return guarantee.

At the latest at the last, rather cynical point, the illusion is destroyed that these requirements could still be implemented in a classic shop. The cost point is simply unacceptable, the competition on the Internet too great. What remains is the opportunity to keep up with the changing times, or to watch how even the most loyal customers migrate on a daily basis, or to put it more provocatively, to “cheat” online. Clearly, no one can predict whether the trend will turn around or when. The question is, do you want to take the risk of waiting as long as possible and hoping for your frequency clientele, which will pass your location directly or possibly take the path to you due to an advertising measure? Or relieve yourself of these risks and give your customers another opportunity to purchase your goods.

You amortize the effort for the creation of an online shop through the cost savings you have in terms of store presence, new customer acquisition, sales talks and other analogous things that can be automated via a web shop. Also here the saying applies: “Who does not go with the time, goes with the time”. With such a solution, you can not only massively expand the circle of stakeholders, you also get the opportunity to innovate your business model in various ways.

For example, you can use direct communication with your customers to draw widespread attention to special offers and discounts. If necessary, you can save storage costs by acting as a pure mediation platform. You can be reached indirectly 24 hours a day, even on Sundays. You can transfer the collected customer data directly into your CRM program and use this again for newsletters, automated birthday wishes and much more. With your digital and filterable customer portfolio you can keep track of all actions that were used, who ordered which products in which quantities and when exactly. The list goes even further, but we would recommend requesting a free consultation and evaluating specific possibilities in your case together with the experts.

Our personal assessment is that the trend for e- and especially m-commerce continues to grow. The management of an online shop is purely a matter of habit; here, too, there are very user-friendly tools that do not require in-depth technical prior knowledge.