PROS AND CONS OF ONLINE BUSINESS
Are you thinking about starting your own online business to make extra income on the side? Starting an online business is easier than ever.
Technologies are providing a lot of business opportunities ready to be taken by everyone or anyone.
If you are thinking about starting your own online business that sounds good but you are still unsure about whether an online business is the right option for you. Look, not everyone can do business.
You may think business is critical or maybe you are scared to start because you have never done this before but there is always a first time for everything. You are just hesitant and you need a little motivation to start.
Well starting an online business requires a lot of work, money, and most importantly time. you need to keep your mind on the right track.
Businesses do not build up easily. You cannot get successful overnight. It takes time, patience, and most importantly hard work.
Always remember to focus on your business journey and do not compare yourself to succeed against someone else. Focus on your work.
A good business person never thinks about what others are doing, they think what they are doing because this is what makes their brand unique and different from others.
In business you have to be patient it will take time to be successful sometimes it takes a few months or maybe a year but if you do your best then one day you will get success, however during the struggling period business owner sometimes get frustrated so this is important to create a habit follow a routine that boosts your motivation.
Creating a business plan makes it easy for investors to understand what your business idea is and spot potential problems, now you may be thinking about how to make a good online business plan? No worries, here is a solution.
A well-rounded business plan must have an executive summary, company description, market analysis, organization and structure, and most importantly a goal or mission, product, marketing plan, and financial plans.
Before starting an online business you should be aware of the pros and cons of online business all that glitters is not gold, not everything that looks good or true is turn out to be so everything has a bright side and as well a dark Side too, however, once you get to know about the merits and demerits of online business then it will be easy for you to make your decision regarding online business.
In this blog, you will learn some pros and cons to getting started with owning an online business.
By the end of this blog, you will have all the information you need to make the best decision for you and your future business.
PROS OF AN ONLINE BUSINESS
LOW FINANCIAL COST
Generally, an online business cost less money to start and run than a traditional store would if you are about to get started with your own traditional retail store you likely have to commit a large amount of money to rent, renovate, renting storage space, and bills, purchasing the product you have to sell, however, when you are running an online business you will not need to come at such a large amount of fraud investment before you can start selling. Instead, you can use an E-Commerce platform like Aliexpress, Amazon, Alibaba, etc to start up your own online store. This will be very cheap compared to what it would cost to upkeep a traditional store.
FEWER STAFF REQUIREMENTS
In traditional business the owner needs to recite some sales staff like even in a small traditional store the owner need to hire at least 2–3 salesman cashier and many more while in online business you do not need any salesman or cashier because online business work automatically, for example, a buyer does not need to ait in payment line the buyer only enter the details of the cart and the item will be paid in a minute.
SELL INTERNATIONALLY
From the first time that you launch your online business, you will be running an international business you can sell to customers in every corner of the world if you want to or you can sell to customers in one country or maybe in your own country the choice is yours. You must have a good delivery service for your product, however, in a traditional business you can only advertise to customers in the local area but in an online business, you can target a large audience.
POTENTIAL INCOME
unlike traditional retail stores, E-Commerce stores are always open which means that you have the potential to generate income 24 hours a day 7 days a week suppose when you’re running an online store it doesn’t matter when your customer wants to shop the choice is in the hands they can shop whenever they want, your marketing campaign will be running all day so they could purchase at 4:00 p.m. in the afternoon or 4 a.m in the morning nowadays the tradition store which will be open from 9 a.m. and closing time will be 7 p.m. it is clear as water that online business has so much more time every day to generate sales.
EASY TO SHOWCASE
when you’re running an online business it’s Simple to showcase your best selling products to potential buyers you can create customs traffic to promote them on your store homepage build a dedicated category for them and Do marketing campaigns to promote them to your best seller are proving product from your stores so lots of customers will be interested in them they also say a lot about your brand so ensure that they are easily visible for your visitors to your online store.
CONS OF ONLINE BUSINESS
SECURITY
While doing online shopping a customer has to pay in advance because not all businesses provide the service of cash on delivery. Due to this, a customer has stated about making an online transaction with an online business. However, in traditional stores, customers pay directly via cash or card. The rise of transactions has caught the attention of hackers. There are many fraud cases reported worldwide by fake businesses that misuse the financial details because of this customers are not comfortable providing these details.
CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
In an online business, the customers do not get the chance to physically interact with the product when the product is delivered to the customer then they see it sometimes customers are not satisfied with the product in result a customer leave a bad review about your brand which is very harmful for a brand reputation. In an online business reviews matter a lot like one negative review equal to the five positive reviews in online business customer satisfaction matter a lot so always try your best to satisfy your customers.
COMPETITION
Suppose you are the owner of the traditional store you sell handbags your store is located in ABC Mall there are no other brands who sell bags now if your customer comes in, ABC mall and she/he looking for a handbag to buy than , where will they come of course in your store it means you will have less competition,however in the online business if a customer search for a handbag on the internet they get thousand and millions of options available its means online business have a lot of competition. Having a competition is not a bad thing but sometimes it can be harmful to your business.
PRODUCTIVITY
tradition businesses operate 5 to 8 hours in a day in traditional store owner know about his schedule and know when to work while online businesses operate 24/7 meaning and online stores are always open which is decreased in productivity and sometimes it can get so much frustrating, suppose you are an online store owner and you are out with your friends and suddenly you got a notification from your customers who are not happy from your service. What will you do? Of course, you will leave your friends and first solve the problem of your customer right after solving the problem will you still want to join your friends nope right. Due to this, always make sure to be careful in managing the time used for the business.
TRUST
Gaining customer trust is not easy as it’s seen especially for new online businesses because a new online store does not have any reviews so customers hesitate to purchase anything sometimes few customers give it a try while some change their minds and don’t buy anything from them the reason why they do not buy from them is this that may be they think that your business is a scam because the major characteristic of scam online businesses are no reviews in their profile.
Getting customer reviews takes time so do not think that your business is not working and do not get frustrated about it. Once you get the reviews from your customer they will not hesitate to shop from you now you may be thinking about how to get reviews? The easiest way to get the first review in your online business is that you can send a PR package to any blogger, influence who have good followers in social media when they will received your package and if they are satisfied with your service and product then definitely they will recommend your product to the followers and then people see that your product is good so obviously they will come and shop from your store and it is a Win-Win solution because you will get the publicity and reviews. Once you gain a customer’s trust then maybe they become a loyal customer and always shop from your store which will be beneficial for your online business.
CONCLUSION
There is no doubt that in this advanced world online business is more beneficial than traditional business because you can see in the 2020 pandemic a lot of traditional businesses convert into an online business like grocery stores. The world is advancing and we have to advance our businesses too.
Always remember this when you start an online business that never starts just to make money because money is not everything we cannot buy happiness from money right! however, start a business with a goal or a good reason to make a difference in this world.
Some people might prefer a traditional business over an online business and that is ok. Starting an online basis involves several risks, however no more than you could expect from any other type of business with the right marketing strategies you can reach customers and avoid the troubles many an online business owner faced during the first year of their business.
