While eCommerce has played a vital role in our daily lives for over 20 years, no one could have predicted the massive impact the pandemic would have in accelerating eCommerce over the past two years.
Soaring to a record-breaking 25.7 percent year-over-year growth in 2020 at the height of the pandemic, many SMBs turned to online stores as their saving grace to stay in business during this tumultuous time.
Fast forward to 2022, eCommerce growth has slowed slightly but still maintains a solid growth rate of nearly 17 percent.
With consumer behavior now shifting toward buying online due to safety, speed, and convenience, this is the time for digital agencies to double down for the adventure of a lifetime to sell eCommerce websites to SMBs.
Having a digital presence is no longer a "nice to have" for SMBs that want to stand a chance in a world of consumers that prefer to shop online.
While most SMBs now see the value of having a website for their business, only around 26 percent of SMBs in the U.S. have added an eCommerce component to the mix, according to a recent study conducted by SurePayroll.
In the EU, a Siinda study found that only 12 percent of SMBs are currently selling online.
This still leaves room for many other SMBs to add eCommerce capabilities to their businesses as the global eCommerce market is expected to exceed $7 Trillion by 2025. While growth has slowed down somewhat, this rocket ship is by no means done with its blastoff.
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As the growth trajectory for eCommerce continues to flourish, herein lies the massive opportunity for digital agencies to impact businesses that are now open to transforming their digital presence to include online stores.
Additionally, since many SMBs lack the expertise to create and maintain their own online stores, digital agencies that take advantage of this eCommerce surge will be positioned for great opportunities moving forward.
Although digital agencies that have already started attacking this market have a slight advantage, it’s not too late for agencies that haven’t started selling eCommerce websites to begin selling this year.
But, more importantly, digital agencies need to get started sooner rather than later to take advantage of this substantial opportunity.
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With 87 percent of all shoppers beginning searches on digital channels, many SMBs are now embracing eCommerce to capture more sales from consumers and improve overall customer satisfaction, increase customer acquisition via new channels or geographic regions, and innovate their businesses.
While SMBs have been historically slow to adopt additional capabilities for their businesses, the rapid growth of this segment over the last two years has been enough to influence many SMBs to leap into eCommerce.
Today, with more than 24 million eCommerce websites worldwide and more being built every day, consumers don't just expect to purchase products through an online store but prefer to buy from online stores that cater to their specific geographical region.
In addition, with more SMBs jumping on the bandwagon of selling through online stores, many need the expertise that digital agencies provide to create a more personalized experience for their customers, wherever they are located.
As website building platforms have come into the spotlight in recent years, making high-performing websites at scale for SMBs is no longer just a goal for digital agencies but a way of life. Many website building platforms include SEO tools, store setup wizards, and third-party integration capabilities, making website building more straightforward.
Digital agencies can now help make customized experiences scaleable by partnering with a low-code website building platform like Duda to reduce build times, provide personalization needed to create high-converting websites, and reduce expenses surrounding development resources.
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Since many SMBs have only recently adopted selling through eCommerce channels, most live SMB eCommerce websites today are not optimized to rank highly on search engines.
They also lack interactivity features such as live chat or blog content, have high cart abandonment rates, and do not provide customers with the stellar customer experience they expect to make a purchase.
Digital agencies can help turn these challenges into opportunities by ensuring that SMBs utilize popular features such as recurring subscriptions, scheduled pickup or delivery options, and abandoned cart recovery emails to produce high converting online stores.
Besides using these features, agencies can create better eCommerce experiences for SMBs by introducing omnichannel approaches to selling with social media channels and a wide variety of beautiful designs for online stores made quickly by partnering with a low-code website building platform.
To learn more about "Selling eCommerce to SMBs in 2022",
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