Running a small business can be both exhilarating and equally difficult, all at the same time. And the shift towards online shopping has revolutionized the way consumers interact with businesses, making a digital presence essential for SMEs.

With the convenience and accessibility of eCommerce platforms, consumers now expect seamless online experiences, prompting SMEs to adapt and invest in the best eCommerce website to meet their evolving demands.

But with so many options to market your business like third-party marketplaces and social media, why should you invest the time, money and effort in creating your own eCommerce website?

12 Reasons Why Small Businesses Need an eCommerce Website

1. Attract New Customers with Search

Bringing in new clients directly to your own small business website is the number one benefit. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can significantly enhance their customer base by leveraging search engines effectively.

Business Insider says that the majority of consumers use search engines to find products before making a purchase.

Firstly, optimizing their website with relevant keywords and content tailored to their target audience increases visibility in search results. Secondly, investing in pay-per-click (PPC) advertising can place SMEs at the top of search engine results pages, driving immediate traffic. Additionally, creating informative and engaging content through a blog or social media can establish SMEs as industry authorities, attracting organic traffic.

Moreover, utilizing local search engine optimization tactics such as Google My Business listings can help SMEs capture nearby customers actively searching for their products or services. By strategically utilizing search engines, SMEs can expand their reach, increase brand awareness, and ultimately attract new customers efficiently.

2. Increase Brand Awareness

A website helps to increase brand awareness by making it easy for customers to find your business online. 

It serves as your digital brochure, where you can showcase your products and services in a professional manner and share the most recent details about your small business.

In addition, a website can help to build trust with potential customers by providing an easy way for them to contact you and learn more about your small business.

Modify the design and feel of your website to make it more recognizable and more aligned to your branding. 

Customers are more comfortable providing personal information and filling out payment information on a well-designed website.

3. Improve the Image of Your Business

A website gives your small business a genuine, professional, and legitimate appearance. Without it, customers can’t locate you, let alone develop trust in you.

A well-designed, professional website with engaging content will go a long way toward establishing your small business’s credibility.

Here are some ways to make your website more credible:

• Use original photos of your business, staff, products, and services in use.
• Ensure that there are no grammatical or spelling issues in the website’s content and that all of the information is correct and updated.
• Get a custom domain name to show that you have passionately invested in the branding of your small business. Having your own domain name is free when you upgrade to any annual Prosperna paid plan.

4. Create Better Marketing Opportunities

If you plan to invest any time or money—at all—on marketing initiatives for your small business, then why not spend it on a website? 

All of your marketing and business communications can be front and centered there. Potential customers can use it as a resource to learn more about your business—who you are, what you do, and why you do it.

You can quickly and efficiently communicate your small business’s message with the use of a website.

Just make sure all the essential information is visible, such as:

• Menu or product list
• Prices
• Contact information (phone, email address, physical address)
• Events

Prosperna offers better marketing opportunities for small businesses by automating their sales and marketing processes with its built-in marketing automation tools. This also helps boost a business’s productivity and efficiency. 

From a marketing perspective, Prosperna features communication tools that enable you to connect and contact your customers wherever they are through SMS, email, and various social media apps like Facebook, Instagram, Viber, Whatsapp, etc.

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5. eCommerce Is Easier & More Convenient

Creating a website used to be expensive, time-consuming, and challenging. But nowadays, you don’t really need to be a professional coder or web developer to build the best eCommerce website. 

Thanks to affordable eCommerce platforms that come with easy-to-use tools like Prosperna, creating a website, offering online payment options and managing shipping makes the transition from a physical store to eCommerce super easy.

Prosperna features an all-in-one eCommerce software with a drag-and-drop page builder that makes it simple for small business owners to design their websites however they like and create beautiful product catalogs without any coding skills. 

Plus, they can start selling in minutes after creating their account.

6. Increase Hours of Operation to 24/7

Any time of day, websites are always open to accepting orders. 

Customers may explore your product catalog, see if an item is back in stock, and complete many other tasks using an online store, even when your “doors” are locked and the “lights” are turned off at the end of the day.

Your website doesn’t even need to be manned while users add items to their cart and check out. To complete the sale wherever you are, all you need is a dependable server and an easy-to-use interface.

7. Increase in Sales

Creating a website for your small business is one of the wisest decisions you will ever make as a business owner. 

The Philippine eCommerce market sales is estimated to reach $24 billion by 2025. You’ll be able to benefit from a market that is always expanding thanks to the growing number of online shoppers in the Philippines.

With a website, your sales will surely improve and increase because not only will your “doors” stay open 24/7, but you can also market your products and services all over the world without having to rely solely on foot traffic. 

You can reach new audiences that you otherwise wouldn’t be able to reach with just a physical store. You get to learn about a new market that really values what you have to give. 

As a result, your small business can grow in terms of conversions and revenue.

8. Learn More About Your Audience

Since every move is recorded digitally, with your own website, you have the opportunity to learn more about your audience.

You can subtly request for product reviews or other important details, such as names, email addresses, birthdays, and contact numbers, from customers as they check out or come back to browse and shop. 

This provides you with information on how to enhance your small business as well as help with creating your buyer persona.

9. Easily Receive Feedback on Products or Services

Positive online reviews are one of the best strategies to win over potential clients’ trust. 

These testimonies, reviews, and product ratings have an impact on new visitors as they arrive by increasing conversion rates.

The ideal location to display feedback on products or services from your small business is on your website. It’s an effective way to establish trust and convince customers of the value of your products and services.

Here are some ways to get feedback on your products or services on your website:

• Embed a customer survey on your website
• Provide a reward in exchange for a review 
• Monitor web analytics to know which of your website pages are getting attention and which ones are not

10. Less Overhead & Risk

Websites demand relatively little initial investment. Even the cost of working with the best eCommerce website builder is far less than starting a physical store.

Prosperna features a free-forever account that’s great for small businesses that are just starting out and want to embrace digital. 

And in the long run, as your business expands and you want to scale up to add inventory and accommodate more traffic, you can always upgrade your Prosperna plan at anytime to better fit your business goals.

Additionally, websites are less expensive to maintain over time, and the money made from online sales often offsets the cost of building a website.

11. Reduce Expenses

If your small business has a website, you can optimize processes and transfer some of the duties that employees would traditionally complete to technological tools, which eliminates the need for a larger staff. 

This enables you to have fewer employees on your payroll, which lowers your expenses and increases the percentage of your net income that is turned into profits.

12. Speedup Business Operations

An effective small business today is one that can combine offline and online purchasing experiences into a single, multi-channel experience.

The BOPIS (buy online, pick up in-store) and ROPIS (reserve online, pick up in-store) strategies are two popular examples. 

The phrase explains itself. Customers can either make a purchase or a reservation on your website, and their order will be ready when they arrive at the store as they have already completed their transaction and payment online. 

Aside from speeding up business operations, there are two other benefits to these strategies: shorter lines for service and less work for the staff.

Even local cafes and restaurants, like BakerJ and Hummus Us, are enjoying the advantages of in-store pickup.

Offering an online ordering system with delivery and pickup options helped boost their sales by preserving potential clients’ most precious resource—time.

eCommerce Website FAQs

How can an eCommerce website help SMEs compete with larger businesses?

An eCommerce website enables SMEs to level the playing field by providing a platform to showcase their products/services globally.

What features should SMEs look for when choosing an eCommerce platform?

Besides price, SMEs should consider factors like user-friendliness, scalability, security, and pre-integration capabilities with online payments and shipping when selecting an eCommerce platform.

How can SMEs optimize their eCommerce website for search engines?

SMEs can improve their website's SEO by using relevant keywords, creating quality content, optimizing meta titles, descriptions and images, and building backlinks.

What are the common challenges faced by SMEs when setting up an eCommerce website?

Challenges may include limited resources, technical knowledge gaps, cost, and the time it takes to set up.

Final Thoughts

Now that you’ve read and understood why your small business needs an eCommerce website, it’s high time you get started setting up your own. It creates endless opportunities for growth and advancement, as well as a chance to establish a long-term reputation for your small business.

Don’t allow any fears or skepticism to keep you from expanding your small business online. With the capabilities of eCommerce software like Prosperna, you don’t have to worry about the typical challenges of creating a website for your small business.

Prosperna, Your Partner to eCommerce Success

Prosperna is an all-in-one AI-powered eCommerce platform for SMBs, entrepreneurs, and content creators. Our mission is to empower 1 million businesses with simple and affordable software powered by AI.

We’re so passionate about helping small businesses succeed that we’re giving you full access to our powerful tools for 14 days, absolutely free. No commitments—just pure growth for your store.

👉 Launch your 14-day free Prosperna trial today