Intuitive E-commerce: Why YOU SHOULD BE offering online stores

JULY 11 2016

Recent trends continue to show an increase in not just online retail sales, but even more specifically, exponential gains in mobile e-commerce. As an example, Google estimated that 30% of all purchases last holiday season were made on mobile devices. With increasing buying power of millennials (upwards of 50% of retail spending) and the growth and added convenience of the on-demand economy, it has never been more imperative for small businesses to think about how they can not just promote themselves online, but also sell online.

E-commerce therefore offers a revenue opportunity for service providers to help their SMB customers seize the moment, not just by helping their customers setup and manage their online stores but also to grow with their customers by promoting their stores and attracting new customers online. By partnering with Mono Solutions, our resellers can provide a robust and powerful solution to their customers that is easy to setup and manage.

2016 e-commerce landscape for SMBs
Now, let’s take a look at the current e-commerce landscape for SMBs to better understand how an SMB service provider can benefit from using the Mono E-commerce solution.

What might first come to mind when talking about SMB’s selling online are numerous channels, like Etsy, Ebay and Craigslist, that small businesses can immediately begin selling through. Many SMBs turn to these solutions due to the low barriers of entry and ease of use. However in order to have a significant online business, these channels should only be used to compliment their “owned” e-commerce sites, because at the end of the day, it is necessary for an SMB to have control of their own sales channel for promotion and brand loyalty.

When looking at the “owned” e-commerce space, it can essentially be split into three buckets: on one end of the spectrum you have several fully hosted DIY e-commerce solutions, and on the other end you have a number of enterprise-grade solutions. The DIY solutions are relatively easy to set up, intuitive, and a great option for tech savvy business owners and ‘digital natives’. Meanwhile, the enterprise solutions while super sophisticated and fantastic for ‘heavier’ e-commerce stores, fall short on simplification and are too complex (and expensive) for the majority of SMBs and their service partners as well.

Mono Solutions offers a SMB-focused solution that is positioned right in between these two options. It does so by offering a fantastic, fully-responsive for mobile commerce “Do It With Me” solution. An easy to use interface is intuitive enough for SMB adoption but at the same time it has powerful features and tools that allow service providers to have the same fulfillment efficiencies, flexibility, and performance that they see with normal Mono websites.

E-commerce is the opportunity our partners have been waiting for
Selling online is important for small businesses to grow, which is exactly why Mono Solutions continues to invest in staying ahead of the latest trends in commerce. We know that e-commerce presents a huge revenue opportunity for our partners and their SMB customers alike. Still, e-commerce is a relatively new service for many of our partners, which naturally generates relevant questions and concerns such as: “How do we effectively service these customers while staying profitable?”, and “Are any partners currently successful at selling e-commerce?”. Therefore, we are happy to share our experience in selling e-commerce to SMBs.

E-commerce is not a “set it and forget it” product and it is more cost-heavy to produce and maintain than a regular website. Successful e-commerce requires a partnership between the service provider and the SMB; hands-on, active involvement from the business to manage inventory and fulfill orders and white-glove service, training, and support from the provider - making e-commerce a true “Do It With Me” solution. However, while upfront costs can be higher than for websites, e-commerce can be highly profitable for service providers, especially in the long run.

This is because white-glove service can demand a higher market price point and economies of scale can increase margins. Simply focusing on the initial design and build of the e-commerce store is short-sighted. Just as websites are the core of online presence and digital marketing, e-commerce stores are the foundation of an entire new business opportunity for our reselling partners to not just help their customers sell online, but then promote and grow their online sales and realize real revenue. Long term, e-commerce provides an entirely new business segment for our providers. In Mono’s experience, both from our direct sales channel in Denmark where we have been selling e-commerce for years and from learning about the successes of our partner resellers, e-commerce customers are more “sticky” and loyal. We also find e-commerce customers more willing to invest in additional products, such as SSL certificates, online booking, online advertising and email marketing. Supporting and nurturing e-commerce customers can thus yield fantastic long term returns.

Learn More About Mono E-commerce
The Mono E-commerce solutions gives our partners a powerful and efficient platform for building e-commerce sites that from an SEO perspective outperform even the most sophisticated enterprise solutions. This allows you to provide the best solution to your customers while staying profitable.

Want to learn more? We look forward to taking a closer look at how Mono E-commerce can strengthen your business and make your SMB customers happier. Please contact Matt Matergia or Svenn Andersen to learn how easy it is to enable and start selling e-commerce.

Matt Matergia

Business Development

Mono Solutions