The Benefits of Building Your Own B2C eCommerce Store

The significance of mall culture in the United Arab Emirates is well documented. In fact, as of 2022, there are more than 70 malls in Dubai alone, with over 10 more under construction. Clearly, the majority of the UAE believes that when you want to sell to customers, the best way to do that is by opening a physical store.

However, we are digital marketing experts at Trafiki and so we are here to tell you about the advantages of B2C selling via e-commerce.

4 Benefits of Selling B2C with e-Commerce

There are many benefits to selling online through a B2C e-commerce website. In this blog, we will highlight four of the most important:

• You can reach a wider audience
• It is cheaper to run than a physical store
• It only involves a small upfront investment for large returns
• You can provide your customers with a greater variety of products

A Wider Audience

Perhaps the most obvious benefit is that it allows businesses to reach a much wider audience than they would if they were simply selling through brick-and-mortar stores. Namely, it gives them the opportunity to sell their products and services to a global market.

Physical stores are limited by their geographical location, but an online store can be accessed by anyone with an internet connection. Given that the UAE is a hub for travel and commerce, it is in a perfect position globally to export items across the world. Once your store goes from selling hundreds to thousands of items, you can then begin to set up warehouses closer to your most popular selling regions.

Low-cost Set-up

Another advantage of B2C e-commerce is that it is generally much cheaper to set up and maintain an online store than a physical one.

To set up a shop in Dubai you are looking at 400,000AED as a starting price. If you set up in a more exclusive district, you could pay as much as 89,980,000AED! Meanwhile, to set up a B2C e-commerce store, you can pay as little as 50,000AED for a high-quality, well-designed website.

There are no rental costs or overheads associated with running an online store, and businesses can save money on staffing costs as they do not need to employ sales staff. With an online store, you can instead hire an eCommerce marketing agency in Dubai!

A good agency will manage the maintenance of your store, continuously improve its usability with UX updates, and develop search engine marketing strategies to boost you to the top of Google. All of this for a relatively low-cost monthly fee with any challenges identified and fixed quickly.

The only other staff expense would be one employee to manage the sales and shipment.

Small Investment for Big Returns

Arguably the biggest benefit of having an e-commerce store is that your small investment can turn into huge returns – fast!

Online stores can be set up and run relatively quickly and easily, with no need for significant upfront investment. Even with little knowledge, you can grow your business if you are willing to learn and listen to the right people.

If you wish, you can set up a store yourself and only pay for the domain, hosting, and other associated expenses. However, although you might eventually see some success and slow growth, you will need to devise a comprehensive digital strategy to connect your online business to ready-to-buy customers.

As experts in this field, we are always willing to give some time to aspiring entrepreneurs, or business people looking to grow and expand online. Whether that is through targeted PPC services, data-driven SEO services, or conversion-focused UI/UX design.

How to Get Sellers for an e-Commerce website

One of the main challenges e-commerce businesses face is that they need to find reliable and trustworthy sellers for their products.

To do so, you could reach out to businesses directly and ask if they would be interested in selling their products on your site. Another option is to use a dropshipping service, which is a type of e-commerce where you don’t need to carry any inventory yourself. Rather, you simply act as a middleman between the customer and the supplier. This can be a great option if you’re just starting out and don’t have the capital to invest in inventory.

And lastly, you could also use a platform like Amazon to find sellers for your site. So, you have options!

Will e-Commerce Replace Physical Stores?

It’s hard to say for sure whether e-commerce will ever completely dominate the retail landscape, but it is certainly a possibility. If the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us anything, it is that we may have to entirely re-think the way we interact, work, and shop at any moment!

The post-COVID e-commerce boom proved this to be true and, more importantly, the global e-commerce market has continued to grow since the pandemic. In fact, across the next three years, revenue from the UAE’s eCommerce market is expected to show an annual growth rate of 10.4%. That’s over triple the expected growth rate of the UK! We are here to help local businesses profit from this industry boom.

Speak to the e-Commerce Experts

Trafiki has been building, managing, and marketing e-commerce websites in the UAE and the UK for over 15 years. We can tell you about all the potential pitfalls you may face when setting up a B2C e-commerce store, as well as how to avoid them. Contact us today and book a free 30-minute Discovery call with one of our e-commerce experts.