Boost Your Business With An E-Commerce Storefront

One of the things that motivate our team at The Hair Society is to see hair restoration/ replacement salons as well as hair salons succeed. When we have the privilege to help you achieve your goals and dreams, we are fulfilling our purpose. The past four to five months have been challenging for our entire world. Between the health crisis, businesses being shuttered, people out of work, and the recent civil unrest in our society, everyone is doing whatever they can to keep their heads above water. We would love to help you not only survive, but thrive!

The Hair Society would like to introduce you to the world of e-commerce (if you aren’t already familiar with it). For many businesses and individuals, innovative e-commerce has transformed not only how we do business, but how we shop as consumers and business owners. 

In a nutshell, e-commerce (short for electronic commerce) is the buying and selling of goods or services on the internet. E-commerce ranges from mobile shopping to online payments and beyond. With an e-commerce presence, many businesses will obtain an e-commerce storefront and/or an e-commerce platform to conduct sales and marketing activities, as well as having oversight of logistics and fulfillment.

Many will be surprised to learn that the history of e-commerce, in its earliest form, dates back about 40 years ago with the introduction of CompuServe.

E-commerce retail sales in the U.S., over the past decade, have increased from 3.3% to 9.7%. That is an increase of almost 300%! In the U.S., we have just begun to tap into the online market. Growth projections by 2022 suggest that e-commerce revenues will exceed $638 billion. Who wouldn’t want to have a piece of that pie?

E-commerce has literally transformed the way we shop today. Would you have ever imagined ordering a new mattress online and receiving it by mail delivery? How about choosing your next vehicle online and having it delivered to your home? No more spending hours at the vehicle dealership having to meet with several layers of sales management. We can now shop for almost anything from the comfort of our home, simply using our mobile telephone, devices, or computers.

It’s easier than ever to increase your online presence and open an e-commerce storefront. The “way we’ve always done it” may be comfortable for some, but in order to increase your market share, and step out of your comfort zone, you will have to be open to thinking outside of the box. 

As a potential e-commerce business, you’ll likely fall into at least one of these four general categories. It is not unusual to operate within more than one of these categories at the same time.

1. Business-to-Consumer (B2C) – transactions made between a business and a consumer. This is one of the most commonly used sales models in e-commerce. When someone buys hair care products from an online salon, it is a business-to-consumer transaction.

2. Business-to-Business (B2B) – transactions made between businesses, such as a manufacturer and a wholesaler or retailer. This type of e-commerce is not consumer-facing and happens only between business entities.

3. Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) – transactions made between customers like those seen on eBay or Craigslist, etc.

4. Consumer-to-Business (C2B) – transactions made between consumers to business, it reverses the B2C model, and is what we commonly see in crowdfunding projects.

The advantages of utilizing e-commerce are profound. Customers are able to shop from anywhere at any time. There are no constraints such as hours of business, leaving their home, waiting for inventory to be in stock, etc. It is much easier to reach new customers. E-commerce stores are not limited to geographical locations, social media advertising, along with brand marketing, brings your products to relevant audiences who are ready to buy right now! Operating costs may be lower due to not requiring as much retail space to sell your non-service products. Re-designing a virtual storefront can be done as often or little as you want. Higher margins are possible overall.

Automated business intelligence will help your customers have a personalized online experience. Relevant products based on past online behavior and purchasing history will make your customers feel like you understand their individual needs.

If you are ready to dive into the enormous potential of having an e-commerce storefront, consider reaching out to us here at The Hair Society. We have over two decades of experience in building and hosting e-commerce and traditional websites. Our creative design team and webmasters will take care of the maintenance of your site and perform all edits and updates. We will also point you in the direction of other professionals who perform logistics and fulfillment for e-commerce order processing. The Hair Society offers e-commerce storefronts as an a la carte service for non-members, as well as a discounted service for our members. For additional information or questions, please contact us at info@thehairsociety.org.