4 Benefits to Retailers Selling Online

1. Increase your product offering

Selling online opens up the opportunity to expand your product offering without incurring the overheads associated with traditional retail. Unlike brick-and-mortar stores, online retailers can leverage drop shipping – where third-party suppliers hold and ship the stock on your behalf. That means you don’t need to invest in extra warehouse space, staff, or fulfilment structure and can still offer a greater range of products.

By eliminating the need to physically store your inventory, you can easily test new product lines quickly, and respond to trends without significant financial risk. If you see a category begins gaining traction, you can add it to your catalogue quickly and easily, giving you an advantage over traditional retailers.

That said, successful drop shipping requires reliable partners. Look for suppliers that use an Order Management System (OMS), such as Mintsoft, which enables smoother operations, and white labelling to apply your branding to the products your customers purchase. This strengthens your brand identity and creates a better, more streamlined customer experience – both critical to building trust and earning repeat business.

2. 24/7 Ordering

One huge advantage that online retailers have over brick-and-mortar stores is that your store doesn’t need to close. Customers can browse and purchase your products at their own convenience, regardless of what time of day it is. Without fixed opening hours, selling online means you’re always available.

On top of that, you can use ecommerce order management software to automate the entire process, from capturing orders to updating inventory, generating shipping labels and triggering courier workflows – even while you sleep. A good OMS will be able to sync stock levels across multiple channels too, so you don’t need to worry about stockouts because your products are listed on all the best marketplaces.

This also enables you to meet customers expectations; fast, accurate service. It frees you up to focus on growth with the flexibility to scale your operations quickly and easily.

3. Automated inventory management

Managing your inventory manually is not only time-consuming, but also opens you up to manual errors that can lead to stockouts, overselling and unhappy customers. 

Many successful online retailers use their OMS to eliminate the need for manual stock checks, ensuring inventory levels are always up-to-date across all marketplaces, whether that’s your own website, Amazon, eBay or others.

Beyond basic stock updates, automated inventory management also gives you access to powerful reporting and analytics tools, which equip you to make proactive decisions such as adjusting pricing, running promotions, or discontinuing slow-moving products. 

With a live view across all platforms, you can identify your most profitable products and allocate resources more effectively. With clear, accurate data to guide your purchasing decisions, marketing strategies and even seasonal influences, you’ll always be one step ahead of the competition.

4. Sell on multiple marketplaces and reach a wider audience

Arguably the greatest benefit of online retailing is the ability to tap into multiple marketplaces, giving you access to millions of potential customers that might never have visited your website, and almost certainly wouldn’t have ventured into your physical store. Platforms such as Amazon, eBay, OnBuy and Not On The High Street are trusted by consumers and can dramatically increase your reach.

As we’ve already discussed, managing your inventory across multiple channels and marketplaces becomes much easier if you’re using an ecommerce order management software to do the heavy lifting. 

Choosing the right marketplaces is also key. If you sell unique, handcrafted products, then platforms like NOTHS and Etsy will likely be better for you, but if you have rare, in-demand products eBay could be a better choice. Do your research and align your marketplace strategy with your target audience to maximise reach without wasting resources.

By combining a multi-channel selling strategy with automation, your business can scale quickly and efficiently without taking on the expensive overheads that traditional retail entails.

The main difference between brick and mortar and online retailing is that brick and mortar stores are physical locations where you can go and shop in a town, city or shopping centre, while online stores can be visited online or via apps to purchase items or services.

Below find a summary of the advantages and disadvantages of a brick and mortar store and an online storefront: 

Running a successful online retail operation requires more than just product listings and a website – you need to have the right systems in place to ensure everything runs smoothly. Here are some essential tools that can make a difference:

• Ecommerce Order Management Software (OMS) - An OMS is the backbone of any ecommerce business. It centralises your orders, tracks inventory in real time, and automates admin tasks, resulting in fewer errors, faster fulfilment, and happier customers.
• Warehouse Management Software (WMS) - A WMS gives you complete visibility and control over your warehouse operations. From assigning tasks to tracking progress, everything happens in one place, increasing productivity, reducing picking errors, and making better use of your team’s time.
• Shipping Management Software - Shipping delays and mistakes can be costly. A shipping management system will help you compare carrier rates, print labels, and track deliveries, and some can even choose the optimal courier based on rules that you set.

To explore more tools designed to help your business grow online, see all of Mintsoft’s features.

Managing multiple marketplaces doesn’t need to be complicated. Mintsoft was built with ecommerce in mind, easy to use, and powerful enough to scale with your business.

Book a free personalised demo and see how Mintsoft can take your online retailing efforts  to the next level.