Ecommerce Pros and Cons: Is it right for your retail business?
Today, we’re going to talk all things ecommerce, and try to help you find an answer that works for your business. We’re going to cover:
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What is ecommerce?
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Ecommerce in statistics
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Key factors to consider with ecommerce
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Pros and cons of ecommerce
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How can your business get started in ecommerce?
When you’re done here, you’ll know all you need to know about ecommerce, and you’ll know whether or not you ought to be setting up your ecommerce store. Ready to get started? Let’s go!
What is ecommerce?
Ecommerce (which is actually short for electronic commerce) is the buying and selling of products or services online. It’s simply the world of digital retail. While it may feel like a modern retail essential, ecommerce has been around longer than many people realise. Ecommerce was one of the first uses for the internet, and took off in the 1990s with the launch of online marketplaces and digital payment systems that allowed people to pay for products through online portals on sites like Amazon and eBay. Since then, it has grown rapidly to allow trade through smartphones and social media to match changing consumer habits.
These developments give businesses the ability to sell beyond the limits of a physical shop, and sometimes in lieu of actually having a brick and mortar store. Small businesses, especially those in niche industries, can then reach customers locally, nationally, and even globally. From the customers perspective, it offers convenience, speed, wider product choice, and the freedom to shop anytime, regardless of opening hours, from anywhere (including the comfort of their own home!).
Ecommerce in statistics
The numbers behind ecommerce make one thing clear: online retail is not just a side channel. Globally, ecommerce now accounts for a little over 20% of all retail sales, meaning roughly one in every five pounds or dollars spent in retail now happens online. That figure is expected to continue rising, reaching 22.5% by 2028.
For places like the UK, that figure is even higher, showing that the opportunity for retailers varies by region. The UK remains one of the most mature ecommerce markets in the world, with a whopping 28% of all retail sales already taking place online, and total UK ecommerce sales reaching an estimated £127 billion in 2024.
It’s worth noting that ecommerce purchases aren’t just coming from PCs and laptops. By 2027, it’s expected that 62% of all ecommerce sales will come from mobile phones. This shows how important it is to make websites mobile-friendly, as users can get frustrated with a difficult interface, leading to huge numbers of abandoned sales (70% of online shopping carts are abandoned!), costing businesses hundreds and thousands of potential sales and customers.
What’s especially important for smaller businesses is that these figures show customer behaviour has permanently changed. Ecommerce is established enough that consumers are more trusting and increasingly comfortable buying from independent retailers online, not just major chains. Lower-cost platforms, social commerce, and marketplace selling have reduced the barriers to entry, allowing smaller brands to compete in ways that were far harder a decade ago. For SMEs, this means ecommerce is less about “keeping up with trends” and more about meeting customers where they already choose to shop!
Key factors to consider with ecommerce
Before launching into ecommerce, it’s important to understand the operational impact it can have on your business. Selling online isn’t just a case of whipping up a website. It introduces new systems, processes, and responsibilities that need ongoing management. Here are a few of the main ones:
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Multi-channel inventory management. If you’re selling both in-store and online (and possibly via social media marketplaces, too?), keeping your inventory accurate becomes more complex. Stock levels need to sync in real time across both online and physical sales channels to avoid overselling or disappointing customers. This often requires new systems, integrations, as well as tighter internal processes as you can no longer simply look at your shelves to see what’s in stock.
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Website updates and maintenance. An ecommerce site isn’t a one-off project. Products need uploading, descriptions updating, prices changing, and designs for each page improving. On top of that, there’s technical upkeep: ensuring the site runs smoothly, loads quickly, and stays secure against an evolving world of digital threats and protections against them.
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Shipping, fulfilment, and returns. Handling orders brings logistical challenges, from packaging and postage to managing delivery expectations (even if your postal service lets you down, buyers will associate that disappointment with you!). Returns add another layer of complexity, requiring clear policies and efficient processes to maintain customer satisfaction and win their sale back without eating into margins or disrupting your regular trade.
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Customer service and communication. Online customers want quick responses to their enquiries, whether they’re about orders, products and services, or returns. This can significantly increase the volume of customer communications and requires staff to keep one eye on the counter, and one on the webpage.
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Digital marketing and traffic generation. An ecommerce store doesn’t automatically benefit from footfall. As with a physical store, you need to win each visit. Driving traffic requires ongoing investment, through inventory advertising, SEO optimising, paid advertising, and other marketing efforts. in channels like search engines, social media, email marketing, and paid advertising. This means developing a clear strategy, creating content, and continuously monitoring and refining performance.
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Payment processing and fraud prevention. Accepting online payments introduces additional considerations, from setting up and managing your payment portal to minimising the security risks. Businesses need reliable payment gateways, processes to detect and prevent fraud, and safeguards to protect customer data, all of which require careful setup and ongoing oversight to maintain compliance and avoid losses.
Pros and cons of ecommerce
Not put off by the thought of extra fraud prevention, shipping, and multi-channel management? That’s great! Because the reality is that ecommerce comes with both opportunities and trade-offs. Understanding both sides will help you decide whether it’s the right move for your business. So here’s a pros and cons list to make those trade-offs crystal clear!
Pros
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Sell to anyone, anywhere. Ecommerce removes geographical limits, allowing you to reach customers far beyond your local area. Whether that’s nationwide or even internationally, it opens up a much larger potential customer base than a physical shop alone, which means enormous potential for growth and scalability that one brick-and-mortar store simply doesn’t have.
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Cheaper to run than a physical store. While ecommerce isn’t cost-free, it often has lower overheads than a brick-and-mortar location. There’s no rent, lower staffing needs, and less maintenance (you don’t need to clean a website!) all of which make ecommerce an attractive option for businesses looking to grow efficiently.
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24/7 sales. An online store never closes. Customers can browse and buy at any time, whether you’re watching the store or not, which means you can generate revenue outside of traditional business hours without needing to be actively present. Sounds perfect, right?
Cons
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Highly competitive. The same accessibility that benefits your business also applies to your competitors, meaning when you compete for a customer 100 miles away, so is every ecommerce store selling the same product. Plus, customers can easily compare prices, products, and reviews, making it harder to stand out without very strong branding and marketing.
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Higher rates of abandonment and returns. Online shoppers are more likely to abandon their carts or return items, particularly in sectors like fashion, where they may make a purchase to try the product, and return it if it wasn’t everything they hoped. This can impact revenue, create more work, and make your sales figures less reflective of your financial situation.
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Reduced brand loyalty. Without face-to-face interaction, building strong customer relationships can be more challenging. Many online shoppers prioritise convenience and price, which can make repeat business harder to secure.
How can your business get started in ecommerce?
Okay! So you’ve decided to start an ecommerce store. Now what? Well, thanks to the POS industry and its many integrations with webbuilders, there are much easier ways to get started in ecommerce than building your own website from scratch. Here’s the simplest way you can get started:
1. Choose the right ecommerce platform
The easiest way to get started is by choosing a platform that integrates directly with your existing POS system. For example, an Epos Now retailer can use their third-party Shopify integration, allowing the online store to work seamlessly with the in-store setup. With integrations like this, products, pricing, and stock data can sync automatically between both channels. Both online platforms also provide preset designs to ensure your layout looks good.
All of this dramatically reduces setup time and removes the need to build separate systems for your physical and online stores.
2. Connect your inventory and product catalogue
Inventory is often the hardest part of ecommerce, which is why a POS integration makes such a difference. Instead of manually loading and updating stock across multiple channels, you can upload your existing inventory and have both online and in-store inventory using a single source of truth from the POS, automatically adjusting inventory whenever an item sells in-store or online. This helps prevent overselling, reduces admin, and gives you much better visibility over what’s actually available.
3. Set up fulfilment, payments, and customer journeys
Once the store is connected to your POS, you can start thinking about the customer experience. Build clear product pages with all the information the customer needs to make informed choices, choose delivery options, set returns policies, and make your checkout flow as simple as possible (this bit is really important! Abandonment at checkout can really hurt business)
Your integrated platform should also centralise online orders inside your POS workflow, making fulfilment easier to manage.
How to know if ecommerce is for you
The right decision comes down to your ambitions, your resources, the nature or your industry, and whether your business is ready for the opportunity and the focus it requires. If your customers increasingly expect to browse, buy, and engage online, ecommerce can help you meet that demand while opening up new revenue streams.
Success depends on whether you can provide a reliable service, manage inventory, fulfilment, marketing, customer service, and secure payments without compromising your in-store experience, which can often help your online store grow. For many retailers, the easiest route is through an integrated POS and ecommerce setup, which automates much of the complexity. If your systems, team, and growth goals can support that extra oversight, ecommerce is likely a smart next step!
