If you conduct any portion of your business online, this ecommerce infographic offers dozens of pieces of insight on ecommerce facts and trends for the coming year. If you don’t have an ecommerce store and you’re in business, these statistics and projections are even more important.

The Importance of Ecommerce Statistics in Small Business Marketing

A friend of mine was telling me about stopping by a local shop for a coffee and bagel. The business had “bagel” in their name, which was prominent in all their signage.

When he ordered, he was told no bagels were available. “They’re too hard to make.”

If you’re reading this, I’m sure I don’t have to point out the errors of that local business owner’s thinking.

Yet the same level of wrong thinking is creeping into other aspects of local small business marketing, especially on the topic of having an online store.

Just as having the right signage is vital to attracting and keeping loyal customers, so is having an ecommerce presence.

Even so, there are still plenty of small companies that don’t have a website. Yet far more don’t have an online shopping alternative, even those who managed to put together a website.

There’s no doubt that ecommerce is a giant component of our economy. But today it’s not just for the ecommerce giants like Amazon and eBay. Consumers expect all companies to have an online presence.

The frequency at which consumers spend their money online is rising – today, over half of shoppers make online purchases at least once every one or two weeks.

The smart phone is the preferred device for shopping. Customers are shopping on the go and the trend is rising, doubling from 2016 to 2018.

An online shopping presence doesn’t have to be that complicated. Let’s go back to our friends at the bagel store.

Setting aside the obvious signage problem, an online presence for a local business like a coffee shop or restaurant could take the form of a simple online ordering system. There are plenty of apps to help with that. And customers expect it.

You can go into any Dunkin Donuts® for example, and watch people breeze in to pick up their pre-ordered and paid-for coffees, thanks to online ordering.

Yes, ecommerce business requires some work, but that doesn’t make it any less necessary. No less necessary than changing the signage to reflect what you actually do.

Online Shopping Statistics to Help Your Ecommerce Sales Growth This Year

The ecommerce statistics infographic below, courtesy of our colleagues at Jobsinmarketing.io, offers insight that can help steer your online marketing strategy for the coming year.

And if you’re not yet involved in ecommerce, it raises some questions for discussion that could help your team get started with an online shopping platform.

• Retail stats about “showrooming” outline the vital importance of multi-channel marketing
• The 3 biggest stumbling blocks ecommerce operators face in omni-channel promotion
• The top 5 factors that drive customer loyalty to your brand. #1 is no surprise but seems to trip up far too many businesses, online and off.
• The top 2 reasons why consumers abandon a shopping cart
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Have an ecommerce story or suggestion to share? Just leave it in the comments below the graphic.