How to Reduce Overhead on Your eCommerce Store
One of the advantages that online stores have over brick-and-mortar retailers is lower overheads. That said, just because you won’t have to rent or buy a physical store, it doesn’t mean that other overhead costs can’t still pile up if left unchecked. If you’ve been looking for ways to reduce how much you’re spending on overhead costs to keep your online store running, here’s how you can go about reducing those costs.
1. Track Your Spending
The first step in solving a problem is understanding the scope of the issue. If you haven’t already, make sure you’re keeping track of all the money going in and out of your business account. There are plenty of business accounting solutions that allow you to not only keep track of expenses and earnings but also allow you to split your cash flow into various categories. These solutions will allow you to easily visualize how much money you spend on overheads each month and what your biggest money sinks are.
2. Look for Shipping Deals
Shipping costs can be a major expense when running an online store. This includes both the costs you incur when sending items to clients, and the costs associated with having goods delivered to your storage unit or warehouse. And you can reduce both of those costs by keeping an eye out for deals being offered by your current courier service provider, as well as keeping an eye on the prices offered by other couriers.
You might be able to spend less on shipping by switching to a more affordable courier, negotiating rates with your current courier, or taking advantage of promotions and discounts being offered to business owners. For example, many courier services offer discounts for businesses that are willing to pay for their services in advance.
3. Switch Platforms
Looking at a Shopify pricing guide will quickly reveal just how much price variation there is between the various eCommerce plans offered by the platform, and that’s just one company. Make sure you keep track of how much of your earnings are going towards your current eCommerce hosting service. You may find that switching to a different platform will be worth it in the long run, especially if you can secure a deal that will ensure that your fees and rates on the new platform won’t go up for a certain number of years.
4. Change Marketing Strategies
If the business is going well, you likely have a marketing strategy that allows you to get a good return out of every dollar you spent on marketing. That said, just because something is working, it doesn’t mean it can’t be improved. And there are plenty of affordable marketing strategies out there that you can implement to reduce how much money you need to spend on getting new clients.
One popular solution is forms of content marketing like blogging, SEO, and social media marketing, all of which can be affordable while yielding great results. The only downside is that most forms of content marketing will take months of consistent work before they start bearing fruit.
Another option is to invest in returning customers, as marketing to existing customers is much cheaper than getting new ones. You can encourage customers to buy from you again by implementing loyalty programs, investing in email marketing, and offering existing customers special deals and discounts.
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