A virtual shop is your shop on the internet. It is not a physical store and hence does not require you to buy expensive property in an expensive market place. It is a piece of software hosted on an internet server that runs 7 days a week, 24 hours a day and is accessible to anyone anywhere in the world at any time of the day. It is a shop which never sleeps.
A virtual shop is a way of extending a physically existing shop to reach out to a large set of other wise untapped customer base. And the initial and running costs are so less that it never hurts to open one. So, why reject the possibility of an extended avenue for fetching business if it merely entails an investment of a few thousand rupees. Even if you add a few new customers through your virtual shop, your investment in it is recovered.
Remember, as we have mentioned earlier, there are thousands of potential customers who surf the internet on a daily basis in search of products and services that they are planning to buy. Many buyers are now-a-days finding it more convenient and less stressful to surf the internet for reviewing product profiles and taking buying decisions. By not being present on the internet, you are killing your chances of getting spotted by these customers, whom you cannot afford to ignore. In today’s competitive world, each customer is important and with one customer you can build several customers.
With the widespread penetration of computers in India and easy access to the Internet from home, office and cyber cafes, hundreds of thousands of Indians are now finding it more convenient to use the internet for their requirements. These customers hate to drive down to today’s crowded market places (where it is very difficult to even find a place to park), struggle amongst the crowd of customers in a small-sized shop to review the products they wish to buy. Some customers are even shy of asking the price of each and every item, though they would like to - such customers prefer to make their buying decisions from the comfort of their office desk or their home where they can review the photos of the various product designs vis-à-vis their price and take a better decision to suit their pocket and taste.
Further, there are several bulk buyers/traders who are always on the look out for good suppliers/manufacturers These traders often operate at a bigger scale catering to the export market or the large volume metro market. They spend a lot of time surfing the internet in search of better suppliers and better deals, and can fetch you bulk orders. By not being present on the web, you are missing the opportunity of getting noticed by such bulk buyers who may find your products appealing and may get interested in you.
