In 2021, UK spent £250 billion on online shopping. In fact, the UK leads the world in online shopping. E-commerce, or online shopping, is quickly taking over as our favourite method of shopping. After noticing this shift, physical retailers are embarking on their own eCommerce journey. With 90% of UK consumers being digital consumers, many up-and-coming businesses operate exclusively online.
Best Ecommerce Platform for Your Small Business in the UK
What is Ecommerce?
We use an eCommerce platform when we purchase goods and services online. Around the world, there are up to 24 million online retailers. Some of them are only available online while others have physical locations. Online stores provide customers with a convenient way to shop. Shopping from the comfort of our home allows us to browse the market and choose from hundreds of products. For your business, online shopping opens new opportunities to gain loyal customers. Customers from different countries can view and buy your products 24/7 through our payment gateway.
Why Set Up an Ecommerce Store?
Until the COVID-19 pandemic, eCommerce was growing steadily. During this period, only shops supplying essential goods to the public were open. Then, many of us started shopping online for products and entertainment. eCommerce growth boosted by 4-6 years due to pandemic. Although physical stores have resumed business as usual, online shopping has not slowed down. With the help of online shopping, we can shop quickly, easily, and conveniently.
Convenient for Your Customers
With an e-commerce platform, your customers can browse, evaluate, and buy products around the clock. This can be helpful for customers who have full-time jobs. Our payment gateway ensures that the sales process is always smooth for customers, even when your employees are sleeping. Offering your customers this level of flexibility has many advantages over traditional retail locations.
Widen Your Customer Base
Your business can also sell its goods internationally with the help of UTP payment gateway. Being a brick-and-mortar store owner may limit you to one area. Expanding your customer base is essential to your company’s growth.
Lower Costs for Your Business
The cost of running an e-commerce website is much lower than that of a physical business. Storefront has no monthly fees and no floor staff required. Due to low overhead, your business can offer products at low cost. Providing goods at a lower cost increases consumer interest in your business. Social media marketing is less expensive than offline advertising. Social media raises brand awareness and sends visitors to your website immediately.
Why Set Up Your Ecommerce Store With UTP?
Most of the popular shopping carts are compatible with our e-commerce payment gateway solution. Prestashop, Magento and WooCommerce are several popular shopping carts that are compatible. We have developed developer kits and free modules that simplify the integration process.
For customers, ease and speed of use are essential to a satisfying buying experience. We take 150 various payment options, such as Google Pay and PayPal. 17% of shoppers will remove their items from their cart if they have trouble completing the payment. We cover a range of payment choices to ensure your business doesn’t lose out on a transaction. In 2022, 58% of online transactions are made using mobile devices. Our payment gateway is simple to integrate with any existing app and is optimized for mobile devices.
Customers must trust your website to gain loyalty. After a sale, we provide branded email receipts to your clients. We also develop QR codes and purchase buttons for your business to include in your marketing materials. These come together to form a coherent business vision.
UTP Shield
A free software called UTP Shield can detect fraudulent activity. It reports any suspicious activity to you at no cost to our customers. Additionally, UTP Shield notifies you when a transaction is at high risk of a chargeback. We stop payment when these fraudulent transactions occur.
Faster Processing
Customers who already have one of our card machines for business will receive Faster Processing. With the help of this free software, you can decide how and when you want to receive your money. We provide three different payment alternatives to our customers. Customers of other merchant service providers may take up to four business days to receive their payment.
- Intra-day Funding: Every transaction result in money coming into your business.
- Hourly Batch Funding: We fund businesses on an hourly basis. All card transactions made within the hour are included in this payment.
- End-of-Day Batch Funding: At the end of your business day, your business will receive all card transactions made during the day. It may take up to four business days for customers of other merchant service providers to get their money.
Are you planning to start an online business to go along with your brick-and-mortar store? Maybe you want to take your business online? Or are you starting a new business? UTP provides extensive guidance and resources to support your business growth. To become one of the thousands of online retailers, contact us now.