Do I Need an E-shop? When the Investment Pays Off

Yes, you need an e-shop today if your business sells products or services, with one important condition: the investment has to make sense for your turnover, your industry and your audience. According to Eurostat, 84% of Greek internet users bought something online in the last 12 months, while e-commerce in Greece is growing by around 15% a year.

Opening an e-shop is definitely worth it when: (1) you have products that can be shipped or sold online, (2) your competitors already have an online presence, (3) your turnover is above €30,000 a year, (4) you want to expand geographically. On the other hand, it may not be worth it if: you are a pure B2B service business with no product catalogue, or you have a very small marketing budget (under €200 a month).

In this guide you will learn when an e-shop is worth the investment, the 7 real benefits, a comparison with vs without an e-shop, and how to decide whether it is right for your business. Once you decide you need one, read our complete guide to building an e-shop →.

An e-shop is no longer a luxury. It is a business tool that decides whether your company stays competitive or becomes history.

When you DEFINITELY need an e-shop:

• You sell physical products
• You want to sell across Greece or abroad
• Your competitors already have an online presence
• You want to win market share

When you can start without an e-shop:

• You offer local services (e.g. a hair salon or physiotherapy)
• There is very little competition
• The cost of an e-shop can’t be justified for your size

Think about how many times you personally have searched on Google to find a business’s contact details. How many times have you searched to see what products or services a business offers? And, finally, how many times have you bought something from an e-shop. 80% of Greek consumers look for information online before they buy (study: Deloitte Greece 2024) and businesses with an e-shop increase their sales by 40–200% in the first year (McKinsey report 2024)

How an e-shop helps even with small sales

More and more people order their goods online and prefer to shop this way. Even if they don’t order online, they will do their research online, compare prices and perhaps decide what they want before finally going to buy it in the physical shop (because of a hesitancy that still exists in the Greek market).

Building an e-shop will also let your customers discover your full range of products, which they may not know about from a simple visit to your shop.

By creating an online shop , rather than selling through Facebook or another platform, we can run more effective ads, because we can measure the success of our ads better: we will know which ad led to a purchase or to a view of the page we wanted (the landing page).

By creating an e-shop, your customers, even existing customers of your physical shop, can see your whole product range at any time, including products they may not know about. They can also check the prices of all your products, and whether they are in stock, in peace from the sofa at home!

Will an online shop bring success?

The answer to that question is clearly no, not on its own. An online shop, combined with a “good business idea”, solid capital, a well-developed network of partners and, of course, a good product or service, whatever the size of the market, is the tool that will help a business succeed and “get” its products to new customers.

For a business, simply setting up an online shop is not enough to get its products to new customers. The e-shop has to be built properly and promoted properly through the right advertising channels .

The e-shop you build should be designed to be easy to use, to load fast and to meet the needs of the audience the business is aimed at. For example, an online shop selling expensive clothes needs a different style from one selling clothes worth €20–40. As for functionality, depending on the age group it targets, it may have fewer advanced features (so as not to confuse older users) or more.

Advertising on social media and offline

A good deal of work needs to go into promoting the website, with social media such as Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) playing a leading role, together with ads on Google‘s network. Of course, all of this needs a properly set-up remarketing (or retargeting) process, which is what drives a lot of sales. At the same time, there should be offline advertising too, with ads in print, on television or on the radio.

By doing all of the above, your website will really be able to work. Of course, there isn’t just one answer when it comes to advertising. You will need to experiment to find out the right and best advertising for your e-shop.

The best strategy to make your e-shop work

What you need to think about, and build your strategy around, if you want to succeed in e-commerce is the following question, on a personal level. What makes us fall in love with a product? What makes it fit into our daily life so well that we feel the need to keep buying it?

All your advertising efforts should be built on these questions. Your ads should stir feelings based on them.

All of this, combined with creating the persona of your e-shop’s ideal customer, will bring you one step closer to communicating well.

Communicate with your e-shop customers.

Talk to your customers and give them a sense of security. Customers want to know about the product they are buying, and about the company supplying it. The more people get to know you, the more they will trust you, and people buy from someone they really trust. Building your credibility with your audience can make a market leader of your online shop.

Make sure you set up a very good after-sales service and an FAQ section, so that you can answer your customers’ questions quickly and clearly. Their questions may be about the products you sell, and also about the progress of their order.

A Gensler brand survey on communicating with audiences found that 94% of respondents said they would happily recommend a product to the people around them if the brand responded to their needs.

Thanks to social media, you can take your company’s customer service to the next level. By working towards this and anticipating your audience’s needs, you could offer solutions before they even realise they need them.

Persistence in consistency and continuity

Would you shop from someone unreliable? Of course not. The question is, how do you earn that trust?

The answer is day by day. By doing everything we can to keep our customers happy, with fast delivery of our products, solving problems quickly and effectively and, of course, keeping to what our website says.

Besides consistency, continuity matters too. It is even harder to keep up this process for months or years. For people to trust you and keep believing in you and in the brand you stand for and love, you have to prove that you deserve their trust and that you are there for them. You have to keep the commitments of your e-shop.

A common habit that damages credibility is, for example, content and photos that are miles away from reality. That is a reason for a customer never to trust you again.

Continuous improvement of your online shop

Even if an online shop works today, you still need to keep looking at data that will help it grow and stay a step ahead of the competition. Even if we believe everything works perfectly, we should look at data from Google Analytics 4 or Hotjar to discover users’ difficulties and habits, so that we can improve our eshop.

Should I build an e-shop for my business or not?

The answer is, of course, yes, build an e-shop for your business, and run it properly, as if you had a new shop. With the same love and commitment you would put into your new shop. An e-shop can’t work on its own. Someone has to spend either time or money to “run” it.

If you don’t give your online shop the attention it needs, then even though it may be beautiful and fast it may not sell because nobody is working on it or, worse still, it may not satisfy your customers in terms of products and service.

Should you build an e-shop with custom code or with a well-known platform such as WordPress? Simply read our article and see which solution meets your needs!

Don’t forget the promotion of your website and e-shop (seo) and how important it is to its success, because this is how new potential customers will see your products. It means writing copy for your products and having a blog on your website or e-shop.

With an E-Shop vs Without an E-Shop

When an E-shop Is Worth the Investment: Decision Matrix

If you would like to work with us, just get in touch.

Frequently asked questions

✅ Decided you need an e-shop?

Great! The next step is building it properly. Read our detailed guide:

• 📋 8 steps to creating an e-shop
• 💰 Full costing
• 🛠️ WordPress vs Shopify vs custom
• 📚 Connecting with banks & couriers

Complete Guide to Building an E-shop →