When we send the renewal remainders, some of the customers would come back and ask us why they should renew their subscription and update their store. They would say they were happy with the version of J2Store they have and does not require updates anymore.
We respond to them with the reasons and the benefits of keeping their store-up-to-date. I thought, why not write a blog post about it with more details.
Now to the point, here are the 3 key reasons why you should renew your subscription and keep your online store up-to-date
1. Grow your business
Running a successful online store calls for more efforts than just build-it-run-it approach. When you are starting a business, it shows you are very serious about it and determined to grow your business.
If your online store is going to be your lifeline and an important source of income, then it is very important to keep your store up-to-date.
Would any serious business like to face its customers while running an outdated software? Shopping cart software is like an operating system for an online store. Your website might not need a slideshow or a scrollbar extension. But a shopping cart is a backbone.
You might say "My store is working good. Why should I pay for the renewal? I am happy with whatever I got". Well, that would take you to a distance. But not very far and long. The developments in the world wide web happen at a rapid speed. Joomla is changing. So is the PHP (the programming language used to build Joomla). After a point of time, your installation would become incompatible due to the changes happening in the web.
Staying up-to-date ensures that you are compatible with the changes in the environment and your store continues to function. And most importantly you stay secure.
2. Continuous technical support
When purchasing a software, some of us tend to think that we would not require continuous support once the work is done. Well, that is totally wrong. Let me explain a simple scenario. Let us say, your online store has developed a snag or an issue and your banging your head against the wall, trying to fix it by spending hours. You google Stack Overflow, Joomla forums and others to see if you could fix it by yourself.
Let us look at the other side of these efforts. Put a cost to the hours you had spent on fixing the issues. Let us say, you have spent 5 hours. If we just apply a minimum of $10 dollars per hour (your hours might be worth more than $10), you had already wasted $50 worth of your time.
That is not all. There is more. Imagine, you had spent these 5 hours on the efforts to grow your business. Say, you spent those hours writing a blog post about your products, or created a Facebook group to promote your products. Now add the potential revenue coming from these efforts to the cost.
If you are web-designer working for your client, then you could have spent those hours on an another project.
In all, the cost of those hours you spent would be well over $50 for fixing an issue. Multiply this whenever you spend your time on technical aspects instead of sales. The cost would run in to hundreds of dollars in a year.
But, you could have renewed your license with access to updates and support at a much lower cost.
3. An investment
When you invest on something, then it shows you are serious about your business. Running an online business requires a serious commitment. It is not a one-off effort. It requires continuous nurturing, especially if you are just starting up.
Keeping costs low is good. However, shopping cart is a backbone of an ecommerce business. This is not something like a slideshow that you can skip and look at it at a later stage. So treat the subscription as an investment. This especially has more value if you are small business with resource constaints. It is difficult for small businesses to afford an in-house technical person to solve the issues.
At J2Store, we are aware that a majority of our customers are small and medium businesses. In fact, J2Store is built especially for them. We are not targeting Fortune 500s or companies that have millions of products in their catalog. Those businesses could afford a customized shopping cart solution and have a dedicated in-house development team to fix the issues. They don't need us.
Our customers are Fortune 500000s that includes a business that sells less than 10 products or just one product. We took a stand from the very beginning of the development of J2Store itself to keep the software light-weight and easy to use. Small businesses do not need a bloated ecommerce platform, which is hard to manage and requires a huge maintenance cost.
They need a solution that launches their storefront in minutes. That is where J2Store comes in.
Our aim is to help you sell. Just sell your products. When you grow to a stage where you need more features for your online store, do come back. We have add-ons that would enhance your store features.
You do not need a loyalty program right on the day you launch your online store. Certainly not. And please do not purchase an add-on unless otherwise it is necessary for your store. Small is beautiful.
Keep your J2Store up-to-date. If you had second thoughts on renewing, don't hesitate. Renew now.
Here is a little motivation. Get 30% off on each renewal. Check your email inbox for the coupon code. If you have not received one, write back to us.
Leave a comment if you have any feedback.
