Rebel has partnered with Weebly to bring the robust website builder to our customers. We are proud to present the first guest post from Chris Sheridan, Head of Strategic Partner Sales at Weebly, on the Rebel Blog.
When Weebly was founded in 2007, it was still hard to create a website. Being able to solve this issue would be transformational, so we decided to launch our drag-and-drop website editor.
Back then, the primary bundle to get online consisted of a personal domain name, a hosting package, and a website. By making it easier to launch a personal website, all other tools in the bundle became even more important. Customers would now use their domain name on business cards, share their email address, and begin exploring other key complementary website features like blogging and security tools.
Photo by Hipster Mum / Unsplash
The last ten years have been about bringing down the barriers to establishing your online presence. What will the next ten years bring? In my opinion, we will see a transition from establishing an online presence to transacting online. We are now seeing consumers and companies alike begin to shift away from providing mainstream online services to aggressively expanding their portfolio of ecommerce services.
Why is this the case? I see three key drivers:
Offline Opportunity
As of today, 50% of small businesses do not have an online presence. This group continues to migrate online and is looking to sell their products. It's not enough for this group to simply have a professional presence, they need to be able to leverage their site to grow their business as well. Thus, their needs go beyond just a website and domain; They need a professional email address, the ability to easily sell physical goods, and payment gateways.
Gig Economy/Side Hustle
We know Rebel works with many entrepreneurs and solopreneurs who may be balancing a full time job and working on their side hustle. This population appreciates the value of an online presence and the scale it brings to their business. They also recognize the value of SEO, SEM, and other marketing tools that help accelerate their growth and customer numbers. Their dream is for their ecommerce site to become a full time job and provide a good income. In short, they are focusing on more innovation in the commerce space.
Photo by Muhammad Raufan Yusup / Unsplash
Millennials
There have been a number of studies that have highlighted the fact that the majority of millennials want to work for themselves and do not plan to have a traditional full time job. This generation has grown up with the internet, lives on mobile, and has solid experience with newer services like peer-to-peer payments. This group represents the future of ecommerce and will most likely be driving the innovation in this space, helping to further reduce the hurdles that come with launching an online business.
We are just at the beginning of this 10 year window of transacting online. It is an exciting chapter - one that will not only drive more innovation and transformative products, but one that has real impact on how we work, the economy, and entrepreneurism.
Ready to launch your own ecommerce site? Our online store builder, powered by Weebly, is on sale now for 50% off your first year.
