It’s no wonder that e-commerce has stormed the shopping sector. Customers are now shopping online more than offline. Because a large part of the population has been sitting at home in recent months. Companies are changing in different ways to connect with and serve their clients. They considered migrating to the Online Store.
How to Smoothly Migrate from Brick and Mortar to Online Stores?
If you’re a brick-and-mortar company, you might be a little scared by this and feel that online stores are going to have a significant effect on your business. We’re here to remind you this doesn’t have to be the case. Instead of being affected by e-commerce, stores should welcome it. Setting up an online store helps you to meet wider audiences, be available 24/7, and provide more sales opportunities. Luckily, the steps to migrate eCommerce stores online aren’t as difficult.
Or you might have started to shift to online shopping. Why? Because obviously, the goal is to continue selling goods and services. Even when moving to virtual team meetings and eCommerce can be a major change, there is a range of steps you can take to migrate your store online. There are a lot of inexpensive and user-friendly solutions on the market; you just need to take some time to figure out the best one for you and apply the solution to your company.
Here’s how to Smoothly Migrate from Brick and Mortar to Online Stores:
Figure out your Target Audience:
Don’t expect that your buyers would follow you online. Some customers enjoy the physical environment that your company offers, and if they miss it, they can not come back. Not everybody is likely to be converted. You will have the opportunity to gain fresh customers far beyond the local market. Your pool of potential shoppers would be way, much greater than the brick-and-mortar company. What you need to do right now, before you transfer your store online, is ask yourself two questions. Who are my new clients? How are they going to find us online? You likely already have a sense of who your target market is.
Decide which platform to use
You did your research and you got answers to all your questions. It’s time to implement your preferred eCommerce site for online business transformation. Fully set up your account, get acquainted with the layout, and learn the basics. Listing your goods on a platform like Amazon is the simplest and cheapest to set up, but it costs a higher percentage of your earnings. It takes longer to set up your platform, but you keep more profits, and you have a lot more power over your branding.
Design your Website
You need a floor plan for your brick-and-mortar shop, you need a concept for your website as well. Think of the different items you’re going to offer and the pages you’re supposed to have to have. You should be able to draw customers into attractive items while you get offline business online. You have to show off their best qualities, and drive people to the shopping cart. From there, if anyone has queries, you need them to provide a simple way to get in touch with you. Sketch this out before you set up your shop to make it easier to imagine.
Choose the Domain
What is going to be the name of your website? You want to make your domain name the same. Choose and purchase a domain name that describes your brand name. By the end of the day, these can be almost the same name as your brick & mortar brand name, but it may be tough to find the exact match. You would need to add a suffix to it.
Decide your Budget
Calculate the expense of monthly ads, delivery and packing, monthly eCommerce subscription/fees, etc. Look for any work that you can do on your own to save price. For eg, can you do the packing and shipping yourself instead of contracting it? It is a crucial step before moving your business online.
Choose your Products
Not all products are well designed for online orders. So, which products are you selling online? It’s best to focus on the bestsellers and things that you’ve found are getting a lot of requests for. That way, you can tailor to a wider consumer base and not spend time or resources on goods that won’t give you a lot of profit anyway. As you go along, you can always add more.
Set up the Payment Method
In this era of digital transformation, online payment has gained a lot of value. You needed to provide a company or a merchant account with a payment processor so that you can accept credit card payments digitally. Since you already have a registered and tax ID business, this should not be a matter of concern.
Just make sure that this payment provider fits smoothly with the online portal you have selected in the previous step. You can do this by searching the platform’s website for supported payment types. The tougher it is for customers to buy from your shop, the less likely they will be. You should be able to accept credit cards and PayPal.
Look into Shipping and Fulfillment
Opening an online shop means that sending a package to the buyer is no longer as easy as packing and handing it over to the checkout counter. You have two options. Either you can do your packing and delivery or hire a third-party provider that would pack, and drop online orders directly to customers on your behalf.
Proper Marketing
You’re never going to sustain online unless you do online marketing. Set up Google Analytics and Google Search Console to track the efficiency of your website and where your traffic is coming from. Driving sales of eCommerce operates differently than offline. As many as 63 per cent of companies report that generating traffic is the single biggest challenge they face. Also, you have to stay up to date with the latest Ecommerce Trends.
Conclusion: How to Smoothly Migrate from Brick and Mortar to Online Stores?
If you’ve found yourself in a place where you can’t do business in a physical store or are ready to grow your business, now is the time to kick start your online marketplace. Follow the steps above to ensure that your online transformation is effective.