Transitioning your offline business to online can sometimes be an unsure process, however, the benefits are numerous in comparison to selling from your traditional brick and mortar store when selling your products online.
Whilst you may be used to the local foot traffic and instant brand recognition offline, the results from online selling can be endless. What better time to begin this process than now, with the current pandemic ensuring you have a captive online audience? You can reach more customers than ever before and convert them into sales.
But how do you approach it?
Here are our top tips to get you started.
Start small:
One of the benefits of going online is you have the ability to stock a small number of products whilst you adjust to your new selling processes.
As you become more familiar with your online store and shipping procedures you can start to expand your products or even start stocking a whole new line of services for your new online audience.
Assess:
You need to tailor your online store to your target audience otherwise you won’t be selling to your full potential.
We suggest doing a brand audit:
- Who are you targeting?
- Who are your products or services primarily catered to?
- Are there things about your current brand that aren’t working?
- What are your most popular items or services?
This is the time to list all the positives and negatives associated with your brand. It could be the perfect time to get a new logo and adjust your messaging, brand assets and colour palette.
Have a look at our branding services here.
Avoid the cowboys:
Believe it or not, the website design space is filled with numerous businesses that take shortcuts and back alleyways when building websites.
Just because the price is cheap does not make it good.
We’re here to tell you if you don’t do it right the first time it will end up costing you more money and time in the long run to rectify. The best course of action is to do your research and make sure the business you choose has a high level of experience and knowledge within this arena (like us!).
Incorporate New Marketing Techniques:
Transferring your business over to online mode can come with a lot of positives, however, a lot of business owners avoid doing it as they are unsure of how to make their product sell.
We recommend incorporating some new marketing techniques into your transition. For instance, have you tried your hand at industry blogging? Or creating tutorials? Interviewing various industry professionals, doing online Q&As, or using Instagram survey features?
This is a great way to begin to form relationships with your new online audience and help them along their customer journey.
SEO & Reviews:
With an expansion in customers online, so too comes an increase in competitors and this is where search engine optimisation can really set you apart.
SEO can help elevate your site in search rankings, consumer engagement and reputation. What is amazing about SEO is you can target your ideal customers based on their demographic and market your product to the audience you require (when you have the right person managing your SEO).
Get as many positive reviews as possible when transitioning your shop online. This is a fantastic way for clients to see your integrity and worth as a store and for you to gain some free credibility.
Technically you are a “new” business so forming trust with potential customers is imperative to succeeding in your online selling journey.
This increased web presence can also lead to a spike on other social media as your site gets more attention which is an extremely helpful bonus of using SEO and receiving more reviews. Read here about how we can increase your rankings.
Whilst we realise this is a daunting process, with the right partner it will seem like a breeze. We would love to have a chat about how we can move your business forward to conquer the online realm.