5 TIPS FOR TAKING YOUR SMALL BUSINESS ONLINE
Online shopping is an undeniable part of many consumers’ journey to purchase, whether they go online to make purchases, or to gain information about your business and products. According to Statistia, in 2021, over 2.14 billion people worldwide are expected to buy goods and services online. With ecommerce gaining more and more importance in retail, we have pulled together a few top tips to help you get online if you don't know where to begin.
1. Assess your offering:
Before setting up your online store, take the time to assess your products or service. By this we mean taking inventory of your products, evaluating business processes, and making sure you have a customer database with emails.
2. Find the right platform:
There are essentially two options when it comes to finding the right platform to host your store – launch your own website or use an existing ecommerce platform. Start by comparing the most popular host websites - from Shopify to Squarespace - to decide what works best for your business.
3. Leverage social media:
With so many engaged users across various social media platforms, it’s no surprise that it creates great opportunities for businesses. A well thought out social media strategy can help establish a stronger web presence, generate leads and also offer an alternative channel to communicate with your community.
4. Quality blogging and SEO:
You may be surprised to hear that SEO has the highest ROI of any ecommerce marketing campaign, as very few online stores take this into consideration as they build their store. Adding blogs to your site not only drives organic traffic to your store, but the content can also be used as part of your social media campaign. A blog also keeps your customers informed about new updates to your business, and positions yourself as a subject matter expert.
5. Nurture existing customers:
Whilst new customers are important for growth, you should also have strategies in place to nurture and return loyalty to your existing ones, whether that is with exclusive discounts or letting them know about new products ahead of the general public. A common and effective way to communicate with them is via social media or an e-newsletter; let them know about your new online store and reward them for coming with you on your journey to online!
For further reading on setting up an ecommerce store, check out the below posts.
- How to: integrate digital and brick and mortar
- 5 top tips for online sales success
- Making your website your best salesperson
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