Online Business Transition: An Easy Guide For Small Business Owners

If you feel your business has peaked and gone stagnant at its physical location, the next possible step might be to take it to the digital front. e-commerce has boomed over the past few years and customers are now spending more of their time and money online rather than going to brick-and-mortar stores.

The question now is, what steps should you take to move your business from its physical location to a digital one? Are there business factors you should take with you, such as your customer base and suppliers? If you’re already covered by professional liability coverage, would it cover your liabilities if you’re working on a digital platform? What road bumps and costs should you expect?

Here is a simple and quick guide to help make your transition from the physical store front to e-commerce as easy, smooth and painless as possible.

Step 1: Picking The Right Selling Platform For You

Choosing the right selling platform can basically make or break your e-commerce business. Think of it as choosing the right location to put your physical store. You want to pick a location that attracts high traffic from your primary market. Otherwise, your sales will eventually dry up.

You basically have two options when choosing the selling platform. First, you can choose to sell on an existing platform such as Amazon or Etsy. This is a good choice if you’re just starting out and you need to build a customer base online, or you don’t have the budget to have a platform created for you. However, if you do have the budget and a strong customer base, building your own selling platform might be greatly beneficial because your customers will not be distracted by your competitors and you can control your rankings online.

 Step 2: Make It Better Than The Real Thing

The main reason why people are choosing digital commerce over physical shopping is that it offers flexibility, comfort, convenience and a wide array of choices. If there is one significant benefit to going to a store compared to shopping online, it’s the ability to examine and compare products closely and in real-time.

What if you could bring together the best of both worlds for your customers? Invest in a website that offers both information AND visually appealing content. Customers are more likely to be interested in your products if you are displaying professionally taken images of your actual products along with a complete breakdown of the specifications, compared to stock images and generic descriptions that you can find anywhere on the Internet.

Step 3: Improve On Consumer Experience

Do you know the number one reason why people give up on online purchases? It’s because the checkout process is too long! Even a simple lag time of a few seconds after clicking on the “purchase” button can discourage prospective customers from finalizing the sale, and this is why there are so many abandoned digital carts online.

There are many ways to streamline the consumer process on your website, such as reducing website load times, making it easy for customers to navigate through your website, and placing essential links such as “purchase” and “cart” buttons in visible areas.

Step 4: Be Visible But Not Annoying

It can’t be stressed enough. It won’t matter if you have the best product in the world if no one knows you’re selling it! These days, the best way to advertise your company is through social media, simply because social media offers a real-time audience reach and the potential for organic growth that can’t be rivalled via traditional marketing means.

However, there is a fine line between being visible on social media and being annoying on social media. In fact, if you come off as too pushy, it’s more likely to drive OFF customers rather than drive company growth. As a good rule of thumb, you should use social media as a way to engage customers and encourage them to visit your website, rather than using it as a way to push your products in their faces.

Step 5: Offer Top-Notch Security Measures

Cyber security concerns are no joke, and it’s another major reason why some customers are wary of making purchases online. You need to reassure your customers that their sensitive financial information is safe with you, especially if they are going to use credit cards. One of the best ways to do so is to use the same financial cyber security software that banks and other large financial institutions use, such as Norton, McAfee and Kaspersky. These companies are already well-known and trusted and customers will likely be more comfortable if you can demonstrate that you are using these programs to keep their financial information safe.

Step 6: Be Covered Professionally

If your physical store already has professional liability insurance, there are some instances that the insurance can cover your digital business as well. However, since digital commerce is a relatively new field, there are many instances where traditional insurance might not be enough. This means you should consider getting e-commerce insurance as well to protect both facets of your business. 

Step 7: Add Local Payment Methods

Streamlining payment methods for your customers is a good strategy as the checkout page is always important in any online transaction. Unfortunately, numerous websites offer only one method of payment. Offering local payment methods are linked to higher rates of conversion and success in global ecommerce. Therefore, ensure you can offer your clients with a convenient payment method by taking a look at your target audience and determining which payment method suits them. If you’re in Europe for instance, you can consider having an Euro bank account to streamline cross-border transactions.