How to move your business online for the first time

Posted by Anne Chritine on June 12th, 2021

Are you still running your business offline? Are you running your business without making any changes after the first and second waves of the COVID-19? Do you know any new way to grab your potential buyers? If your answer to all these is no then you are getting your business down by losing a golden business opportunity. Guess what. I am talking about moving your business online and leaving the conventional ways of doing a business. Keep reading to know what you need to do if you want to enter the digital world with your offline business for the first time.   

Go digital with your offline business

Your business is everything for you, your family, and your employees. You always think to make it stable because you want to support your society with your problem-solving products and services. Further, you might be running your business traditionally well by serving your target consumers. 

But due to several restrictions by the government in the pandemic, your business might have suffered from decreased sales and customer traffic. And, your business is not the one suffering from the COVID situation. There are many businesses like you that are dealing with the same situation.

Therefore we all need to take our businesses out of this critical situation by upgrading the business medium and the operating strategy. Moreover, look at the following points, move your business online and secure your business’s future. 

Know the operating environmento one can assure you how your business will perform with COVID-19 situations. But we can provide you clarity about the scenarios you might have due to the pandemic. 

With the effect of COVID-19, most of the cities in the world have started following social distancing measures. That has adversely impacted commercial activity around the globe. It is mandatory to follow social distancing measures from residential areas to commercial places. In addition to all these things, most of the countries in the world have passed through a nationwide lockdown where everything was shut down from businesses, education institutions, cinema halls to shopping malls. 

During this situation, no one was allowed to go outside regardless of who you are. 

Moreover, this Covid situation wants to teach us something. We should adopt some other environment to survive our businesses no matter the situation. 

For this good reason, you should immediately go online with your physical businesses if you want to survive and assist your families and employees. 

Starting an online store for the first time

Starting an online store for the first time can be challenging for you if you are new to the digital world. Thanks to technological advancements for providing problem-solving technology based on the need of the hour. Now you have several options to get any kind of business online. There are companies in the market ready to assist you to go online with readymade tools and resources. 

Furthermore, for example, you can easily start an eCommerce store for your offline business. You can set up your online business on your own with the help of technology or a company. Moreover, here are some tools particularly designed for certain use cases. 

• E-commerce
• Donations platforms
• Non-profit platforms
• Faith-based platforms
• Restaurant and food delivery options
• Property management platforms
• Field service platforms

Gaining potential customers

In order to run your online business, you will need to grab your potential customers. For this, you will have to use some tools. They are following:

• Try to retain your existing customers

If you have connected your consumer email addresses or phone numbers, you should reach them through emails and phone numbers and let them know your offline business status. Then try to redirect them to your online store by providing attractive offers. This method of getting customers is known as email marketing and telemarketing. 

• Use social media

If you have created social accounts for your business, then it is the right time to use them. You can use social accounts to let people know about your business operations. On the other hand, you can share your products on social media and ask people to share the post more and more.

• Use Whatsapp to grow your online business

You know Whatsapp is a popular messaging service used globally. You use Whatsapp using the phone number of your family or friend. What if you use the same service to reach your product’s buyers. Yes, it is a great opportunity for you. By doing so, you can target your friends, relatives and ask them to let other people know about you. 

Taking payments from online buyers

After setting up your business online, the next milestone you have to achieve is to integrate a payment gateway to your business website. There are many companies in the market that will integrate a payment option into your website. Through the payment gateway, you will be able to accept your payments.   

Shipping your products to your customers

In the e-commerce sector, providing purchased goods or services to customers is a major responsibility. And so there are many established platforms available in the market to ship your products directly to your customers’ doors. For example, Lalamove is a Singapore-based company providing shipping and logistics services. Like Lalamove, you can find many similar companies in your country that will ship your goods for you. 

Conclusion

To sum it up, whatever business you are running offline, it is a must to go online with regards to the COVID-19 situation. This is the need of the hour and every business owner should adopt it. 

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