Moving your physical store online

With the increasing number of consumers shopping online, it's clear that brick-and-mortar stores need to have an online presence to tap into this market. This year alone, it's expected that 300 million people will shop online for products -- with the majority purchasing something once a month or more. And who can blame consumers? They want to shop from the comfort of their home, snuggle on the sofa, watching on-demand TV because it's easy.?

If your brick-and-mortar store doesn't have an online equivalent, you're missing out on sales and limiting growth opportunities. So, how can you take a sizable physical storefront online? Let's explore.

Choosing a platform

When choosing an e-commerce platform, consider the features you need. Some platforms offer inventory management tools and integrated email marketing campaigns, while others don't. Do your research and analyse which platforms fit your needs. Be mindful of the cost to your business and think about the long-term benefits that investing more money upfront could bring.

Moving products to your online store can seem overwhelming at first, especially if you have tens of thousands of SKUs. E-commerce platforms have solutions for this, so you won't have to spend too much time manually writing product details. Still, you must clean up the inventory list to avoid spelling mistakes, incorrect titles, categories, or descriptions that affect conversions.

Designing your store

Designing your store should consider the user experience, as it can significantly influence conversion rates. Customising every part of the buying experience for potential shoppers can have a favourable impact, especially improving customer service with features like chatbots or live chat. While delivering products to customers can unlock growth potential, it's crucial to meet customer expectations by providing real-time information on estimated shipping times, for example.

Migration

Once you have decided on your platform, it's time to get down to business. Here are some things to keep in mind as you set up your online store:

• Choose a name for your store: This should be fairly easy; in most cases, you'll name it after your business. However, it is worth making sure nobody else is already using your name for a similar service or product.
• Choose a domain name (e.g., www): Domain names usually consist of two parts: "www" refers to World Wide Web protocol; after this comes another word describing what type of content is hosted on that particular site (e.g., "fitness"). Typically, you name your domain after your brand.
• Designing your store: Much like creating a brick-and-mortar store, a lot of thought goes into designing an e-commerce store. The trick here is to design something visually appealing (maybe even beautiful) that also increases conversion rates. Not sure where to start with that? We have some great tips in our e-commerce guide.

Enhancing your store

One of the mega advantages of taking a shop online is that you can customise every part of the buying experience for potential shoppers. E-commerce stores that are customised for user experience have, on average, 2 to 5x higher conversion rates than out-of-the-box stores. For a store that currently does $100,000 monthly, that's a difference of $1.2M a year.

Customer service is particularly low-hanging fruit when it comes to customisation. Humanistic buyers tend to favour human connection above all else when amid a purchasing decision, so optimising your customer service has enormous potential. This can range from having a chatbot to having a large team ready to guide buyers through the buying process through live chat. Being around to answer potential customers' questions during the process using techniques like chatbots can increase conversions by 52%.

It's easier to set up an e-commerce business than you think

With all this said, you might think migrating to an e-commerce store is too much of a headache.

It's anything but that! While there are many moving parts to an e-commerce business, the right e-commerce growth partner can make the process easy and unlock a significant new revenue stream. For now, don't get overwhelmed by the number of options available. Instead, focus on understanding your online opportunity and immediate requirements.

When you have a vague understanding of your requirements, it's time to call in the cavalry! AirVu Media is here to help you when migrating your bricks & mortar store online. Contact us today for a free consultation.