Covid 19 drives sales online, 10 Tips to setting up your online store

Many businesses with eCommerce have done well in lockdown.

Recent e-commerce sales figures are reported to have risen by 88% globally due to the effects of Covid 19.

With physical stores being closed for long periods of time during the lock-down, shoppers have had no choice but to shop online and those businesses that already embraced eCommerce have seen a significant increase in sales which have gone a long way to keep their businesses afloat.

Some businesses such as leisure products (bikes, walking apparel), DIY & Garden products have seen a massive increase in sales, overtaking the projected yearly sales across the company. This in turn has increase revenue for delivery companies and allowed for more pick-up from the store when a store would be closed keeping people at work when they may have otherwise been furloughed or lost their jobs.

It appears that the public has had no real choice but to increase or begin to embrace their online buying habits and this has led to an increase in all areas of eCommerce only inhibited by supply issues where the stock has not been available.

The introduction of more ways to buy with credit and spread payments has also increased online spend and this is all likely to grow substantially.

So what of businesses that don’t sell online?

Sadly, those businesses that do not sell online have struggled, in particular high street retail businesses, hair and beauty salons, with stores closed they have had no way to trade. It is reported that it has cost ‘Primark’ over 1 billion £’s during lockdown with the lack of an online retail platform.
It’s not just about consumer retail though, expectations have now changed, when you are used to being able to put items in a shopping cart and checkout, we now expect this even more for business to business!

B2B eCommerce sales are also climbing and when you buy online from a number of online businesses it’s pretty much expected from other suppliers who have not yet embraced the ability to sell online.

What is the future for your business if you don’t sell online?

It’s great that we appear to now be coming out of lock-down with vaccinations going up and cases coming down, but Covid is here to stay and what if we end up with another lockdown? Will your business survive?
It’s doubtful as you need to seriously consider online sales as one of your channels to market and sooner rather than later.

Is Ecommerce the future?

Embracing eCommerce is a must! With shoppers finding buying online a more comfortable way to shop, you need to be offering online sales as one of your channels to market or improving your current offering. Without this channel moving into the future and growing your products sales and brand is limited.
Online sales have grown substantially year on year anyway without Covid 19 and this has just speeded things up and you need to start selling online or get left behind.

Find out more about Ecommerce Web Solutions.

10 Tips to setting up your online Store

1. Analyse the Competition

   Whether starting a new business or adding eCommerce to an existing business, it is important to analyse and know who your competitors are, what they are doing functionality-wise and how they market their website.
   This will give you an insight into how you can attract, retain and give your customers a better online experience.

2. What products will I be selling?

   For most that is an easy answer as you have a range already available, but for some it's more difficult and you need to look at how you can potentially expand your business offering with complementary products. For instance, if you are a Beauty or Hair Salon you have not been able to trade, but you could be selling beauty and hair products to your customers through your website which would give some revenue to your business. Not only that you can keep in contact with your customers on a regular basis, reminding them that you are there and all the products and services you offer when re-opened.

3. Choosing a domain

   Your domain (Web Address) is very important, will you have a new or different domain, will you use your current domain and add e-commerce to your existing site? Will you look at domains that are not necessarily relevant to your brand/company name but relevant to product type and popular search? These are all important things to consider.

4. Choosing an eCommerce platform

   The next step is to discuss with a web developer the available eCommerce platforms and which best suits your requirements, not just for now but what will allow you to potentially increase functionality and grow your online business in the future. Currently, the most popular eCommerce platforms are WooCommerce, Shopify, OpenCart and Magento. These allow you to have anything from a very simple shop to more advanced with API connections to external stock systems, shipping partners and much more…

5. Choosing a Payment Gateway

   There are so many payment gateways out there and it is about finding the best for you, whether it’s just online or if you require an offline terminal also. We would always suggest 2 gateways, PayPal and another, this way people that like PayPal are familiar with the gateway and happy to use it. Also, choose a second gateway because if either is down for any reason then customers can still checkout meaning you still get your sale.

   If you have higher-value goods you may wish to consider the credit and spread payment options offered by people like PayPal and others.

6. Invest in Marketing

   You will need to have some budget to market your site, there is no point in launching a website and then expecting it to take off without telling people it is there.

7. Managing your site

   Make decisions and put plans in place as to who within your business will be managing the site, adding products, packing goods, dealing with customers, shipping partners and costs and marketing (Internal or External).

8. Marketing to existing and new customers.

   If you already have a business say a high street shop, then you need to market to your existing customers, promoting your website at every opportunity with printed media and teasers such as promotions to get them to your site. Existing customers are the easiest and least expensive to market too as they have already shopped with you and have hopefully had a good experience. This applies to both on and off-line customers, get customers to join your mailing list both online and in-store and send newsletters on a regular basis.

9. Hosting

   Your website will need to be hosted and finding a good hosting partner that offers secure hosting and backs up your site regularly is important.

10. Getting your site live.

    It is important to get your site live as soon as possible as we don’t know what is around the corner, sadly another lock-down will mean the end for some businesses so speed is of the essence. If you have a large product range, don’t try to get everything online before launch, you will never get it live quickly. It is better to select the most popular categories and get these product categories live on the site and gradually add others once the site is live. You can then begin generating sales much faster this way and start building your online presence.

We hope you found the article informative if you want to discuss eCommerce solutions in more detail please call us on 01707 378455 or drop us an email