At the moment, the world is a strange place.
It’s affecting every walk of life, especially small business owners. There are a lot of businesses who have seen their sales drop almost overnight and are now struggling to make a living.
For those businesses that can’t be in their physical stores, it’s useful to take a look at your plans moving forward. If there is anything you can do now to generate some income or prepare for the future?
Your options
One option to generate some income is to take your business online. This could be by working on your online presence as we talked about in our previous article. Or, you may decide to take the plunge and start selling your products or services online.
Over the years, we’ve worked with lots of clients to start their online journey. From this, we’ve learnt the misconceptions about what is needed to sell online. That’s why we’ve put together this article! To give you some ideas to point you in the right direction to make a start properly!
What stops people selling online?
- Cost
- Complexity
- Time
- Not the right kind of products to sell online
Cost
Whenever we talk to a client about creating an online store, the most common concern is cost. This is now more important than ever. eCommerce sites can be expensive, and the prices can range drastically. There are a lot of offers currently available so now is a great time to make a start. For example, Shopify, one of the options we discuss later, currently have a free 90-day trial!
Complexity
The other main argument we hear is complexity. People hear stories of how complicated setting up their online shop was and a list of issues they had. These can range from trouble setting up payment, how much to charge for shipping, how to take decent images and many more. It is true that there are a lot of pieces to an online store but by doing some research and working methodically it doesn’t have to be complicated.
Time
Time is also an issue for a lot of people. Even in the current lockdown, life still goes on and our time is often spent elsewhere, meaning it can be hard to come by! However, if you do find time, it’s important to use it wisely, using our pointers in the upcoming follow up articles. Remember Rome wasn’t built in a day, but you have to start somewhere so take it in small steps.
Is it right for you?
However, we must also acknowledge that online selling isn’t for everyone. If you are unsure, have a read of all our eCommerce articles and feel free to ask us any questions. You are the experts in your business so ask yourself this: Do you have something people will be interested in buying online?
What Next?
Over the next week, we are releasing an article a day detailing the ins and outs of eCommerce websites. We’re looking at how to keep it simple, choosing the right platform and how to coordinate the products. Also, how to take money, how to send your products and what to do next. By the end of this miniseries, you will be kitted out with all the information needed to sell online!!
An eCommerce genius, some might say
