How to Seamlessly Convert a Brick-and-Mortar Business to Online

How do you convert from a brick-and-mortar store to the internet? Perhaps you want to add an online presence to what you already do. Maybe you need to reduce overhead and eventually shut down your physical store. Whatever your goal, you can take some specific steps to start an e-commerce store today.

Visual Objects polled 500 American small-business owners. It discovered that 29% plan to start a website this year, showing there are still many brick-and-mortar companies without an online presence. They miss out on reaching new clients because they can't connect digitally. A large percentage of people start their searches for local companies online, and without a website, you lose a lot of control over how they see your brand on the internet. You're left to the mercy of reviewers and mentions here and there.

Going online is a bit scary. It adds costs to what you're already doing, and the competition is fierce. Not only are you competing with local businesses, but with ones around the globe that might have lower prices or better delivery systems in place. Still, you can expand what you're doing successfully by offering your products through a website. Here are some steps to take to get you from no presence to a robust one.

1. Get on Google

There are many free marketing tools you can use before you create your website, such as Google My Business. Make sure your brand has a presence on repositories making sense for your industry. If you own a restaurant, claim your Yelp presence. Check into the Better Business Bureau and sites such as Angie's List if you provide home repair services.

2. Choose Online-Friendly Products

Think about the items you sell that might do well online. You don't have to offer the same things you do in your stores. It's fine to have some things exclusively for your online customers and other products just for in-store specials. Take stock of your inventory, figure out what your online competitors are doing and serve up your choices.

3. Perfect Your Customer Experience

Before you attempt competition with online stores, think through your customer service policies. People expect stellar customer experience (CX). How can you deliver the same level of personalization and service you do in-person? Train your sales agents to respond the same way online as they would face-to-face. Figure out your return policies and how you can make exchanges easy, such as allowing people to return via mail or at various locations.

4. Go With a Minimalist Design

You don't have to offer everything on your website. Keep things simple at first. Create a home page, contact page, list of locations and a shopping area. Later, you can add a blog, more detailed information and an expanded product line. Right now, you're trying to keep costs low while you transition to an online store. The more pages and complexity, the more expensive your website is to build. Start small with a plan for how you'll expand later.

5. Know Where Your Target Audience Hangs Out

Think about who your brick-and-mortar customers are. Pull data from your files and make a list of some of their traits. Do they fall within a specific age range? Perhaps most of your customers are blue-collar workers. Once you have a list of characteristics, create one or more buyer personas representing your average shopper. You'll have a blueprint showing who buys your products.

Consider where your buyer personas might hang out online. If you sell mostly to married females between 26 and 50, Pinterest could be a good choice for driving traffic to your new website. Facebook also allows you to narrowly target your audience, so you can input parameters into your advertising and reach the people you most want to attract.

6. Figure Out Logistics

You're competing with companies such as Amazon and Walmart, who've perfected order fulfillment. Plan completing orders the minute they come in and get them shipped as quickly as possible.

You should also think about how you'd like to package your products. Add personalization by sending a note or offering a discount on the products they purchase most often. Put your logo on the outside of the box, so others see your branding and consider ordering from you. You should also decide how to best handle returns. Do you pay postage, or do they?

7. Choose the Right POS

Does your current point-of-sale system offer an online option? If not, upgrade to one that does so you can use the same POS in-store and online. You should also add options such as PayPal or Stripe for online users. Many do not want to share their credit card information online, even with an established brand. Offer users options, so they feel comfortable entrusting you with their hard-earned dollars.

Test Your Methods

Selling online can be vastly different than doing so in real life. As you add various features to your website, conduct A/B testing. See which features, products and styles your customers respond to. 

When you run a marketing campaign for your e-commerce store, track the results, make tweaks and keep trying new things until you find the perfect combination.

Adding an online store is quite rewarding and increases your revenue. You just have to become familiar with the differences in digital sales. Once you do, you can realize the full potential of the internet.

Lexie is a digital nomad and graphic designer. If she’s not traveling to various parts of the country, you can find her at the local flea markets or hiking with her goldendoodle. Check out her design blog, Design Roast, and connect with her on Twitter @lexieludesigner.

Content is originally posted at https://www.pxmediainc.com/how-to-seamlessly-convert-a-brick-and-mortar-business-to-online/

How to Modify Your E-commerce Business to Meet International Orders

International orders have huge potential for all e-commerce businesses. If you want your business to grow, offering international orders is a great way to build your customer base and ensure you have access to the widest market possible.

This is true even for small businesses that plan to sell just a few items internationally. Some 70 percent of customers shop globally, and that number has only gone up over the past few years.

If you don't offer international orders, you may also be left behind the competition. More than 90 percent of businesses already offer overseas shipping. For many customers, it's become the norm. Small businesses can compete with larger businesses in the e-commerce, but it will require adapting to the global market.

While shipping can be complicated even domestically, you may also be intimidated by the process of accepting and shipping international orders.

It is true that shipping internationally is a little more complex, but the benefits of shipping internationally almost always outweigh the costs. Here are steps that you can take to modify your e-commerce business to meet international orders.

Key Guidelines for International Shipping

Most major U.S. package delivery services offer international shipping and will provide assistance in the form of services like customs brokerage and international package tracking. While these services exist, you'll still need to ensure that the items are correctly packaged and labeled.

Depending on the kinds of goods you're shipping, packaging guidelines can become pretty complicated. For example, any material that's considered hazardous by the UN will be labeled with UN packaging codes. These codes relay certain information about the cargo being shipped, like the level of risk and composition. You'll need to provide this information when shipping hazardous materials. Otherwise, you risk having your parcels held up before it reaches your customer.

Certain countries also prohibit or restrict the import of specific goods. For most products, this won't be a problem — but animal and plant products are often tricky or harshly regulated due to concerns about potentially introducing invasive species or diseases, or the unintentional facilitation of animal trafficking. If you have customers in France, for example, you won't be able to ship them, honey, without a government-approved certificate of origin and non-infection.

Food, alcohol and prison-made items are also typically regulated a little more heavily than other goods. The USPS has a full list of international shipping restrictions on their site. Each entry covers items that are banned or restricted in a country or region, as well as any special packaging or shipping requirements for that area.

Additional Costs of International Shipping

Beyond differing regulations and standards, the biggest difference between international and domestic shipping is probably the cost. International shipping will almost always be more expensive than domestic shipping — and because of varying taxes and shipping services, it can be more difficult to predict exactly how much an order will cost to ship.

Be aware of potential hidden costs of international shipping, like handling charges and local duties and taxes. Many global carriers and shipping services, like USPS, offer calculators and fact sheets you can use to estimate the total cost.

If you're concerned about your shipped items being damaged in transit, package insurance may be a good investment, especially for packages that are particularly valuable or fragile. Many global carriers also offer fairly cheap package insurance. USPS, for example, will insure international packages for around $1 per $100 of value.

Managing International Customer Checkout

Once you have a good idea of how you'll ship your packages and how much it will cost, you'll still need to prep your storefront for international customers.

It's a good idea to ensure a localized checkout experience — and e-commerce experience in general — where possible.

You can use customer location data and user preferences to automatically convert storefront prices from USD to a local currency so that customers don't have to calculate how much they'll spend. Setting your payment processor to accept other currencies can also help prevent surprise foreign transaction fees, which can easily lead to cart abandonment.

Most shoppers prefer to make purchases on websites that are in their native language, meaning translating your storefront and checkout can go a long way toward making them more comfortable. This may not be practical for every business, but if you want to target a specific, nearby country — or you notice many of your customers speak a specific language — investing in localization can be helpful.

When offering international shipping, consider providing multiple delivery options. International shipping isn't cheap for you or your customers, and many overseas shoppers are willing to wait a little longer if they can cut back on shipping costs.

Some fees may not be avoidable. For example, if you're shipping to an EU country, you'll probably need to collect a value-added tax (VAT) from your customers. You should communicate information about potential fees clearly on a policy page and in other relevant locations, like your shipping information page. This will help make sure your customers don't feel blindsided by these costs when it's time to check out.

Prepping Your E-commerce Business for International Orders

If you want to access to the widest possible market, your e-commerce business needs to offer international orders. Shipping these orders will be more complicated than managing domestic orders, but the benefits can easily outweigh the costs.

Most major mail carriers in the U.S. offer international shipping services, calculators and fact sheets that you can use to estimate costs and prep your packages. Some items will need special packaging — like hazardous materials — and others may be prohibited altogether depending on where you are shipping your goods. For the most part, however, all you'll need to do is research and prepare for extra costs, like customs fees, extra shipping fees or local duties and taxes.

Lexie is a digital nomad and graphic designer. If she’s not traveling to various parts of the country, you can find her at the local flea markets or hiking with her goldendoodle. Check out her design blog, Design Roast, and connect with her on Twitter @lexieludesigner.

Content is originally posted at https://www.pxmediainc.com/how-to-modify-your-e-commerce-business-to-meet-international-orders/