If you have been trading successfully as a land-based business, you might wonder if it is time to make the leap to offer online services. While it seems that is the future, not all companies can work in a virtual environment. For example, if you own your business as a tree surgeon, it is hard to see how your business could be conducted on the internet. You need to cut down trees physically, after all. It is essential that you do not get distracted from what brings in the money. However, for many retailers or service businesses, online might be a sensible option for future growth.
Future Trends
As internet access and usage are increasing worldwide, the number of digital buyers increases yearly. Increasing smartphone ownership and improved connectivity means that people who did not previously have access to online shopping can now make digital purchases. In addition, the global pandemic and subsequent lockdowns saw many people purchasing online for the first time. In 2020, more than two billion people bought goods or services online, and e-retail sales were more than US $4.2 trillion worldwide. It is forecast that by 2025 almost 25% of global retail sales will take place online.
Is The URL Available?
Undoubtedly some businesses are better adapted to benefit from our desire to do as much as possible from the comfort of our laptops or mobile devices. However, if your business can exploit the opportunities, there are still many things to consider. One big question to ask yourself is about your online identity. When you are only operating in your locale, your brand identity might suit your town or city perfectly. Online, however, you might find that someone else already has the URL that you would like to use. An example is Nissan Motors; they have to use choosenissan.com and nissanusa.com because a computer company in North Carolina owned nissan.com.
Choosing A Different Identity
Some business names are not suitable for an online brand. This is particularly the case if your business has a long name or has a funny translation if seen in another market. Also, in The USA, where laws relating to certain activities vary from state to state, a business might want to differentiate their on and off-line presence to avoid confusion.
With only some states regulating online casino gambling, the land-based operators who run the services need to avoid confusion. Therefore, the top WV online casinos are skins of existing land-based casinos. The online names like FanDuel and BetRivers sound less parochial and more international than, for example, The Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races.
Fulfillment
If you are selling a physical product online, the big thing that many people forget is the fulfillment or getting the goods to your customer. Many businesses spend so much time ensuring that their website is functioning that they forget to ask what they will do when the orders come in. Picking and packing orders takes time and is a specialist job. While you might be able to handle this in-house when you start up, if you are not careful, this can be overwhelming. Consider using a specialist third-party warehouse or, if you are selling on a website like Amazon, they can offer this as part of the package.
Customer Services
Inevitably things go wrong, and your customers need to get in touch. You can set up a Frequently Asked Questions area on your site and even have an automated ChatBot to assist customers. However, people still need to be able to contact a human to solve some of their issues. Email is the obvious solution, as is direct messaging on social media, but queries must be responded to promptly. Making sure there is tracking information on orders will also cut down queries. Businesses with the best customer satisfaction ratings usually have phone numbers where customers can talk to a team member. But, again, this might need out-sourcing to a third-party specialist company.
