4 Basic Steps to Take Your Store Online

Ecommerce is enjoying a surge in 2020 as people’s habits move away from in-person shopping and toward online purchases, due in part to the Covid-19 pandemic. Online sales in the US already made up 56% ($600 billion) of overall retail sales in 2019, but ecommerce revenue is predicted to rise to $6.5 trillion in 2023.

In the US, retailers are seeing a year-on-year revenue increase of 68% as of mid-April, and health, beauty and homeware are some of the biggest areas of growth. Thanks to instructions to stay home, people are turning to safe, convenient online shopping. As a result, previously offline-only businesses are being forced to open stores using platforms like Shopify.

Although the figures may stabilize over time, it’s likely that shoppers’ behavior will be changed forever. As a store owner, it should be a no-brainer to want to be part of that. So how can you ride this wave and attract new and return customers?

Let’s look at some of the challenges involved in moving your offline store online and how you can make your transition a success.

Planning Your Budget

Moving your store online can be expensive, but you don’t have to spend unwisely. You can burn through your budget when setting up, branding and marketing your store, with no guarantee of return on investment.

Make every dollar count by planning your budget meticulously and making savings where you can, for example with free trials and by testing ad creative and messaging before splurging bigger investments.

Building Your Store

It’s time to prepare your essential pages: homepage, shipping FAQ, return and exchange info, contact page and product pages. Showcase your offers and what makes you unique on your homepage and make your product pages detailed and appealing enough to sell your items, complete with great imagery and customer reviews.

There are ways to save on your initial setup costs. Shopify offers 14-day free trials, and there are free themes in its library which you can personalize with your own branded elements, like logo and colors.

Branding Your Store

Just like your physical store front and interior, your online look and feel impacts how customers connect and interact with your business. And since you can’t rely on in-person relationships, suddenly things like messaging, images, video and fonts are very important.

Think about how to translate your offline store into an online experience, and always keep your brand personality and audience in mind.

Creating A Marketing Strategy

There are a lot of benefits to setting up shop online. For example, your local store can reach a much bigger audience, and you can access automated records of order and transaction data and use it to optimize your marketing efforts.

But it’s going to take a smart approach to marketing to grow your online business. Find ways to make your marketing efforts reactive, timely and cost-efficient. Social media is a big driver of ecommerce business, so make the most of your platforms and the ad targeting options.

With Minta, you can access ready-made marketing videos driven by your real-time store data.

Take advantage of our 7-day free trial to see how our platform can help you.