Surprisingly fast, the COVID-19 emergency has changed our lives and our businesses. With retail businesses being hit uncommonly hard, numerous business proprietors are pondering exactly how to keep their store above water. Along these lines, numerous little and medium-sized businesses across the globe are moving their business from offline to online.

If you don’t have an active website presence in the current circumstances, you are severely restricting your ability to reach potential customers looking to shop online, possibly for the first time. To prevent these shoppers from looking to your competitors to meet their needs, you’ll need a fully functioning e-commerce website that allows all of your business to be conducted virtually.

Follow these steps to take your retail business from offline to online

1- Understand why you must get your offline business online

Moving your offline business to an online setting is the best thing you can do to ensure the future success of your retail business

The internet affects all aspects of your business already. It’s a dominant source of information on products, prices, and reviews, and people are likely talking about your business online, even if you’ve never purposely cultivated a web presence.

People now have the means to find you right at their fingertips, so it’s up to you to put the information out there so they can. Today’s consumers are almost guaranteed to check for information about a business online before visiting them in-person—and in many cases, they may prefer to make their purchase entirely online. Including your location, hours, and an “About” section on your website are great first steps to help people know the basics about your business.

Networking and collaborating are musts in today’s business world, but doing the legwork of meeting new people and establishing solid connections can be time-consuming. Putting your retail business online will help like-minded businesses find you for partnerships, as can joining social networking sites to introduce you to professionals to collaborate with or hire.

2- Understand the benefits of moving your retail business online

Before you begin shifting your brick and mortar business online, it’s important to understand the benefits of what you are about to do

1. Get your information out to the public: Moving your retail business online is an excellent way to let the public know who you are and what you’re about.
2. Save money: Shifting to an online retail business can reduce operational and administrative costs.
3. Find new leads and make new sales in a global market: Bringing your retail business online allows you to target the global market with your good.
4. Stay open around the clock: Online shopping can be done anytime or anywhere. Don’t be held back by standard store hours, so you can sell products 24/7/365.
5. Improve your customer support: Having a website is allows you to solve customer issues even if it’s the middle of the night
6. Make the most of your advertising money: Online marketing extends your advertising dollars, reaching more people more effectively than traditional marketing methods.

Now that you know the “why” of moving your retail business online.

3- Collect offline customers’ emails for future online marketing actions

Tap into your current pool of customers as a resource for your pivot to digital by collecting their email addresses for your marketing campaigns.

1. Use targeted marketing
2. Collect customer testimonials

4- Plan to move your offline presence online.

Before jumping into the deep end of the digital ocean, make a plan for establishing your online presence.