4 Tips For Helping You Move Your Business Online

A brick-and-mortar store was once the only way a retailer could make money. Shopping at a physical location offers a totally immersive experience for consumers. They can see, touch, try on, and even smell the items for sale. But now, business owners are faced with a choice: do they add an online store or stay offline?

Let’s face it — we’re living in an interconnected world unlike ever before. Technology has changed how people communicate, discover information, and entertain themselves. More significantly, it’s changed the way they shop. Their preferences, their buying behavior, and their expectations aren’t the same as they once were. Consumers want convenience, and they consider shopping from the comfort of their own homes a luxury.

Moving your business online won’t just help you maximize your profits, it’s about meeting consumers where they’re at. This doesn’t mean neglecting your brick-and-mortar store, of course. So many consumers still love the see-touch-smell experience of shopping in-person, but moving your business online appeals to those who prefer the convenience of online shopping. So why not have the best of both worlds?

As you move your business online, here are four tips you should keep in mind:

1. Choosing your domain name

Before you can launch an online store, you need to create a website. In order to do this, you must first purchase a domain name. This may sound easy, but it can get pretty frustrating.

Your domain should match the name of your business. Sounds obvious, I know, but businesses often run into the issue of having their name already taken. If this happens to you, you can try an alternative to ‘.com’, like ‘.net’ or ‘.co’. But if all of these are still unavailable, you’ll have to adjust the name itself.

We were lucky enough to get ‘artika.com’, but let’s pretend we couldn’t. If that were the case, we would have tried something like ‘artikastore.com’, ‘artikalighting.com’, or ‘artikasmartlighting.com’. As you can see, all still feature our name, but they’re at least being accompanied by a relevant, identifying keyword.

2. Designing your website

This is one of the most important steps in moving your business online. Your online store should be complementary to your brick-and-mortar store. Aspects like your logo, your color theme, and your font choice should be identical across the board. This is crucial to establishing and maintaining your brand consistency.

Additionally, your website should also be user-friendly. It should be easy for people to peruse your online store and find exactly what they need. Your product images and descriptions should be easy to find, you should link to your social media platforms so that customers can follow your business, and you should have a place where customers can ask questions or send feedback.

3. Fulfill your legal requirements

Moving your business online doesn’t mean that you can ignore standard legal procedures. In fact, there will be added requirements because you are now operating a portion of your business digitally.

You don’t need to get a new business license, but you will have to register for an employee identification number (EIN) so the IRS is able to track all of your transactions. Since you’ll be collecting sensitive customer data (like emails, credit card information, addresses, etc.) you will also need to display a privacy policy explaining what your business will or will not do with that information.

4. Set up payments

Once you’ve completed all the necessary steps, the last thing you’ll want to do is ensure that customers can buy your products. Some businesses choose to operate under a simple one-payment model, but this might be inconvenient for certain people depending on their payment preferences. Some payment gateways allow you to offer multiple options, where consumers can pay through Apple Pay, PayPal, Google Pay, and more. Whatever you choose, ensure it’s just as convenient for you as it is for your customers.

The entire world is online. Don’t fall behind the competition just because you’re worried about moving your business online. With these tips, you’ll have a seamless transition that will help you continue to grow your business and attract more customers for years to come.

Originally published on Marc Couture’s LinkedIn on February 10, 2021.