Why an online shop is so important

Ecommerce is a very viable option for your business. People are online now more than ever and are looking to support small businesses to help support the local economy (more on why you need to keep selling, here).

If they struggle with how to actually make a purchase from you, they may decide to just hop over to the nearest big box store to buy that birthday gift for their relative, right?

You’ve got to make it easy for them to browse and buy from you.

Start small.

​When chatting with Rebecca Wilson, The Lucky Sprout, during the Bright Light series, she nudged us to start small and keep your expectations low. It doesn’t have to be a super shiny, fully-branded expression of your true authentic self. It can be a simple and clean looking Square store that you link to via your Instagram profile. It really just needs to be a place where your customer can see their options and feel safe to exchange their money for your product. You’ve already won them over in your marketing and now you need to give them an option to pay for it.

She suggests starting with a Square store if you don’t have Ecommerce set up on your current platforms. Here’s a link to Square's Getting Started with Square post, so you can dig in and see what it takes to start selling online. Square is simple, easy to use, and integrates well with your brand. Start by listing just one product or service. Go play around on it!

Customer experience.

You also want to think about the overall customer experience, not only with the technical side of making a purchase but how they experience actually receiving your product.

Consider your packaging. If you are selling eco-friendly makeup remover pads and I receive them in an oversized box and the cloth pads are all in individual plastic baggies, how does that make me feel?

​Make the ‘unboxing’ as exciting (and true to the brand) for them as the actual purchase...and you know they’ll be taking pics/videos and tagging you for their community to see when it’s such a thoughtfully packaged item, right?

Growth opportunity.

Another bonus to creating/refining your online store? The growth opportunities! You can now sell to people anywhere with a steady internet connection and a bank account. People are shopping from everywhere they have their phones - cafes, the office, bedroom, transit, the beach, school...anyone know the stats around the number of sales made from the bathroom? 😬​

Give a shout out and tag your fave online shops (or email and let them know how much you love them!) in the comments below. What makes it easy/enjoyable to shop there?

​Big love to those folks who made the quick update during this global pandemic and are now providing online sales for their brick and mortar shops! Bravo!

Are you keen to create an online shop? Reach out if you have any questions!