Many businesses are beginning to move online. In 2019, 70% of companies had a digital transformation strategy in place or was building one.
This transformation is heightened in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted all businesses worldwide, and Small & Medium-Sized Businesses (SMBs) are in the middle of it.
With quarantine laws still in place for many countries, customers now mainly choose to do their transactions online. An online store, or eCommerce site, will help you reach customers and keep your business running when you have to shut down physical stores.
There are three essential things you need for a successful digital transformation:
- Web hosting — A web hosting service makes your website available and ready to be accessed by anyone using the Internet. They provide space for it on a server and connect users to your website through it. A great example of an affordable and reliable hosting provider is Hostinger.
- Security — Moving your business online means your customers will do transactions through your website. Make sure your website stays secure with an SSL certificate, which encrypts data that passes from your customer’s browser to your server. An example is Cloudflare’s SSL that provide SSL certificate.
- A platform for your store — You’ll also need a platform to create your online store. WordPress is a good recommendation, as it has a variety of plugins designed to support an online store. An example would be WooCommerce; a plugin made to manage eCommerce sites, complete with payment gateways and shipping calculators.
Here are some of the ways digital transformation can help SMBs, including your business.
1. Working 24/7
Most stores don’t have the resources to keep their business running 24/7, especially SMBs. This changes as you move your store online.
A website will stay online 24/7, so you no longer have to worry about working hours. Your customers can browse and purchase through your store any time, even when your physical store is normally closed.
2. Expand Your Market
When you depend only on a physical storefront, your customers will be limited to those living near you. Expanding your market to other areas will mean you have to promote your business outside your current location. That will be hard to do if you’re only operating offline.
With an online store, you can easily start working with customers who are not from your area. Anyone around the world with an internet connection can access your site.
Therefore, you can provide your products to anyone, anywhere, anytime.
3. More Effective Branding
The Internet makes it easier for anyone to advertise their business. Even businesses that mostly operate offline have also looked towards digital marketing to reach customers.
You can still advertise online with an offline store, but customers will have to reach you directly at your store to make a purchase.
By moving your storefront online, customers can reach your business more efficiently. With online advertising platforms like Google Ads, you can directly link potential customers to your website’s landing page.
From there, they’ll be able to browse through your site, check out your products, and buy them easily.
4. No Additional Employees
You may think that expanding your business online may mean you’ll have to add more resources as well, including employees.
However, you can depend on your current team to run a website. You can do it even only by yourself.
As long as you’re willing to learn about how your site platform works, you don’t have to hire additional people to do it. Most hosting providers also have a support team to help whenever you run into technical problems on your website.
5. More Revenue Opportunities
Your website can bring in revenue from many more sources other than purchases.
Many businesses include blogs on their site. Besides boosting your site’s SEO and bringing in traffic, you can also use your blog for monetization.
One of the more popular ways to monetize your site is through affiliate marketing.
With the DJI affiliate program, you’re connecting through an affiliate marketing network, usually managed by retailers like Amazon, to share their products through your site.
If you’re not interested in affiliate marketing, you can also join an advertising network, like Google AdSense. This network allows you to put up ad space on your site which earns revenue per number of clicks or impressions.
A similar way to earn more revenue is by expanding your catalog through drop shipping. With drop shipping, you’re selling products from another business through your site.
However, you don’t have to stock the products in-house. The manufacturer or the wholesaler will ship the product directly to the customer. You only have to handle the purchase.
Conclusion
With the COVID-19 pandemic impacting businesses worldwide, it’s getting harder for SMBs to stay afloat by depending only on their physical stores.
Moving your store online is a feasible way to keep the business running. It’s easier to run, helps you reach a wider customer base, and brand your business more effectively, and provides you with more revenue options.
Now that you know the benefits, it’s time to get to work and start your digital transformation!