Moving Offline To Online

All recent retail trends show a decline in high street sales with a corresponding dramatic rise in online shopping. No business can afford to ignore this trend. Where once the gateway to retail success was to claim the best position in the high street it is now becoming equally important to achieve maximum exposure and visibility on the internet. In write this with experience from my own once retail only business Flowers by Post.

If you currently have a retail business in operation you have already solved the problems of stock control, supply and pricing structure so this advice concerns moving your existing business out onto the internet environment. This involves the obvious step of building a web site; a step which demands very careful preparation. There are many things to consider and it useful to itemise them.

1 What is your potential market, customer demographic range; worldwide delivery?

2 Do you want to publish an online catalogue or will you take orders online?

3 How extensive is your selection of goods you want to sell online? Some items may lend themselves to online retailing more than others.

4 What is your budget? How much preparation, such as preparing images and writing descriptive text, can you do yourself?

5 How will you deliver the goods; courier or mail? Or over the internet itself if you are selling information, images or software.

6 Who are your main competitors? Research and compare to discover how you can make your message more effective.

7 Do you want to keep a database of all contacts and sales so that you can build up a data file of all your customers, their preferences and requirements? This will be vital for after sales service and repeat business.

8 Examine your strengths as a retailer. How good is your product knowledge? How do your prices compare with the competition? Are you go at communicating with people by email and telephone? Are you conscientious about returning calls and emails? Do you have a product or products that are unique to you? Do you have products that are new to the market?

Spend some time thinking about these points and especially looking at web sites of your competitors and then write a clear analysis based on the above points. When it comes to discussing your requirements with the web developer you will find that this preparation will be most useful.

The next thing is to find someone to build the web site. Choose an individual or a company that can show a history of successful web site construction. Get several quotes and compare quality against price. Work out a budget and make sure you know exactly what you are going to get for your money. You must agree terms and it is essential to get a carefully prepared contract containing a written site description with all the features you require before you sign.

Now you have the problem of getting potential customers to look at your site. The analogy with the high street retailer applies here also to some extent. Having a great web site with no visitors is like having a supermarket in the middle of a desert. Getting visitors to your site, however, is somewhat easier that moving the supermarket to a city centre but it does require a lot of effort. What you must do is ensure that you achieve high rankings on all the major search engines. There are a number of ways of achieving this, some of which must be addressed when constructing the site. This is one area you must discuss with the web developer. There are other areas, however, which require specialist knowledge and there are companies which offer both pay per click advertising and search engine optimisation.

On a final note if you want to succeed as an online retailer be sure that you can supply the goods you advertise and deliver them when you say you will. Keep the customer informed about the progress of their order, allow them online facilities to check on it and be attentive to customer feed back which will help you to develop your business. Online buyers do not really know whether you are a large company or a one man band but they will expect the same quality of service regardless. There are business standards that are expected of all online retailers and you will ignore them at your peril. Be prepared to learn the rules quickly and apply them to your business.