By now, you need to be acquainted with (if no longer exhausted by means of) the outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic. Toilet paper problems aside, reports show a great growth in the closure of traditional businesses. Instead of residing on the damage, pain, and uncertainty, consider transferring your business on-line so you survive and thrive in these tough monetary times.

With consumers not able to project out and visit their favored shops, having a web presence is extra critical than ever. Although there has been a drastic shift in human beings’s spending habits, they’re nevertheless going on line and buying things that will help them adapt to the brand new normal. Moving your enterprise on line, therefore, can assist generate an awful lot-needed sales to maintain your operations going.

To help you're taking your brick-and-mortar shop from “quickly closed until further notice” to an wonderful on-line company, we’ve prepare a list of actionable steps to get your business on-line.

Here’s what you need to do:

  1. Buy a domain name

    Domain choice is step one in shifting your commercial enterprise on line. Ideally, you’d want the domain name to be similar to your business call. For $15-$20, you may sign up a domain call for an entire year.

    To purchase a site, seek the call of your business thru a site shopping for platform. Shopify offers one that permits you to shop for and manipulate custom domains. You can also use it to investigate opportunity names in case your offline call is already taken.
  2. Create a website

    Once you’ve registered a website call, you’re ready to begin constructing your internet site. An vital step in putting in place a website is choosing a platform where you’ll host its content. Think approximately your expectations for selling online earlier than figuring out which platform or software program is great for you.

    For example, if you offer interior design services, you might need to begin a blog wherein you could give guidelines on managing a protection or advice on how to select furniture. This will help set up your credibility whilst providing you with the opportunity to take on-line bookings.
  3. Work at the website’s layout

    As you take your business on line, your website platform will possibly present you with a number of topics (or templates) to choose from. Pick a easy, professionally designed theme after which add customizations over time if you wish to. You need to ensure that the design no longer best displays your logo’s personality, but it’s also smooth for clients to navigate.

    There’s quite a bit you can do with pre-made themes to ensure your internet site consists of your brand image. Most templates will will let you make those changes:
    • Replace the default logo along with your own
    • Change the background, font, and navigation menu
    • Insert or dispose of content material from diverse pages of the web site
    • Add social media links in header and footer
    • Display an e mail signal up form or hyperlink
    • Showcase product motion pictures and images
  4. Decide what to sell

    Another issue you want to do when moving your enterprise online is to determine what to sell from your present offerings.

    While service-based corporations don’t ought to worry approximately storage and shipping, brick and mortars may ought to trim down their stock so as to preserve charges low.

    When deciding on merchandise to promote, begin by means of including your top selling and lightweight objects in your ecommerce website. Also, recall what items buyers inquire about or request the most. This manner, you will be able to discover new products so as to boom the sales of your store.
  5. Get your felony ducks in a row

    Taking your enterprise on-line doesn’t suggest you’re exempted from standard felony procedures. In fact, you may ought to fulfill some greater requirements relying on how you intend to run your operations. Below are a number of the key prison components of selling products and services on the internet.
  6. Add content material for your internet site

    Content is crucial to moving your enterprise online. Because human beings won’t be capable of visit you in individual, the simplest way to help them get an idea of your business is to write top content. Add content material on the key pages of your website so that human beings can study your tale as well as get familiar with your merchandise or offerings.

    While you may create and add content on a vast range of pages, recognition for your:
    • Home web page
    • About Us page
    • Product/provider web page
    • Returns & Refunds web page
    • Contact Us web page

    Here are a few tips on what content to encompass on every web page:
    • Home web page

      Your homepage need to feature a short blurb of what your enterprise does, a few wonderful visuals showcasing your product or provider, and perhaps some testimonials from your existing clients.

    • About Us web page

      Use this web page to percentage the tale of your humble beginnings. Post life-style images to expose that there’s a real person in the back of your company. If you’re now not certain where to begin, take notion from these About Us page templates.
    • Product or carrier page

      Here you may listing the details of the products or services you sell. Try breaking the features, benefits, and anything else you want to add into short, digestible chunks. Subheadings, bullets, and visuals are tremendous for enhancing the clarity and format of this page.

      Speaking of visuals, you may snap some terrific pictures of your products using your smartphone. If you offer offerings, then you could need to hire a photographer who’ll do a lifestyle shoot that you may show to your website.
    • Returns & Refunds page

      Your returns & refunds web page isn’t just a container to tick off – it clearly reveals how a lot you care approximately the client experience. Use conversational language to inform clients what items (e.G. Damaged, lightly used, etc.) may be again and the way refunds are going to be made.

      Place the hyperlink on your refunds & returns web page in an accessible vicinity in your website to make it easy for customers to buy. 66% consumers assessment a website’s go back policy earlier than they commit to making a buy.
    • Contact Us web page

      Put your electronic mail address, smartphone quantity, bodily address, commercial enterprise hours, or even social media handles in this web page. If you’re the use of an ecommerce platform, you may also follow a contact form on the web page you create.
  7. Set up your bills

    In order to kickstart your on line sales, you need in order to take payments from your customers.

    While it’s feasible to generate sales with one simple online payment method, many customers are becoming accustomed to seeing diverse ways to pay throughout their preferred websites.

    This way you need to offer multiple price options to your website. Fortunately, maximum internet site platforms come with the choice to integrate special charge gateways. Some even provide an all-in-one bundle in which you acquire bills through one of a kind gateways while not having to installation a merchant account.
  8. Announce your move

    Moving your business online is one component; getting human beings to notice it's far another. One of the most difficult components is to face out from the crowd of competitors who have similar offerings. So, when you move on line, do everything possible to unfold the word approximately your commercial enterprise. Here are a few channels you may leverage:
    • Email: Don’t pass spamming anyone and violating rules, now. Send a simple e-mail for your existing clients and people for your electronic mail listing. Keep it informational as including a merchandising may prevent the email from accomplishing their primary inbox.
    • Social media: Create an assertion submit on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and another platform your enterprise has a social profile on. Include a hyperlink back to your internet site to get eyeballs on your new identity. Additionally, tailor content to each platform (like making a fun, casual statement thru an Instagram Story) so you can reach audiences some distance and wide.
    • Search engines: Though it takes time to set up a presence in search engines, you should begin operating on search engine marketing as quickly as you get your commercial enterprise online. The easiest way to do this is to research what keywords humans use when attempting to find comparable businesses. Insert these keywords at some stage in your web page’s copy in addition to in the “Alt” phase of your images.
    • Influencers: When is the ultimate time a consumer came for your commercial enterprise because of a person else’s referral? When beginning out, consider partnering with influencers to unfold the phrase approximately your enterprise. Work with smaller influencers than massive names as they’re extra effective at getting human beings to interact and act upon their recommendations.

As an offline commercial enterprise, you could’t come up with the money for to fall in the back of your competitors. Take a examine your cutting-edge setup and training session how going on-line let you get greater customers and revenue. For example, may want to you enlarge your product range by using moving your brick and mortar to an ecommerce platform? Could you promote your consultancy offerings to human beings in Asia? Whatever it's miles, switching from offline to on-line will assist hold your commercial enterprise running.