Digitalising your Brick-and-Mortar business with E-Commerce

Businesses have been slowly transitioning online over the past few years, but the COVID pandemic has greatly accelerated this transition whereby most businesses are scrambling to transition digitally to keep up with the competition.

The ease and comfort of being able to shop anywhere and everywhere is one of the many perks that an online shop offers. Furthermore, with the ability to have it running 24/7 and the possibility to scale it globally, it can significantly boost your sales. With more and more brick-and-mortar businesses turning to E-commerce, here is a guide on how to kickstart your very first online store. 

Taking your Brick-and-Mortar Business to the next level

Being able to see your store running physically and providing your customers with a personal touch to leave them with a smile on their face brings about a sense of satisfaction. While doing so, have you wondered how to grow your business further and to keep up with competitors by starting an online business?

You can think of the E-commerce store as an extension of your physical business by providing options for existing customers to shop anywhere, anytime. It also improves their shopping experience by eliminating wait times that are often present in physical stores.

Having an E-commerce store can also increase your customer base by reaching out to customers all around Singapore and maybe even globally instead of being limited to areas where your physical store resides.

Potential customers can also easily find out more about your business, services and products before making a purchase. A well taken product image and detailed description is crucial as it basically replaces sales assistants in your online shop.This will enable you to serve virtually unlimited customers at one go, saving you valuable time to focus on the other aspects of your business.

An E-commerce store also allows you to gather data to better understand the shopping habits of your customers. You can then use this data to optimize your advertising strategy by targeting specific customers that fit your criteria. 

In this digital age, having an online presence is imperative to staying competitive. An online presence not only helps customers discover and understand your business more, it also helps with building trust in them. Through being able to read reviews about your business, you will likely be able to drive up conversion if existing customers are giving positive feedback about your business. 

Extending your current store into the virtual space costs a lot less than opening a new store. It is also much easier to maintain an online business compared to another physical store as you need not worry about labour shortage, operational and administrative issues in the new outlet by relying on automation to reduce the need for physical labour. 

The acceleration of digitisation in 2022

E-commerce sales

Fuelled by the pandemic-induced digital shift and hybrid work arrangements, it is no surprise the online economy is booming. In Singapore, e-commerce sales are expected to grow to US$10 Billion by the end of 2026. Since the start of the pandemic, Singapore has witnessed a whopping 70 million new digital consumers. The number of new digital consumers and e-commerce sales will only continue to grow. 

Consumer Behaviour

Staying at home has changed the way consumers behave online. According to Mr Benjamin Joe, vice-president of Southeast Asia and emerging markets at Facebook, “E-commerce now outranks gaming as one of the top activities consumers do online”. More and more people are turning to e-commerce as a time-passing activity. 

In addition, consumers are also becoming more comfortable with buying a wider variety of items online. In a survey by Facebook and consultancy Bain & Company, 59% of the respondents purchased fresh groceries online, 56% engaged in online food deliveries and 52% purchased healthcare products online for the first time in the past 3 months. The survey also reported that more than half the respondents said they mainly shop online as compared to the 35% last year. 

Technology

With the myriad of technology available, e-commerce these days definitely utilise these technologies to enhance the shopping experience for their customers. From Artificial Intelligence (AI) to Machine Learning, e-commerce taps on such technologies to make the online shopping experience seamless and intuitive. 

Needless to say, technology is continuously being developed and improved on. As more technology is made available, e-commerce will be further enhanced, making shopping online more enticing to customers. 

What you need to do to set up your business online

Setting up an online business can be daunting to most people and some may not know where to start. We have summarised the basics in this article so you can get started as soon as you finish reading.

The first thing you’ll need for starting your online business is your domain (your website URL). There are many International Domain Registrars such as Namecheap, Google Domains, GoDaddy, but if you want a “. com.sg” Domain, you will have to purchase the domain from one of SGNIC list of approved registrars.

Simply sign up with the registrar of your choice, select the domain name you want, pay for it and you’re good to go.

Platform to use

The next step is to select the preferred platform that you will be using for your online business. There are many ways to host your new website from WooCommerce to ready-made e-commerce website builders.

Depending on your resources, you may want to engage a website developer if you want a complex, featured packed website. Alternatively, you may wish to consider ecommerce website builders if you’re tight on budget. If you are still wrecking your heads over which platform to use, here are the 4 best free ecommerce website builders in 2022 to get you started.

Payment Gateway

Next up, is to select your preferred payment gateway. There are many providers out there with different transaction fees and accepted payment methods. If you are having trouble choosing which payment gateway to use, we have written an article about which payment gateways you should use in Singapore to guide your decision. 

Logistics

After setting up an online business, you will need to think about how you are going to get the purchased products to the consumers. There are many couriers available in Singapore from Ninja Van, J&T Express to even SingPost mail, each with their unique perks and rates. Select the logistic company that you think best fits your needs and you’re good to go.

Email marketing tools

Congratulations, you got your first sale! But that’s not the end. Instead of having just one-time buyers, why not convert them to recurring buyers? Other than social media, you should use an email marketing tool to reach out to your customers with the latest promotions and news. 

However, make sure to get the consent of your consumers and give them an option to unsubscribe to avoid sending unsolicited emails to them and making them blacklist you. Your goal is to draw consumers to you and not away from you right?

Accounting Software

If you do not already have an accounting software that your physical store uses to collate the balance sheet, it is time for you to get an accounting software to merge your online and offline balance sheets into one. If used properly, the software can help prevent errors in the balance sheet and remove the need to collate everything together at the end of the month.

Marketplaces

Since you’re already in the digital world with your online business, it’s time to look into the other sales channels that are available digitally. Just like having resellers sell your products to reach a wider market, you can do that online too with the use of online marketplaces. Some prominent marketplaces in Singapore are Shopee and Lazada.

They are free to sign up for but they will take a part of your sales as commission. Once you have your online business infrastructure in place, fulfilling orders on marketplaces should not be that much different from selling on your own ecommerce store. 

If you already have a marketplace account, you can easily integrate it into your website to provide consumers with multiple payment methods. Some of them might prefer to use the payment methods from the marketplace or have their details stored there, making it hassle free for them to purchase items.

Things to consider while setting up your online business

Now that you know what is needed to set up an online business, there are considerations you have to be aware of. If you are not confident or have no idea what you are doing, do consider engaging an agency to help you out.

Marketing Strategy

Marketing is the bread and butter of all businesses to get leads, sales and brand awareness. Social media marketing, Search Engine Marketing and Search Engine Optimisation are some of the powerful tools you can leverage on for your marketing campaign. Your new online business will also need a way to inform your existing consumers that your products are available online now which can be done by displaying a QR code that customers can scan to direct them to your website.

Website Content

The simplicity of site builders allows users to create websites without needing to know how to code. However, there is much more to website design than just coding/dragging and dropping. You will need some sense of basic design principles to create a nice-looking site. You will also need to have a marketing funnel strategy ready to implement into your site to guide them to your goal (sales). 

Maintenance Efforts

Setting up your first online store is as simple as this (if you have some experience) but making it succeed is another story. It is not simply a set it and forget it platform. Just like a physical store, you will need to come up with strategies and campaigns to get consumers to visit your site. You will also need to maintain, actively search for bugs just like housekeeping in a physical store.

Fortunately, you do not have to do it all by yourself. Again, just like a physical store, you can hire people to manage the sites and come up with strategies just like a store manager and marketing head.

Conclusion

Selling online has become non-negotiable, no matter what you sell. Having your own e-commerce is undoubtedly going to help you stay relevant and competitive in this digital age. Not to fret, kickstarting your online business journey can be easy and affordable too. From building custom websites and E-commerce platforms to mobile apps and CRMs, Web Imp is a bespoke IT firm that helps you grow your digital presence online and run your business efficiently.

Web Imp is also a Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG) approved company which means you can get up to 70% support when you engage Web Imp for your IT solutions. Contact us for a non-obligatory consultation!