5 Steps To Diversify Your Small Business With Ecommerce

Posted by Karen Erdelac on Apr 24, 2020

5 Steps To Diversify Your Small Business With EcommerceRegardless of the industry you’re in, there is an opportunity to increase revenue with online retail. If you’re already operating a retail shop, opening an ecommerce store is a must. For others, there are likely a myriad of items common to your industry that could be handcrafted or branded for retail sale. Those in the food industry can market meal kits and signature sauces. Ecommerce is a great way to diversify your business and open up new lines of revenue.

Rebuild And Optimize Your Website

Your website is essentially your online storefront. Take the same care, if not more, to make over your website as you would your physical location. Most purchases these days begin with an online search. Making sure your website is fast, engaging, entertaining, informational and easy to navigate is a top priority when attempting to build your online presence. Hiring an outside firm that has experience in your industry will help to ensure you’re pleased with the final result.

Start A Company Blog

Publishing blog articles is one of the best ways to draw in website visitors and build brand awareness. Quality and consistency are key. For the best results, you’ll want to publish 3-4 blogs per week. They can cover a variety of industry or product related topics as well as holidays and any other areas of interest you’ve identified for your audience. Include high-quality images and don’t shy away from the idea of video. Product demos, cooking classes, wine tastings and a variety of other events can be recorded, or streamed live to engage with your audience in real time. Every blog you publish to your website should be promoted heavily through social media.

Launch Your Ecommerce Store

There are a variety of plugins and platforms that allow you to create your own customized ecommerce shop. It is a good idea to hire on someone who has experience to help create your store. While many of the templates and platforms are user friendly, the initial set up can be difficult and time consuming. Hiring a professional will ensure proper functionality and take a lot of potential stress off your plate. You’ll want to organize all of your products into departments to make searching your store easier. You’ll also want to develop detailed product descriptions, pricing models and shipping information.

Prioritize Social Media Marketing

Social media is the most critical avenue for advertising any online business. You’ll want to make sure your profiles are updated and optimized to draw in followers. Entertaining and educational posts should complement any blogs or product posts you share to your pages. Supplementing your organic efforts with paid advertising can help you reach a more refined audience and put your products in front of the people who really want them. Engage with your followers and share things that will interest them. Visual content such as videos, memes and infographics are proven winners on social platforms and can greatly increase the reach of your messaging.

Unique, Personalized And Handmade

The key to success in specialty retail is to focus on a niche market and offer rare or one of a kind items. This can include handmade or imported items, branded merchandise and products that can be personalized with someone’s name or company name. You’ll still want to offer main stream products that are popular amongst your customer base, but the unique is what will make your store memorable.

Business Plan

Topics: Specialty Retail