How to Take Your Offline Store to Online Store (Simple Method)
Since the past two years (after the Covid-19 pandemic), sellers are mostly interested in taking their offline stores online. The pandemic has transformed the business idea to a great extent. Since the consumers were completely unable to visit the retail store, where the online businesses win the race.
Hence, there is no wonder why the sellers want to shift their offline businesses to online businesses. On the other hand, eCommerce business models have been growing at a faster pace.
It can be assumed that the Indian eCommerce market will be grown by USD 188 billion by 2025, from USD 46.2 billion as of 2020. The growth rate will reach USD 200 billion by 2026.
With the rise of the use of the internet and smartphone, the eCommerce market in India has been growing sharply.
The above diagram shows the sharp rising of the Indian eCommerce market. As per the statistical report, the Indian eCommerce businesses will hold the second largest position after the US, by 2024. Moreover, the Asia-Pacific online business market is the world’s largest market, which is expected to rise a total of 31.5% sales.
Though moving from offline to online business is easy and needs only weeks, nonetheless, without the proper planning of taking the offline business online, the eCommerce businesses would not get success. The business owners will not get success in the long run.
Steps to Take the Offline Store to Online Platform
To convert the offline store to an online platform, the sellers can refer to the below-mentioned steps to follow.
1. Setting up the Server
According to the experts, all the great websites have a great server, which has acted as a pillar of successfully operating an online business. Hence, the first step is to look after the setting of the right server.
In this regard, a big question arises which is the best server for your eCommerce business? There are plenty of options, which might be confusing when you choose a server. Better go through the article if you select a suitable server for your Ecommerce website.
The sellers should consider the 4 basic things for choosing the server.
- The features and compatibility with the business model (includes the speed)
- Its uptime determines the reliability of the web server
- The technical support offered by the service provider
- The pricing strategy
The seller should consider all the pros and cons while choosing the server for the online business. Setting up a server might be a one-time thing, nonetheless, unless you select the server with all your attention, your online business might not get the reach a large scale.
Tip: The sellers are advised to get in touch with the executive or experts of the service providers and discuss all the requirements for your business, beforehand. After that, analyze the advice and make a decision.
2. Purchase a Suitable Domain
Once you decide and set up the server, then you should think about purchasing a suitable domain. With the help of a suitable domain, your business will get online recognition. Hence, purchasing a domain is essential for online business exposure, especially when you convert your offline business to an online platform.
As per the experts, the domain name should be aligned to the same as the business name. For instance, if your online store name is “Candles and Lighting”, then it would be better if you choose your domain name as www.candlesandlighting.com or www.candlesnlighting.com
Tip: A domain name should be similar to the address of your online store. Otherwise, different domain names will create confusion in the mind of the buyers.
Next, if you are thinking about the pricing of the domain name of the online business. Then you should not need to be worried. Purchasing a domain will be priced from $10-$15 every year. Nevertheless, if you choose the premium and most demanded domain, then the purchasing of domain price might be increased.
The sellers can consider the following best practices to choosing the domain name:
- Do not use numbers or hyphens while choosing a domain name
- Ensure that the domain name you choose is not trademarked or already registered
- For the local audiences, go for the specific country domain such as .in or .uk
- However, if you have planned to explore your online business in the global market as well, then choose (.com). It will be the best option for your business recognition
To purchase the domain, the sellers should visit the below-mentioned websites:
- GoDaddy
- Domain.com
- Flippa
- Sedo
Tip: It is difficult to change or modify the domain name. Hence, all the sellers are advised to think twice before making the domain name final.
3. Purchase a Cloud Hosting
For a stable eCommerce business, the next step is needed to look after the purchasing of cloud hosting. When you choose cloud hosting, the sellers should consider the below-mentioned factors before your ideal Ecommerce website.
- High-end security
- Superior performance level
- Strong database
- Efficient support
- Simple User Interface
As per the expert's suggestion, Adobe Cloud is the perfect hosting solution for online sellers, especially who are looking the switch from offline to the online store. Adobe Cloud will guide you with top-notch analytics, Updated Artificial Intelligence and with personalization.
Apart from getting the above-mentioned benefits, cloud computing will help you to save on the cost of your business. More specifically, cloud computing deals with the storage issue and large amounts of disk and storage space are instantly removed. In turn, cloud computing offers online sellers unlimited storage capacity relative to the typical hard drive and server limits.
In addition, cloud computing is easy to run and instead of downloading or installing the software, the cloud computing will be done for your eCommerce business all alone. Compared to the past computer method, cloud computing offers the sellers high flexibility and agility. Hence, your staff will get access to required business information from anywhere they want, even using their smartphones.
4. Download the Magento Framework for Ecommerce Business
Magento platform is built with PHP, which is useful for the programmers while they are appointed for creating eCommerce websites. Big brands like Samsung and Nike used the Magento framework to start their online business as well.
As per the report released by Techliance, Magento secured the rank within 1 to 10 leading e-commerce websites for 2021 worldwide. If you aim to run your online eCommerce business in the long run, then the sellers should think of Magento as a priority.
The sellers should have a clear idea about the key features of the Magento Framework for Ecommerce Business.
- Product Management- Deal with the images, optional comment section, reviews of the products, manage the favourite lists and inventory
- Inventory Management- Deal with the products, which are left in stock, export and import
- Category Management- It helps to find out and choose the products by category
- Customer Service- Magento helps to increase the features, customer contact form, comprehensive follow up and email service
- Managing the Customer Account- Deals with the account status, preferred catalogue, transaction history, shopping cart and address
- Payments- Magento Framework also looks after the payment methods such as PayPal. Credit card, Google Checkout, Authorize.net and also support the external payment methods like ePay, eWAY, CyberSource and more
- Make Reports- Integrate the Google Analytics Service and provide several reports. Before downloading the Magento framework, check out its types, which would be useful for your eCommerce website.
- Magento Community Version: This is the basic version of the Magento framework, which is popular between the small scale sellers when they have planned to sell limited products
- Magento Commerce Version: This flagship version is used by the medium to the large-scale merchants, who are planning to explore their businesses in the world market
5. Choose a Platform and Setting Up Your Website
Once the business owners have decided to sell the products online, the most important thing is to showcase the products to attract the consumers. To explore a business it is very important to have the right platform.
The average cost of building your website is Rs 25000 to Rs 50000. To create an independent platform, the business owner should take care of the following things:
- Web Development
- Web Designing
- Hosting etc
If you are not so comfortable creating a website on your own, then take help from third-party platforms. Once the business owners will choose the platform, they will need to focus on the design of the store.
● Theme: Design the eCommerce platform for attracting potential buyers. Hence, the business owners should choose the correct design and theme. Make sure, you are choosing the design with a good-looking logo. A seller should not overlook this essential aspect while you choose the web page theme
● Tabs: Once you will be done with the basic layout, then in the next stage you can start with the addition of important tabs so that your buyers can get important tabs through which they easily navigate to the store. For instance, if the buyers will be looking for help for the further customer centre, however, will not find any option to connect, then they might leave the website. Hence, it is very important to make the online store user friendly
The business owner should also look after the following tabs while setting up the website. Do not forget to add user-friendly content, so that anybody can easily figure out the deals, offerings, product details and other relevant parts. When you write content for the website, make sure you are adding keywords to it.
- Homepage- This is the first page of the website that will be popped up when the customers visit the web page. Make sure that the homepage is well set up since this will be the first impression when a buyer will open the website. Try to focus on high-quality visuals, so that the customers show their interest to visit the eCommerce website and make purchases
- About Us- Discuss the journey of starting your online business. Why have you shifted your offline store to an online platform? Do not forget to talk about the mission and vision of your business. It will help your customers to build trust. If you want you can add some photographs of your success in the business
- Contact Us- It is mandatory to provide the necessary details so that the customers can reach you when they require them. To get connected with the customers, provide the contact details like email address, phone number and social media handle link etc.
- Return Policy- The business owners should mention the exchange and return policy. Please ensure that the return policy tab is clearly visible and the customers can easily find the option to return the products (if required)
- Checkout/ Payment Details- Provide the consumers with as many as possible options, so that there will be clarity for the buyers. To complete the shopping from a particular website is the last and one of the most important steps
- FAQs- The business owner can put a ‘Frequently Asked Question’ tab with putting various questions, which are usually asked by the customers
Apart from the above-mentioned options, the sellers can add some more additional tabs (such as terms and conditions, privacy policy and a chat option) as per their requirements, so that they can help with the immediate service to the customers.
In the Fynd platform, to set up your business account, the sellers should follow the below-mentioned steps. At first, the sellers should open help.fynd.com. Then click Platform Panel >> Profile >> Locations
After that, the sellers of the online businesses can add and update the business profile as per their requirements.
6. Add Your Products
In the next step, the business owner can start to add products. Do not forget to add photos while adding the products. It will be better if you click the photos of the products with the help of a professional photographer. It will in turn help to upload the photos with all the detailing, that can be visible to the customers.
Hence, make sure, the business owners only upload the high-resolution image, so that the customers will have a clear understanding of the products. Add the correct names of the products or items, so that the customers can easily find those items.
It will be wise if the sellers start to sell limited items or brands to the customers, immediately after switching their offline business to online. If the sellers will get a good response, then they can think of adding more products or brands to their website.
If you have a business account with Fynd Platform and you want to add more items, then you should follow the below-mentioned steps:
- Click on the Profile once you open the Fynd platform panel
- Select the Brands section and then click on “Add New”
- Fill out the details like Brand Name and Description
- Upload the logo and banner of your brand. Kindly note that the brand logo and banner size should be as per the specification. The photograph should be uploaded only in JPG or in PNG format. Also, one thing to keep in mind, the banners will be displayed based on the theme you applied for your website
- Once you fill in all the above-mentioned details successfully, you are good to go to add your products/ brands. Your brands will be automatically verified
After that, the business owners should add a detailed description of the products, from which the customers will get to know about the products in detail. In the case of online business, you will not get a chance to meet with the buyers in person. Hence, to reach them, a well-written description is the only way to attract them.
For instance, the sellers can also add the details like shipping charges, and courier partners apart from mentioning all the product-related details. A clear description of the products or items will help to fetch the attention of the candidates, which in turn leads to increased sales of your brand.
7. Configure the Online Payment Option
Setting or configuring the online payment option is the other important step of taking an offline store online. Payment Gateway is such a stage, which should not be compromised by the sellers.
Through Payment Gateway, the customers can make the payments via an online medium after their purchases. For online payment options, the sellers should keep available the most demanding options like UPI, Credit Card, Cash on Delivery etc.
In this regard, the business owners should choose and configure a proper POS. To build a proper POS, the business owners can consider the below-mentioned options.
- Process Customer Transactions with Proper bill/ receipt
- Update the inventory levels after every transaction
- Accept payments via multiple mediums
Tip: Multiple payment gateways minimize the online cart abandonment rate of eCommerce websites.
Hence, a seller must have a duty to do deep down research and analysis, so that he/ she can figure out the preferable payment options for the target audiences. Based on the analysis, the sellers can add every possible payment gateway, so that the customers feel comfortable paying for purchasing the products.
Kindly note, that most of the payment gateways come up with lengthy approval processes along with the hidden charges, commissions and payment limits. This can be a serious issue in the case of budding online businesses.
Go through the following image to get an idea about the payment gateways to facilitate online transactions in the app. In addition, the sellers can also configure the payment settings as per their requirements.
To get access to the payment gateways on the Fynd platform, the sellers can follow the below-mentioned steps:
Platform Panel >> Sales Channel (Select Application) >> Settings >> Cart and Payments >> Payments
Payment Options Under Fynd Platform
Once you open a business account on the Fynd platform, the business owner will get the following payment options for the buyers. Check the list of payment options here in the following.
- Online Payments: Allows the customers to pay with the credit card, debit cards, wallets, UPI, net banking and credit-based services
- Cash on Delivery Facility: A business account with the Fynd platform allows the customers to avail of the Cash on Delivery (COD) option only if they are registered users. COD will not apply to the guest customers. The delivery partner also has the capability of collecting the COD payment options upon the delivery to a serviceable pin code. Lastly, the COD amount should be below the maximum threshold. For instance, one cannot avail of the Cash on Delivery option for the order limit of Rs 50000 or more than that.
8. Plan for the Shipping and Delivery
To complete the online transaction, the online business sellers should wisely plan their logistics operations. Check the following points to complete the delivery service to the doorstep of the audience.
Costs
For the delivery purpose, the sellers should choose a company, which offers cost-effective delivery services. Most of the customers are not ready to pay a lump sum amount for delivery purposes. When they purchase any product from an eCommerce website, they also look at the additional charges and based on that decide between completing the purchase.
This is the other reason why the customers leave before completing the entire transaction. They might lose interest in purchasing those items or might rethink before buying. Hence, the business owners are suggested to engage their time in choosing the delivery partners, so that they can provide the products to the customers by charging a budget-friendly price for shipping.
For instance, when a business owner operates his business through the Fynd platform, then he can assure that only Rs 125 will be charged as a shipping fee on the order up to Rs 25000. In addition, sometimes, the customers get coupon discounts, cashback and Fynd cash. The delivery charge will be free on the order above Rs 25000.
Apart from the cost of shipping, the business owners should also research the care the courier service partner will show for delivering the products to the customers without any damage.
In this regard, consider the below-mentioned aspects:
- Delivery Time: Immediately after the service price, the customers are looking for the delivery time in the next aspect. When they purchase the items, they want to get them within the projected deadline. Hence, it is suggested to show the tentative maximum date to get delivered the product to the doorstep of the buyers.
- Sharing the Updates: To maintain transparency between you and the buyers, you should share the dispatch story and delivery updates with the customers both via mail and SMS. Fynd platform has their helpdesk software for providing the latest updates and information to the buyers:
- Freshchat
- Freshdesk
- Exchange and Return Policy: The customers should have a clear knowledge that in case of exchange or return policy, the courier partners will pick up the products. The customers should not need to take any burden regarding this unnecessarily
Some of the courier partners of the Fynd platform are:
- Delhivery
- Ecom Express
- Blue Dart
- XpressBees
- eKart Logistics
Fynd platform has its hyperlocal delivery partners to provide lightning-fast delivery services to the customers. Some of them are:
- Dunzo
- Lalamove
- NOW
- Wefast
- Grab
9. Create a Mobile Application with POS
It is not only enough to sell your products through your online website. Every 4 out of 5 customers like to purchase from mobile apps. Since it saves the shopping time and the customers can make purchases from anywhere they want. It in turn saves the time of purchasing.
To create a mobile app, the sellers should take the help of PWA. Progressive Web Apps (PWA) deploy the latest web technologies for providing the latest web application experiences similar to that app. PWA allows the sellers to build a mobile application from scratch.
PWA cost for building a mobile application is very nominal, compared to the other application. PWA allows the sellers to implement the functionalities using the existing web framework with no other additional programming technologies and languages. PWA mobile apps also work when there is no internet connection or the speed of the network is very low.
10. Check License and Tax Obligations
Since the sellers convert the offline businesses to the online, hence, you do not need to worry about separate business licenses. However, as a precautionary measurement, it will be beneficial if the sellers go through and renew the validity date of the license as well as the other aspects.
Other than business licenses, the sellers should look after the tax compliances. To become eligible for taxation on shopping transactions via IRS, the sellers should apply for a unique EIN (employee identification number). Once you do this, you can start to collect the sales tax and value-added tax for selling the items.
11. Market the Online Store
Once your online store is live, then the sellers should market it, so that a wide range of customers can get to know about the store. Before marketing the online store, the sellers should check the cost-effective ways here in the given section.
Before starting to market the online store, the sellers should look after a few things.
- Analyze the market thoroughly, identify the competitors and target customers. Also, check the current shopping trends. After that select the best-suited marketing option, through which you can market your brand
- If you are thinking of getting connected with the customers via social media, then you first focus on building a presence on social media channels like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook etc.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
To improve your online site’s speed, and to improve the rank of your webpage (over the competitors adding some trending keywords and URLs, page titles and headings), SEO has a large contribution to the business.
SEO not only leads to getting the website rank higher on search engines, but also it helps to increase the reach of the business so that more customers can be aware of the online business as well as earn more revenue online.
SEO is the best way of understanding the voice of the consumers. Through SEO, a seller can get to know the needs of the customers. More specifically, to figure the customers’ demand, SEO work on the following things:
- Search Query Data
- SERP analysis
- Analytics data and AI insights
As a result, the sellers can increase the customer's engagement, can generate higher traffic as well as get some higher conversions.
Pay Per Click Advertising
Pay per click is also a popular online advertising model, through which the marketers can bid for specific keyword placement in search engines. And if your bid is at the top position for any given keyword, then your advertisement will start to get organic search results. Consequently, the users will be able to get that website if they search for those keywords in the search bar.
Business sellers can utilize several tools like Google Adwords and buy ads on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook and these can be a good way of raising a new online brand’s profile.
Google’s advertising platform allows the sellers to target the customer's most searching keywords. Hence, when a customer visits the website by clicking the ad, the process will be known as pay-per-click marketing or the use of paid ads.
PPC can be a cost-effective marketing plan. The sellers have to pay for this marketing tool only when the customers click the ads. This means that PPC can save money to be wasted by not trying to reach those customers, who are least interested in the products and brands.
With the help of PPC, the sellers can create remarketing ads to reach the target audience, who have already shown an interest in your items and keep them reminded about your products. For instance, if the sellers place a product in their online shopping cart, however, leave the website without completing the purchases, then remarketing encourages your buyers to return the customers to the website to make the shopping.
Social Media Presence
Millions of people are now associated with social media nowadays. It could be a great platform to grab the attention of the customers towards the brands (especially after coming up to the online medium). For this, the sellers should create business pages on the social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram etc.
To attract more customers via social media, the sellers can engage more people via my story, share exciting offers on stories, and link in the bio. To increase customer engagement, the sellers should post new photos with lucrative offers, and hashtags every day. Also do not forget to update your social media pages every day as per the new trends, and offers. So that the buyers can easily find what’s new in the store for them.
As per the experts, Social media ads are comparatively cheaper, hence, they can be the easiest entry into the online advertising forum.
Find platform, the Indian largest Omni platform channel, already has been running a fresh and unique campaign on social media (such as YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter), namely “Retail ka Naya Address”. Through the online campaign, the people also get to know about the way of switching the offline store to the online medium.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is a type of sending promotional messages of a business to people in mass quantities. To run email marketing, the marketers require the basic important elements.
- For running a successful email campaign, the marketers require an active email list. This is nothing but the database of email contacts, who showed their interest in receiving the marketing communications from the brand
- To clearly define the goals. A seller wants to opt for email marketing to drive the sales percentage, boost brand awareness, generate leads as well as increase customer loyalty and lifetime value.
If the sellers choose to do email marketing via Fynd Platform for promoting their brands, the eCommerce platform will create an email campaign by following the easy steps.
- Select audience
- Make an audience list
- Create an email template
- Take the help from the content editor to write the email body
- Generate a short link for promoting the products
- Finish to set up the email campaign
As a result, it can be assumed that the email campaigns can generate potential leads quickly and the sellers should not pay separately to any third party for email marketing.
Messaging
It can be done through WhatsApp. It is one of the easiest and cheapest ways of marketing, from where the sellers can get some genuine customers. Via the “WhatsApp for Business” account, the sellers can add an introduction and before showcasing the list of products to the customers, you can send the intro. So that the customers can get to know about the online business.
You can also post those photographs of the products on the Whatsapp status and keep the privacy as “Public”. Hence, anybody having your number can get a chance to check out your products, offers etc. If you want you can add the price tag of the products there so that there can be clarity to the customers.
If the sellers choose to market via the Fynd platform, then the entire marketing technique will be very easy.
To get access to the marketing channel of the Fynd platform, after opening a business account there, the sellers can follow the below-mentioned steps.
Platform Panel>> Sales Channel (Select Application) >> Marketing >> Collections
As a result, the sellers can add the following details as per their requirements:
- Creating the collection
- Add the SEO information
- Remove a collection from the listing page (if required)
- Unpublished a collection (based on the demand/ trend)
Tip: While adding the SEO information, the sellers should remember that the SEO title should be only 50-60 characters, whereas the description of the items should not be more than 155-160 characters. Try to add only the most relevant and high-weightage keywords there
12. Announce Your Move to Online
Once you have decided to take your offline retail store online, you should make your customers aware of the movement. To make the customers aware of your movement to online stores, the sellers should follow the below-mentioned approaches.
- When customers walk into your physical store, they know about your big movement in a noticeable manner. For instance, at the point of purchasing (at the billing counter), you can tell your customers. Or, you can print out leaflets and distribute them if you want to avoid such person-to-person announcements about the store movement.
- Make post regularly from your official social media account, so that people can easily recall the fact
- If you have email addresses of the existing customers, then send them emails to let them know about the online store and also invite them to visit the online store as well
- Similar to email, the sellers can also send a text message to the customers
Advantages of Taking Offline to Online Business
Over the period time (especially after COVID 19 pandemic), the customers' shopping behaviour has been changing. People are now more preferably liking to shop from online websites, instead of traditional retail shipping. There are several reasons for switching such preferences or shifting the shopping preferences. Check the advantages of taking offline to online business.
24/7 Availability
The first and foremost reason for preferring the online business is its 24/7 availability. Hence, the buyers do not have to be bothered about the timing of visiting the retail store.
Instead, they can complete their shopping from anywhere and any time of the day. Online businesses accept orders 24 hours a day. Therefore, the flexibility of online business attracts the customers most over the offline business
Expand the Target Audience and Area
Through online business, the sellers can reach a large base of customers, which could be a major barrier in the case of offline business. If they want, the sellers can expand the business to the global market. In the case of online business, it is possible to expand the business also to a large area.
Easy Store Management
If the sellers will create an account with an online platform like Fynd Platform, then the sellers will not need to think about store management, order placement etc. Everything will be looked after by the executives of the Ecommerce website.
Better Visibility Over Competitors
The sellers can get the details about the competitors’ offerings, payment process, streamlined process etc. Based on the latest google trend, the sellers can also add the offers.
Easier and Faster Way of Payment
The customers also like the payment procedure of the online business. After purchasing a product, the customers can either choose online payment or offline (cash on delivery) payment method.
In case of choosing the online prepaid order, the candidates should pay the amount using the credit card, debit card, net banking, and UPI in a hassle-free manner. All personal and bank details will be kept secured. Hence, this also means that the customers will also get plenty of payment options in case of online business.
Higher Profitability Percentage
Due to the flexibility in online business, the online sellers can expect great success from the business. Apart from the flexibility, the customers also get delivered the products at their doorstep. This is the other identified reason for increasing the satisfaction level of the customers with online shopping.
Consequently, the sales in online business can be increased compared to the offline business, at least by 20% initially. This will in turn increase the net profitability earned from the business.
Things to Note Before Switching the Business from Offline to Online
Once you decide to switch your offline business to the online medium, the sellers should focus on the following things.
- Before you plan to make a business account on an eCommerce website, make sure the online website is user-friendly. The sellers can choose the Fynd platform to open the business account. In addition, if required, the sellers will get assistance from the office executive of the Fynd platform
- At the same time, the sellers should also check the features offered by the Ecommerce websites, whether those are relevant for your business exposure or not
- Make sure, there are no hidden charges. So that there should be transparency between the users and the sellers
- The sellers should focus on the accessibility of the online business so that the customers can purchase the products either through the official website or via a Mobile app. Hence, the buyers can make the purchases using the smartphone, any day at any time
- No extra charge or commission should be there in case of making online payments; otherwise, it might affect the satisfaction level of the consumers
- The sellers should ensure that the expenses are in control and can focus on more sales and customers
As per the estimation made by the statisticians, by 2032, the Indian eCommerce market will take the second position immediately after the US. Hence, it will be a golden opportunity for the sellers to launch their business on the online platform.
If the sellers will make a business account to Fynd, then the business account can be created only in 30 minutes. And in turn, the sellers have to pay a nominal charge, Rs 599/month. The sellers can also manage the orders, payments, and logistics in one dashboard.
The sellers can also avail of the most demanded features without paying a single cost such as custom domain, Fynd Payment gateway, Email and SMS marketing, and SSL certificates. In addition, the sellers will get 24/7 commendable technical support as per their requirements.