One of the things that the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us is that businesses must continue to innovate and think of new ways to reach customers, especially when those customers can no longer physically visit our shops. With the decline in sales, many businesses sought the refuge of online sales. No doubt, you would have seen a lot of new ads on social media sites like Facebook and Instagram. Many businesses in T&T had to change their approach to survive. Today we’re going to take a look at what it takes to enter the online marketplace and how you may be able to get your business online.
First, let’s take a look at the advantages of your business having an online presence. With the right marketing approach, you can interact with potential customers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This means with the right strategy you can be constantly attracting potential customers and converting sales. Depending on the nature of your business, you can ensure quality customer service and offer faster delivery of products. These are just a few of the advantages of being online. However, it should be noted that without the right marketing strategy, it is possible that you won’t reap these rewards.
That brings us to our first point which is before even attempting to take your business online you should always have a solid plan on how you intended to approach this new aspect of your business.
Your plan should be more than simply posting a picture of something for sale and then listing the price.
Even though there are many advantages to going online it is a crowded space with everyone vying for attention, so you want to stand out. Simply posting a picture and a price won’t cut it. This is where you might want to recruit a Digital Marketing Company to support you and help you get started by establishing an unmistakable online presence. When you believe you have the right strategy, you can move on to your fulfillment policy. This means figuring out how you will get your product to your customer. Will you provide nationwide delivery or just within your area? If your business is based in Port-of-Spain and a customer from Point Fortin makes a purchase, how will they get their product? Fortunately, there are several courier companies that offer this solution such as UDLVR or TTPOST who offer nationwide delivery for a flat fee.
Taking your business online can also be part of your business model, meaning you still have a physical store but also offer products for sale online. In this case, you should remember to keep separate inventories so that your clientele will not be disappointed. For many though, going fully online is much more cost-effective.
A very important aspect of online sales is marketing. How will your website stand out? Why would customers choose your website over others? This is where a Digital Marketing team can make the difference between you and your competitors. An optimized website will be ranked high on the search engines and the right team can use social media to drive sales to your website. You may also want to look into getting a website that accepts credit cards and other online payments as this ease of convenience is sure to attract a lot of customers. For this to happen you may have to open an E-commerce bank account.
One of the most popular online payment options now is WiPay Caribbean which according to their site:
“allows anything connected to the Internet to move money quickly, safely and easily for the ‘Banked’ and for the ‘Unbanked’. …
WiPay is the number one payment platform in the Caribbean empowering people to accept and make payments online using all forms of payment in local currency.” You can learn a lot more about how it works on their website https://wipaycaribbean.com.
It goes without saying that probably the most important part of your online business is your website, so significant resources should go into creating the right one with the right Digital Agency.
These are just a few tips to get the ball rolling. If you have any questions about the process feel free to contact us, so we can help you get your business going in one of the largest untapped markets that T&T has to offer.
