The use of e-commerce on your website is imperative now and for the future. Adaptability is key!
As I write this post we are 1 month into the Covid 19 pandemic and I am so saddened by the state of business. The Ontario and Provincial governments have put in place many great programs but there still seems to be a hole where small business is concerned. Case in point, as of today, there is no mandated commercial rent relief which has caused many client hardships.
As we look forward, most businesses will need to adapt their business model. Not just for now, but for the future, if this were to happen again.
I have had many conversations about ways to monetize businesses now.
The biggest and most obvious answer is E-Commerce.
Established businesses have quite successfully turned to online sales. I recently did a fast (3 day) development of a start up business and a local farm. Both have yielded great results right away, because their customers were wiling to adapt with them.
The hard part, of course, is the service industries. I have coached one business to offer online fitness classes and by using newsletters and Zoom, she could offer 1/2 hour classes for free to get the customers interested in it, and now she is graduating to paid Zoom classes using a Mailchimp Shoppable Landing Page.
Many are looking for options; In the service industry like a trade, what if you offered a no touch/contact service with online payment. You would have to come into the clients home in full PPE (Personal Protection Equipment) to do the service, however payment would be automated (touchless).
One store who can no longer be open, was able to offer one-on-one sales using PPE to protect her and the customer. By showing the product on social and on the website, she could book interested customers with fittings in privacy and with no one else in the store. Payments are done online.
Solutions
It is best to contact a professional when implementing e-commerce. Sure you can do it yourself on Shopify (which is a great platform) but why house that function outside your current website/domain?
E-commerce is best integrated properly into your current website if at all possible, it will keep your branding intact, and help SEO too. We want to make sure there is a seamless integration. We like to use WooCommerce because it offers immense flexibility and expansion opportunities and will work with WordPress perfectly. Out of the box WooCommerce is feature filled and easy to integrate with Square.
Some commonly used features are: Simple and variable products, stock management, wholesale sales, appointments with pre-payment, member sales, Canada post intregration and many more.
Whether it is 1 product or service or 500, we can get you set up, teach you how to manage the store and empower you.