When it comes to business, we need to understand that with the passage of time and according to the needs of the people, it becomes very necessary to change the way of doing business and business. Knowing your customers and being innovative over time is extremely important, regardless of whether your business has been running for years or decades.
By the way, every business has a different way of doing its work, but it is also not necessary that the method which is working today, it will always work like this. That is because with the changing times, there is a change in the living habits of the people, so their needs also change. And when the needs of the people change, it is natural that the demands of the customers also change.
Therefore, for any entrepreneur who is doing his existing business, the right time to change his business methods is not when his customers start asking him to do so. Rather, they should not get an opportunity to speak, before that necessary changes should be made. Only then will they stay with you for a long time. So if you have been doing your business for years, but till now none of your customers have asked you to make an online availability.
So this does not mean that you should not think about shifting your business online. As we all know that at present digitization has brought the market all over the world in front of the customers. In such a situation, it has become extremely necessary for all businesses to make their online availability and shift their business online.
Today in this article we will try to know how any existing entrepreneur who is doing business for years, decades, how can he do his business online.
How To Shift Business Online
If you have been doing your business for years and decades, but you do not know what you can do to make your business online. So here we will try to tell you step by step in a sequential manner, how you can change your business with the changing times by shifting your existing business online.
1. Evaluate Your Business
First of all, know about the nature of your business, are you selling anything that people like to buy online? Or you are selling any such item, which the customers prefer to buy from the local market, it can be for example cement stores, crusher plants and other building material shops. Apart from this, is your business registered according to the rules like GST registration, local authority registration and if there is a business related to food items then food license etc.
2. Register as a seller on any of the popular e-commerce websites
If your business is registered as per local, national regulations, and also has GST registration. So you can initially sell your products by becoming a seller on any famous e-commerce portal like Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, Meesho etc. However, if you plan to sell your goods through these portals in foreign countries as well, then you must have an import export code.
3. Buy a Domain Based on the Business Name
Buying a domain name should be your next step towards shifting your business completely online. Keep in mind that the domain name should be the same as your business name. At present there are hundreds of domain registrar companies in which Godaddy, Bigrock, NameCheap etc. are prominent. You can buy domain name from various registrars for one year from Rs.199 to Rs.1199.
You need to renew this domain name again next year. Some hosting providers also provide free domain with hosting. So if you want, you can also explore such options. If you can’t find the same domain as your business name, you can try changing the extension or buying a domain with similar names.
4. Build Your Own Website
Once you have purchased a domain for the purpose of shifting your business online, the next step should be to create your own website. By the way, if you want, you can also hire a web developer for this work. But if you have knowledge of WordPress etc. then you can develop your website yourself. Before developing your website you need a hosting. Which provide you with servers to keep your online content.
There are currently hundreds of hosting providers, so you need to take the right time to choose the right hosting. You can try going through various review websites and YouTube channels to find out which hosting is best suited for your needs.
5. Work on website design
Whether you have hired a web developer to build a website to shift your business online, or you are developing your own website yourself through WordPress or any other CMS. You have to finalize the design of the website yourself. There are currently hundreds of free templates offered whether it is WordPress, or any other platform. You can develop your website design by choosing a template as per your requirement and preference from these free templates.
Some of the basic things that are included in each template are as follows.
- Option to put your business logo, where the entrepreneur has to put the logo of his own business in place of the default logo.
- There is an option to change the menu, background color, font etc. according to your choice.
- There is also an option to remove dummy content from different pages of the website and publish your own content.
- There is also an option to add social media links in the header and footer.
- There is also an option to display an email sign up form or link.
- There is also an option to showcase your content like videos, products, pictures etc.
6. Add Content to Your Website
Now if the entrepreneur has developed the design of his website, then now the next step should be to add the content to that website, Because here the customer is going to buy your product after seeing the image or video of the product in your website itself. So the content available in your website is the mirror of your business, which will inform the customers about it.
For this, the entrepreneur should add only excellent content to his website, so that people are forced to form a good opinion about his business and products. Generally your website needs to have the following pages.
- Home Page
- About us
- Product or service offered page
- Return and Refund Policy Page
- Contact Us Page
7. Add a Payment Method to the Website
This is the most important step in the path of shifting your business online. Since customers shop online in this, they also need a variety of payment options. Hence the entrepreneur needs to tie up with a payment gateway to accept and transfer payments online. These payment gateways charge something on your every transaction.
In our country India also there are many payment gateways like Citrus, CCAvenue, PayUBiz India, Direcpay, Bill Desk etc. While selecting these, the entrepreneur has to take special care of the commission and service charged by them per transaction. Entrepreneur can go with that payment gateway by taking more limit, more payment options like credit/debit card, net banking, UPI payment, cash on delivery service and less charges.
8. Advertise Your Business
If the entrepreneur has completely shifted his business online, then now he should use online mediums for advertising with the aim of making his product / service or business reach more people and increasing his sales. If the entrepreneur wants, he can increase his sales by making his business and product reach more people through the following mediums.
- Build a list of your customers, including everything from their phone numbers to their email addresses. And if necessary, use these email addresses to advertise your product / service.
- Create a page of your business on all social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Twitter etc. and post it regularly. And if needed, add more and more customers to your social media page by running Facebook ads etc.
- Develop a separate blog section on your website, and regularly publish articles related to your product or service in it. With this, your website will gradually get a place in the search engine, and you will get the benefit of it if the article you write is ranked. You can also use Google Ads to reach customers through search engines.
- Influencers mean people who have a good fan following on social media, YouTube, or blogging. And even if people listen to them, and believe that even by tying up with such people, you can earn a lot of profit by increasing the sales of your product or service.
The present time is the time of digitization, so if you have not yet shifted your business online, or have not made its online availability. So you might be left far behind in this competitive race. Therefore, such entrepreneurs who are selling products, they must at least register themselves as sellers in any e-commerce platform prevalent in that particular area.
