Transitioning From Brick And Mortar To Online-Only

It’s a difficult time for a lot of businesses right now, with many of them having to look at how to adapt to a world that will be stuck in a pandemic for the foreseeable future. Lockdowns are likely to come and go, with businesses having to bear the costs of closing and reopening, perhaps multiple times. As such, many businesses are taking a look at making the switch to go online, but how do you do that?

Don’t hold on to assets that you’re not going to use

There are going to be a lot of things that you’re not likely to need if you’re transitioning to an online business. This can include equipment from the workplace, some stock, and maybe even the property itself. Liquidating your assets can not only free up the capital you need to invest in creating an online business, but it can make sure you’re not tied down by any liabilities that could later prove to be a major drain on your finances.

Establish your online presence

Once you have the capital that you need, then you need to look at recreating your online presence, i.e. your website. Even if you already have a website, it’s a good idea to relaunch it simply to bring attention to the fact that you’re transitioning into running an online-only business. In all likelihood, your website isn’t going to have the design infrastructure to support online-only. This is especially true if you need an ecommerce website and it doesn’t currently have that functionality. A bottom-up rework is likely to be necessary, so start budgeting for it.

Know how to reach your new audience

Of course, there’s nothing precluding brick and mortar businesses from using digital marketing, nor online-only businesses from using physical and traditional marketing. However, if you’re online, most of your business is going to come from funnelling visitors to your site through the right channels. Be it by SEO, social media marketing, advertising or otherwise, a reliable digital marketing agency can help you build the campaign that allows for a consistent stream of new revenue to come in. You have a new audience so you have to invest in winning them to the site.

Get ready for a new kind of customer support

All businesses need some form of customer support and, as you transition away from having a shop where they can simply approach the counter, you need to get used to offering the path to that support in other ways. For instance, on-site chat tools can allow you to get in touch with visiting customers and offer them help, or at least leave the door open for them to get in touch with a member of your team as soon as they might need it.

If you’re switching to online-only business, you can’t hang around for too long. You need to be agile and get set up as fast as you can to stop the costs of the transition from running wild.