14 March 2022 | 4 Minute(s) to read
For some businesses, the prospect of taking the quantum leap into the world of e-commerce is one of trepidation…and we completely understand why you feel a bit overwhelmed!
You, as a business owner, have worked hard to build your bricks and mortar store. There was blood (hopefully not too much), sweat, and sometimes tears to get your business established. You have a loyal consumer base, you proudly merch your store and it looks the bee’s knees, and you know your products better than anyone.
We’ve seen this before, we know how you feel, the move online concerns you because you are thinking...
How do I translate all the great things about my business into a webpage?
How will it integrate with my stock system?
How do I tell my consumers about my online store?
How can I sell my amazing products in a few lines of text & images?
How do I deliver the items to my customers?
What are the security implications?
Is it going to cost the earth?
And...the most significant issue of all, how am I going to find the time to set up an online store!
Setting up your online store
We have outlined the process to give you an indication of what is involved. The first step involves setting up basic information about your business. Here is a checklist.
- Log in and set your password
- Name your store and set your legal business name and address
- Add your billing information, payment provider and default currency
- Set up your shipping settings including pickup and local delivery
- Set up your taxes
- Set up your payment gateways
- Set up your domain.
Organise your online store
Once these things are in place, you can move to the fun part of making your store look great. You can try different themes to see which one looks best for you, customise it if you wish, and then add some products to sell. Depending on how many products you plan to offer, adding and organising your product listings can be the most time-consuming step of setting up a Shopify store.
These simple steps are:
- Customise your theme
- Add your products
- Organise your products into collections
- Customise the menu and navigation.
Once these are done, take some time to test everything, then you are good to go.
After looking at what is involved, if you think you need a hand, that’s where we come in. We may not have a white horse to charge in on but we do have a heck of a lot of knowledge and a proven track record of getting small businesses up to speed on the online world of e-commerce.
Firstly, the Smokeylemon team has a breadth of experience in e-commerce, over 20 years actually! So, we’ve been around the block a few times; there aren’t many obstacles that we can’t overcome when it comes to building an e-commerce site. Without tooting our own trumpet, we are pretty good at it too.
We also work with industry-leading online web platforms such as Shopify & Kiwi-owned Content Management System, Silverstripe. Our team has specially selected these platforms because they are incredibly effective, secure, they link with most major stock & payment systems and are very straightforward to use, especially after a training session from one of our experts.
We can build a website based on your requirements and budget. Our range of pre-built Lite Sites is perfect for SMEs as we can get these sites up and running quickly and they are extremely easy to manage and for consumers to use.
It’s time to get online, your competitors are probably taking a slice of the market already, and if they haven’t, they certainly will be thinking about it.
So...what are you waiting for? Get ahead of the game now, there are a whole lot of consumers out there who are waiting to see what your business is all about and we’re just the helping hand that you’ve been looking for.
