Since the pandemic began and stay-at-home orders were issued, so many small businesses have been struggling. Online shopping has skyrocketed understandably. If you are not already selling products or services online, incorporating retail sales into your website is not as difficult as you think and may be the key to small business survival during this time and the foreseeable future.
Online Sales Are Here to Stay
Back in April of 2020, Morning Consult published a study that polled consumers on how comfortable they felt about going out to eat, going on vacation, or shopping in a mall amidst the pandemic. 24% said they don’t expect to feel comfortable going back to a shopping mall for at least six months. 26% said they did not know when they would feel better. That was over half of those polled. Let me remind you that this was a poll from April when we expected the pandemic to be under control more than it currently is. Many consumers are still following strict stay-at-home orders on their own.
What does this mean for so many small businesses? Many are selling on social media sites and staying afloat but some owners find balancing the different platforms stressful. While we never want to abandon the beauty, American dream, and charm of brick and mortar businesses, many owners may need to look into incorporating a retail sales platform to their website on a more permanent basis. To some, this can be quite daunting but it is not as difficult as one might think.
Shopify Sites
At Dogwood, we are a big fan of Shopify sites for any business that sells online. Shopify is an e-commerce platform that allows you to sell products on multiple channels. It allows you to market your products, take payments, manage inventory, and shipping. It is customizable to fit the needs of the smallest business to the largest corporations. (Don’t believe me? Check out Tesla’s Shopify website!)
Shopify is very user-friendly and allows you to process payments both online and offline. That means you can use their payment services in your brick-and-mortar store and also online. As a business owner, you wear so many hats, and the technical aspects of taking online orders and payments are taken care of by the Shopify system rather than you! In fact, Shopify is recommended for those that are less tech-savvy because of its user-friendliness. Shopify is a simple and effective way to incorporate retail sales into your website.
Yes You Can
Yes, you can still sell your products on social media platforms and other sales sites including Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, Amazon, and Etsy.
Yes, you can choose your own theme for your website and they are pretty good looking. (More on this in the last paragraph)
Yes, you can choose from their different payment options. Pricing starts at $29 a month and up depending on what features you would most utilize with your business. One of the biggest pros of Shopify is its flexibility. It can easily grow to fit the needs of your business as your business grows!
The Best of the Best
If you are setting up your Shopify site it can easily be incorporated into your current website. If you plan to use Shopify as your main website, there are good-looking pre-set theme options offered by Shopify. At Dogwood, we like to use great technology and pair it with great website design and functionality. In other words, we love to integrate your Shopify site with a beautiful custom-made website. Combining your custom site with Shopify’s streamlined selling and payment system ensures that your customers have the best online shopping experience possible.
Don’t be intimidated by the thought of incorporating retail sales into your website. Funnel all your social media sales to one Shopify platform and streamline your work. The crew at Dogwood would love to help you. Let’s discuss what your business needs are and what the best next step is to get those needs met. Reach out to us today and let’s get the conversation started.
