Bricks'n Clicks - Selling Online
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Years ago retailing was all about getting a prime location for your shop and selling to customers who visit your premises. This is true for health & beauty salons as much as it is for craft & hobby shops and any other type of product related retailing.
Typically, the idea was that the more people you can get into your high street shop the more orders you where likely to receive.
Bricks'n Clicks
These days it is no longer enough just to have a prime location for your premises. The fastest growth area in retail is now online, and no ambitious retailer can afford not to have an online presence to cater for Internet shoppers.
From high street giants like Boots, Marks & Spencer and Tesco to smaller retailers, the accepted business model for a successful retail venture is Bricks'n Clicks.
Without an Internet presence, your retail business could be losing out on a significant part of the retail market.
Selling Online
Selling online is a natural extension to your existing operations and is far easier to set up and manage than it might first seem.
In most cases you can use your existing bank and merchant account, you already have your suppliers and products, so a typical to-do list when starting out selling online might be:
- Choose a suitable Web address
- Create your Web shop
- Add a means for customers to pay you for orders
- Add your products and Web shop contents
- Market your Web shop
With Internet Retailer's easy to use Web shops you can be selling online in as little as 7 working days. We buy your Web address on your behalf, create your Web shop, help you set up payment options and we provide you with an easy to use interface to add shopping categories and products, set prices and special offers, discount codes and even send out email Newsletters to your registered customers.
We can also advise you on search engine marketing to help market your Web shop and attract online customers at no extra cost.
What Impact will Selling Online Have?
Of course if it was that easy then everyone would be selling online already! In reality, although establishing an online presence is simple and cost-effective, you will have to consider what impact selling online will have on your business.
By embracing bricks'n clicks, selling online opens up a new sales channel for your retail business but with this comes new demands on employee time, processes and training.
- Data entry to populate your Web shop and keep it updated with your latest product lines.
- Processing and fulfilling Web shop orders - your new sales channel means that you are now posting orders to customers potentially all over the UK or even further afield.
- Understanding the Distance Selling Regulations
- Does your Web shop integrate with your accounts software and current stock control processes?
- Increased demand on customer services. You Web shop will attract more telephone contact from new online customers.
- Warehousing, with a growth in online sales the demands for holding more stock increase.
As retailers these are nice issues to have to deal with and should be seen as an opportunity to grow your business from its current levels of high street revenue and open it up to an entirely new audience of online shoppers not restricted to traditional geographical locations.
Whatever your ambitious plans are to join the bricks'n clicks revolution and start selling online, it is now easier than ever to take advantage of the fastest growth area in retail today, the Internet.
Internet Retailer have helped over 100 shop keepers sell online with their own easy to use Web shops, with more than a dozen Web shops now reaching page one of Google, you have a better chance of success with Internet Retailer!