London is a great destiny for shopping queens and bargain hunters. But besides the obvious spots, such as the popular Oxford street or the luxurious Regent Street, there are many hidden shopping gems that offer unique products. It is too bad that a lot of these smaller stores are not yet selling online, even though their target group would be ready to order online. With a good strategy, some SEO-knowledge and a bit of courage, small makers can easily join the online game.
Step 1: Improve your Website
Before selling online, business owners should make sure that their website is spot on. We are living in the digital era and nobody wants to spend their time figuring out how a website actually works. Make sure you choose a design that suits your products, have clear structures and follow some basic SEO-guidelines to find out how you can improve your headlines, meta-titles, and descriptions. Remember, that more than half of the internet users are accessing the web through their smartphones – that means you have to optimise your page for mobile users. Ask some friends, who have not used the website before, to scroll through your website to find out about the usability, strengths, and weaknesses of your website.
Step 2: Add an Online Store
Against the common belief, it is not necessary to hire a developer to build your own web store. There are plenty of platforms on the internet nowadays that will make it easy to integrate a web store by yourself. Many small makers decide to sell via Shopify, as it is easy to handle and very secure. Take some professional photos of your products before you add them to the store and make sure the product descriptions will turn your visitors into buyers.
Especially when you are doing everything by yourself, you will soon notice that your business will grow, and you could easily lose track of your orders and inventory. That is why you should think about having a stock tracking software in place that will help you with shopify inventory management or purchasing invoices.
Step 3: Advertise on Social Media
Especially as a small business, your marketing strategy should contain Social Media. In particular, that means you should be on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, or Linked-in, depending what your target group uses. Since August 2018, Shopify corporates with Pinterest, which allows makers to sell directly through that platform – a great opportunity to reach a huge audience. Besides that, your customers should be able to share their experience with your products with their friends.
The number of people buying online is growing worldwide. To make sure your little shop in Camden or on King’s Road will remain there and grow even more in the future, you will have to start selling online to keep up with your competitors. And soon, you will see results in your sales and revenues.
