How to boost your sales with a website as a small retailer
Most of the big companies that you see around today started as a small company. It is reported that coca-cola only sold 25 bottles during their first year. Today, coca-cola now sells about 1.8 billion bottles daily (not weekly, monthly or yearly). If coca-cola had become discouraged during this first or second year, we would not know about the company today, neither would they be selling 1.8 billion bottles daily. Thus, the businesses that we are into either as a producer or retailer can also grow to any level we want it to with perseverance and endurance.
It is worthy of note that today, we have several business advantages than coca-cola had when it started in the 1800s. One of such advantages is having a website. With a website, you can instantly have a presence all over the world. Coca-cola did not have this type of opportunity to spread information across the world about their products through a platform that would cost them as little as less than 100 USD to develop and host. Hence, as a small retailer looking to grow, having a website provides you with the opportunity to record significant growth and progress. Some of the ways of having a website will grow your business are discussed subsequently.
People get to know about your company and products
When you have a website, it becomes easier for people to get to know about your company and products. Your website provides a platform that anybody who wants to know more about your company and products can visit. They will be able to know who you are and what you produce, based on how you present the information to them. People can come across your website through several ways including search engines and publicising your website address. The more people visit your website, the more people will know that you exist. They will also know what they can benefit from patronizing you. Hence, having a website can help you achieve a major business need, which is as many people as possible know that you exist. If people are not aware of your existence, they can never patronize you. Hence, knowing you are a major step in attracting customers. Your website can portray you as a reliable online retailer that people can trust and visit.
People can patronize directly through your website
With e-Commerce and website payment solutions, people can pay to order products on your website. The implication is that you can sell to people in other cities, countries and continents through your website. The products will only start to move to those locations after you have confirmed the payment. This is as opposed to when you do not have a website. You will be forced to attend to only people who can physically visit your location. Hence, as opposed to the billions of people across the world that the Internet can open you up to, you will be stuck with the less than one million people in your locality, of which a significant number of them might still not know about your business. For this purpose, you will need fast hosting services so that slow speed do not discourage customers who want to patronize you from leaving your website for your competitors with faster websites.
Get feedback from customers
Customers who have patronized you can easily drop feedback to you through your website. It is a very cost-effective way of telling you what they feel about your product and probably provides tips for you to get better. They might not bother about it if they can only reach you by coming back to your office to tell you about what they feel or having to spend call card on making a phone call.