Your business is doing fine, and you are making good sales. So, why change something that’s not broken? But, is your business maximizing its sales potential? Or maybe your business sales are starting to decline. For almost every business, there are at least 3 similar businesses in a 1km radius, this places businesses in a competitive environment, thus one business is trying to outsell another. This means businesses must seek out other channels to find customers. In this century, if your business does not have an online presence, then you are missing out. Online presence in this context is not just limited to ordinary social media platforms and a beautifully designed website but making sure your business is represented effectively and found across the world wide web. In this era, online presence entails having a fully SEO optimized website, registering with Google business, making sure your business is registered with as many listing/directories sites, monitoring review sites, consistently engaging with followers on social media channels, participating in popular chat or blog forums related to your industry and so much more. Here are some typical problems experienced by businesses without an online presence. • •
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Popularity: your business is popular in your area, but who knows about it outside your locality? Putting your business online provides an opportunity to reach more customers who are interested in what you offer. Limited operating hours: Over 90% of offline businesses only operate during daylight hours and some are not open on weekends or holidays, which puts these businesses at a disadvantage because customers expect the flexibility of being able to shop whenever and wherever. Not to mention customers who have less traditional schedules are likely to do shopping at night and on the weekend. Inconvenience: offline business requires customers to navigate to the exact location of such business before they can make a purchase. Fortunately, the preference to shop online is increasing, therefore the majority of customers now prefer that merchandise be delivered to them and many online merchants are offering free and speedy shipping as soon as Same-Day or 2 Day delivery to remain competitive. Some merchants even offer the capability to first initiate orders online and allow customers the flexibility to pick the items up in-store the same day. Businesses that lack these services are missing out on additional revenue.
These and more are problems of operating a business offline. The problems cut across the various level of businesses, be it small, medium, or large-scale business. The following are the benefits of the online presence of a business. •
Convenient selling and marketing: taking your business online does not only make sales convenient for you. It also makes purchases and consultation easy for your customers. Integrating secure payment gateways with websites and social media accounts makes it easy to receive instant payment for goods and services. You, as a business owner, can easily set up your products or services online, and customers can order at their convenience.
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Lead generation: generating leads help to convert potentials into customers and helps to serve existing customers better. Setting up a lead generation for an online business is quite simple; it only requires setting up forms to extract some information from customers and potential customers. Because your business is online. local SEO can