With the world at an almost stand-still of ‘non-essential’ items, activities and jobs, it leaves a lot of Brick & Mortar businesses at a loss of what to do.
You’ve likely had the thought, “Well, if there’s any time to go online, it’s now.”
You couldn’t be more right – people are turning to the Internet now more than ever. It’s a great time to make a shift in how your business works.
And that shift is eCommerce.
It’s a whole different ball game, and we’re here to help you make that transition for your agribusiness. This blog answers our top five questions you should be asking yourself before moving your Ag business online.
What are the set-up and maintenance costs to eCommerce?
There are many costs involved in building and maintaining an eComm site, all of which need to be factored into the overall cost of your business.
Where to start? Compare costs of platforms, tools, add-ons and additional services you’ll need for your specific service or product. These mainly include hosts, payment processing, web-design and extensions.
We love this article by wpbeginner that outlines the specific different costs of an eComm store.
WordPress offers $59 per month for running an eComm website. This doesn’t include the cost of paying for a theme (if you choose to) nor any plugins such as Woo Commerce or add-ons, but it’s a starting point.
Shopfiy is also a broadly used and trusted platform.
What are some free ways to start to attract my ideal customer to my online shop?
Creating an online store means you’re making it easier for your ideal customer to keep supporting you.
There are some free ways to get started with getting your customer to your store. First of all, make it very obvious that you now have this option – on your socials, main website, email marketing. Use all of it to promote your new online store.
Your email list is key – this is such an effective tool to promote eComm products. Have a pop-up on your website that allows people to subscribe to your offer as soon as they appear on the landing page.
Work with the people who use your products. Case studies, testimonials, shout-outs – they’re all proof that your product is the top choice for your target audience. People listen to people, and this is a way to talk to them without directly selling to them.
Create a blog to continue driving traffic to your website. When people click this blog link, they should see on the landing page you have an eComm store, and suddenly they’re browsing.
Lastly, link to the eComm site in all of your social media bios. This is a no-cost solution to get fans to your site.
Social media advertising is a significant driver of traffic, and with the right retargeting strategies in place, can fast become the key to consistent sales. We’ll cover this in a later blog!
How will I handle customer service?
This is a big part to any kind of business, whether it’s eComm or not. We don’t have to tell you that personal, trustworthy relationships are everything in the Ag sector, and often a customer has a lifetime value of many, many years.
Moving online doesn’t mean you lose this connection. There are a number of things you can include on your website that makes the customer feel closer to the person:
- Have a live chat option that leads to a phone call within minutes
- Set up a FAQ page so customer have easy access to burning questions
- Organise an email automation system that isn’t in-your-face but rather helpful and insightful, specific to your audience
- This one’s obvious: offer a direct phone number straight to your team so the customer always feels prioritised.
What type of payment method should I use?
To have a functional ecommerce website, you need to be able to accept payments from your customers! Today, there are many options.
Here’s our top three:
Stripe is one of the top payment methods used by commerce shops, subscription services, or on-demand marketplaces. Why? It’s got the must-have features, plus it’s flexible and versatile.
Google Pay: although not widely used, is easy to integrate and extremely easy to set up! It’s made with mobile apps and in-person checkouts in mind and integrates seamlessly with Shopify.
PayPal is known for ease of use, reliability, and security. And your customers are familiar with it!
How can I offer customers terms?
AfterPay is the online payment method that allows you to pay for your online purchases after receiving them!
This is how it works:
- Customers select Afterpay at checkout and fill out a short form to get an instant approval decision.
- Afterpay gives your business the full amount upfront so you can ship orders out right away.
- They then split the cost of the order into four equal instalments, every two weeks.
- It’s always zero interest and there are never additional fees when shoppers pay on time.
Afterpay charges a $0.30 fee per transaction, as well as a commission rate fee of anywhere between 4-6% depending on your agreement.
What about delivery costs?
Delivery/shipping cost is a huge part of running an eComm website. We’ve seen a number of local businesses manage deliveries themselves when it’s early days, but this is a different story if your customers are located across the country.
Major carries will calculate delivery costs for you for free, and most major eComm vendors will allow you to integrate these prices onto your site for free.
You can also consider free shipping – whether it be for the first month of opening the online store, or for products over a certain price.
