Beyond Bricks and Mortar: The Ultimate Guide to Thriving in the E-commerce Reality...
E-Commerce Freedom:
- Location independence: Sell to anyone, anywhere in the world, 24/7. No geographical limitations.
- Schedule flexibility: Work according to your own schedule, not store hours.
- Reduced overhead: No need for physical store rent, utilities, or staff (initially).
- Scalability: Easily scale your business up or down depending on demand.
- Experimentation: Test new products, strategies, and marketing tactics with minimal risk.
- Data-driven decisions: Gain insights from customer data to optimize your business.
- Personalized experiences: Tailor offerings and promotions to individual customers.
- Automation: Automate tasks like order processing, marketing, and customer service.
- Community building: Connect with customers on a global scale and foster strong relationships.
Want to move your brick-and-mortar store online or want to have an online store parallel to your offline business?
It takes strategic thinking and planning to foresee the possibilities, overcome the challenges, and capitalize on the opportunities. These 12 steps, we believe, will provide a practical guideline for you to move your brick-and-mortar store online.
But I would like to outline the very first step which is damn important and above all to consider first most precisely.
Step 01 – Define and Keep SMART Goals
The idea of setting goals is anything but new to the business owners. But SMART goals are somewhat different.
SMART is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound. SMART goals, based on these 5 requirements, are used widely in online commerce.
That’s because SMART goals are data-driven, and data is much easier to acquire in the digital sphere.
Simply stated, moving your goals online is the first step to moving your brick-and-mortar store online.
Let’s take a look at an example of a SMART goal:
S – Specific
Get detailed and specific with your goals. Don’t define goals like ‘sell more products’ or ‘increase average order value per customer, try these instead:
- ell 25% more plain white T-shirts by the end of November.
- Increase average order value per customer by 20% over Christmas.
M – Measurable
Make sure you can measure the progress of your goals. Don’t define goals like ‘increase good reviews’, attempt this instead:
- Get an increase of 15% more 4 and 5-star reviews by the end of the year.
- Get a 4-star overall review rating on Trustpilot.
A – Achievable
Be realistic with your goals, especially when you’re just starting up online. Don’t have goals like ‘bring in the same amount of revenue that I had offline’, try this instead:
- Aim for 60% of offline revenue by the end of the year. Then 80% by the end of the next year and begin taking in more revenue in 2 years.
R – Relevant
Prioritize the right goals for your step into e-commerce. Don’t keep goals like ‘increase inventory range by 50%’, try these instead:
- Aim for 2000 page views a month.
- Sell my first 10 products.
- Get my first product review on-site.
T – Time-bound
Always set a deadline for your goals. Don’t set goals like ‘increase traffic to the blog’, try this instead:
- Increase blog traffic by 15% by the end of this month, then by 20% by the end of April.
When it comes to setting SMART goals, data is your best friend. Garner as much data about your store’s online performance as possible; it’s going to let you know exactly what to aim for and exactly how you’recom[pleted doing.
I am doing a consultancy on e-commerce in my city from 25 Dec 2024 and submitted a short 16-page report. Which is confidential and can't share the document here due to privacy issues. The primary proposal is yet to be accepted and implemented. They are stuck up with Brick and Morter.
They have been running a Beautiful Super Shop of 13500 SFT on a floor space of their own. For 6 years they haven't earned any profit yet. My intermediary prosal Omnichannel is both Online and offline for trial. In these regards, I have completed surveys and compiled the opinions.
On this basis, I have suggested and submitted 4 phases of direct marketing steps in writing for approval to the CEO from 27, and 31 Jan to 1 Feb 2024... maybe how and cry... my failure to make them best understand the reality of the time... need .surjical operation only way out to save the baby... before sine die ...
Decision in time is the most important factor in Business. Our decision might cause failure to achieve the goal due to wrong perception, emotional decision, inadequate data, and analysis. Whatever- we may ratify based on feedback on time...and learn from the mistakes. The sooner the Better... time and tide wait for none...
The Human Touch in the Digital Age: Building Meaningful Connections with Online Customers.
Bangladesh is mobile and Facebook-friendly huge users. People are heading to social media and are used to it. Nowadays around 172 M mobile connections and 90 M unique mobile subscribers exist and over 25% are active mobile internet users. The country’s per capita growth was 45% in the past 5 years. Bangladesh is ahead of all Shows Spectator Index on per capita GDP growth… (2020 data)
The eCommerce Association of Bangladesh (e-Cab), the trade body for eCommerce in Bangladesh, estimates there are 700 eCommerce sites and around 8,000 eCommerce pages on Facebook. Facebook remains a popular method for advertising and selling products, to the point that many businesses forgo creating websites. This is inexpensive and easy to reach out to customers. Ten billion taka in transactions takes place on eCommerce sites per year according to a 2017 e-Cab report.
IN BANGLADESH, RETAIL E-COMMERCE IS GROWING AT 72 PERCENT A MONTH.
At present, more than 35,000 individuals and over 25,000 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are part of this sector.
The conclusion goes in favor of E-Commerce:
The physical store isn't dead, but the future is digital! Thrive in the e-commerce reality with our ultimate guide: unlock growth, beat competition, and build enduring customer relationships to grip and grab the market share...
One of the most recent news on National Daily- the Daily Star 4 February 2024 edition...breaking news in favor of E-commerce and against physical stores as a whole...
Shwapno’s loss spirals to Tk 1,600cr in 15 years as finance cost gets heavier
- E-Commerce Freedom, flexibility, Reduced overhead, Easy Scalability,
- Experimentation: Test new products, strategies, and marketing tactics with minimal risk.
- Data-driven decisions: Gain insights from customer data to optimize your business.
- Personalized experiences: Tailor offerings and promotions to individual customers.
- Automation: Automate tasks like order processing, marketing, and customer service.
- Community building: Loyalty and retention worthy ongoing relationship buildings
