So You Decided to Start Your Business But Confuse to Start it Online or Offline.
Check this Post and You will Get all your Answers and Clear all your Doubts.
Perhaps this question comes to your mind when you see the crowd of shops owned by neighbors. Indeed, the Online market in India is currently increasingly promising. Moreover, along with the expansion of internet access coverage.
If you are still confused between an online business vs an offline business, let’s look at this article! Here, you will find out what is needed so that online business can be maximized.
So, before discussing these things, let’s look at the advantages of an online business first.
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| Online Business VS Offline Business |
Why Should Businesses Be Online? | Reasons to Start Online Business
Compared to conventional businesses (running offline), online businesses have many advantages. What are the advantages?
1. Broad Market Reach
Imagine if your business was offline. Even if you have branches in several places, consumers still have to come to your shop or outlet. This means that the number of consumers you can target is limited by the location and number of store branches.
Things will be different if your business is online. Your shop is accessible to anyone who knows the website address.
Indeed, that means your customers must be able to access the internet. The good news is, online shopping is commonplace in the community. So, you don’t need to be afraid to sell online.
2. Open 24 hours
A business that is open 24 hours is no stranger. Currently, there are many mini markets and fast-food restaurants that are ready to serve at any time.
However, the operational costs are definitely greater than shops that are open only at certain hours. In addition to more expensive utility bills and site maintenance, businesses must hire staff for the night shift
Online business certainly allows you to receive customers 24 hours a day. The difference with an offline business, you don’t have to pay extra operational costs. The price you pay to run a website will not change
Even if you need employees to manage a website or other online presence at night, the numbers will not be large.
3. No Need Big Capital
Before starting a business, of course, you have to prepare capital. Fortunately, online businesses do not have to be supported with large capital. The main reason is, you don’t have to contract a shophouse and pay various monthly bills.
In fact, there are online business ideas that you can start with small capital from home, you know. Interesting right?
So, to start selling online, you can use free platforms such as social media and marketplaces. Only then can you upgrade using your website to make branding easier and make your business appear in Google searches.
Creating a website also doesn’t cost a fortune. You only need to have web hosting and a domain, which you can get starting from IDR 10,000 per month at Niagahoster.
4. Marketing More Measurable and Cheap
In the past, advertising a business on billboards, print media, and television was the way almost all businesses were promoted. Unfortunately, its effectiveness is hard to measure. Just imagine, it is almost impossible to know the number of consumers who transact thanks to the advertisements that you post.
The disadvantages of this promotional method are not only that. Advertising in newspapers and television costs a lot of money. Not to mention the production costs. Compared to the methods above, online marketing performance is easier to measure. Paid advertising on Google and social media, including among others.
Search engines and social media advertising platforms are equipped with analytical tools. This means you can know how many people clicked on your ad and decided to make a transaction. Not only is it easy, advertising on Google and social media also allows you to save money. The price per ad click is determined by Google and the social media platforms. So, you can determine your advertising budget according to the number of clicks you want.
5. It is easier to understand a consumer wants
You can’t grow your business without input from consumers. After all, it is consumers who feel the benefits of your product or service.
However, getting customer criticism and suggestions was quite difficult prior to internet access. You can set up a hotline to receive customer opinions. This method is effective because the input can only be accepted one by one.
If you have an online presence, consumers can provide criticism and advice at any time. On your business social media account, for example. You can create a poll to ask consumers for their opinion about your product. Or, you can provide a survey form and post a link.
Later, you can ask permission from some consumers to display their reviews on the website. This method can increase the credibility of the business.
Think These Things Before Starting an Online Business
Online business has many advantages over offline business, huh? So, in order to be ready to do business online, there are a number of things you should know. What are they?
Illustration of considerations before doing business online
1. Determine Market Reach
It is undeniable that online business is expanding market reach. However, the extent of the market you want to reach must match your resources and capabilities. Do not let consumer demand exceed your production level. You might be criticized like the example below.
Examples of criticism of bad service
Therefore, you must consider things that can affect market reach, such as:
- Delivery time
- Shipping costs
- Product durability
- Target market
When it is ready later, then you will widen the range of services.
2. Notify the Customer Operating Hours
It is not uncommon for people to want to know more about a product before buying it.
Well, this can happen at any time on your website or marketplace stalls. So, don’t be surprised if a potential buyer asks about your product in the middle of the night. Some consumers may understand that you can’t respond to their chats at night because you are sleeping.
However, it would be nice if you give your active hours. You can include this information on the website or marketplace easily.
By doing so, prospective buyers do not have to wait for your reply outside of working hours.
3. Consumer Trust Union Number
It is imperative for all businesses to maintain consumer trust. However, maintaining trust in an online business is much more important than in an offline business.
The reason is, you will lose heavily once you have a bad reputation. Not to mention, restoring your image will be difficult.
In order to maintain consumer confidence, there are a number of tips that can be applied, such as:
- Giving Guarantee
The guarantee is very important in online business. Mainly, because consumers cannot see the product directly before buying. Well, you can provide a guarantee in the form of an exchange of goods or a refund.
- Improving Quality
Customer Service Consumers do not want to transact with poor service sellers. Providing customer service is one of them. In addition, you can also choose a trusted courier service so that the goods are safely delivered to their destination.
- Displaying Consumer Testimonials
Online businesses make it easy for you to solve reviews from consumers. Well, you can post some of the best reviews on the website so that consumers will trust more.
4. Don’t Forget Security
The security threat to offline stores is usually theft. Well, in online shops, the threat is hackers. One study even states that a hacker attack occurs every 39 seconds! Isn’t it scary?
Hacker behavior varies. Starting from changing the appearance of the website to “holding” control of the website. If so, you are forced to pay a trade or lose the business website forever.
Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do if the hackers have taken over the website. So, it’s best if you secure your website before anything untoward happens.
The good news is that website security can be improved in ways that are not overwhelming. You can learn the techniques in our free ebook on securing websites.
Mandatory Online Business Tools To Reach Consumers
For those of you who are interested in doing business online, you may immediately want to create an account on the marketplace. However, we recommend that you do not rush to do it. There are several advantages that you can get by having your own online store, you know. What are they?
- Not dependent on third parties
Imagine if the marketplace you are using suddenly closes. As a result, your online store has to go out of business too, right? This will not happen if you have a website.
- Branding is made easier
Branding is very important to differentiate your business from competitors. Unlike in the marketplace, a website allows you to organize the content to match the brand guidelines.
- More flexibility in determining prices
One of the obstacles in the marketplace is heavy price competition. As a result, it becomes difficult for you to profit. While on the website, you can more easily set prices.
- Can target the international market
Marketplace generally does not serve transactions between countries. Of course, this will hold you back if you want to expand your market reach. If you use the website, you can determine the currency used for the transaction and the courier delivery.
- Enabling retargeting
Retargeting is an effort to lure your online shop visitors, both those who have bought and those who haven’t. In the marketplace, you can’t do this because there is no feature. Instead, you can do this on the website.
Thank-You…!