How to Take Your Storefront Business Online

Any small business owner who's in the loop knows that one of the fastest ways to increase sales is to take that storefront business online and let the global marketplace take it away. Because many business owners who are not online have been running their stores locally in buildings for years, however, many are a bit slow to get their goods out there where the rest of the world can purchase them. After all, web business is indeed a an entirely different venture. However, getting your storefront business online in today's world is crucial. If you are just starting out, follow this step by step guide to getting started, and you will begin to see that, once you get the hang of things, getting into Web business can be a very lucrative move.

Storefront to Online Step #1: Get organized with a computerized inventory list. If you don't already have every single item of your inventory on a computerized list, start there. Make sure that everything you own is recorded electronically. As you go through your inventory, begin thinking about what your best online sellers might be (think ease of shipment, assemblage required, etc.)

Storefront to Online Step #2: Begin acquiring photos for all stock. Anything that will be included on your website for sale must have an excellent stock photo. You can generally contact each manufacturers about providing one, and for providing the rights to show each image on your website. Remember, though, without the rights to the photos, some companies will ask you to take their images down. Call each manufacturer for both permission as well as information on how to obtain the photos in question. If you sell used items or antiques, have a professional take the pictures for you and modify them for online use.

Storefront to Online Step #3: Begin developing online descriptions for each product. Shoppers who find your store online have to depend upon your very detailed descriptions alone in order to get a feel for what you are offering. They cannot look at the product or inspect it themselves. Therefore, you will need to be extremely precise about color, brand, dimensions, weight, and of course, price. Think about what you would want to know before ordering a product, and assume you would know nothing about it beforehand. Online customers are much less likely to make a purchase if they have to contact the seller for more details. They will quickly move on to a vendor whose product information is clearer. Therefore, be as thorough as possible in your descriptions. They are a large part of what determines online business success.

Storefront to Online Step #4: Purchase a domain. Fight the urge to get creative on this one. Most of your first online customers will be locals trying to see if they can buy what they've seen in your store already online, saving them a trip back to your storefront. Therefore, they'll be either typing the name of your store into a search engine, or making a guess at it. In other words, if your storefront's name is "Emily's Antiques," your domain name should be something with those two words in it, preferably by themselves. Make it as easy as possible for your clients to find you.

Storefront to Online Step #5: Find a web host that offers merchant capabilities. In other words, forgo all of the free web hosts you'll find out there and locate a service that offers state of the art merchant accounts, meaning that you will have plenty of space to upload pictures of your inventory and be able to take credit card and PayPal payments. Also make sure your web host offers web design services and templates so that any design on your part will be quick and easy. Web hosts generally offer hundreds of different layouts for you to choose from. All you have to do is enter your product information, upload pictures, and keep the site updated. Tutorials and customer service should always be at your disposal from any paid web host.

Storefront to Online Step #6: Set up accounts with ProPay and/or PayPal. ProPay and PayPal business accounts are merely services that allow vendors to accept more payment types, giving customers more payment options. ProPay charges a small fee, while PayPal is free. However, both have different benefits.

Storefront to Online Step #7: Add a Google search box to your site. While this may sound complicated to the beginner, all you have to do to obtain a Google search box is set up an account with the search giant and follow the steps to obtaining a code for your website. Copy and paste the code into each website page. When you are editing your website, you should be able to switch to html mode or at least view the codes behind each page. You will then insert the code toward the top, save it, and wait a few minutes for the box to show up after you have published the site. The purpose of having a search box on your online store's website is to allow customers to search your store for a particular product. Not only that, but if they decide to click on a Google link rather than a link from within your site, you're still making money from advertising revenues that Google pays webmasters for putting up their search boxes. The customer is given a convenient service (making them more likely to come back), and you make money even if you don't make a sale.

Storefront to Online Step #8: Being affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing merely means allowing other online business owners to place links to your site on their websites or newsletters. The service is free, but you must be willing to pay these affiliate marketers a portion of the proceeds they bring in.

Finally, prepare yourself and your business for global sales. While things will start out slowly at first, as the months go by you will begin to garner more and more from the global community. As such, shipping in-stock inventory will become an inconvenience. Ideally, you will be able to order products from your manufacturers and have them shipped directly to your customers. If not, be prepared for packing, shipping, and lots of extra hours until you can start paying someone else to run your online business. With that said, the extra profits associated with taking a storefront business online tend to make savvy business owners forget all about the hassles of start-up in due time. Be patient, and you can turn your business into a force to be reckoned with.