How To Move Your Brick-and-Mortar Business Online

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Brick and mortar to online

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The current situation has all businesses feeling the pain to varying degrees, but it’s independent retailers that are hurting the most. At Shopify, our immediate priority is to help retailers shift from brick-and-mortar to online, so they can weather this storm and build a more resilient business.

Even lightweight solutions, like creating a simple Shopify store to offerlocal pickuporlocal deliveryto your customers, can eventually lead to a more holistic shift to selling all or most of your products online.

Below, we’ll outline the essential steps to get yourbrick-and-mortar businessonline. You'll learn how to treat your homepage like your storefront and transition some of your physical store experience onto your product pages—and we'll include additional resources to help you every step of the way.

How do I create an online store?

1. Start a Shopify free

The first step is to visitshopify.comandcreate your online storewhere you can test the platform with a free trial period before you startselling online.

Here you’ll choose your store name, which will become the URL ordomain namethat your customers will use to shop from your store. We recommend theBasicplan to start with, but you can always upgrade as you see fit.

Note: You'll need to add your credit card or PayPal address. Since you’re on a free, you won't be billed for the duration of the trial period, and we’ll send you a reminder before your trial ends.

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2. Choose a theme

Find the right theme, or website template, for your online store in theShopify Theme Store. You can start with a free theme built by Shopify, or you canpurchase a themedeveloped by one of our Partners.

You want synchrony between your brick-and-mortar store and online presence, so try browsing themes by collection or industry and choosing one that best-fits your brand. Of course, no theme is restricted to any industry, it’s just helpful to get you started quickly. You can alwayscustomize your themelater.

Prep your essential pages

The faster you make your online store available, the sooner customers will be able to continue purchasing your products. Focus on the basics: make sure your store features recognizable aspects of your business (like your logo or brand colors) and makes it easy for people to browse and buy.

不需要担心不必要的花费。你优先考虑我s to get your products online and sell your in-store inventory. Here are the pages we recommend creating before you launch:

Homepage

Treat your homepage like your retail storefront. Shoppers use the homepage to discover new offers and promotions, and navigate to product pages. Consider having a banner or notification bar that shares crucial information with customers, like what purchase or shipping options you've made available, or how they can support you with a gift card purchase.

Shipping FAQ

Recent supply chain challenges have been affecting shipping services in unpredictable ways, your customers may have a fewshipping-related questionsfor you. Ask around to see how other local businesses are dealing with their Shipping FAQ at this time. It's important to share any extra steps you're taking to keep customers safe as you ship orders to their door, such as added precautions when you prepare or package your products.

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Return and exchange policy

A writtenreturn policyallows you to establish clear, consistent guidelines for how customers can replace or refund their purchase. Dealing with return and exchange requests on a case-by-case basis isn't sustainable, and can add unnecessary complexity (and cost) to your operation.

Contact Us

A good联系我们页面sets the right expectations with customers and makes it clear where and when they can reach you. Consider including a map of your store location for local shoppers, as well as a contact form so people don’t have to leave your website to get in touch with you.

Product pages

Your product pages are where you sell the value of your products, so it’s important to make them detailed and compelling. Below we’ve listed resources to help you build high-converting product pages, write compelling product descriptions, shoot good-looking product photography with the tools you have available.

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Add your products

Adding your products can take some time if you have a large catalog, but there are ways to quickly get started. We've recently rolled out updates to make this process faster and easier, and we’re now offering free datamigrationservices for customers launching their online store for the first time.

Here are a few ways you can add products:

  1. Bulk upload from your Shopify admin.If you’re a Shopify customer, you can do asimple bulk upload of your inventory into Shopify.
  2. Use Shopify Mobile or Shopify POS. If you haven’t been up-to-date with your inventory, use theShopify Mobile appand take pictures of your products with your mobile device’s camera, and add them to your online store, all in one simple workflow.
  3. Use our freePOS data migration service.For those of you who aren’t using Shopify POS for your brick-and-mortar store, this service will help you migrate your POS data into Shopify’s platform. Migrations are available for mostPOS systems, including Lightspeed, Square, Quickbooks, Vend, Shopkeep, and more.

Tip:List your in-store inventory first. If you have a SKU-heavy business and the thought of adding your entire catalogue feels daunting, use your inventory management or reporting tool to identify top-performing products and upload those first. If you don’t have a system in place, performABC analysisinstead to identify your best products.

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Set up gift cards

Sellingdigital gift cardsis one of the fastest ways for a brick-and-mortar business to start selling online andsecure immediate cash flow. Here’s how it works:

  • Youcreate a digital gift card
  • Customers can then buy and pay for gift cards through your new online store
  • Purchased gift cards are then delivered to your customers by email
  • All active gift cards can be tracked and managed in Shopify as customers redeem them in the future
  • As you launch new products that can be purchased online or make your products available for local delivery or pickup, customers can redeem gift cards at checkout. By default, the gift cards you create never expire.

Tip:Make your gift card program discoverable by submitting it to community directories that organize offers from local businesses. For example, the town of Cornwall, Ontario set up the Main Street gift card directory, and is encouraging the community to purchase local gift certificates for future use.

Set up shipping

Shoppers are stuck at home and many need order to reach their doorstep, which means providing an affordable and convenient shipping experience is now crucial. Here are some recommendations to keep your business moving during these uncertain times—while staying safe.

1. Keep shipping costs down

Shipping costs can quickly eat away at independent retailers’ margins, so be strategic about the way you approach shipping and fulfillment. Here are a few suggestions:

    • Opt formanual shipping: Print labels, send shipping notifications and track every part of your orders andmanually fulfill orderswhere possible.
    • Skip the fancy packaging.You can get free packaging from all major couriers in the United States (USPS, DHL Express, and UPS) and Canada (Canada Post).
    • Set uplocal delivery.You now can give nearby customers the ability to select local delivery at checkout. When you enable local delivery from your shipping settings, you can define the delivery area and price that best suit your business. You can then track and manage all local orders from your Shopify admin.

2. Try Shopify Shipping

Shopify Shippingworks with USPS, UPS, and DHL in the United States, and Canada Post in Canada, and offers multiple mail classes with each carrier, so you can access features like overnight delivery, package pick-ups, tracking information,international shipping, and more depending on the carrier and mail class you choose.

We’ve also worked with carriers directly to negotiate competitive rates for each shipping service, and those rates are automatically included on every plan at no extra cost to you.

3. Set up “curbside pickup” for local customers

Curbside pickup allows your local customers to buy something online and pick it up outside your store—without ever having to leave their car. This “drive-through” option not only minimizes person-to-person interactions, it’s also faster and reduces shipping costs. Here are the steps:

  1. Your customer will order and pay you online through your new online store
  2. You’ll get the order emailed to you, so you can prepare it safely
  3. You’ll then tell the customer when it’s ready for pickup
  4. Your customer will drive to your store and pop their trunk
  5. You’ll safely place their order in their trunk
  6. That’s it, you're done!

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Set up payments

There are a few things to consider when you're choosing which payment methods to offer online. If you want to let your customers pay using a credit card, then you can useShopify Paymentsor athird-party provider. There are also several ways for customers to pay online without using a credit card, likePayPal,Amazon Pay, andApple Pay. Finally, accelerated checkouts likeShop Paysave shipping and payment information for returning customers to help them check out faster.

Read these considerations and instructions tomakesure you choose the right payment methods for your business.

Let shoppers know you’re open for business

After you've set up your online store, your first priority is to inform current customers that you're still open for business. Here's how to announce that you’ve launched an online store, along with a few places you can likely reach your customers:

  1. Email your customers.Have you collected customers' emails in-person, through an existing website, or through yourpoint of sale? Now is a good time to stay in regular contact with them, and email provides a direct line to their inbox. To start, let customers know about recent changes, and how they can continue to buy your products or support you withgift card purchases.
  2. Add signage to your storefront.你当地的人流量,登录你的门irecting shoppers to your online store can be a simple but effective solution for notifying people about your new online store.
  3. Post to social media.If you’re active on social media, add your store’s URL to your Instagram bio, pin a Tweet with your new URL or domain name, and share a status update with a link to your store on your Facebook page.
  4. Add or update local listings.Google Business Profileis a free tool that helps you market your local business in Google Search andGoogle Maps. For example, you can post your website URL and photos of your products on your Business Profile, which can appear in Google's search results. You can also list any of your special promotions or offers so customers have a reason to online shop with you.
  5. Announce it on your homepage (when it’s live).Remember, your customers are likely feeling just as isolated and disconnected as you are, so communicate with them often and make it easy for them to get in touch with you. Independent retailers rely on the personal connections they develop with their loyal customers, so the contact page should serve as a reminder to your customers that you’re still there for them.

Move your brick-and-mortar business online with Shopify

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Illustration by Gracia Lam

Bricks to clicks FAQ

How does the bricks and clicks business model work?

The bricks and clicks business model combines traditional brick-and-mortar, physical retail stores with an online presence. This type of business allows customers to purchase products both in-store and online, while providing customers with the convenience of shopping from home. On the online side, customers can shop from the comfort of their own home, and have their purchases delivered directly to their door. On the traditional side, customers can visit physical retail stores, interact with sales associates, and purchase items in-person. The bricks and clicks model provides customers with the best of both worlds, creating a seamless shopping experience for the customer.

What are the difference between bricks and clicks and pure business model?

Bricks and clicks is a business model that combines traditional brick-and-mortar retail with e-commerce. It utilizes both physical stores and online shopping channels to reach customers. Pure business model refers to a business that operates solely online, relying solely on the digital aspect of their business for sales and revenue.

What are some of the challenges bricks and clicks companies face?

  • Integrating Online and Offline Sales: Bricks and clicks companies must ensure that their online and offline sales channels are integrated effectively in order to ensure that customers have a seamless shopping experience, regardless of where they are shopping.
  • Managing Inventory: Companies must ensure that their inventory is properly tracked and managed both in-store and online in order to prevent out-of-stock issues and customer dissatisfaction.
  • Shipping and Delivery Logistics: Companies must ensure that their shipping and delivery services are up to date and efficient, in order to satisfy customer expectations.
  • Marketing Strategy: Companies must develop a comprehensive marketing strategy that reaches both online and offline customers in order to maximize sales and profit.
  • Data Management: Companies must ensure that customer data is properly collected, stored, and managed in order to maximize customer insight and personalize the customer experience.
Topics:
Selling Online & Offline