Continuing with the Get Fredericton Online, I want to pass along some of the benefits of being online. According to Google 61% of Canadian Businesses are not online, and 90% of Canadians are online. Today’s market place is no longer local, but international. Ecommerce is growing, product research is growing, and the global market place is growing. With that lets get online, and get our part of the market.
More and more people turn to the internet to buy products. Most of your customers have made purchases online. The days of going store to store are coming to an end, as people can buy something from anywhere in the world and can have it in their hands within 24 hours. I know many businesses will say that’s impossible, but Fedex and UPS can ship packages almost anywhere in the world within 24 hours (as long as you are willing to pay for it). So as a small retailer your completion is not just the other businesses in the city with similar products but the entire world. Also with that, the internet opens your business up to the entire world. With a functioning ecommerce website, you can sell to the world and not your city.
If you are going to make a big purchase today, will you walk through endless stores and talk to endless sales people or Google it? Last year a survey conducted in the US said that 81% of people will research a product online before they buy it. From those 81% almost 90% said they purchased from the place they got the most information from. What does that mean for a small business owner? Your website not only has to be able to sell items, but should help customers decide. How do you do that? Content! In the US many car dealerships have videos off all the new cars explaining everything about it, and giving the customer the ability to not just read, but see the car, and how the features work. Now when I mentioned that to a business owner a few months ago, he looked at me and went on about huge production budgets etc. When most are shot with are a $100 digital video cam, and uploaded to Youtube. There is a lot of advantages to Youtube that I will discuss in later posts. When people research a product they want to see it set up. If you have a store that has products set up displayed, a Google Business View tour shows the product in an interactive manor, allowing customers to see the display, as well as similar products. The tour is also content, and good content is a key factor in getting found and ranked by Google.
Now that your online, and have good content, it is not just customers from your area visiting your website, but the entire world. If your site is easy to navigate and has a good ecommerce system your sales will hopefully grow from local, to National, to international. People don’t always buy for the lowest price, so offering competitive shipping and answering sales questions over the phone or by email; can close the deal. Offering products on a ecommerce site also opens new markets to you, you are now not restricted to your local area. This can mean increased revenue for your business.
Keep an eye out for future posts about Growing your business with Google.