COVID 19 has put many small businesses in Canada into a compromised position.
Stores that are not considered as an essential business were being forced to close or are closed due to fears of the virus. Many of these stores are the only source of income for these small business owners. Not being able to open their doors to potential local clientele places these businesses in a very bad position considering that the expenses for the walk in location comes with inherent expenses like rent and utilities.
There is something you can do as a small business owner with a store!
For 20 years businesses that sell products have been using ecommerce solutions (online stores) to sell their products to a broader and non local market.
Many businesses over the years have not wanted to evolve their business to include online sales due to the fact that they prefer to only serve their local client base but now with the forced closures of many of these businesses many people are wondering what options are available (if any) to continue selling their products specifically to their local market.
One business that has properly addressed this issue is Superstore in Nova Scotia (also known as Loblaws). They have evolved their online shopping options to include Delivery or Pickup options to their online store.
Potential clients can access their online catalog of items and request a home delivery or a designated pick up time where they can pick up their ordered products on a specific day and time.
This solution has caught on extremely well considering that people need to purchase their items on a weekly basis but are not comfortable with going to the stores and Superstores across Nova Scotia are seeing a huge increase of sales with this online sales solution in place.
People can browse the online catalog from the comfort of their home and request a home delivery or pick up date that is most convenient for them.
It is now an obvious (and necessary) extension of running a retail type of business these days and it can be implemented easily enough and cost effectively.
If your business has an existing website then setting up ecommerce solutions can be done quite easily with the coordination of the business owner and a qualified web development specialist. If your business does not have a website then that is also something that can be discussed with a web developer to get you started from scratch.
If you have a retail business and are interested in finding out ways to utilize online sales solutions please feel free to contact us with information about your type of business and products available for purchase and we can connect to discuss your options. You can contact us directly regarding online sales solutions for local markets with the form to the right of this article.
If you have a non retail oriented business in the service sector, there are also several things that can be done for that type of business as well. Reach out to us with your questions on how to optimize your business online.
