I have recently written about the high street crisis so I totally get why many entrepreneurs are tempted to have an online shopfront instead.  The competition with other established companies can make starting out quite tough.  However, if you have spotted a gap in the market give it your best shot!  But remember you do have other things to think about when you start your online business.

Stock Storage

You need to find a suitable solution to store whatever you plan to sell!

You could consider getting a customs warehouse to store your stock!  There are advantages to using this type of warehouse.  All your products are considered duty free until they are dispatched for delivery to your customer.  It can make a big difference to juggling your finances as you don’t have to worry about duty and VAT charges until you have the money from the sale.

It can sound a little complicated but the page about bonded storage does a better job of explaining it than I ever could!  Basically, it’s like a special warehouse that doesn’t consider the products in the UK market until they leave the warehouse.  If you are bringing items from aboard to sell in your online shop it could be the way to go!

Build Your Presence

When you have an online business, you need to build your presence.  You can do this through social media pages getting customers to hopefully click on to your website and buy whatever they saw on Facebook or Instagram.  It can be hard building your following on your social media pages.  You need to make yours stand out.  Whether you use beautiful photography, coax them over with competitions or catchy memes they will want to share try and find a tactic that will work for you!

Professional Website

You need your website to look the part!  Online customers are naturally weary of spending their hard-earnt cash on sites that don’t look professional.  They will want to make sure that the site is safe, so you need the padlock and a valid certificate registered with your site.  Your site should start with https if it is missing the s for secure some antivirus packages will block them!  So, your online business will never get seen!  I learnt the hard way until I got it sorted with my blog!  I am glad I have the padlock and the all-important s!

Suss Out Your Competitors

See what works for them, get some ideas and plan a strategy.  If they have any weaknesses use them for your advantage and tailor your online business to fill a gap.

I have always wanted to own my own business.  But I think I would still prefer it was a little shop on the high street, meeting customers face to face!  Although I guess there is no denying the fact that the high street is in trouble and businesses need to continually adapt to survive.