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Trying to lift a humble small business off the ground is a challenge that many entrepreneurs used to face many years ago. Big brands, with their marketing power and strong brand loyalty, were once unshakeable, leaving starting ones having to scramble for big capitals just to pull attention towards themselves. Recent years, however, have entirely changed the tune, especially after the pandemic hit the global market in 2020. From popularity and recall, consumers started looking at ease of access as their number one priority, which paved the way for small business convenience thanks to e-commerce. This decade’s marketplace is at its most ripe for business owners like you to make its break—which you can achieve with the right strategy, big capital optional.

Here, we discuss all the ways you can make your business as convenient as it can be.

Consider your location

Where your operations are located has always been an important factor for success. Have a physical store? Some of the things you have to consider are the neighborhood and the foot traffic of your spot. Does it make sense? For example, a cupcake store located near a school is perfect because you’re bringing yourself closer to your target market, in this case, kids who have more or less an affinity for sweets. If you’re running a restaurant in a mall complex, on the other hand, it wouldn’t make sense for you to occupy the top floor because most people would have chosen a place to eat on in the lower levels.

Of course, this plays differently in the pandemic and post-pandemic times where going out is still being restricted. However, location is not just about the physical area that you occupy—it can also mean your presence in the space where your customers are. The pandemic has pushed many businesses to move and expand their operations online, not only because of the limitations that affected physical selling but because more and more people are prioritizing convenience now.

Bringing your brand to the World Wide Web opens up this opportunity because of its zero barriers and reach. This is actually where small businesses like yours can make their break. By matching your online operations with a strong small business delivery system, you can win over customers who prefer easy shopping experiences.

Improve your ordering process

It’s easy to say that you should bring your business online, but the actual execution of it can be challenging. For things to work, every piece of your e-commerce model should move like a well-oiled machine. That means you should provide a seamless experience from the moment someone finds out about your product, searches it, and decides to become your customer by buying it. In order to convert, your ordering process should be optimized, because as much as it is easier for you to catch a potential buyer, it is also just as fast for you to lose them when they encounter a bump in your process.

Here are some questions you have to consider when checking your ordering process:

• How long does it take for my customer to browse through the different variations of my products, if there are any?
• Does the product description provide all the questions I might need to make a purchase decision?
• If I’m offering any discounts or coupon codes, will they be automatically applied or should they be manually typed on the page?
• What are the shipping options? How about the shipping fees?
• What are the payment options?
• How many steps did it take before I could buy anything?

The rule of thumb is that, if there is anything in your ordering process that doesn’t complement the short attention span (and patience) of your customer, you need to improve it.

Make yourself available

Now that e-commerce is at its peak, demands from the market are also evolving dramatically. People having easy access to shops regardless of time and day so they are also expecting the same speed of responsiveness from merchants. Remember, customers do business at their own pace, not yours, so you have to utilize all the options that you have to meet their demands. You can usually do this by setting up your online shop (which, if you think about it, is perpetually open), but you also have to match your service with this level of availability. Do you have a customer service representative to help your customers at all times of the day? How can they reach you when nobody is online? A 24/7 representative is good to have, though not always feasible for everyone, but you can fill this hole by using automation and other online tools to provide constant support.

Be flexible

With so many choices saturating the e-commerce market nowadays, you have to be able to provide something that your competitors cannot if you want to break away from the crowd. One small business convenience that you can leverage is that it is easier for you to be flexible with your systems. In other words, you can be more adventurous when creating offers to your target market compared to bigger companies because of your size. You can offer various payment schemes, for example, or do something as simple as providing a variety of delivery and shipping methods that your customers can customize. You still have to consider your profit margin when making a decision like offering free delivery, for example, but at least you have room to experiment without worrying about disrupting a bigger chain of systems.

Choose the right partners

While it’s true that you should put your customers first, you also have to choose the right partners or merchants to help with your operations, especially if you are a small brand. Think of them as the backbone of your business. Without the right hands helping you out, you can’t expect success. Take for example small business delivery. Delivery and logistics are one of the areas of an e-commerce model that affects customer retention, but it is also, unfortunately, the most stressful one because it’s so easy to mess it up. The key is to look for a reliable partner. For example, here at MyKartero, we offer services that are specially optimized for e-commerce business owners. Not only do we make everything easy for you by making booking a breeze, but we also offer competitive rates—check out our rate calculator!—and also faster transit time. You can always try out services by clicking here.

Business size aside, anyone can now have a chance of making their brand successful by simply being in touch with what their market wants. Forget all the complex tips and strategies.