Transition to online business for New Normal Era

Felix Widjaja

Scientist around the world has mentioned that society around the world won’t be freed from Corona Virus any time soon. Based on Guido Vangham’s quote, a Virolog from Belgia in World Economic Forum, Corona Virus might never be fully cured, which means that this virus will be around until it will successfully be eradicated.

But life doesn’t stop just because a virus is circulating amongst us, life need to go on and so does our economy. People must accept this fact and face the pandemic face on. Society need to adapt by changing their life style to suit the situation or what we now know as the “New Normal”.

It’s undeniable how hard this pandemic hit the economy, both nation wise or globally. All industries and sectors are impacted especially businesses that rely on the Brick & Mortar concept. News about these businesses cutting down on employees, closing stores and even declaring bankruptcy isn’t unheard of.

On the other hand, there are still some shred of good news for our economy. The online business has constantly report growing transaction these past few months. Based on Jawapos, online transaction in marketplace such as Shopee has reported an increase in transaction of up to 5 times during Large Scale Social Restriction or PSBB (Pembatasan Sosial Berskala Besar) in Indonesia.

Online Business A-Z in New Normal Era

New Normal that has been taken as a new lifestyle can’t give 100% assurance that the society will be back like what is was before the pandemic. It is because Corona Virus can still affect anyone whenever they take a step outside. That is why, online shopping will become more and more popular in the near future.

To keep your business running in this era. A transition to online would be the best choice for your business. With that. you can change the pandemic’s challenge to a prosperous business opportunity.

During the transition to online business, there is one or two things that you must keep an eye on. This article will explain step by step to ensure the process.

Online Store vs Brick & Mortar Cost

Before the transition, you should first learn about the cost component that you will spend to upgrade to online business and how it is different from the cost in Brick and Mortar concept. Here is a list of cost that you will have to prepare to build an online business:

Website Building

Website is a representation of a business in the online world. It is like “Location” that is needed by every businessman in order to become professional. The key component of building a website that you should know is:

1. Domain
Domain is the name given permanently to a website. This name will become the identity of your website, so be considerate when choosing one. As for the price, it varies depending on the quality of the domain itself.

2. Hosting
Hosting is a component that must be included when you buy the domain. If domain is the address then hosting is the house itself. You will have all your site’s data stored in here. Hosting price also varies and depend on the quality of the server itself.

3. Web Designer
To build a quality website, you need a web designer service that helps you arrange the layout of the data you stored in the website. Web designer service’s tariff varies depending on the complexity of the website you would like to build.

Business Email

To show how professional you are when building an online business, you’ll need a business email that is integrated with your site. You can also use this email to coordinate work and interact with your clients in a more trusted manner.

SSL Certificate

SSL Certificate is used as a security measure for your site to avoid hacks. If your site has a transaction process, it is highly recommended to use SSL certificate.

Online Marketing

There is two main strategy in online marketing. The first one is natural optimization otherwise known as SEO (Search Engine Optimization). The second one is by using ads such as SEM (Search Engine Marketing) and SMM (Social media Marketing). Online marketing cost are usually flexible and can be adjusted within your budget.

Online Staff

For a baby step, you’ll need at least one staff to help you cater the visitor’s need because online business can sometimes be very demanding. As for the payroll, you can adjust it within the Regional Minimum Wage or UMR (Upah Minimum Regional).

That is a few main components that you’ll need to prepare as your business go online.

The cost of a Brick and Mortar business include: Rents, employees wage, monthly bills, transport, etc. Rents are usually the one component that makes the highest cost in a Brick & Mortar business because the more strategic a location is the higher the rent price will be.

That is also the reason why, the price for the product that sells in offline store tends to be more expensive than online because your fixed cost is higher than that off online store.

If we compare the cost between the online business with the brick and mortar, it would seem that online business offers the cheaper advantage. However, there is some advantage that offline store could offer such trustworthiness, transaction safety, and ease of minds from delivery matters.

But what an Online Store could offer has made a lot of people consider shifting to one. Their advantages from the marketing side itself are:

Easily calculated marketing budget
Tools available to be used for reaching target
User statistic and the effectivity of marketing strategy could be monitored via graphic

But, of course the cost above should still be calculated wisely before jumping in into an online business.

Marketplace or self-owned website

If you have already decided to start online business, then the next step is to choose between using a marketplace or build your own website. A lot of starter are confused to choose between these two, because each has its own advantage and disadvantage.

The advantage of using a marketplace:

The system and infrastructure is ready to use and easy to understand for non-IT guy
Marketplace, like the name suggest, is like a busy market and already make its own name

The disadvantage of Marketplace

There is a lot of similar product in there so the competition is tough
Less profit because you are most likely to have a price fight against other to attract customers.
Its highly likely that your brand won’t be remembered because there is a lot of shop in the marketplace
There is no loyal customer because they can easily change to another shop
You are bound to follow the system and the rules by the marketplace so there might be something you will feel less flexible
Some marketplace put some kind of rent if you would like to upgrade your shop

Above is the advantage and disadvantage of using a marketplace. You should also know the advantage and disadvantage of building your own website such as:

The advantage

You have full control of the website so you can be flexible
There is a lot of platform and tools that could help you to manage your site even if you don’t have enough knowledge about it
You can build you own brand so it is more connected to your customer and easier to remember
It will be the most valuable asset of your company now that you have full control over it
You can avoid the competition or price war because your product is the only thing in it

The Disadvantage

You will have to learn by yourself how to make people come to your site. Unlike marketplace that already have its own visitor, you will have to do your own digital marketing strategy to create the traffic to your website.
In terms of transaction you will have to build trust because the transaction is not through a third party. So, some customer may doubt the security of payment on your site.

Doing Digital Marketing – SEO

If you have decided to build your own website, then the next step would be to drive visitors to your site by doing Digital Marketing Strategy

One of the cheapest Digital Marketing Strategy is called Search Engine Optimization or SEO, for short. SEO is the organic way to make your site in the top list of Google Search.

If someone type some keyword that is relevant to your product, you’ll want them to find your site. By using SEO strategy, you can do this without having to do ads in Google.

To be clear about what is SEO, you can learn more in this link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization

After you learn more about what is SEO, you’ll need to know that there are some tools you can use to do it. Here we have created an article for you about some of the best SEO Tools https://www.stucel.com/blog/online-marketing/six-best-seo-tools/

Social Media Marketing Strategy

Social media is one of the most used application in the world. That is why, doing Social Media Marketing would surely improve your product in the online world.

Some social media like Facebook and Instagram is giving you advertising tools facility that you can use in your arsenal. These ads could also be flexible according to your budget.

Plan your Social Media Marketing based on trends by studying the case in this article https://www.stucel.com/blog/online-marketing/social-media-trends-2015/

The challenge of Online Business

Just like any other business, you will also face a lot of challenge in an online business. Some of those challenges are:
1. Ready 24 hours
Online world is a world that has no resting time. Some people are more likely to do their transaction at night when they have more free time. Because of that, you will have to prepare yourself to serve them at any time to leverage your service quality.

2. Knowledge update

Everything in online world is always evolving from time to time. The trend constantly changes, along with the people’s behavior. That is why, to keep your business online, you have to always update your knowledge with the latest trends.

3. Keep in touch with the real world

Although you already have online business, it is best for you not to fully ignore the real world. There are some advantage in the real world that you can use as the advantage to your online business. Trust is one of the advantages. It is easier and more effective to build trust in the real world than in an online business.

Because of that, we suggest to keep the Brick and mortar shop that represent your business in the real world. It doesn’t have to be in a strategic location, in fact, you could just use your home. This will help customer to feel safer that they know you have a real address that they can be in contact with later.

Are you ready for the transition?

That is a few things that you’ll need to learn if you want to build an online business. This pandemic situation isn’t something that we can’t overcome. Together, we along with your business can survive everything as long as you have the spirit for it. May this article help you to find your next goals.

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