How to quickly start taking online orders for your business

The recent pandemic has caused a lot of businesses to adapt and one big shift has been from bricks and mortar to eCommerce. I’m surprised by the number of businesses that either aren’t already set up to take online orders in some way, or have no idea where to start.

It’s not too difficult to get set up and if you have a loyal following on your social media channels or blog then you’ll be losing business by not offering online sales or orders. This has dramatically affected big high street shops that aren’t already set up for online sales – Primark has recently gone from £650m sale per month to zero.

How to set your business up for online sales

There are two very quick ways to get set up for online sales:

How to set up a Facebook Shop for your business

This guide presumes you already have a Facebook business page set up. You can follow these steps to set up your new Facebook Shop.

1. Click on Shop in the right-hand column
   
2. Accept the terms and conditions
3. You then have the choice of two check out processes. For the sake of this guide I’m going to presume you don’t already have ecommerce capabilities on your website. If you do, great, select the second option. If you don’t then choose the first option.
   
4. Choose your currency
5. Describe what your business offers
   
6. Add a product. You have the option to share the product on your Facebook page at this stage but I would recommend doing this later once you’re familiar with the process. At this stage you’ll also need to add an image of your physical product, it can’t just be a service.
   

Once your products are all set up you can promote them in your Facebook posts and start to think about setting up a Facebook Business Manager account to run paid advertising to your target market. I can help you target the most relevant people to your business, if you need some assistance with this then please contact me.

Shopify

Another popular option for getting your business online quickly is Shopify. For around £22 per month you can get a basic plan which allows you to set up a website with the functionality to upload product / services and take online orders. 

The big advantage of setting up on a platform like Shopify is there’s no big bill to pay up front. A basic custom website can cost in the region of £1k to get set up, so being able to get started on Shopify for a mere £22 is a great incentive.

How to get set up on Shopify

There’s a couple of things you’ll need before you start this process –

1. A domain name – these can be bought from online companies such as Go Daddy and vary in price from around £9.99 for a co.uk to £29.99 for a .com. Try and buy a domain name that matches your business name or product/service.
2. A payment gateway – this allows you to take payment through Shopify. You can find a full list of payment gateways that integrate with Shopify here.

Once you have both of the above in place you can make a start on setting up your store. I’m not going to go through a step by step guide as there’s so much info on the Shopify website. As with any new platform there’ll be a learning curve but I find Shopify easy to use and the help sections are very helpful.

Again, if you need assistance setting up on Shopify I can help, just contact me.

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