10 Reasons Your Offline Business Must Have an Online Presence
The advancements in Information Technology have changed the world altogether. Today, the buying and selling activities that is the business activities have shifted towards the online platforms dramatically. Not to mention, the outbreak of the novel coronavirus has also played a vital role in the growing online business. As per Statista, one of the most reliable database sites, the revenue generated by E-commerce in the year 2020 equals over 4.2 trillion US dollars. Absolutely, the figure is completely astonishing. So, are you getting excited to go online? Well, there are many Mobile App developing company in India and Web Development Company in India that may help you in making the shift. Besides, if you are still wondering why you must go online, here we are giving you 10 Reasons Your Offline Business Must Have an Online Presence. But before, let us first understand the online business completely first-
What is Online Business?
Before starting with the ‘hows’ and ‘whys’, first, it is important to understand the online business. Firstly, online business is not only about buying and selling goods online through an E-Commerce website or mobile application. Indeed the online business is a much greater concept. But before understanding the online business in detail, it is important to know why your offline business must have an online presence. Below we are giving you 10 reasons for why your offline business must have an online presence.
Why Online Business is Important These Days?
10 Reasons Your Offline Business Must Have an Online Presence. Online business is lagging the offline brick and mortar stores far behind these days. The major reasons include the busy life schedules of people. Also, the outbreak of Covid-19 and the resultant lockdown restrictions have compelled people to grow more dependent upon online shopping for their needs. Besides, the following reasons also justify the move-
Because that’s what your Competitors are Doing
First of all, the most important reason is that all your competitors are doing that. Besides, not only the existing competitors but the new market entrants such as eBay, Amazon and many others have already harmed the offline business to a great extent. During the time of the pandemic, many small even large brick and mortar stores were shut due to lockdown restrictions. Eventually, people have now understood the importance of online business. Therefore, they are reaching the doors of different mobile app development company in India along with web development company in India to take their business online. Eventually, you too need to buck up so that you may not be lagged behind.
Your Customers need it from you
In the present day scenario, undoubtedly, the customers have become more habitual of shopping online. The trend of online shopping was initially popular only among business and corporate people. Since these people had no time to roam around in the markets, they used to shop online. However, the outbreak of Covid-19 and the resultant lockdown compelled others as well to buy from online platforms. Especially, in India grocery shopping is very important. Even for the grocery today we have groffers and other similar sites.
Now since everything is available online and people are still scared to visit crowded markets and public places, online shopping platforms have taken the maximum advantage from it. Now customers during the lockdown have grown more habitual of buying online. Therefore, it is necessary for you to visit a mobile app development company in India along with a web development company in India, which can give your business an online birth.
You May Get Locked Down
Since 2020, we are facing lockdown every now and then. As soon as the coronavirus active cases increase, the government tends to lock down the public places first. Mall, shops and marketplaces are the first to shut generally and usually. Therefore, the business of these brick and mortar stores suffers the most. Eventually, it is now a necessity to find an alternative. Online existence is the best possible alternative for these lockdown restrictions these days. Hence, for the sake of perpetual survival, you need to make an online presence.
Your Television and Newspaper Commercials are Ditching You
Do you still trust television and newspaper commercials for marketing your products? Well, your 30-second commercials and a few newspaper images are not sufficient at all. In the present day scenario, businesses generally have a global presence. Or at least they have a national existence. It is by means of digital marketing that businesses are able to reach a much wider audience. A new paper reaches a selected number of houses only. Also, during the covid-19 people avoid physical contact which such objects. Likewise, the OTT platforms like NetFlix and others have destroyed the business of Television. In this way, the commercials and advertisements given on TV or in newspapers do not reach the target audience.
Thus, it is necessary to switch to other effective marketing techniques such as social media marketing, YouTubing and WhatsApp marketing to increase the reach of your business. So do not rely on the old traditional methods of marketing but switch to the new modern one.
People Don’t Trust You!
Today, until and unless, your business has a well-developed website, your customers fail to place trust in you. Just suppose you come across a new product in the newspaper, poster or any other source of advertising. Obviously, if interested you too will first google the product. It is because you want to know more about the product since the advertisement is just not enough. Now if you do not find any information on Google, obviously there are 90% chances that you will not choose to buy the product at all. So, the bottom line is that if you do not have an online presence, you will fail to acquire the trust of your target audience. Therefore, approach a good mobile app development company in India along with a web development company in India today itself. Ask them to do the honours for you!
You are Growing Outdated
In the modern era, technological skill development is really necessary. Even the government of our country today strive to build the scientific and technological temper of the people as much as possible. If you read to New Education Policy of our country, you will see that technological education gets the maximum attention and focus. Therefore, if you are running away from technology, you are growing outdated. Eventually, you may soon lose charm among the young generation which must rather be your target audience to survive in the long run. Therefore, do not neglect the power of technical skill development and go online today itself.
It’s Time to Work Smart
Moreover, artificial intelligence and business intelligence reduces tonnes of manual labour for you. On one hand the artificial intelligence can give your business a 24*7 hour existence without needing your physical presence. On the other hand, business intelligence tools can perform various manual jobs for you including HRM, financial and analytical functions. So instead of sitting the whole day to analyse which of your products has the maximum sale or calculating the accounts, you may just leave these jobs on the AI and BI tools and can focus more on decision making and other more important jobs in your business.
You are Wasting Money
During the covid-19 and lockdown restriction, cost-cutting was a merciless move taken by large to small businesses. Many businesses fired most of their employees and replaced them with BI and AI. Obviously, they had been wasting their valuable time and money on manual labour so far. So, you must pay attention to the same and replace the manual work with these tools. This will save you a great deal of money. Also, it will increase your efficiency. Online business will enable you to get familiar with all such technologies and the mobile development company in India or the web development company in India will further guide you further.
Make a Global Reach
Not to mention App store, Play store and Google already have a global reach. Consequently, once you reach any mobile development company in India or any web development company in India to develop a mobile app and website for your business, you will just need to market them to a few customers. Google Analytics will do the rest of the job for you. Both your website as well as your mobile application will reach the global audience automatically without any effort. Besides developing the app and website, your chosen company will also do the search engine optimisation (SEO) of your app and website. The SEO will make your business list top on the search results of people.
Enjoy Your Time
Once, you have taken your business online and the Chatbot has replaced you, now you will be free to enjoy your time. Now you can fix your working hours and your website and mobile application are there to perform all the jobs for you. You just need to monitor the progress after establishing your online business. In this way, you must realise the importance of online business which can bring you closer to your family, friends and relatives. Also, you can now give time to your hobbies or may also plan to start another side business. So what are you waiting for? Take your business online today itself!
These are the 10 Reasons Your Offline Business Must Have an Online Presence.
Now the next question is, what it will take you to go online. Of course, shifting towards the online business is not an easy task. In fact, it has many challenges to overcome in your path. Below we are listing such challenges along with their relevant solutions for you.
Challenges in Going Online and How to Overcome Them
24*7 Hour Availability
Among the most crucial reasons why people choose online shopping is the 24*7 hours availability. In the present day context, people tend to lead a busy life routine. Clearly, in the present day scenario, nobody has sufficient time to spend hours in the markets. Moreover, the outbreak of the pandemic has further compelled people to stay locked down at homes. Therefore, the online mode of shopping is growing more popular. Thus, if you are planning for going online, make sure that you arrange for the 24*7 availability first. However, you need not bother about being awake all day night or even about hiring a person all day long, but any mobile development company in India or a web development company in India can help you out with the different AI tools which we are explaining below.
Perfect Use of Artificial Intelligence
Simply, by Artificial Intelligence we mean by a machine or technology which can perform human-like tasks with the human-like mind. For example, you must have used Siri in iPhone, Google Assistance on your Android phones and TVs, Alexa at your home that is not humans but works as a friend to you. This exactly what artificial intelligence is? Using such artificial intelligence for the online website or mobile application of an online business is trending massively these days. Thus, if you are planning to go online, you would also need to ask your Web Development Company or Mobile App development company to infuse this technology in your application and website too. This is necessary to ensure the 24*7 hour availability of your business and to reduce your workload simultaneously.
‘Chat Bots’ are the most common form of using artificial intelligence in the online business setup. These ‘Chat Bots’ are the software applications that tend to chat with your customers online to resolve their queries. Generally, online shoppers face trust issues and they have various queries about the product they are willing to buy. Obviously, you will be lacking personal touch with the customer in online business. So your chatbot will help you get personalised with the customers. Various Mobile App Development company in India offer the facility of great ChatBots. Likewise, you can also ask any Web Development company in India for providing one for your website as well.
Adopting Digital Marketing
When the entire business activity and operations are going online, how the marketing can be offline? Previously, television, radio and newspapers used to be the chief sources of advertising and marketing a product. However, the social media revolution has changed advertising and marketing tactics altogether. Today, to connect with the customers and increase the reach of a business, social media marketing or digital marketing is used. Indeed every small to large business today have an online presence on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and even Google+. Moreover, to fight the trust issues of the customers, the brands also make full-fledged videos for their product demo and description. They upload these videos on social media sites and also on YouTube.
Obviously, these videos offer what a 30-second television commercial or a newspaper image cannot. In this way, using social media or digital marketing a business can further increase its reach globally. Also, there is no need to approach any mobile app development company in India or even a web development company in India for the same. Rather, you may do this on your own.
So finally, as now we have learnt a great deal about the online business, we must now also try to reflect upon some of its major benefits, needs, advantages and disadvantages. Knowing these different aspects will bring us better decision making power. So let us begin to consider step by step-
Why Online Business is Popular These Days?
With the help of the above discussion, we can say that online business is growing popular these days as it saves a lot of time and energy. Not only can the customers benefit from it, but also the business holder. On one hand, the customers may have the access to the products and services at any hour of the day. Hence, their convenience level increases. As the customers get the service or product delivered straight at their doorstep, they prefer online platforms for shopping over offline stores. Eventually, that is why today every big brand also have an online store. Likewise, the online mode of business is convenient to the seller or service provider as well. Basically, the anytime and anywhere availability has made online business popular. Undoubtedly, Covid-19 has also helped in the growing popularity of the online business.
What Benefits Will I Have with an Online Business During Covid-19?
Amidst the Covid-19, today many people repel from visiting crowded places. Therefore, they prefer online shopping sites to offline stores. In this way, it is better to have an online existence than to have a physical store only. Also, in this article, we are not trying to intend that you must have only an online business but the intended meaning is that you must ‘also have an online presence.’ Moreover, in addition to consumer preferences, yet another benefit of having an online business during covid-19 is continuity. As discussed earlier also, repeated lockdown disturbs the smooth functioning of a physical store. Due to this, not only the sales of a physical store suffers continuously but also, the buyer is getting frustrated. In this way, having an online presence will make your business survive perpetually.
What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages?
Every coin has two aspects and so has an online business. Having an online presence has both pros and cons. On one hand, online business has various benefits both to the buyer as well as to the seller. On the other hand, many people still repel from buying or selling online, especially in India as they lack trust in online financial transactions. Due to rising online transaction fraud, people still lack trust in buying and purchasing online. So, we can list the pros and cons as below-
Pros
Global Customer Reach
24*7 Hours Availability
Buyers’ Comfort
Time-Saving
Cost-Effective
Cons
Trust Issues among Customers
Needs much hard work in advertising and marketing
Data Privacy Issues
The online transaction still bothers some people today
So what’s the Final Call?
So finally, we can say that a web development company in India and a mobile app development company in India can help a great deal to your offline business to go online. If your offline business has an online presence, it cannot only increase its reach but also function much more effortlessly. However, in addition to these numerous benefits, the online business also has many challenges to overcome. Especially, the data privacy and data security issues have bothered the online business a lot. Since a few people still repel from online business transactions, hence online business is yet to grow more popular. However, today the pandemic has converted the majority of customers to online shoppers. Thus, if you have an offline business, they also make your online presence today and enjoy the perks irrespective of lockdown fears.
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