Make your online shop stand out from the crowd

With the Covoid-19 Pandemic, retail sales were flipped upside down with unexpected panic buying at the supermarkets. Shoppers then quickly turned online for all essential and discretionary shopping, with an expectation for quick (and often free) delivery to their home. Online shopping growth has continued and with ongoing disruptions with the domestic and international market, it is a point of sale you can’t afford to get ignore.

Before you ramp up / create an online shop for your food business - make sure you have a strategic approach so your time and financial investment pays off and ultimately you have happy customers.

As part of the Lunch Bites series The Business of Food held during May - June 2020, Jane Del Rosso spoke with a variety of experts who shared their advice to establishing a strategic approach to online sales to deliver success for a food business. We’ve made it easy for you to by putting it all together - so you know how to make your online shop stand out from the crowd.

1) Firstly, you need a clear USP - unique selling point/proposition. As an established business, you will have one already, however your communications will suit traditional sales methods and will need adapting to suit 1:1 chats / web discussions with your customers. More about USP’s via our blog.

2) Before you work with your web designer/developer to set up an online shop, be clear about:

• the full details of what you plan to offer online including how you will manage deliveries, this will direct the IT structure you will need to manage sales, inventory, payments, delivery and returns

• how you will process payments.  Research what your current EFTPOS provider offers and that it is a secure platform to avoid fraud. Check their competitors offerings and the fee structures as this will be an extra cost you will need to allow for

• if your existing website platform has an option to set up an e-commerce platform. Does your current plan include this option / is it an extra cost you will need to allow for?

• if you need an online shop forever - of just for now and seasonal specials. This will make a difference to the resources you allocate towards getting it established and keeping it running over time

• how you will be communicating your product/service on offer, so customers don’t get confused and make complaints which are bad for your business in the long term.

3) Shopping online means people cannot taste your product, so you will need fantastic photos of your product that make it look enticing:

• you need about 5-6 professional photographs for the main pages of your website

• you can use more relaxed photos taken from events or of your market stalls / food truck etc as fillers within the content

• if you produce a pantry staple that is used to enhance a dish, have photos that quickly demonstrate how easy it is for customers to use it at home (& maybe share recipes)

• if you have an online shop, you will need photos for every different product you have - one of the front package, an image of the NIP details and also the ingredients so customers can be fully informed about what they are buying. If you are not sure how this looks - research the visuals of your competitors (keeping in mind the standard approach to online shops and how you want to stand out from the crowd).

4) Review your current marketing strategy and tactics to reinforce your brand. Due to the pandemic, where possible try and demonstrate what processes you use to ensure your product is ‘safe’ for them and you are working cleanly to avoid spreading illness.

Agatha Ioannou from Emporia Marketing has generously shared these marketing tips for online selling:

• give a special offer. It’s important that customers can see businesses are with them on this journey – might be free delivery, extra offerings with usual product, discounts for regular customers

• collaborate with another business – Mother’s Day and times like that make it easier to partner with other small businesses and have a valued added offering

• be online, with an improved website, social media and/or an online shop that have a consistent message for your customer

• it will be important to understand the pain points of your industry/small business as coming out of the shutdown will be harder than going into it as the economic changes will have significantly altered people’s purchasing habits.

• due to the pandemic, there will be long term changes to the way we do business - try and get out of your ‘owner of the business’ bubble and be objective about the customers needs and how you respond, with the ultimate aim of matching your offering to the changed customer expectations.

If you are still not quite ready to jump into online sales, get in touch for a coaching session. We can also connect you with experts you need to make sure your brand and product stand out from the crowd.