How to Successfully Move Your Interior Design Business Online Easily

Moving your business online could significantly boost customer satisfaction, conversion rates, and retention. Here’s how to make it work.

You have probably been considering moving your interior design business online for some time now.

Although COVID-19 forced a surge in online services, with e-commerce stores shipping 25% more products than they used to, the convenience of online shopping has always been popular.

Whether you’re moving your business online to supplement your current operations or replace them entirely, building an online business will prove hugely beneficial.

With 60% of customers visiting physical stores less frequently and 43% of shoppers buying online more often, creating a viable online shopping infrastructure is essential to business survival.

 

The Benefits of an Online Interior Design Business

Moving your interior design business online has numerous benefits that cannot be achieved in quite the same way with a physical store.

In this article, we’ll take a look at the benefits of transitioning your business online.

 

Define Your Brand

Creating an interior design business requires putting a lot of your personality and tastes into your brand creation. By moving your business online you can define your brand and choose exactly how to present your company.

Your customers will be surveying everything from your website layout, theme, and style to your choice of language and selection of products.

Setting up an online interior design store is a great way to define your brand, showcase your work, and stand out in a competitive market.

 

Reach a Wider Audience

When you own a physical store, there is a limit to how many customers you can welcome through the doors. What’s more, the location of your store can significantly impact how many customers you receive.

However, when you move your business online you aren’t dependent on any one location or confined to a specific geographical area. Online, you can reach a far wider audience – attracting customers from all over the country and perhaps the world.

 

More Affordable Rates

If you’ve been running a business for some time, we don’t need to tell you how expensive it can be. From rent payments to energy bills, there are plenty of costs involved in running a physical store.

In contrast, running an online business is far more affordable. You will need to cover hosting, software, domain name, payment processing options, and website build costs.

However, the ongoing costs associated with online marketing, advertising, and social media management are optional. So, the total cost would still fall significantly under the monthly payments associated with a physical store.

 

Valuable Data Collection

When you run an in-store business it is difficult to learn more about your customers. You can’t track their behaviours or learn how they discovered your brand.

Selling online offers the chance for valuable data collection.

You can gain access to an array of useful information, such as the device your customers prefer to shop from, the products they bought, and their demographic and behavioral patterns, among so many other things.

With this information, you can make adjustments to your services that will serve your customers better and boost your success.

 

Open 24 Hours a Day

Unlike a physical store that has to open and close at certain times, an e-commerce shop can stay open 24 hours a day.

This is more convenient for your customers as they can browse your products and services at times that suit them and they’re more likely to convert as a result.

 

How to Move Your Business Online

So, now that you know a few of the benefits let’s take a look at how you can move your business online.

 

Develop Your Website

The first stage to moving your business online is to develop your website. There are many ways you can do this, from building your own website with a theme or template to hiring a website developer.

If you’re new to building websites, we’d highly recommend hiring a website developer. Developers have the knowledge and experience to create exactly what you’re looking for in half the time it would take you.

What’s more, building a new website isn’t always a straightforward process and you want someone who can overcome any challenges quickly and easily to ensure a smooth process.

 

Optimise Online Payments

Completing payments online is one of the biggest attractions of online shopping. Whether you are selling products or services, optimizing your online payment process makes payments easy for your customers.

In the past, online payments used to be a time-consuming and frustrating process for interior design businesses.

As business owners, accepting payments with a card reader and process online purchases has never been more straightforward and streamlined, putting efficiency first for both the business owner and the customer.

We suggest offering as many payment options to your customers as possible. This means accepting multiple forms of payment, from Apple Pay and PayPal to credit and debit cards.

The more payment options you provide your customers, the more sales you are likely to make, and the more satisfied your customers will be with your service.

 

Hire Professionals

As a business owner, you’ll be familiar with the hiring process and perhaps even with managing a small team. You might have hired people to run your shop, manage your inventory, or package orders.

As you move your business online, you will need to hire professionals with digital skills who can help your business succeed in an online world. These professionals could include:

• Digital marketing specialists
• Warehouse managers
• Social media experts
• Website developers

Hiring the right people will ensure your interior design business finds success online and that you receive the support you need every step of the way.

 

Market Your Online Store

Moving your business online requires different marketing tactics from what you might be used to with a physical store.

Start by creating a marketing strategy that defines your key business objectives so that you know what you’re working towards. Then, it’s time to begin marketing your online store. There are many ways you might choose to do this, such as:

Social Media Marketing: this involves building a social following and nurturing an online community. Through social media posts, audience interactions, competitions and giveaways, you can market your online store successfully via social media.

And, with over 80% of consumers reporting social media content significantly impacts their buying decisions, you can create a huge boost in your online success.

Pay-per-click Advertising: one of the best ways to get your business noticed online is to invest in pay-per-click advertising. Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is all about creating optimised ads that appear in Google.

PPC is a great way to increase traffic to your website and, when done correctly, it can significantly boost your sales.

Website SEO: optimising your website will help you achieve success online.

Through strategies such as content marketing, technical SEO, and link building you can start ranking for keywords (terms users type into Google) and build your reputation within the interior design industry.

Having a strong online presence and a website that functions beautifully is hugely important in an online world and is one of the best ways to succeed online.

Email Marketing: email marketing has a larger reach than social media, making it one of the best marketing strategies to invest in for your online business.

You can use tools like MailChimp or Sendinblue to manage your list of email addresses and help you create templated emails that are sent out automatically to your customers.

Email marketing is one of the best ways to stay connected with your audience and provide a service that is tailored to their needs.

 

Final Words

While there are many great things about owning a shop, the world is becoming increasingly digital.

By creating an online presence, whether alongside your physical store or replacing it entirely, you can reach a wider audience, keep up with your competitors, and further your business success.

We hope the tips in this article will support your transition to online.