Transferring a physical business for sale online

When customers can’t physically purchase your products, selling your products online provides them with another way to purchase products and engage with your business. It also allows you to provide customers with more information about your business, a place to leave reviews, and a way to sign up for email updates from your business.

Start your online store

Visit shopify.com to start your online store with a free trial. Fill out a few questions about your business, then enter your email and password. Your temporary business name isMy Store , and the automatic address for you is saved, which your customers will use to shop from your store. Once you start the period, you can change your store name and buy or connect an existing domain to your address.

Products

When you advertise your products online, write descriptive titles, accurate descriptions, and clear photos. Customers want to know much more about a product when they buy it online, because they can’t physically interact with it.

There are different ways to add products to your Shopify account, depending on how many products you need to add and whether you already have information about them online:

• To add products directly in the Shopify admin, see Add a new product .
• To add products in bulk using a CSV file, see Importing products with a CSV file .
• If your products exist in a third-party POS software, then you can import them into Shopify using the new Shopify POS.

After you add your products, you can organize them into collections. Collections allow you to highlight certain products on different pages on your site, apply discount codes to certain groups of products, or display certain products on your homepage. For more information, see Collections .

Gift cards

In addition to your products, you can also sell gift cards. Gift cards are a quick way for your business to sell online. Your customers can purchase gift cards, which are delivered via email. The gift cards you create do not expire by default.

When you launch new products that can be purchased online or when you allow customers to receive products locally or pick them up, customers can redeem gift cards at checkout. For more information, see Selling gift cards .

Preparing the pages on your website

Each product and collection you create automatically gets a page in your online store, but the home page and any additional pages need to be set up manually.

home page

Your homepage is usually the first page people visit when it comes to your business online. This page should include your branding, featured products, special offers, and any important information your customers need to know.

Custom pages

You can create custom pages for additional information that your customers might be interested in. Many businesses have the following custom pages:

• About us
• Contact us
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Shipping information

For details on how to create custom pages, see Pages .

Blog pages

You can create and manage blogs and blog posts on your online store. Blogs are a common way to create additional content around your products, or highlight changes in your industry or niche. Blogs can help increase your website traffic and offer content that your customers can share on social media.

For more details, see Blogs .

Policy pages

Policy pages help customers understand how your business operates, explaining how you handle shipping, returns, and privacy. These policies are displayed by default at checkout, but you can create direct links to them in your site menus.

Templates including policies are provided by Shopify, which you can customize to suit your business needs. For more information about creating and editing policies, see Adding store policies .

Payment providers

If you sign up for a Shopify account in a country eligible for the Shopify Payments Gateway, then your business is automatically set up with Shopify Payments and you can start accepting payments right away. Before taking your first order, make sure that your products are allowed under the Shopify Payments Terms of Service .

If you are not eligible for Shopify Payments, then you will need to sign up for a third-party payment gateway to process credit card payments online. When deciding on a payment gateway, try to research the costs of credit card fees and third-party transaction fees, terms of service, payment schedules, and available currencies. Check which gateways are available in your country , sign up with the gateway you are interested in, and then connect it to your Shopify account.

If you don’t accept credit card payments, then enable additional payment methods or manual payment methods to select at checkout.

Deliveries

When you sell online, you need to be able to ship your products to your customers. You can provide as many shipping options as possible to make sure customers receive their orders in the way that works best for them.

You can create general shipping rates that apply to all of your products, and create specific rates for just certain products by creating shipping profiles. Within each shipping profile, you can create shipping zones to determine which countries you want to ship to, and then create shipping rates for each shipping zone. For example, if you ship to both Canada and the United States, you can create a shipping zone for each country, and set different shipping rates for each shipping zone.

For more information about creating shipping profiles, see Shipping profiles .

You can offer flat shipping rates, conditional flat shipping rates based on the weight or price of a customer’s cart, and pre-calculated shipping rates from companies like USPS, UPS, Canada Post, and DHL Express. For more information about shipping rates, see Setting up shipping rates . You can also set local shipping rates for customers who live near your business.

Let buyers know you’re open for business

There is no guarantee of customer traffic when you start an online business; you need to let customers know where you are. There are many options available for businesses to sell online. You may need to try a few different options before you find out which one works best for your business.

For more details on marketing strategies, see Developing a marketing plan .

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Much of your marketing and search results are based on specific keywords related to your business. Consider the keywords you want to focus on. Using specific keywords in your business descriptions, titles, and product descriptions, and marketing will help with your search engine optimization, or SEO, which helps you rank higher on search results pages when people search for your keywords.

For more details, see Improving search engine optimization (SEO) .

Marketing apps

Marketing automation tools can help you set goals and manage your marketing. Check out the Shopify App Store for marketing apps.

External links

In general, the more links you have online pointing to your website, the better. Consider writing a blog post and submitting it to various blogs that write about your niche or industry. Asking them to publish an article about you, perhaps in exchange for adding a link to their blog on your site, can be a good way to drive traffic to your site.

Other methods for getting more links include reaching out to social media influencers, offering contests, and publishing your own blog content.

Dimensional advertisements

Using dimensioned ads on search engines and social media sites is another way to advertise your business to people you feel are most likely to place an order for your products. You can target your ads so that the ad provider only shows your ads to people who meet the criteria you choose. For example, if you sell baby clothes, you can specify that your ads only appear to people who have young children or grandchildren.

Signage

If you have a physical location, you can hang signage in front of your store to let customers know where they can buy your products online. Create a custom sign with a QR code using Shopify’s QR code generator that customers can scan to visit your website.

Summary

Moving a brick-and-mortar business to online sales is a process that requires planning, understanding the market, and preparing the right tools. You need to make sure your products are presented in the best possible way, that customers can easily shop, and that you have good marketing strategies to attract new customers.

It’s also important to track your store’s performance, analyze customer behavior, and make continuous improvements to ensure your business is successful. Over time, you’ll be able to build a loyal customer base that will come back to buy from you again and again.

Future steps

1. Learn about digital marketing and use tools like Google Analytics to track your website traffic.
2. Consider expanding your product line or offering special promotions to attract new customers.
3. Use social media to promote your products and connect with customers.
4. Keep learning about market trends and improve your store accordingly.

Good luck with your online store!