Online business means starting a journey with a website. But in the case of online business in our country, this issue is now on the other side. For those who do not do online-based business, it is understood that the position of their business online will play a role in increasing its branding and sales, and then the question is how to get started. And to start with, you have to talk about a website.
But now we are starting an e-commerce business or connecting local businesses online by opening a page on Facebook in 5 minutes. I am not saying that opening a page on Facebook is the wrong thing, usually, a Facebook page is opened after a website. Again, since creating a website is a bit of an expensive task, a little Facebook page can take the business forward if the budget is low. However, I would say that a website is needed. My next posts will be suitable for the person or entrepreneur or businessman who wants to do long-term business. If your business is short-term or if you are a temporary trader (doing business in any season) then you can continue with a Facebook page.
Let us know how a website will help bring your business to its full potential
1. Consumer confidence
As a Bangladeshi consumer, when a consumer sees a brand’s website, a kind of confidence is created. That way, it costs a lot of money to build a website, and since they have made the website beautiful, surely they are looking to make the product better or one of my money will not run away. In some cases we also think during the local business – for example, if there are two shops of the same type side by side, we enter the store first which is a little bigger and a little neater and tidy, thinking that there will be good quality products or many kinds of products. . This is a psychological issue.
2. Product stock
You have many kinds of products or every month new products come to you. But that doesn’t mean you throw away your previous products from the store. In the case of Facebook, the consumer pays more attention to the product whose photo is posted or the product for which the product is advertised, and in many cases, many consumers do not see the product 2-4 weeks ago because they are all The product post went down later. After that, it became difficult to sell all the products. Again, many consumers get annoyed when they repeatedly post previous products, which is also harmful to your business. You could say that many products can be featured through Facebook’s Shop Options but the reality or research is that many people do not open the Shop menu (from personal experience). For these reasons a website can play a good role, if you send your consumer to your website through marketing, he can easily get a glimpse of all your products through different menus.
3. Branding
Those who have been working online for the last few years must remember that at the end of 2015, when Facebook was closed for several days in Bangladesh, many people suffered huge losses and many left the online business. If at that time your consumer knew the link to your website, then even if Facebook was closed, he could go directly to your website. I will give an example in my digital marketing class, if I say YELLOW, many people in Dhaka city will think of Yellow Clothing Brand instead of Yellow. If you can put your website in the head of your consumer through your products, consumer services, offers, and marketing, then it will go straight to your website without finding you anywhere else.
4. Marketing
You are marketing your Facebook page. The likes on your page are increasing, and the richness in the post is increasing, but you are not getting any information, because it does not give such information to the consumers. But if you were marketing your website there would be a lot of traffic information, you would know a lot of traffic information, how much traffic is going to a page, how many people saw a product today, how many sales were made, which product needs to be offered, which product offer There is no need for it but more supply is needed and so on. In some cases, you can even take consumer information, such as – name, email, and phone number. You have to remember, that a website is your main shop online and social media is the place to connect with the consumer and communication and market.
5. Obligation
Due to the various rules and regulations of Facebook, the post of many products cannot be advertised on Facebook. After all those products became difficult to sell. In that case, you can take the help of the website, you did the marketing of the website and there the product was found.
6. Ownership
Let’s just say that there is no sense of ownership in this business on Facebook. Because the whole thing happens on the Facebook platform. If for some reason Facebook blocks your page or if for some reason Facebook is closed in Bangladesh then you will face problems again. You also have to accept that free things never contribute to getting something big, for something big you have to make a website today or tomorrow.
7. Domain
Just as the same username/link cannot be used on Facebook, the same name/link cannot be used on the website. Suppose you made your business very popular through Facebook and a few years later you thought it was time to build a website and then you saw that there was no empty link in the name of your business, someone was using it for some purpose or bought it, You’re in big trouble because it’s not possible to change the name of the business because you know the consumers. You can take the domain by making a little change in the name of the business but you have to do the marketing again to bring it to the mouths of the consumers. So, it is not good that you do this from the beginning.
8. Internet usage
How friendly we were when it came to buying products online 10 years ago. Think about 5 years ago. In 2012, when online dating was booming, I told my students in my Social Media Marketing training that selling women’s products online could be a little difficult. For this, different strategies have to be taken in marketing. There was reason to say negative, women prefer to buy products. There is a positive with every negative, there was a positive thing, once a woman likes a product, she doesn’t like anything else (this is seen in many cases in boys). As a marketer, I needed to work on two things, but at that moment it was difficult to say whether the positive would win or the negative would win. Just like today, you think everyone comes to use Facebook on the internet, but no one looks at the website. Making a website means just going to the water, just think about 10 years ago and how people used the internet then? Now think of the future.
My main purpose was to bring these issues to your mind. Whether or not to take action is entirely up to you. But remember, if you do tomorrow’s work today, you are ahead, and in many cases, you have to accept a lot of losses because of the late action. Think about tomorrow, not today, business will improve every day.
