Let's face it, the High Street is dying. A sad truth is that consumer habits have changed over the last few decades and with the Coronavirus driving everyone online it may well have been the final nail in the coffin for many. Do I want to trudge up and down the high street when I could park my bum on my sofa and search for bargains online? The answer is no.
Yes, there is still something to be said for having a day out in the town and seeing items in the flesh but the truth is, most shopping is now done online. And in an age where there are literally millions of businesses competing online, how do you make yours stand out?
Well, the first step is to create your store. For Caged Tiger, the idea of a bricks and mortar store was out of the question. As a fledgling business, committing yourself to rent and rates is a big mistake. In the initial stages of starting a business you can expect to have no income. None. Zip. And in many cases, you can expect to make a loss for months before getting to the break even point. So how do you get people to your store?
Now here is a problem with starting your own business...there is no other department to push the work on to. What do you mean there isn't an IT/Ecommerce department to build me a website? Well, now we are in trouble because I got a U in my half GCSE IT exam and have no clue where I would even start to think about creating such a thing!
I am very lucky that my husband is a computer expert and very knowledgeable in this field. He knows how to write the code needed to create such a thing but he selfishly has a full time job doing computer stuff for someone else. Hmfph. He also knows better than to try and explain such a thing to me. He has seen my eyes glaze over at the simplest explanation of anything technological and knows that I have stopped listening and gone to my happy place in my head. Sorry about that.
Luckily clever IT people have cottoned on to the fact that there are many technophobes out there that need their hands holding through this process. My husband did some research and we decided to go with a company called EKM. They basically provide the platform to create an online shop, including setting up a domain name and the payment gateways you will need. They have multiple templates for shop fronts and you can play about till you find one that suits what you are looking for. They also have a really handy chat function so you can ask for help from their team whenever you need it. Yes, there is a monthly fee but it's very reasonable considering what you get out of it and you can choose different packages to suit your needs.
And just like that I have now got an online shop and a virtual IT department for Caged Tiger to help me with all my techno needs. Marvellous!!