How to Bring your Brick and Mortar Business Online

These days, being online is not a choice, but a must, in order to continue supporting your business. Thankfully, many tools exist that provide a cost-effective and efficient eCommerce solution to bring your brick and mortar store online. Here are the steps of how to bring your and mortar business online, which will be reviewed in this blog.

1. Have a domain name

2. Use a reliable web hosting service

3. Have a secure socket layer encryption (SSL)

4. Acquire a shopping cart to process orders

5. Integration with a payment gateway

6. Integration with point of sale solution

 

1. Have a domain name

When creating a site on the internet, having a domain name is necessary in order to identify the IP address of the computer that your domain represents. Since the internet is based on IP addresses and not domain names, A DNS, or Domain Name System, is used for the purpose of translating a specific domain name to certain IP addresses.

Once the domain is set up and domain name is created through a DNS, when visitors access a page on your domain, it allows all content from that page, including files, info, and images to download from the internet to their computer.

Typically, registering for a domain can cost up to $35 a year. When you use eHopper online ordering, not only do we cover this cost, but we also help you with registration and setup of your domain so you can focus on quickly getting started and setting up your site.

 

2. Use a reliable web hosting service

Once you have a domain, the next step to get your brick and mortar business online is to use a reliable web hosting service.

A web hosting service is what provides space for your domain to be stored on a specific server, allowing the site to be accessible through the World Wide Web. When someone visits your domain through their browser, their computer connects to the server your domain is being hosted on, delivering your web pages to their computer.

Using a hosting service usually requires an additional fee that varies depending on the scale of your eCommerce solution. With eHopper online ordering, you do not need to search for and purchase a hosting platform for your site. eHopper takes care of this for you, as part of your plan.

 

3. Have a secure socket layer encryption (SSL)

In addition to a domain and web hosting server, it is also critical for your site to have a Secure Socket Layer Encryption (SSL Encryption).

An SSL encryption creates a uniquely encrypted channel, so that a private, secure connection can be established between the server your site is being hosted on and a web user, protecting the data as it is being transferred over the insecure, public internet.

Having an SSL certificate allows your customers to feel confident that they can visit your site without risk of their personal data, such as credit card info, being extracted from unauthorized access, as it is a certification from a trusted third party. 

SSL certification also typically requires an additional annual payment. Once again, the cost and setup is covered completely by eHopper, as part of the eHopper online ordering plan.

 

4. Acquire a shopping cart to process orders

Once your site is fully set up, the next step is to have your products displayed on it via a shopping cart, where users can process orders, whether it be merely ordering online and paying at your store/upon delivery, or paying for the items directly on your site.

With eHopper online ordering, you can quickly create your online shopping cart from the point of sale system and instantly sync your products and product data from your point of sale account to your online site. This includes product names, categories, pricing, modifiers and matrix variants, and even images. You are also able to choose a color theme for the site.

When your customers visit the online shopping cart through the site, they can then select the items and product specifications that they are looking to order by adding them to their basket and then submit the order. The best part about this is customers can access the site and order products from you from any location, at any time of their choosing, providing a lot more accessibility and potential for increased sales as a result.

Especially at this time, having an online presence is more important than ever, as it provides customers with the comfort of ordering from a safe location, without risk of coming in close contact with others.

 

5. Integration with a payment gateway

If you are looking for customers to pay directly from your site, as opposed to merely placing orders for payment at a later time, it is imperative to have the site integrated with a payment gateway that allows credit card payments to be processed online.

With eHopper online ordering, you can quickly and easily have your site set up to integrate with your existing PayPal, Stripe, or authorize.net gateway accounts.

This integration can be set up directly from your eHopper account via the Back Office, simply by entering the required fields from the account you are using for your payment gateway.

 

6. Integration with point of sale solution

When using an online site, it is crucial that order data for your brick and mortar business remain all in one place, as opposed to separate data sources for online and point of sale orders. Otherwise, it will be very time consuming to gather, organize, and compare data from both type of sales.

Thankfully, with the eHopper’s OmniChanel solution, all order and sales data will sync automatically between your online site and the point of sale, so it can all be viewed and analyzed in one central location.

Not only will online orders sync to the point of sale and vice versa, but so will product quantity as items are sold, tax and customer data, and much more.

You will also be able to print receipts from online orders as soon as they come in to the point of sale, and either reopen or void/refund orders placed online, from your point of sale account.

 

Conclusion and Next Steps

As mentioned previously in this blog, having an online shopping cart for your brick and mortar business is now more important than ever. With an online presence, you can make your products more accessible to the general public and enhance sales at this time of uncertainty.

With the eHopper online ordering system, this and the benefit of synching online order data with your point of sale, can be accomplished, all at an incredibly cheap cost. eHopper will cover the cost and time spent on finding and purchasing a domain, hosting service, and SSL encryption, and will make it incredibly quick and easy to begin selling your products online.

Click here to get started today with eHopper online ordering and begin growing your revenue.