I have a small business here in the Azores. Do I need an online store? Does having an online store mean more work? Do I have to make a large investment? These are some of the questions we are regularly asked by several clients and, because they are very pertinent, we will clarify these issues here.
Azores online store
Most businesses here in the Azores are micro, small or medium-sized companies and, until now, having just a physical space to serve their customers was enough. However, with the uncertainty of the times ahead, many Azorean entrepreneurs have been questioning whether creating an online space to sell their products would be a good solution.
One of the questions we are asked most frequently is: does having an online store mean having to do twice as much work? This is because most small businesses cannot afford to spend one of their employees solely on online sales.
In fact, at first glance, having an online store may seem like a chinese america data lot of work, but it isn’t. Contrary to what you might think, you don’t need to be constantly checking for new orders. In the reality of our islands, it’s more than enough to set aside 1 or 2 hours at the end of the day to respond to potential customers, process orders and check that everything is working properly.
Many small businesses here in the Azores are beginning to see the benefits of having an online website. Although this strategy may not be the best for all types of businesses at first, it does bring many benefits. Here are some of them:
1. Cost reduction
Unlike a physical store, which has costs for rent, maintenance, employees, etc., your online store requires very little maintenance, zero employees and you can manage it yourself.
2. Integration with billing programs
Our online stores can always be updated automatically, requiring very little intervention. We can integrate with your billing program. This way, when you update product information (description, prices, stock, etc.), it is automatically updated in the store.
Buy from an online store
3. Available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year
If you have a store here in the Azores, then your opening hours are probably between 9:30 am and 6:30 pm. Have you ever imagined how much it would cost to keep the space open 24 hours a day? Very expensive, certainly.
With an online store, any customer can purchase their products at any time of the day, every day of the year. This is very advantageous for those people who, because of their jobs, cannot get to certain stores in time to catch them open.
4. Offers multiple payment methods
Customers can make purchases from wherever they want, quickly and easily. They can pay using whatever payment method they prefer, such as bank transfer, ATM reference, MbWay, credit cards, PayPal, etc. There is no need to have a contract with card operators or perform a transaction risk analysis; everything is up to the payment methods.
Online store payments
5. Accessible to anyone in the world
Being online means doing business with customers from anywhere. Those who have visited our islands often want to buy some of the products that are only found in the region again.
Our emigrants, for example, look for ways to acquire products from the Azores that they miss so much. Be it the famous orange, yeast cakes, liqueurs, cheesecakes, or even our handicrafts, as souvenirs of the Holy Spirit or Senhor Santo Cristo dos Milagres Festivals.