Talking to boutiques and other independent retailers, the consistent theme is that they are aware that they ought to consider a website or selling online, but are either not sure or where to start or whether the investment is appropriate for them.

The following questions and answers might help...

My business is all about providing a personal service, so why do I need a website?

A website is not just for selling online, it can be used very effectively for driving customers in to the store.

Firstly, a website will enable people who are specifically looking for you to find out information quickly and easily: how to get to you, what your opening hours are, perhaps where to park, and so on. Effective use of search terms will also mean that someone looking for a particular brand in a specific town will know that yours is the shop to come to.

A website allows you to communicate quickly with customers, to show when new products arrive in stock or when the sale has started. Even better, you should have email sign-up on your website, so you are not relying on people to visit your site all the time to get that useful information (which might be just a teeny bit optimistic.)

If all you want is a simple, but fabulous looking, website to do these kinds of things, contact us for more information on costs and timescales, we think you will be pleasantly surprised.

I just buy small numbers of each item, so how can selling online work for me?

Obviously if you stock beautiful Italian shirts, but have only bought one or two in each size, that is not going to work online from a stock control point of view. But what about cufflinks or handbags or some other gift item? Gift vouchers are also a super product to sell online; they will get people to come into the shop too.

We suggest you focus on items that will make great presents, that way the man who knows she loves your shop, but doesn't know what to choose will be happy. The woman who is too busy to go out shopping but wants a gift he will love can be satisfied too.  We can set up the online shop for you and even design and print the gift vouchers, if that helps.

Is a website a good way to get rid of old stock?

This is a bit of a tricky question, to which the answer is - yes, with care. Your online shop should not become a dumping ground for old stuff, but equally someone looking for that particular item in an obscure size is more likely to look at the internet than come into your shop; displaying an item online for sale certainly gives more chance of selling it than having it stuck in that dark corner of the stock room.

So display items online beautifully (whether they are in the sale or not) and don't forget that you can set products up to be sold online and then unpublish them when it is not appropriate, for instance you may wish to take your sale items away from view when the new season's stock first arrives.

We can help you set up sale items in your online shop and if you would like advice on how dealing with unsold stock can affect your brand, we can do that too. Just contact us and we can go through the various options with you.

I might be interested. Can we talk directly?

Certainly. Just contact us by phone or email and we'll be happy to have a conversation and produce a proposal specific to your business and products if that would be useful.