Everyone is aware of the damages and losses caused to local businesses and global corporations by the COVID-19 pandemic. It is predicted that around 25,000 U.S. retail stores will permanently close in 2020, and even the long-standing Barneys New York declared bankruptcy amid this business downturn. It is proven that most survived ones are business which were digitized, for example, the online culinary businesses have been continued to outperform their past revenues. Therefore, if your sales relied on bricks and mortar stores before, then maybe it’s time to think and execute a digital transformation.

In this following article, we will be discussing with business owners the importance of digitalization by listing reasons and giving suggestion on how to transform to and build an online business.

Why Should You Digitize Your Business?

There has been a digitalization trend in the business world along with a strong rise of the internet, technology and social media. More and more international brands and local stores started to launch services online, transfer customer data into an online database, and advertise via social media platforms. Amid this pandemic, digitized businesses remain their strong performance because most people avoid outdoor activities and instead increase online surfing time. As we observed, digitization is not only just a trend but also an essential change for some businesses, and there are four main reasons why you should digitize and how it is going to benefit your business.

Streamline Operations

Many local factories and stores have been turned down due to social distancing. Therefore, business owners need to streamline their operations and bring businesses online. Once all have been transferred, it is easier for owners to manage, operate and monitor every business activity.

Improve Productivity & Efficiency

As everything is managed online, this transformation will improve the overall workflow of your business and reduce communication friction with customers. Imagine if your business has implemented a digital marketing strategy – such as having a full subscriber list and managing social media account daily. In this case, even among this pandemic, customers will still be receiving discount newsletters and communicating via social media and your business has a better chance to keep running and survives through this storm.

Cost Reduction

Cost reduction is one of the most effective benefits brought by digitizing your business. Setting up a business online is more of a one-time investment. A digital transformation helps business owners to reduce the need for physical assets and costs such as store rents, fees for interior design or working supplies.

Lower Risk

An online business faces a lower risk when facing bankruptcy/financial losses whenever there’s a business downturn because of its reduced cost compared to traditional business. It is therefore a safer environment for businesses to experiment and grow as the digital platform bears a much lower financial risk.

Business owners are more relieved to have everything online as the internet environment will not be harmed in most cases. Physical stores are not stable, and sales performances fluctuate when encountering unexpected factors, such as bad weather or unfavorable human actions. Thus, an online business seems to be a more preferable option as it has lower risks.

How to Build Your Online Business?

When it comes to the actual execution process, it’s better for business owners to plan everything ahead with the XMind timeline structure for a holistic view. Though digital transformation takes efforts to start from scratch, businesses will achieve higher efficiency and productivity once the system is completed.

Hire Digital Talents

Digitization won’t work without experts who know how to get the most of it. This is especially true and important for a long-time traditional business as there is likely no tech-savvy persons on the original team. So, having digital talents or consultants aside to map out and implement future digitization plans is a crucial step for traditional business owners to take.

Build Your Platform

Make sure to make a list of necessary features when building your online platform. XMind is perfect to graph an organized and detailed sitemap (see below). Also, remember to have designers to design the website UX/UI in order to convey a consistent brand image and enhance the customer experience.

Transfer Everything

Once you have the bone structure of the website done, it’s time to transfer the existed business contents such as product/service introduction, supply chains and operations. In addition, a digital marketing strategy is very much needed for any online business. Therefore, business owners have to abandon traditional marketing strategies and adopt new ones to catch up with the transformation.

Adjust as Needed

A digital transformation is not a small change. Business owners are going to face expected and unexpected obstacles on their way getting used to this online system, so get ready and adjust your strategy whenever the challenges are up in front!

Hope this article is useful for business owners who are considering adopting a digital transformation. Let XMind help you along the way! Thanks for reading this article, and we will see you next time.