In 2020, the global pandemic suddenly happened and drastically affected the way small businesses operate. Due to lockdowns implemented by provincial and federal governments in Canada, consumers started to change their shopping behaviour from visiting physical stores to shopping online at home with their phones and laptops. Some small businesses shifted their focus to online sales by building eCommerce stores or listed products on Online marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, and Walmart. However, many stores haven't made the change, and it is an opportunity that Tapiocan sees and wants to help these small businesses.
- Deloitte - Overall the pandemic is changing the way retailers operate, as, since the start of the pandemic in February 2020, there has been a drop in mall foot traffic by 42%
- Statistics Canada - During the lockdown, retailers are shifting towards E-commerce to accommodate consumers’ preference of maintaining social distancing, as during the lockdown in 2020, from February to May, retailers have seen an average increase of 99.3% to their E-commerce sales compare to the year before
- McKinsey - More than 70 percent of consumers in major economic countries are still uncomfortable with returning to normal out-of-home activities, and many consumers still prefer E-commerce to in-store retail in the future.
Top three reasons why small businesses need to build an online presence.
Building an online eCommerce shop or business website is what we called the New Normal since the pandemic began. Small businesses need to move at the same pace as consumers are shifting to online purchases rather than grabbing products from brick-and-mortar stores. Here are top three reasons why small businesses need to build an online presence.
- Display your products/services through videos and photos to create a virtual shopping experience fulfilling the gap that customers cannot see products in person.
- eCommerce functionalities allow shoppers to purchase products and services by anyone, anytime, and anywhere. Don’t worry about business hours and closed in-store shopping.
- Allow customers to book a service appointment online through the website scheduling tool, which avoids burdens managing bookings via phone, email, and social media tools.
Not only do older generations shift to making online purchases due to the pandemic, but the majority of younger generations prefer shopping online without visiting brick-and-mortar stores. Small businesses may not have designers or developers or budgets to hire them, but this should not be the roadblock stopping them from building an online presence. Therefore, Tapiocan was born to fulfill needs by offering a simple drag-and-drop website builder without coding. In conclusion, business owners could create a simple website within hours or leverage hundreds of templates curated by designers, and they should build one to avoid falling behind.
Tapiocan - The website builder built for small businesses
Tapiocan is a Canadian drag-and-drop website builder designed for small businesses and startups to build a professional website with low costs. Our mission is to empower small businesses, startups, and local shops without technical backgrounds to build an online presence without technical burdens. Besides designers and developers in our team, our founders are either former small business owners or running a retail store. We understand your needs, and we could offer tailored solutions, either a do-it-yourself website builder solution or custom design.
Tapiocan offers an all-inclusive website builder plan named Tapiocan Pro along with a free 30-day free trial account. Tapiocan Annual Pro Plan includes a lifetime free domain (From a selected list of TLDs), 5 business mailboxes (5GB each), Google Cloud hosting with unlimited storage and bandwidth, and access to 200+ website widgets.