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Boy…time flies huh?!
Only feels like yesterday when my friends and I were celebrating the dawn of 2017, setting this year’s resolutions for our respective businesses and how we must die-die hit them after a rather slow financial year of 2016.
Now we are almost 4 months in, ending the first quarter of the year, and some of my friends are already trailing behind their resolution, others even giving up on them entirely.
And if you’re a business owner too, you’ know that sometimes this is normal to shift our goals accordingly, but never an excuse when we struggle to keep our business afloat.
And the government knows that many SMEs could potentially go out of business if they don’t recover well after a tough year before.
That’s why during the Budget 2017, they’ve decided to get down and dirty by helping SMEs by going digital the right way.
From providing customized consultancy to funding, the SMEs Go Digital Programme is specifically meant for SMEs to tap on latest technological innovations to grow and thrive.
Why This Is A Blessing For Retail & F&B Businesses…
Now while all industries will definitely benefit from this new scheme, retail and F&B businesses are better primed to ride the wave of cutting-edge technology.
This is simply because of the direct impact “going digital” has on getting more customers and boosting our sales.
You see, recent studies have estimated the global e-commerce sales to surpass $3.5 trillion in the next 5 years.
And with more and more people taking to shopping online for food, clothes, gadgets and just about anything under the sun these days…
It only makes sense for businesses to ride this money-making wave to boost our sales as well!
And if you’re not riding this wave, you’re just giving up your portion of $3.5 trillion to your next-door competitor who’ll gladly take your share and your existing customers online.
I don’t want that to happen to my business, and pretty sure no sane business owner would too.
But if you still don’t see the importance of tapping on this raving market of online shoppers…
Just look at the rise of FoodPanda, McDonalds and Lazada, just to name a few examples, who are making tons of money by going digital.
Is Your Business Ready To Go Digital?
With all said and done, the biggest question is this.
Is your business ready to go digital?
(If you can’t wait to take your business to the next level technologically, check this cutting-edge system now!)
While there are hundreds (if not thousands) of solutions available out there, it goes without saying that not all would be ideal for the needs of your business and you.
Here’s a quick checklist of the 6 most important things you should look for in tech solutions:
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Easy To Setup And User Friendly
Ask your solution providers these questions: Does it take too long to setup? Does you have to set it up on your own? Would it affect the operations of my business when it is getting set up?
Get everyone, not just the person who’d be using it, to test out the user-friendliness of the solution you’re getting for your business as well.
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Low Cost To Setup, Use, And Maintain
Usually, rather than not, any solution that costs a lot to setup comes with a high maintenance fee as well.
Spend more time to researching for cost-effective solutions that also provide round-the-clock, easy-to-reach support to their clients.
No one wants to be put on hold, to get connected to a customer care expert, when your customers are ready to make a payment and your credit-card terminal just goes dead on you.
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Should Integrate With Your Existing Systems
This is really important when your business is very process driven and you want to smoothen that process to be done faster and more efficiently.
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Doesn’t Create Any IT Headaches
Pretty self-explanatory, right? If your solution fails to solve points 1 to 3, you’d probably end up with too many headaches when the systems don’t work the way you want it to.
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Allows You To Scale With Your Growing Business
Is this solution replicable when you open more outlets in the future?
You’d want something that grows along with your business as well, consistently adding value to what you offer to your customers.
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Increase Your Revenue
If it doesn’t directly increase your sales and revenue respectively, then the solution might not be an immediate need for your business.
Now Is The Time To Tech Up!
With the government finally taking a more aggressive stance to helping SMEs, this is the best time for retail and F&B businesses to tap on this opportunity to go digital.
And if you’re a retail or F&B business owner who’s looking to convert random website visitors to paid customers like Lazada, FoodPanda and McDonalds do…
Check out how this flagship online ordering system can increase your online conversion rate by about 20% now!
(It just happens to clear the above-mentioned checklist as well!)