Online or offline business, which is better? Combining offline and online store as a way to increase sales What is better offline or online business

When we get tired of working around the clock under the yoke of a strict boss, we, of course, think about how to create our own, independent individual entrepreneurship. However, not everyone moves from the dream of “working for themselves and at the same time earning money” to action. And if you are one of those who nevertheless decided to open their own business, you may certainly have a question about how to do it the right way.

Every day, hundreds of offline offices begin their operation. Many are lost when they hear the concept of “offline business” for the first time. But in fact, offline business is called ordinary business in “real” life.

Recently, even more online stores of goods and services began to open than in reality: the reasons for this were the availability and low cost of "starting" Internet projects.

However, online business dies much more often than real business.

What is the regularity of work and its termination in offline and online stores? Are they complete alternatives to each other or can they coexist, bringing double profit to their creator? Let's consider the answers to these questions.

What is offline and online business?

Often, people who have offline businesses completely switch to online platforms. What is the reason? Everything is very simple. Internet business does not require payment for renting premises, allows you to work without leaving your home. And with a well-established client base and proven regular suppliers, there should be no problems with the transfer in the form of a decrease in profits.

The Internet has become much more popular than physical stores: people do not want to leave their homes and go to a store where the product may simply not be there if this same product can be delivered directly to their door.

And the point here is not even laziness, but rather, the unwillingness to perform unnecessary unnecessary actions.

On the other hand, very often offline projects that have been promoted launch their own online store to increase sales. For example, if a store is located on the other side of the city and it is simply unprofitable for a person to return to it, he will be able to order delivery and receive the desired product.

As you can see, online and offline are essentially two different sides of the same coin. But what is the fundamental difference between online and offline business, except for the environment of existence? What are the advantages of both types of stores?

Receive, not invest: where is the starting capital less?

Above, we have already said that it is quite easy to open an online business. There are many medium-quality platforms for creating simple, but nevertheless working and ergonomic sites that will function and, with the proper resourcefulness of the seller and a good idea, can even make a profit.

To make their Internet business more profitable, many people create a professional site by hiring a programmer, designer, layout designer, buying advertising, paying for the services of suppliers and outsourcers. That is, at the proper level, the business requires investments, but at initial stage it is quite possible to do without them or use the minimum.

As for the business "in real life", here the cruel reality comes into play. The fact is that if you do not plan, of course, to open a hairdressing salon at home, where only your girlfriends will come, then the threshold for entering a real business will be quite high.

As practice shows, in large cities of Russia, for example, in Moscow or St. Petersburg, opening a medium-sized offline business can cost a minimum amount of 500 thousand rubles.

We emphasize that this is the minimum for entering the business.

Why? Because just renting to open a dry cleaner, a store, a beauty salon, a restaurant or a car wash will cost a tidy sum. Add here the goods and household expenses -—- and you get quite a lot of money that not everyone can afford.

To open an Internet business, it is not at all necessary to purchase all the products before an order arrives: it is quite possible to simply negotiate with the supplier. In a real store, people come to buy, and not to find out that the product is out of stock. Therefore, for the purchase of goods that may not be bought, you will have to fork out.

As you can see, in terms of start-up capital An online business is much more profitable than an offline store.

With the desire to save money and the desire to create an online store, you can do without any initial investment.

The whole world or people from a neighboring yard: customer coverage in reality and offline

Clientele is the most important thing for any business. There are many ways to earn client base, but not all of them work in reality.

In order for a client to come and make purchases, it is necessary, first of all, to know the main thing - your target audience. This correctly applies to both online stores and real ones. If you do not know your target audience, then you cannot count on the client to wander to you on his own.

With the right development of an online business, a store can operate not only on a regional scale, but also deliver throughout the country (using the Russian Post, for example) or even around the world. Here it is important to work out the delivery system correctly and implement it correctly so that the client trusts you and is sure that the goods will be delivered on time.

All issues are resolved online, mainly by correspondence. Of course, advertising plays a big role, but with high-quality PR and good work with outsourcers, you can receive orders from all over the world.

In offline business, things are much more complicated. If your store is located in the center of a busy metropolis, then a constant flow of customers, including target audience, provided for you. However, if your store is located somewhere on the outskirts, then only people who live on this outskirts will be able to find out about it.

Advertising here will work, but not as actively as on the Internet: it is much easier, being a skilled user, to get into the online catalog and inspect all the goods of the store than to trudge from one end of the city to the other for an hour to a store that does not promise you to fulfill all your secret dreams.

The maximum customer coverage of an offline business can be measured by the region, but, to be honest, it is unlikely that people from other cities will intentionally come to you.

Therefore, in terms of customer coverage, the online store definitely wins.

In terms of trust, unfortunately or fortunately, the offline store wins. Why? People still have not weaned from the idea that the Internet can deceive.

And if some have already begun to trust well-known sites that have already established themselves as a brand, then an unknown store always causes fear of getting a pig in a poke.

People live by feeling. After all, in case of fraud on a dubious site, where should one turn for support?

The reason for this mistrust is the many errors and deceptions associated with the payment and delivery of orders. Many active online shoppers report that they may deliver the wrong item or delay delivery.

Each time it causes certain unrest: will the product arrive at all? Also, many buyers are afraid of prepayment, which is also understandable: where to look for money if the “beginning Internet entrepreneur” simply disappears from view?

You cannot see the goods in the online store: very often the color, size or any other quality characteristic does not correspond to reality. In a store, such a situation simply cannot arise -—- all the goods are on display.

Is it worth investing: the payback of an online business and an offline store

Of course, if the online store would not be a profitable business, no one would spend their time and money on it.

However, popularity on the Internet does not come suddenly - - for this you need to invest, and not only money, but also time, labor, and effort.

And if you see on the Internet screaming posters “I made $1,000 in a week”, be sure - this earnings did not come to them on the first day, and not even in the first year.

If you create an offline store in a crowded place, then you can start making profit within a month after you open your business. The situation is different with an online store: you can endlessly wind up traffic with the help of bots and purchased visitors, but real people will start visiting your site not even in the first month after the “opening”. Advertising, of course, will come to the rescue, but the business will not start to pay off immediately.

Cost per customer: profitability of store and customer service

The topic of service should start with the fact that a real store will take much more money. After all, hiring sellers who will know their business and be friendly to customers costs a lot of money. You can't do everything on your own. household chores and wherein
serve customers.

In an online store, everything is a little simpler: since 90% of cases are discussed by correspondence, you can manage several clients at the same time without the slightest damage to the case. Service by phone or correspondence is much more cost-effective than face-to-face meetings and visits to stores by customers. Therefore, the online store definitely wins here.

Which product is better to buy on the Internet, and which - - - in reality?

What do we most often order online? What is not at hand, and what we cannot do ourselves. Simply put, most often we order an exclusive.

But for “typical” goods, we most often turn to an offline store. You can buy products on every corner, and it is not at all necessary to apply for paid delivery to receive these services.

But if you want something unusual, which you can’t buy in a store in the yard, then you should contact the online store - there you can order sushi for yourself, find unusual clothes or interesting gifts for the whole family.

The same is true with the sale of services: universal services of a hairdresser or plumber can be found everywhere, and acquaintances can recommend trusted people. Therefore, it is not worth opening an online store selling universal goods and services --- it will not work.

To create an online business, you need to come up with a new unique theme, while for an offline business, proven methods are enough.

Is there a product: the speed of purchase affects the choice?

The client wants everything at once: the product must be new, unusual and at the same time affordable. Explanations that some thing is not delivered this very minute - - - a bad business.

In a regular store, a customer who wants to buy something comes with money. He takes what he needs --- and leaves. And you just have to count the money and wait for his return.

Sometimes an online store does not work simply because the goods take too long to be delivered or they are made “to order” for too long, while in a real store you can buy everything in the same minute.

Summing up

A real and an online store have a lot of differences with one, it would seem, goal: to sell a product to a customer so that he is satisfied and returns again. Consider the main differences between online and offline business.

Sincerely, Nastya Chekhova

First, let's look at the meanings of online and offline. Online is everything that is connected with the global Internet. If we work on the Internet, then we are online. Offline is everything that happens on earth, outside the Internet. I think that this is all clear.

Online business and offline business

So what is the difference between the traditional business that we see everywhere from the business on the Internet?

In fact online business not much different from the offline business we are used to.

There are also various companies on the Internet that offer their services and various products. There are also entrepreneurs and workers. There are successful people and those who have failed. All as in real world.

Why then are so many attracted to the Internet? Why is it said that you can earn big money with less effort on the Internet?

The fact is that there are people who have invested little money in their site, made it popular and earned large sums from it. Some people are testing various ways earnings, others immediately create their online business, many go from simple ways to more complex ones. But one thing unites everyone - people want to become financially secure through the opportunities provided by the Internet. And there are more and more success stories in online business.

There are several ways to make money on websites, and online business can also be built in different ways.

Another difference is that on the Internet everything happens much faster and the Internet erases the language boundaries. Through the Internet, you can negotiate with people from different countries while spending small amounts of money. You can visit foreign resources without leaving your home, find the necessary information in a matter of minutes. In the real world, you have to spend much more time and money on everything.

If you are serious about building your business, I can tell you for sure: you need to start with the Internet. Here, the start requires low investment of funds, and it is possible to reach the payback of invested resources relatively quickly. I believe online business is the best way to come to financial freedom nowadays!

More and more sites appear on the Internet every day - these are sites of small and large companies, sites just for making money, sites for people with their subsequent monetization and sites just for the sake of hobbies and hobbies. And the last of them are created even by not the most literate schoolchildren. So why don't you make yourself a website or blog that can bring you some income?

Let's look at the advantages of online business over offline:

1. You don't have to be a programmer

To create a website, programming skills, of course, do not interfere, but if they are not there, you can do without them. Now there are a lot of different engines for sites that implement certain features.

2. The possibility of self-expression

3. It doesn't matter where you live

It's hard to earn two thousand dollars in a country town with a small population - unless you are the owner of an Internet resource. If your home city suits you, you want to be close to your loved ones, and you just got used to it, then you don’t need to leave to “conquer” Moscow in order to have a decent income.

Your website or blog becomes your second home. At the same time, you are not tied to a specific place, as it happens when doing offline business. All you need for your work is a computer connected to the Internet.

4. Don't need big money

Why not open a web studio or create your own online store? Because in order to open them, connected with renting or buying real estate, expensive equipment, hiring staff, you need to have a tidy sum or take a “fucking” loan 🙂

And to launch a website, you need minimal financial costs, if only you need some kind of “heavy” functionality, then the development of the site will have to be ordered from specialists. And even then, it is several orders of magnitude cheaper than offline business. Of course, there are large Internet projects that require very considerable investments, but we will not discuss such projects.

Again, based on minimal financial costs, you can freely experiment with online business lines. And even in the event of a possible failure, your financial losses will also be insignificant.

5. No commercial experience required

It is generally difficult to enter an offline business. Finding money may not be a problem, real difficulties lie ahead. It is necessary to be able to act in a crisis, look for allies, hire people and kick them out of work, lead, don’t forget about the roof and brothers 🙂

By creating and promoting your business on the net, you can almost 100% realize your plan even without certain commercial skills.

6. No need to pay taxes

As you know, almost all financial transactions in the network are tax-free. You can receive money by regular postal transfers, transfers to a personal bank account or an Internet wallet.

And if you undertake to register your business in the form of a legal or natural person, then your actions are now controlled by many state organizations. And at the end of all, you are obliged to pay taxes, and also explain why you don’t pay them, if there is such a moment 🙂

7. No need to give up offline work

You can create your own website, run it and open it in parallel with existing cases. If, moreover, you have free access to the Internet at work, then every day (not to the detriment of your main work) you can spend a little time on your “child”.
But you can go to work and do not only someone else's business, but also your own 🙂 And when your business starts to bring enough income, then you can safely slam the door behind you and become a free person 🙂

Online business or offline business. What to prefer? Advantages and disadvantages of each. The eternal question, can they still be combined? Be flexible and act according to the situation.

It's the weekend, you can relax and unwind. Of course, this is such a strange feeling of relaxation, when you look at yourself from the outside and understand that it's time to take a break from work. Everything seems to be correct, but the inner voice tells you so, so you still have not completed this business, there is still something to be corrected. Have you made plans for next week? Flow, flow. You mentally push all these thoughts away from yourself, sit down at the computer and systematically sail through the waves of the great mighty Internet. Sometimes even for no particular reason. Looking for any useful information. How nice.

The entire Internet is filled with various information, good and bad. Banners with beautiful advertisements flash everywhere, useful links are offered, various kinds of services are offered. One of which are how to set up a business on the internet. A tempting offer. And so everything is beautifully painted, even magical.

You understand that you could try something new, it will suddenly work out, but the inner voice keeps saying be careful, look at what tempting offers, is it real? The idea of ​​​​business, most likely, you had a long time ago. More precisely, you think about it with a certain frequency. Only certain circumstances arise that stop your further actions with the same constancy. In fact, these are just excuses. Although it is your right. You are a free person.

Let's return to the topic of our discussion. You learned from various sources about business on the Internet, and the question arose whether it is real, whether it is worth spending your time and energy on these events, or still wait for better times and organize your business offline. Yet real life is closer, and, as they say, you can feel, see and hear.

To begin with, I want you to understand that business and self-employment, the so-called individual entrepreneurship, are two different things. It is necessary to understand what to create a system or create for yourself workplace are completely different concepts.

As you understand, becoming a lawyer without a law firm, opening your own point in the market, being a blogger, and earning money on your site is creating a job for yourself. Yes, it’s good that you don’t have a boss, you dictate your own working conditions and other privileges, but you are still far from business, it’s just a workplace.

As one very good young man said, business is when you have at least two hundred people subordinate to you. Imagine, just listen to this figure, not one and not ten, but two hundred. funny? How does this statement affect your values?

Now let's discuss what better business online or offline? In fact, this question will always be open. For example, I have friends who are still very skeptical about the Internet, but in real life they have achieved considerable results. When I begin to explain to them about the advantages of doing business on the Internet, they tell me, look, I see, I know with whom and how I deal, I understand where the money comes from, this is more than enough. And they don't even need the internet. It is their right and their choice.

Thus, you must agree that the choice of the sphere and place of activity depends entirely on the priorities of an individual person. Everyone chooses for himself how to develop and earn money. And it's good when a person has such pronounced convictions. They will lead him to the goals that he has set for himself. And let them contradict, say, mine. We are free people.

Therefore, when you make a choice, be sure to be guided only by your inner convictions, and stop any pressure from the outside. Think first, then decide.

If you still decide to organize your business, the question arises whether to prefer online or offline. I will tell you this, if you have a lively character, a pronounced ability to negotiate with people, and many, many connections, then organize a business offline, because you have to this is all makings. Over time, you yourself will understand that the energy of life simply will not allow you to stand still, but you always need to put it somewhere. Required cash, to invest in your ideas, you can always find in your environment, your ability to dialogue is simply amazing.

For those who are forced, afraid, or looking for more simple ways realization of their abilities, the best way out will organize an online business, in particular, it is better to start with blogging. The advantages will be a cheap start, almost no investment, no need to negotiate with various bureaucratic authorities and other participants economic life. And, importantly, the whole world is at your feet, which is difficult to do in an offline business.

The desire of companies to minimize business costs, optimize processes and find successful formulas for motivating staff led them to an unusual decision: to send some employees to work at home.

Foreign companies have long used a remote form of interaction with staff, such as Google, YouTube or Facebook. Now in Russia, hiring remote employees is becoming popular. The trend is set by major market players - Tinkoff Bank, Alfa-Bank, Beeline, Roistat, Yandex, Mail.Ru Group, HeadHunter and many others.

Despite the fact that in Russia the culture of hiring remote employees is in its infancy, there are more and more small and medium-sized businesses with a remote management style. According to experts, by 2020 more than 20% of the Russian population will work remotely, in 2016 this figure was already 12%. Remote employees are those employees who work on a permanent basis for a particular company, but are geographically located at home.

There are two reasons that are driving the remote hiring trend:

1. Major market players want to work with the best employees and not be limited to territorial hiring within a particular city.
2. Small and medium business sees in remote hiring savings on office and office equipment, on staff salaries, hiring employees from small towns.

In order to effectively transfer part of your business to a remote management style, you need to understand the company's readiness for remote control. It is the control of remote employees, when forming a remote team, that becomes the most obvious problem. Most companies, represented by managers, are used to monitoring the work of their employees through visual contact. This problem is exacerbated by the lack of visual control for remote personnel management.

Usually, at small companies everything happens randomly. First, the company hires employees, people start working. And only then, after some time, they begin to prescribe the rules of work, implement an analytics system, learn to control business performance, calculate Roi, etc. And some "craftsmen" of the small and medium business segment, avoiding systemic work methods, also continue exist in chaos.

Obviously, chaotic work without regulated rules does not allow companies to scale. And with remote recruitment, the lack of analytics, prescribed rules and methodologies will turn a company of even 10 employees into even more chaos.

The conclusion is as follows: the company is ready to switch to a remote management format, when the management and business owners know how to create and implement the prescribed rules of interaction within the company structure, how to manage the business according to key indicators. In this case, we are not talking about the scale of the business, we are talking about the level of literacy of management in terms of systems approach to the formation of the business itself.

Before starting the transition of a company to a remote management style, it is necessary to assess the presence in the company of such components as:

• accounting and analytics system;
• prescribed roles and tasks in the context of each position;
• standards for assessing the quality and effectiveness of the work of employees / departments;
• rules of conduct within the company and interaction with management;
• training material on the company's product;
• training material to improve staff knowledge;
• reporting system, setting tasks and ways to control them.

The remote management style requires an accounting and analytics system, a CRM system with which you can analyze numbers or track tasks. For example, for online stores, "Retail CRM" is perfect; for sales to retail or wholesale customer through calls or appointments, "amoCRM" is well suited; to account for processes within the company, Megaplan will be an excellent solution, and for accounting service "My business".

Before starting hiring and switching to a remote work format, it is necessary to prescribe the roles and tasks of an employee, the rules for working with a client, the rules for interacting with other personnel or departments for each position.

Company leaders must not only understand what a methodology is and why it is needed. They must be aware that the control of employees will not be “by definition” good or bad, but by indicators. To control the numbers, it is important to implement a reporting system. To control the tasks set, it is important to implement a “task plan”, which will specify the specific actions of the employee and the deadlines for their implementation.

An experienced leader must prescribe the rules of interaction and behavior parameters between remote employees and management in advance.

The rules must be announced and given to the employee for study before he goes to work. For this:

• distribute who has what roles and tasks, give instructions;
• designate working hours and availability at the workplace online;
• determine the response rate question asked(for example, within an hour from the moment of its receipt);
• train the CRM system, where the employee's activity is visible (quality of work through listening to calls, the final result through indicators);
• to teach product knowledge (what is the peculiarity of the company, who are the competitors, what are the advantages for the end customer, what is the uniqueness, etc.)

For effective interaction with remote employees, it is necessary to take care of a "single information field".

For example, Skype can be used to communicate within a team, internal chats can be created for correspondence, and information can be exchanged online using Skype. email; to store information, use a cloud drive with access to view information or edit it; use webinar rooms for meetings.

At the initial stage, only part of the business should be transferred online. For example, the analytical department, call center, sales department. To minimize the risks, it is necessary to do this on the basis of the current office structure. That is, not to break and build something new, but to form in parallel and train in small departments. After, when the rules are perfected and obvious, it is possible to transfer the entire business to a remote format and gradually disband office employees. This will help to avoid mistakes and difficulties.

Now, a more or less appropriate official solution for the employment of remote workers is fixed-term contract GPC (civil law character). Rare companies make out an employee according to work book, because our legislation is focused on office relationships with employees. There are risks of official employment on the basis of a work book, primarily for the employer himself - an employee, while at home, fell and hit his head on the table. On the one hand, he is at home; on the other hand, working remotely at this time, is behind the work. Who is responsible for his health at the moment? Legally, the company is responsible. But in fact, this is not at all the case. Therefore, the current regulatory framework improvements are clearly required with clarifications about the remote hiring of employees.

But, despite the difficulties of control, legal aspects of registration and various fears of remote hiring, the trend is visible: the trend is acquiring the format of the norm, and more and more remote vacancies and candidates for them appear on recruitment sites.

What's better? To run after the last car of the train on run-in rails? Or is it already now to optimize your business by exploring the field of remote hiring, forming a culture of remote management style in Russia? - The question is rhetorical.