How to Set Up an Online Garden Centre

Garden Centres are well known for providing garden and landscape essentials, as well as a fun and unique atmosphere in their physical store.

But in the current climate where online shopping and online usage is becoming the general norm, it poses the question whether businesses like garden centres that have predominantly stayed on the highstreet, should make the move over to ecommerce. Well, the short answer is, yes! And many garden centres and those that sell plants and other gardening essentials have already begun to do so.

But as a garden centre that remains as a physical store, how do you make the move online?

Finding the best ecommerce platform

The first step to getting your garden centre online is sourcing the best ecommerce platform for you -one that will allow you to create a flawlessly designed website that replicates your brand, as well as space where users can efficiently purchase and order your products. Here at Limely, we use a number of ecommerce platforms as the foundation for many of client’s websites including Magento 2 and Shopify – it’s just about finding the right one for your and your business.

If you need any help sourcing the right ecommerce platform for your business, contact Limely today.

Organising Products

Once you are equipped with a snazzy new online space on an ecommerce platform, you can begin sorting through what products that you stock in your physical store that you would want to sell online.

This is where choosing appropriate products that can be shopped and delivered comes into pay, as well as what you think as a business would sell successfully and bring traffic to your site. That’s what you can begin taking quality pictures of your chosen products, showing them in their best possible light, and uploading them to your new site.

Click here to take a look at how some of these professionals have been doing it in Limely’s post exploring 5 Garden Centre website’s we’re lovin’.

Online Marketing and brand awareness

Marketing is a key attribute to moving online as you need to inform your customers, old and new, of your new online venture. This can begin with in-store marketing and awareness, and then eventually move online in the form of social media and email marketing.

You need to utilise the benefits of online marketing to share with your audience what they’re missing out on; guiding and enticing users to visit your site and use your services. And once you have lead them to your site, it’s then all about first impressions.

Content

Filling your garden centre website with the right content not only enables you to demonstrate your brand, but reiterate your level of customer service and expertise. This can be done through informative and explanatory content on your webpages, as well as blog and article content that also has the ability to boost SEO.

Using high quality and appropriate images straight from your physical garden centre can also help you illustrate your brand and show your users what you’re all about. We usually say it is best to use your own images to rightly demonstrate your business and services to the user, but quality and relevant stock images can sometimes be not only appropriate but give your site that stylish edge. Here at Limely, we like to use free image services like Pexels and Unsplash to add a bit of pizazz.

Setting up online delivery systems

Once you have your website looking all lovely, your brand is being rightly represented through design, content and imagery, and products have been effectively uploaded and displayed on your site, you can go about organising your delivery system. This includes setting up local or nationwide delivery, selecting transportation and sorting returns and invoice systems.

If you’re looking for a snazzy new online space for your Garden Centre, just leave it to Limely. Click here to enquire!