I don't know for you, but I have always felt there are things you just can't buy online. And I am justifiably right about my thinking. For instance there's being a lot of news about people being defrauded online and being sold substandard goods. I honestly think that was what gave birth to the popular trend, "what I ordered versus what I got."
You can't want to buy a couch and not have seen it or felt it. You don't want to buy a set of couch that's hard as rock or something that will easily spoil too quickly because the materials used to make them is too substandard. You don't.
And food? You really want to be at the store, looking at the food, to be sure its fresh and not something that spoiled and was simply repackaged and painted with seasoning to look and smell fresh.
I used to be a strong advocate of buying in person, until the coronavirus pandemic began sweeping through the entire world, and as expected entered Nigeria. I was scared. Too scared to go to anywhere. I didn't go to church, I didn't go to the store. I didn't go to anywhere. I was just at home using hand sanitizers and the blood of Jesus. The hunger came knocking. It was at this point everything about purchasing online began to make sense to me.
The guys who made the most money online in this season of lockdown are the guys who learned to sell online, the ecommerce way. The guys who sold online and strengthened their delivery and logistics arm are the guys that raked in the millions. Today, looking back at the past I have come to realize that just about anybody can sell online, any business whatsoever can take advantage of present and persistent technologies to sell online without fear of losing a customer base.
I am an ardent faithful of the Eva water brand and for sometime I didn't see the close by mall sell Eva water. They have being out of stock for the past three days. Even though I am loyal to that mall I still didn't compromise my love for the quality that is Eva. That same way, I noticed in the lockdown that people sort for brands they were already loyal to and stayed glued to stores that offered them. Some didn't even go for a cheaper or less affordable brand, they instead went for the brand they always were loyal to and looked for the options of home delivery.
It doesn't make sense for you to have faithful clients and then just because you don't believe in online selling you don't give these people the option of buying from home. That's the number one way to kill your business. If you have suffered to build a client base you must also suffer to make them have as much options of buying online and also have their wares delivered to them.
Apart from offering them discounts or the option of paying in installments, you can make it possible for them to pay on delivery. I know you as a business owner are looking for every opportunity to rake in the millions, but at the end of the day your business is nothing without this customer base. Make life easy for them, cut them some slack and begin online sales. You will be happy you did.