This story is part of a series about financial literacy for small businesses in the Ypsilanti area. It is made possible by University Bank.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many small business owners realized selling online was not only good business, but necessary business. Today, although COVID-19 grows smaller in the rearview mirror, keeping in tune with e-commerce opportunities is still a valuable avenue to success.
"I think for most mainstream businesses, it's not even about keeping up with what's happening now. It's just catching up," says Ylondia Portis, founder of the Ypsilanti-based marketing company
Brandhrt Evolution.
She explains that an e-commerce evolution was already underway before COVID-19. The pandemic only accelerated the pace.
"Before Amazon, the idea of something reaching your home within a week of ordering it, or the simplicity of ordering something and getting it sent off to you, was not an expectation," she says. "Then Amazon happened, and Amazon grew, and now consumers have high expectations. 'What? You can't get it to me in two days? Well, Amazon can!'"
Thinking brand-first
Many entrepreneurs enter the e-commerce space by making a website, adding their products, establishing a payment method for customers to use, and finding a way to package and ship product. However, Portis underscores that business owners can benefit from thinking even beyond that.
"E-commerce is part of an omni-channel perspective. It's part of a company's whole digital ecosystem," she says.
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Doug CoombeYlondia Portis.
Portis explains that "thinking omni-channel" requires thinking about every opportunity that can be taken to reach a buyer. It's important, she says, because today's buyers "are all over the place."
"Your audience is on social media and your audience is in your stores if you have a brick-and-mortar," she says. "Even if you're just direct-to-consumer, your audience is in other environments."
Portis adds that if an entrepreneur is thinking about e-commerce as existing in a vacuum, they'll "miss a whole big chunk of opportunity." She advises business owners to think about their brands and brand messaging. It makes a difference when e-commerce endeavors cohesively align with everything else that a business owner is doing for their business.
"When I see your brand offline, in social media, on the shelves, any opportunity where I encounter your brand or your brand messaging or your product, it's setting up an idea that I have about you as a brand," she says. "All of that translates to my e-commerce experience as well, because it all works together. It's all part of an ecosystem."
Modern problems require modern solutions
Eric Williams is one local business owner who has embraced e-commerce and has no intention of letting go. He's the founder of
Puffer Reds in Ypsilanti, which started as a music store in 1979. Since then, Williams has transformed his business into a lifestyle store focusing on coveted footwear and exclusive clothing. His ecosystem includes a second location in Wayne, a large and loyal customer base, and significant business from industry giants like Nike and Adidas.
"We've got constant business, and being online is paying off in a lot of ways," he says. "Sometimes people order online and come into the store to do a pickup. Sometimes they end up buying other things they see while they're here."
William attributes his store's longstanding success to adapting to changing customer demands over the years – particularly targeting younger generations who are usually more digitally inclined. He had real challenges with some early e-commerce platforms when he started looking into them in the early 2000s. His company finally got a good website up just before COVID.
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Doug CoombeEric Williams.
Williams can't envision running his business to its full potential without a way for his customers to buy his product online. Puffer Reds currently has a robust website maintained by a team of three, which has significantly boosted sales. The store's social media is another powerful driver.
"There are a lot of business owners that don't do e-commerce or invest in an online presence, and I think that they're really suffering," he says. "It can be hard at first – look at how long it took us – but it can really pay off."
Molly Ging, founder of
The Little Seedling in Ann Arbor, also strongly advises business owners to maintain a web presence.
"It's important to stay relevant, especially in a local market," she says. "Explore ways to do it slowly or in steps if you need to."
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Doug CoombeMolly Ging at The Little Seedling.
About 20 years ago, Ging recognized a lack of local options for cloth diapers after having her first child. So she launched a home business (then called Tree City Diapers) when she was six months postpartum.
According to Ging, online shopping "was already a thing at the time, but not as prolific as it is now." She started selling through a company that specifically catered to women starting businesses from home. The company allowed her to maintain a very basic, template-based website. In 2009, when Ging's business grew too big for her home, she got her first small commercial storefront and renamed the company The Little Seedling. She also changed to a website that synchronized with her in-store point-of-sale system.
"I was selling diapers, strollers, car seats, and clothes. I knew that if I was going to have that website, plus a new store, there was no way I could do it without it being synchronized," Ging says. "I needed to be able to sell something in store, but not have it also sell online, because sometimes I would get just one of a product in."
It proved to be an important business decision, because The Little Seedling's product selection was unmatched in the Midwest.
"I had a lot of customers who would come from hours away. They would drive to Ann Arbor just based on what they saw on my website," Ging says. "I joke that we had 'buy online, pick up in store, or pick up curbside' 15 years before Target, because you could always buy on my website and then pick it up."
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Doug CoombeMolly Ging at The Little Seedling.
Since Amazon came on the scene, the local market for diapers has diminished and Ging no longer sells them. However, she's grown into a new location nestled in Westgate Shopping Mall and still maintains a website where customers can shop, find out about new products, and join the store's newsletter. Ging says it's a good way to capture customers who might be stuck at home, like new mothers – and customers who want to buy local.
"I've learned about the importance of local support for independent businesses to keep unique products available in the community," she says. "If more small businesses had more complete websites, it would encourage people to shop local and that would help everyone."
Low- and no-cost e-commerce solutions
Portis emphasizes that right now, any local business owner can strengthen their e-commerce game for very little cost or no cost.
"It costs nothing to start a Facebook page or an Instagram account," she says. "It's an easy thing that businesses can do to promote their business and gather momentum and support."
Looking to the future, she's excited about how artificial intelligence can support business owners. A chatbot on a website, for example, means that when customers have questions, they don't have to send an email and wait until someone has time to email them back. When a customer has questions, they can get the answers they need in real time.
"If you're not paying attention to the artificial intelligence that is available to you right now, you're going to get left behind, because it creates a lot of opportunity for efficiency," Portis says. "Technology is always going to change, but artificial intelligence is something that all business owners need eyes on today."
Jaishree Drepaul is a writer and editor based in Ann Arbor. She can be reached at jaishreeedit@gmail.com.
Photos by Doug Coombe.