As a shop owner, you’re often busy and on the move – selling at events, attending trade shows, meeting customers, establishing relationships with suppliers or traveling – but your shop doesn’t stop just because you’re out of the office. You must ensure business continuity and customer satisfaction no matter where you are. But how to do it?

1. Use a card reader

When selling products at a festival, market or other event, you can personally accept credit cards using a card reader integrated with your online store. This makes things much easier – customers won’t have to bring cash, and you won’t have to worry about giving the exact change.

Many payment gateways integrate with card readers or provide their own, e.g.:

• WooCommerce Payments . Use the WooCommerce In-Person Payments Card Reader to accept credit cards, debit cards, and digital wallets like Apple Pay. 
• Square . Accept payments directly on your smartphone or tablet.
• PayPal Zettle . Accept PayPal and Venmo (US only), cards, contactless payments, digital wallets like Apple Pay, and more.
• Viva Wallet . Accept different European currencies in person. 
• stripe . Choose from several pre-certified card readers to tailor your checkout experience to your needs.

Depending on the gateway you choose, you can also accept payments in person and then ship orders from your WooCommerce dashboard when you return to your workplace. This gives you a lot more flexibility – if you run out of stock at an event or create custom products, simply pre-sell and ship later.

2. Sync your states

If you manage inventory, whether it’s in your workshop, factory, or an external fulfillment center, it’s important to keep items sold in person in sync with online orders. After all, the last thing you want is to sell a product you don’t have!

Many payment gateway extensions (e.g. Square) also sync inventory, but you can also use tools like QuickBooks Commerce or Lightspeed POS to achieve the same goal. 

And at WooCommerce, we know that inventory management is crucial for scaling. With this in mind, we are actively working on a brand new feature in early 2022 that will allow you to create a quick order. All you will have to do is select from stock using the WooCommerce mobile app and then collect payment using the new M2 card reader. This will allow you to stay fully in WooCommerce while keeping your inventory in sync.

 3. Download the WooCommerce Mobile App

If you’re on the go, rushing from meeting to meeting or working on an event, you may not be able to pull out your computer and connect to wifi to manage your store. The WooCommerce mobile app gives you everything you need to keep your store running no matter where you are.

• Manage orders. View customer details, check postal shipping information, and fulfill orders.
• Receive notifications. Instantly know when someone places an order or leaves a review.
• Follow your store. Find out which products are performing best, check overall revenue and other order data for specific time periods.
• Print shipping labels. If you use WooCommerce Shipping, you can print, buy, refund and track shipping labels (and customs forms!) right from your mobile device. 

4. Download the WordPress app

Managing a successful online store is about more than just fulfilling orders. With WordPress and Jetpack, you can take care of the rest of your site at any time.

• Publishing blog entries. Do you want to quickly provide current information or share a report from an event? Add blog entries directly from the app.
• Reply to comments. Stay up to date with questions, comments and reviews.
  Website maintenance and monitoring. Update plugins, view site statistics, and know instantly if your site goes down.
• Restoring backups. What if your store goes down and you’re not in the office? With Jetpack Backup enabled, you can quickly restore your site wherever you are.
• Editing pages. Change the picture, correct a typo or update your hours of operation.
• Create new users. If a vendor, employee, or team member needs access to the site while you’re away, set up an account for them from your phone.

By completing all these small but important tasks with your phone or tablet, you can be more productive and make the most of your time.

5. Manage customer relationships

Relationships with customers are often more than just fulfilling orders quickly and responding to comments on a website. You need to be able to engage with your audience across multiple channels and platforms.

Many people use Twitter to reach out to brands with issues, ideas, and opinions. If you’re active on Twitter, download the app and follow mentions so you can respond quickly and effectively. The same applies to Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms. Stay up to date with news and comments to keep your customers happy.

Live chat is another great way to be available to buyers, answer pre-purchase questions, and resolve any issues that may arise. Extensions like LiveChat also include an app so that when someone calls you, you can reply right from your phone, no matter where you are.

Run your shop on the go

Even when you are away from your office, workshop or factory, you can manage almost every aspect of your online store – from orders and comments to payments and inventory. It’s important to take the time to understand the day-to-day tasks of running an online store and integrate the right tools to perform these tasks from your phone or tablet.

Running an Online Store via a mobile phone – it’s possible!

As a shop owner, you’re often busy and on the move – selling at events, attending trade shows, meeting customers, establishing relationships with suppliers or traveling – but your shop doesn’t stop just because you’re out of the office.

You must ensure business continuity and customer satisfaction no matter where you are. But how to do it?

1. Use a card reader

When selling products at a festival, market or other event, you can personally accept credit cards using a card reader integrated with your online store. This makes things much easier – customers won’t have to bring cash, and you won’t have to worry about giving the exact change.

Many payment gateways integrate with card readers or provide their own, e.g.:

• WooCommerce Payments . Use the WooCommerce In-Person Payments Card Reader to accept credit cards, debit cards, and digital wallets like Apple Pay. 
• Square . Accept payments directly on your smartphone or tablet.
• PayPal Zettle . Accept PayPal and Venmo (US only), cards, contactless payments, digital wallets like Apple Pay, and more.
• Viva Wallet . Accept different European currencies in person. 
• stripe . Choose from several pre-certified card readers to tailor your checkout experience to your needs.

Depending on the gateway you choose, you can also accept payments in person and then ship orders from your WooCommerce dashboard when you return to your workplace. This gives you a lot more flexibility – if you run out of stock at an event or create custom products, simply pre-sell and ship later.

2. Sync your states

If you manage inventory, whether it’s in your workshop, factory, or an external fulfillment center, it’s important to keep items sold in person in sync with online orders. After all, the last thing you want is to sell a product you don’t have!

Many payment gateway extensions (e.g. Square) also sync inventory, but you can also use tools like QuickBooks Commerce or Lightspeed POS to achieve the same goal. 

And at WooCommerce, we know that inventory management is crucial for scaling. With this in mind, we are actively working on a brand new feature in early 2022 that will allow you to create a quick order. All you will have to do is select from stock using the WooCommerce mobile app and then collect payment using the new M2 card reader. This will allow you to stay fully in WooCommerce while keeping your inventory in sync.

 3. Download the WooCommerce Mobile App

If you’re on the go, rushing from meeting to meeting or working on an event, you may not be able to pull out your computer and connect to wifi to manage your store. The WooCommerce mobile app gives you everything you need to keep your store running no matter where you are.

• Manage orders. View customer details, check postal shipping information, and fulfill orders.
• Receive notifications. Instantly know when someone places an order or leaves a review.
• Follow your store. Find out which products are performing best, check overall revenue and other order data for specific time periods.
• Print shipping labels. If you use WooCommerce Shipping, you can print, buy, refund and track shipping labels (and customs forms!) right from your mobile device. 

4. Download the WordPress app

Managing a successful online store is about more than just fulfilling orders. With WordPress and Jetpack, you can take care of the rest of your site at any time.

• Publishing blog entries. Do you want to quickly provide current information or share a report from an event? Add blog entries directly from the app.
• Reply to comments. Stay up to date with questions, comments and reviews.
  Website maintenance and monitoring. Update plugins, view site statistics, and know instantly if your site goes down.
• Restoring backups. What if your store goes down and you’re not in the office? With Jetpack Backup enabled, you can quickly restore your site wherever you are.
• Editing pages. Change the picture, correct a typo or update your hours of operation.
• Create new users. If a vendor, employee, or team member needs access to the site while you’re away, set up an account for them from your phone.

By completing all these small but important tasks with your phone or tablet, you can be more productive and make the most of your time.

5. Manage customer relationships

Relationships with customers are often more than just fulfilling orders quickly and responding to comments on a website. You need to be able to engage with your audience across multiple channels and platforms.

Many people use Twitter to reach out to brands with issues, ideas, and opinions. If you’re active on Twitter, download the app and follow mentions so you can respond quickly and effectively. The same applies to Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms. Stay up to date with news and comments to keep your customers happy.

Live chat is another great way to be available to buyers, answer pre-purchase questions, and resolve any issues that may arise. Extensions like LiveChat also include an app so that when someone calls you, you can reply right from your phone, no matter where you are.

Run your shop on the go

Even when you are away from your office, workshop or factory, you can manage almost every aspect of your online store – from orders and comments to payments and inventory. It’s important to take the time to understand the day-to-day tasks of running an online store and integrate the right tools to perform these tasks from your phone or tablet.