Selling online in Norfolk: a quick guide for small businesses
Whether you run a gift shop in Holt, a bakery in Norwich, a farm shop near Fakenham or a side hustle from your kitchen table in Gorleston, selling online is now one of the simplest ways to reach more customers. Visitors who loved your shop in the summer can keep buying from you in January, and locals can order at 10pm and collect in the morning.
Here's a short, practical route to getting a Norfolk small business selling online, without a developer or a big budget.
1. Start with what already sells
You don't need your whole range online on day one. Pick 10 to 20 of your bestsellers, take decent photos in natural light, and write descriptions the way you'd talk to a customer across the counter. Mention what makes it local: made in Norfolk, sourced from the Broads, baked in Dereham. That's a genuine selling point, and it helps people searching for Norfolk-made products find you.
2. Choose a home for your shop
Marketplaces such as Etsy, eBay and Amazon bring ready-made traffic, but you pay fees on every sale and you don't own the customer relationship. Your own online shop takes a little more effort to promote, but the customers, the email list and the brand are yours.
For most small Norfolk retailers, makers and food businesses, Shopify is the easiest place to start. You can build a shop from a template, take card payments, and offer local pickup or local delivery alongside posted orders. Its current UK intro offer is 3 days free, then £1 a month for 3 months on selected plans. See our Shopify perk and the small print.
If you'd rather not hold stock at all, print-on-demand services such as Printify make and post custom products, such as mugs, prints or T-shirts, as orders come in.
3. Join up your till and your website
If you also sell in person, at a shop counter, a café or a market stall, it's worth having a till that talks to your online shop, so stock levels and sales stay in one place. Nobody wants to sell the last jar of chutney twice. Epos Now connects with popular online shop platforms, and our Epos Now perk gives 20% off the RRP plus a free demo. Our guide to upgrading your EPOS explains what to look for.
4. Keep the money side tidy
Keep online takings separate from your personal account from the start. It makes bookkeeping, VAT and your tax return far easier. A free business account such as Monzo Business has no monthly fee on its basic plan, and our link includes a £50 welcome bonus once you meet Monzo's conditions.
Once orders start coming in, read our accounting software comparison and our guide to Making Tax Digital.
5. Get the basics right
- Delivery: set clear postage prices. Royal Mail Click & Drop lets you buy and print labels online, and local collection or delivery is a real advantage for Norfolk customers.
- Returns: under UK consumer law, most online shoppers can cancel within 14 days of receiving their order, so publish a simple returns policy.
- Privacy: you'll be collecting names and addresses, so add a privacy notice to your shop.
6. Tell people you're online
Add your web address to your shop window, receipts, bags and social media. Ask happy customers for a review. Start an email list from day one, because past customers are the easiest people to sell to again. Brevo's free plan is plenty to start with.
More perks for new and growing businesses
We check every offer ourselves and show the date we last looked. For more tools that help a new online shop get going, see our start-up perks and retail perks, or read our longer step-by-step guide on how small businesses start selling online.
Some links on our perks page are affiliate links: we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.