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From Bricks to Clicks; Online Retail Visiblity

Guest post by: Betty Penny

Article Overview: We are in a different era of doing business where you need to supplement your bricks and mortar operation with an on-line presence to reach more of your audience and be competitive. Especially if you are targeting demographics that will research your store before they visit for location, hours, etc. Customer loyalty can also be maintained by regular emails; website presence and customer service.

From Bricks to Clicks; Online Retail Visiblity

As a small business retailer, you have been in operation for many years on a main street small town in a beautiful storefront operation selling goods or services to whoever walks in and phones you from the yellow pages to see if you have the item in stock. Your sales have always been more in the summer months and in the winter you only do half the business you generally do in the summer.

Customer loyalty and walk in traffic had always been steady to sustain your existence, you enjoy the word of mouth promotion and paid advertising that you do. Even so, lately, you have noticed that walk in traffic has suddenly declined; your loyal customers are not as mobile as once were. Your beautiful storefront is historical but has no wheelchair accessibility and can no longer service anyone who cannot walk in without assistance.

Another retailer is selling the same goods as your store, but they are located about 100 miles away from you, they have accessible facilities and internet presence, where online ordering is easy. Some customers have mentioned that they did a search on the internet and found better pricing and free shipping with this retailer.

We are in a different era of doing business where you need to supplement your bricks and mortar operation with an on-line presence to reach more of your audience and be competitive. Especially if you are targeting demographics that will research your store before they visit for location, hours, etc. Customer loyalty can also be maintained by regular emails; website presence and customer service.

Setting up a website and letting it do nothing is one way, but it must be active and contain certain key words in order for the website to be found on search engines. Think of this as the new yellow pages, only there is no paper. In order for a small retailer to be successful and competitive, they need to manage their own information on the web to target their customers. Many small business owners claim that they don’t have the time or the budget. However, this strategy must be incorporated into the overall business plan to be competitive; a business owner needs email and a web presence, there are many low priced self managed websites with emails available for a monthly subscription fee.

A business owner should spend no more than 2-3 hours a week to maintain their site with sale information, coupons, pictures, product information with a good on line shopping program once they invest time in the initial setup.

There are various web management programs out there that can range in price and difficulty. Generally their platform contains easy ways to upload for pictures, text, newsletters, coupon options, catalogue and more. There are some very easy tutorials in the platform to learn. It is well worth the small investment and a online shopping site can be put up to display a few items or as many as you like. It is always wise to invest in systems that are user friendly.

In fact, today, many students and new graduates are accustomed to use of the internet; when hiring students, updates on the website can be incorporated as part of their job description to help your business grow.

Stay smart and competitive, Remember what KISS means, keep it simple and stupid.

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Article Tags: customer service, demographics, online retail, website development



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