Transitioning from a traditional brick and mortar store to an online-only service isn’t always the best way for companies to maximum their revenue streams. While an online only presence can be great for companies which offer digital services or smaller boutique items, for other companies, a dual pronged approach can be their best option.
Which Products Should You Move to Your Online Presence?
When businesses establish an online presence there is the choice of which of their product line is going to make it. With the idea that the unavailability of certain products online will drive foot traffic into their stores, some businesses choose to offer ‘in-store only’ items.
Here’s the problem with this approach. If the purpose of your online presence is to bring customers into your store, they first need to know what products your store offers. A catch 22 – how do you advertise products online but market them as in-store only items?
The answer – you don’t. Instead, the best option to bring customers into your store, for whichever reason you have chosen, is to make visiting your store appealing and/or convenient.
Grocery stores are the perfect example, offering a service called ‘click and collect’. The idea behind this service is that customers can order their groceries on-line and have them ready for collection at a set time of the day. Now, the question is, why would a grocery store want to have a customer’s items ready for them? Because when customers arrive they almost always remember items they forgot to order or receive a call from a partner or child on their way to the grocery store to pick up an additional item. Where once this customer could have easily diverted and chosen to visit a corner store closest to them at the time of the call, the prearranged appointment has been set, leaving them to pick up additional items alongside their pre-prepared grocery list.
Where it comes to the appeal of visiting a brick and mortar store, stores like Footlocker have the right approach by offering a full suite of products online including a Groupon Coupons page for additional discounts, but also offering in-store professional fittings and advice. This provides the perfect complement for them to leverage an online presence to both sell online and bring their customers into a store.
For whichever reasons suit your business, increasing your foot traffic with an online presence isn’t an impossible task, it just requires the right approach, the right offerings, and more importantly, the right expectations.
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