As the Internet revolutionizes the shopping experience, owners of traditional retail outlets are feeling the pressure. Customers use online retail outlets to find better deals and shop at their convenience, not bound by store hours or geographic location. As a retail professional, you must adapt your brick-and-mortar store front to keep up with trends in online shopping. In doing so, you can help your business compete in a changing marketplace.
For many retail professionals, the practice of showrooming is a growing concern. Showrooming happens when customers come into a store, check out the products in person, and shop for them online at a later time. According to the BBC News Magazine, showrooming is usually motivated by price. Consumers use showrooming to verify the quality of a product, but their main goal is to find it at the lowest cost. Some consumers use the practice as a step in an updated purchasing process, which also includes checking out reviews online and buying the product at the most convenient time and place—which may be in a traditional store or at an online retail outlet.
Instead of lamenting the practice of showrooming, savvy retail professionals can use it to their advantage. When customers come in to the store to check out products, retailers can take steps to direct them to their own online stores. By updating physical retail storefronts to drive sales on their proprietary online retail websites, store owners can retain more business without fighting an uphill battle against showrooming.
The first step in the process involves developing an online store that reflects your current inventory and customer experience. For most business owners, it is inadvisable to embark on an e-commerce site without professional help. A Web commerce or Web development agency can help you add an online retail system to your current website, link it to your current inventory system, and add visual branding elements. That way, customers who want to buy online still get the same brand exposure.
Once your online retail site is up and running, you must make changes to your physical storefront. Traditional retail storefronts are designed to motivate customers to buy in the store. To stay on top of the showrooming trend, you must educate customers about your online store. Installing signs is the first step, but you can take the process a step further by using mobile technology. Instead of leaving customers to search for the product name, you can provide a link directly to the product page on your website. Or, you can use an app that scans the code and emails the customer the link for later perusal. In doing so, you increase visibility for the online store and present customers with flexible buying options.
By directing customers to your online retail outlet, you can retain a larger percent of business without forcing customers to covertly scan items into their phones. In doing so, you can keep pace with the latest online shopping trends and help you stay afloat in an increasingly virtual world.
(Photo courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net)
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