Benefits of showcasing your products on your website

Do you own a Swiss Army knife? Have you used every one of its tools? Probably not… yet.

Just because the tools are there, doesn’t mean that they are right for your needs right now. But of course, they may come in handy in the future.

It can be the same with your website. Storbie provides lots of features, including ecommerce. But if you feel that your business isn’t ready for that step yet, no worries. It’ll still be there when you are. In the meantime a catalogue website which showcases your products without online sales could be a good first step.

Let’s take a look at the top five benefits to having a Product Showcase website with Storbie.

Your website is for your customers

The number one reason for having a website is to attract new customers. Therefore, it’s imperative that it displays information on who you are and what you do so as to help potential customers make an informed purchase decision.

Think about it. If you were looking at a website for a business you want to visit, what would you expect to see? Probably some general information, like an address, opening hours and so forth. On top of that you would want to be able to easily find out what that business offers so you can decide if they can help you.

Not having this information displayed front and centre on your website is the digital equivalent of ignoring a customer when they come in store. Imagine if one of your staff walked away when a customer asked them a direct question. That would probably mean a lost sale and maybe even a lost customer, forever.

Don’t make the same mistake with your website. Displaying even just a cross section of the products you have available could be the difference between a potential customer paying you a visit or going elsewhere. Make it an easy choice by showcasing what you have on offer when people find your website.

More information = better SEO

Keywords and simple language help search engines work out whether your site is of interest to when customers are looking for information online. The algorithms behind Google and other search engines are pretty smart and they can infer a bit of context from what you’ve got on your website. That being said, they won’t direct people to your site if you haven’t got any content that matches their search topics.

Here’s an example. If your website clearly states that you are a pharmacy it is probably going to show up for searches for ‘pharmacy’. If you’ve got your address listed then you’ll probably show up for ‘pharmacy near me’ if someone searches while they’re nearby. Google is even smart enough to show a list of pharmacies if someone searches for ‘fill prescription’, even if you don’t have those exact words on your website.

But what happens when the context is less obvious? What if someone searches for ‘supplements’ or ‘cold medicine’? Well, it’s possible that Google is smart enough to recognise that pharmacies sell these type of products, so maybe your website will show up in the results. The trouble is websites that have those keywords listed specifically – whether they sell online or not – will probably show up at the top of the search results.

This only gets worse for brand specific searches. If someone searches ‘Go Healthy’ or ‘Coldrex’ then Google will prioritise sites with those brands listed and it won’t necessarily connect the dots between your pharmacy and these products that you might be selling. This means you are losing customers because Countdown’s cold and flu products are being showcased at the top of the search results.

Displaying products on your website goes a long way to solving this problem. Make your website easy to understand for Google and for your customers and you’ll reap the benefits both online and in store.

You can sell online without ecommerce

Just because ecommerce isn’t enabled, doesn’t mean that your products aren’t selling. There are an increasing number of omni-shoppers emerging who seamlessly move between on and offline channels in their shopping habits. Displaying product information helps consumers make informed decisions and can lead to increased sales in–store. These are called web influenced sales, and according to statistics from Google, 76% of people who conduct a local search visit a store within 24 hours.

This doesn’t mean you need every single product displayed on your website to engage with these customers. You may choose to select specific products or a range to showcase online, just as you do in store. For example, a "top 10" products of the week, or the full range of a select brand being on sale. This is especially effective if it is regularly updated, such as every Sunday or Monday, or the first day of the month. The key is to encourage people to come instore because they can see that you offer the sort of products they’re looking for.

Not ready for shipping? There's another option

A lot of people think of ecommerce as requiring products to be shipped across the country, or across the world. Recent months have shown us how this trend is shifting with click–and–collect cementing itself in the habits of shoppers around the world.

Ecommerce provides the flexibility to make purchase choices online and on-demand: while at work, out of town, or simply after hours. Customers can then pick up their shopping directly from your store. This provides an opportunity to upsell and connect directly with your customer. This is a better experience for everyone and saves you some logistical headaches.

Connect with the Storbie Supplier Network

The time required to manually add products to a website can be a barrier to embracing online sales. But what if you could add hundreds, even thousands of products to your website to advertise or sell online in a matter of minutes? No photos to take, no descriptions to write, no prices to update.

Currently available to pharmacies in Australia and New Zealand, the Storbie Supplier Network allows access to rich, web-ready product information from leading pharmacy suppliers such as AFT, Pharmacare, Aspen, Good Health, GO Healthy , Douglas Pharmaceuticals and many more.

This makes it easy to display products on your website. They’re kept up to date with accurate product names, descriptions, images, price and stock levels*.

Your website doesn’t need to be ecommerce enabled to help you sell more. Simply displaying products on your website can have benefits that you wouldn’t expect. Follow these tips and you’ll be set up for success – both on and offline.

Not with Storbie yet? Contact us to get started!

*POS integration required to update price and stock levels.

** Vet and Pet solution is currently only active in New Zealand. If you’re an Australian business in the vet or pet space, or you’re interested in contributing to a supplier network in another vertical, please get in touch.