Are products the secret sauce your competitors are cottoning on to?

If you’re just dipping your toes in the world of getting your business online, gearing up to manage delivering online orders can feel like it’s way, way in the future, especially for a smaller community business. So, why would you bother having your products displayed on your website? Here’s why you might be missing the secret sauce your competition is cottoning on to.

It's not all about online sales

In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Although online sales, as a percentage of all retail sales is gaining traction year-on-year, transactions processed online still only represent 15% of the total number. If we put ourselves in our customers shoes for a moment, it’s easy to begin to understand why this is the case, and where community businesses have an advantage.

Think about the last time you needed a specific product that you weren’t quite sure where to get it from. What were the exact words you typed into Google?

Chances are you didn’t start with the name of the business that sells the thing you were looking for.  More than likely, you searched for the product or the brand name to find out where you could buy it from. To add to this, there’s a high chance that you added your town or city name to that search to find where you could pick up that product locally.

So, is your business visible when it matters?

If you do a search for a product you stock in store and tag on your town or city name to your search, is your business there in the first few pages? Or is your business, a place that has exactly the thing your customer is ready to buy from somewhere close to them, effectively invisible?

Why are the products that can be browsed on your physical shelves in your store, not available to be found and browsed on your digital shelves online too?

If you have been thinking about what you can do to attract local customers and boost your in store retail sales, you may have come to a seemingly obvious conclusion.

How about meeting the searches of potential customers online with the information they are looking for from a familiar place, and the people they know and trust? Don’t leave your competitors to meet them there instead.

Every day that your business isn’t online with the right information to have the best chance to be found, potential customers are spending money with those that are. What difference would just a portion of that make to your business if those same customers knew they could buy from you down the road? Can you afford not to act?

Take the first step today

With Storbie’s connections to leading suppliers and business systems, it’s simple for even the smallest community business to set up a website with Storbie – complete with detailed product listings, rich content and a professional services section. Your website on Storbie is ready for online sales too, but only if, and when you want to turn it on.

Do you think it’s worth a chat? We talk to hundreds of community business owners every month about what it means for them to be online. Set up a no obligation call with us and let’s find out if Storbie might be right for you.

1. https://econsultancy.com/three-key-retail-ecommerce-trends-meekers-internet-report-2019/

2. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1014534/top-online-stores-australia-food-personal-care-ecommercedb/