5 Website Challenges Retail Stores are facing today
Currently, retail stores face challenges related to their websites that they did not have to face in the past. If you run a retail store, knowing how to effectively market and differentiate your retail store will help you stay ahead of your competition. Below are 5 challenges that retail stores up against, and what you can do to overcome them.
1. Crowded Online Space – Just because your store has a physical location does not mean that you can ignore the internet. A business that does not have a solid online presence is a store that will not attract many new customers. As the years go by, more and more companies are going to be putting a larger emphasis on their online presence, and stores that fail to do so are going to be pushed aside. Already the internet is crowded with stores trying to get noticed, and this will only become more prominent. The internet is one of the best ways to market your store, so start paying attention to it now, and be sure to always make it a priority.
2. Getting In-Store Customers – Another side effect that the internet is having is that customers can simply do their shopping online. For a retail store, this means less people coming into your location. To fight this, you are going to have to give people a good enough reason to leave their homes and come to your store to shop, rather than buying it from another retailer online. Some suggestions are special in-store only sales and promotions, or a wider selection of inventory only available in person. If your prices are good enough, and there is a high demand for your product, you’ll get people to make the trip.
3. Competitive Pricing – When a person comes browsing through your store, they will often look at the products you have for sale online to see if they can find a better price elsewhere. This means that your prices need to remain competitive not only with the stores around you, but with essentially every store online. This can be rather difficult, but it will keep people from making purchases online. A strong sales staff is essential, so that if a better price does exist elsewhere, you can convince the customer to make the purchase now, rather than online when they get home.
View our case study on re-designing a beloved retail store website in Phoenix here.
4. Social Media – It seems like every day a new social media website or mobile app is sprouting up. Sites that are popular now may not even be relevant in 10 years. To that end, your company needs to keep up with the latest social media sites, and ensure that they are utilizing them as best as possible. Social media is a great way to interact with potential customers – essentially for free- but only if you have an audience. Using a social media site that is no longer popular is a waste of time and resources, so retail stores will have to keep up with the times if they want to reach their audience.
5. Capturing Customer Information – Knowing who to market to, and how to market to them, is going to be essential over the next decade. To do this, you are going to have to gather as much information as you can about your customers. Retail stores will have to find the best way to gather this information, and how to use it. Stores that fail to do so will find themselves marketing to the wrong people, or marketing in the wrong way, and will waste resources as a result.
Retail stores have plenty of challenges that they need to face, and one of them is certainly with online marketing. As the world outside continues to shift, store managers and owners will have to find a way to make sure their website marketing efforts keep up with the times so that they do not fall behind.
Check out the Conditional Woo Checkout Field Pro plugin by Amplify Plugins which allows you to quickly grab information from any customer right in checkout so you don’t have to during the post-purchase process!