According to the annual economic forecast released by the National Retail Federation (NRF), “Retail industry sales, which exclude automobiles, gasoline stations and restaurants, will grow between 3.7 and 4.2 percent over 2016. Online and other non-store/online sales, which are included in the overall number, are expected to increase between 8 and 12 percent.” The forecast indicates that a large percentage of customers nowadays prefer web stores to local and offline stores.
Each offline business nowadays needs a website to capture the online sales growth. The local business owner can use the website as a powerful tool to reach out to more customers, promote their products/services more effectively, and beat competition over a longer period of time. Also, the website will help the local business to enhance in-store shopping experience and create a base of loyal customers. There are also a number of reasons why each local or offline business must launch a website without any delay.
7 Reasons Why Local and Offline Businesses Must Launch Their Own Websites
1) Most Customers Nowadays Use Internet
The data posted on several websites depict a steady increase in the worldwide internet usage and penetrations. Many customers nowadays prefer online stores to local stores to avail attractive deals and speed up the buying process. Likewise, many customers use online search engines and social networks to gather information about various products and services. A local business owner can use the website as a powerful tool to communicate with both customers and prospects.
2) Reach Out to More Customers
Each local or offline business owner frequently explores ways to boost sales and generate more revenue. The website will make it easier for the offline business to reach out to more customers. The owner can launch an ecommerce website to sell its products to customers residing in various regions. Also, the website will help the local business to promote it products more aggressively by targeting customers regardless of their geographic location.
3) Sell Products 24 Hours a Day
Often brick-and-mortar stores have to comply with local regulations for shopping hours. The local business owners have to open and close their shops or stores at specific hours. Also, they have to deploy additional staff to keep the offline stores open 24 hours a day. The ecommerce website will enable the offline business owners to sell their products round the clock without deploying additional staff and incurring additional overheads.
4) Take Advantage of New Sales Channels
The ecommerce websites enable local businesses to connect and communicate with customers directly without using conventional channels of distribution. The absence of distribution channels helps the business owner to boost sales by offering attractive deals and discounts to customers. There are a number of ecommerce platforms that enable local business owners to generate more revenue by taking advantage of multiple online sales channels. Hence, the owner of a local business can use the website as a tool to integrate online and offline sales seamlessly.
5) Boost Offline Sales
A local business owner can also use the website as a powerful tool to drive its in-store sales. He can use the website just like conventional business cards to provide information to customers and prospects. The offline business owner can always launch a simple but appealing website to make it easier for customers to find contact details like store location, email addresses and phone number. Also, it can use the website as a tool to convey additional information about various products and make it easier for customers to conduct pre-purchase research.
6) Help Customers to Perform Pre-Purchase Research
Many customers nowadays perform elaborate pre-purchase research to buy the best product. Most customers nowadays use online search engine to gather information about specific products and compare similar products. Many customers even use the internet to conduct pre-purchase research while buying products from a local store. A local business owner can make it easier for customers to perform pre-purchase research by posting relevant and updated product information on the website. Also, he can persuade customers to visit his store by posting customer reviews and experience on the website.
7) Create a Base of Loyal Customers
The ecommerce websites have completely changed the way the customers perform pre-purchase research and purchase products. Each customer nowadays loves web stores that deliver personalized shopping experience. A local business can use robust web analytics services like Google Analytics to track and monitor website traffic consistently. The analytics services will further help the business owner to know the choices and preferences of individual customers. A local business owner can take advantage of the analytics services to optimize the in-store and online shopping experience and build a base of loyal customers. He can even request the most loyal customers to promote the local business on various social networking platforms.
Many offline business owners still think that website development is a complex and expensive process. But the ecommerce platforms have already simplified custom business website development. Also, a local business can easily reduce website development cost by opting for an open source ecommerce platform or content management system. Hence, a local business can launch its own websites in a simple and inexpensive way.
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