It’s no secret that online retail is the dominating realm of the business world. When a company is in trouble, its high street shops are often the first thing to go, while their online activities keep them afloat. Increasingly, people use physical stores to try on clothes, check out an item or ask for advice. But they then go on to leave the store and find the best deal they can online. However, the internet certainly hasn’t made physical retail obsolete. We can see that it’s still popular when it comes to Black Friday and the weeks before Christmas. As each weekend, the streets get busier with holiday shoppers. But that doesn’t mean that running a store is easy compared to offering goods and services online. So how can you run a successful establishment in such a competitive market, with the internet trying to steal your thunder?
Provide Services You Can’t Get Online
One of the key aspects of a successful physical retail store is that it offers an experience that an online store can’t. Why go across town to visit a store, when you can just open your browser and order what you want with a few clicks? A great example of this is fashion businesses. There are technologies in development that allow you to “try on” clothes without needing to have them in your possession. But they’re not widely available just yet. And even if you could look at an image of yourself wearing something new, there’s no telling if it would fit. Your physical space needs to provide something that an online store can’t. It could be trying things on, special offers or face-to-face advice from your staff.
Avoid Being a Showroom – or Embrace It
Many stores find that they come up against the problem of window shoppers and people who use them as a showroom. They come and look at your products to decide if it’s for them. Then they go away and find a cheaper deal online. Avoiding this frustrating phenomenon requires you to maximize the chances of in-store browsing translating into a sale. You can choose to encourage these people to make their purchases in-store, which could involve a range of techniques. These methods might include displaying your products using stands such as those from gpxgroup.com. Or you could have knowledgeable staff on hand to lead customers to a sale. But you can also embrace using your store as a showroom. You can try to ensure that your clients go to your website to make their purchase, and not to anyone else.
Creating an Immersive Experience
It’s fantastic to be able to browse through millions of products while you sit in your pajamas on the sofa. But while the customer is doing that, they could be doing five other things at the same time. Your website might never have their full attention. Your physical store is your chance to fully immerse your customers in their experience and have them focus on your products. They can see, touch and feel the things that they want to buy. So you should set up your store with an emphasis on an experience you can’t get elsewhere.