Through my work with newsXpress I see data for multiple customer-facing websites representing several international brands. One data point that is fascinating to me is the in-store shopping by people that is guided, encouraged, through using the websites.
While online sales are excellent and growing, one site did more than half a million dollars in revenue last year, in-store sales are growing as a result of sites.
With the websites detailing products available and the stores from which the products can be purchased right away with certainty. they drive shoppers to stores.
On Saturday, one store had a shopper drive almost two hours to spend over $300 on items they knew the store had thanks to one of the websites. The website found the customer and guided them to the store. This is a customer who would otherwise have not shopped in the store.
This is one of many examples off where websites drive in-store purchases.
Through data analytics I can see where online browsers come from, where they go on the site and where they leave to. This is what gets me saying that 75% of site business flows in-stroe rather than online.
With the sites being mobile friendly and easily accessible, shoppers can check the sites out when they are out shopping,. This is a key factor.
Another shop over the weekend won a $250.00 sale late at night for collection today.
This is another example of how websites, when fully functioning and engaged with at the local business level, can drive traffic and revenue for local shops.
Any retailer can do this with the right site and an appropriate live data feed. It’s necessary in retail today.