How Brick-and-Mortar Businesses Can Benefit From eCommerce

Taking already established businesses online can generate new revenue streams and open up businesses to new opportunities. For brick-and-mortar stores, this is an opportunity to engage with existing customers and reach new targets. They can do it in several ways.

The power of SEO and local listing
Brick-and-mortar stores can take advantage of search engine optimization when they go online. Researching the most valuable keywords in their industry, creating relevant content and sharing them will improve their rank on search engines and drive traffic to their websites. Because organic traffic brings people who are already interested in their area of expertise, there’s a higher return on investment. In addition to this localized searches will reach people in your area who need the goods or services you offer. Simply adding a business to free online directories like Google My Business or Bing Places for Business will make brick-and-mortar stores more visible to potential customers in a particular area or niche.

Digital marketing
Apart from just listing their shops on directories online, brick-and-mortar stores can build an online presence that incorporates a unique voice and personality. Channeling that voice through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and a business website will generate a following and grow loyalty among its customers. Inviting all your clients in one place will help them share and amplify your message. Brick-and-mortar stores open up new channels when they sell online and can back this up with a good supply chain that delivers promptly to their customers.

Sync online and offline strategy
The best of both worlds come together when a physical store takes advantage of what the digital space has to offer and vice versa. Clients who visit your stores, hold your products and talk to you will have an authentic version of your business they’ll be happy to share through comments and reviews online. Deliveries and promotions can also be synced for maximum exposure and uptake.

Building networks, partnerships, and Affiliate Marketing
A whole new world opens up for the networked individual who networks across multiple platforms they are comfortable with. Creating new connections, strengthening old ones on new platforms, and seeking new joint partnerships are all part of the growth process when physical stores take their marketing online. Businesses can diversify by selling related products that they don’t have in their stores, and developing affiliate partnerships that generate passive income.

Adding analytics and data
The internet marketplace has invented tools that make data collection and analysis more accessible to understand and manage. These tools provide valuable insight and can offer an additional advantage to brick-and-mortar stores who make use of multiple feedback mechanisms. Google Analytics, Twitter and Facebook stats, Instagram likes and comments tell businesses how healthy their campaigns are, and what they can easily do to improve it. Some of the exposure they get can be achieved from anywhere in the world just by engaging cleverly with trends that have nothing to do with their product.

Not only can brick-and-mortar stores benefit from eCommerce: brick-and-mortar import and export companies can as well. Comprehensive international online marketplaces like Export Portal give both fledgeling and already successful B2B companies the ability to trade easily all over the world. 

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