With online shopping on the rise, should you just give up on your physical storefront? Read on to discover the differences of both online and physical shoppers, and what you can do to cater to both.
By the myBusiness techblog team
Online shopping has recently seen a huge surge in popularity—according to a PayPal study, the size of the Singapore online shopping market reached S$1.1 billion in 2010, and is forecasted to reach S$4.4 billion in 2015. But what are the key differences between an online and offline shopper?
Understanding the nature of shoppers
We can broadly classify how both types of shoppers think in terms of shopping habits. The online shopper is more focused on speed and convenience—and would not want to physically travel to a mall and brave the crowds, preferring to simply surf online and get their goods delivered to their doorstep. The physical shopper, on the other hand, considers shopping as an enjoyable social experience that is shared with friends and family, and would spend hours for a ‘complete’ shopping experience. So what can we do to cater to both sets of customers? Here are some key recommendations that you can adopt:
Improve customer convenience
As mentioned earlier, online shoppers prefer a fast, effortless exchange of money for products—so an efficient payment system is key. You should also have the option for personalised logins so that a returning customer can quickly make payment with pre-entered information from previous purchases. For physical storefronts, you can make things easier for your customer by ensuring that your sales staff are well trained on your products, and able to capably answer all questions and offer advice. Free delivery services can also be explored to make shopping more convenient for your customers.
Ensure that products are available
E-commerce allows shoppers to quickly browse and look for items that they want. When they do find the item that they need, nothing can make them annoyed than to find out that the particular item that they want is not in stock, or unavailable. This is even more important in the physical storefront. Most customers would not return to browse your products if they are “spurned” the first time. Ensure that what you are offering has ample stock to limit the chances of bad ‘reviews’, which can create a negative image of your company.
Emulate the overall shopping experience
For many people, going out to the mall is an enjoyable social experience that is shared with friends and family. Some shoppers might also want to physically handle their products (especially clothing) before they buy. Many people would first try on different articles of clothing to see if they fit before they make a purchase. This is not possible when shopping online, where a listed item cannot be ‘tried on’ for comfort or fitting. What you can do is to provide the most accurate descriptions and sizes (if applicable) for your product. You can also create “recommended” items to pair with the item of choice, so that the online shopper gets a sense of that complete shopping experience, instead of a cold transactional interface.
One last way that you can help cater to both types of shoppers is to tap on social networks to simultaneously promote both your online and physical storefronts. You can create cross-channel marketing initiatives to drive customers from an online store to your physical one, and vice-versa. Just take care that any sales or promotions made either online or offline will need to correspond with each other.
Do you currently own just one or both types of storefronts? Which type do you think fares better? Do share your experiences in the comment box below.