IN THIS CHAPTER

Deciding whether a website can help your business

Perfecting your timing when you’re launching a site

Building on your store’s existing identity

Mapping out the details for your online move

Putting your inventory on the web

If you’re reading this chapter, it’s probably safe to assume you are an existing retailer who hasn’t opened up shop online, or hasn’t made the most of your web presence. You’re not alone. Nearly half of all small businesses (with 10 or fewer employees) don’t have a website today. That’s unfortunate, because there’s a lot of opportunity (revenue!) that is earned, driven, and influenced online. In fact, your customers most likely assume that they can just as easily shop online with you as they can shop from your retail location. After all, in a time when you can buy everything from wine to Windex online and have it shipped to your door, why wouldn’t you also be able to buy from your favorite local retailer’s website? The great news is that there truly hasn’t been a better time than now to expand your retail footprint online.

Traditional retailers, once thought to be at a disadvantage for having to compete with pure-play e-commerce sites, are now in an enviable position of easily having the best of both worlds. If you don’t believe us, consider the recent “clicks to bricks” trend in which online-only e-tailers are opening up bricks-and-mortar locations! Dominant e-commerce players, such as Amazon, Warby Parker, and Birchbox, are leading the trend of expanding to offline stores. Why do these mega online brands want a physical storefront, too? They’ve learned webrooming (or online browsing) drives offline sales and showrooming (or in-store browsing) drives online sales.

The modern customer navigates back and forth between the two shopping experiences of online and offline buying. When a brand has only one experience (or destination), it risks losing a sale. You’ve possibly seen the same happen when a customer comes into your store to “check out” a product in person, only to purchase from an online competitor because of perceived price differences, product availability, or other reasons. A traditional storefront is the ultimate showroom, providing a much-needed tactile experience, allowing customers to touch, taste, and smell products — something the web has yet to enable shoppers. Beyond the try-before-you-buy syndrome, online brands also realize a physical presence is important for building a relationship with the customer and serving as a vehicle for marketing to them.

Consider that e-commerce sales in the United States are projected to nearly double from $372 billion in 2016 to more than $530 billion in 2020, according to Forrester Research. Those numbers get even larger when you factor in the power of influence your web store has over traditional retail store sales. Forrester Research found that a larger amount of offline sales are driven or influenced by customers doing online research. Web-influenced retail sales jumped to $1.3 trillion in 2016. By 2021, more than half of retail sales will be influenced by “digital touchpoints,” either in direct online purchases or indirect web-influenced sales.

What does this mean for you? Simply put, when moving your store online, you not only add new web sales to your revenue stream, but also probably improve or influence your in-store sales, too. What are you waiting for? Let’s start helping you move your store online today. In this chapter, we explain what you need to do to make the transition from your bricks-and-mortar store to an online store.

Making the Decision to Move Your Store Online

While you’re thinking of taking your business online, ask yourself this basic question: Why do I want to move my business online? Even with all the encouraging statistics we shared with you, if you’re making the move only because it’s expected or because everyone else is doing it, you might want to think about it a little more. Having an online presence is essential, but you shouldn’t rush into it without a plan and without the proper resources. You should make the move for the right reasons — and be prepared.

You’re ready to get serious about building an online site when that site can help you reach a specific goal that makes your business stronger. Typically, these reasons include

• To expand: Going online opens another channel for selling your products. If your site is executed properly, it helps increase your revenue and profit potentials online and off — a standard goal for any business.
• To control the cost of growth: Expanding onto the Internet can be much less expensive than opening another physical location. Additionally, an online store potentially reaches a national or an international customer base rather than confines you to a limited geographic area. You reach more customers for less money. That’s smart business.
• To create awareness: Your site is an extension of your marketing efforts. It becomes a permanent, online advertisement for your bricks-and-mortar store. Sometimes, you might have a site solely to support your other marketing or PR activities. If you’re already getting a lot of exposure through your current marketing methods, you need a place to direct prospective customers for more information. Either way, customers won’t easily forget about your store when you’re continually communicating with them, both online and offline.
• To better compete: Competition no longer comes from only the store around the corner, but from all types of online stores, too. The “me too” approach to moving online shouldn’t be the only reason to make the decision. But it’s becoming more difficult to maintain sales, let alone grow sales, if you can’t compete both offline and online.
• To drive traffic: No matter how much, or how little, inventory you offer for sale online, you’re ultimately building foot traffic to your store, too — those web-influenced sales we mentioned. Your site is an interactive marketing tool. For example, to attract new customers, you can use paid and localized (targeted to your local market) keyword searches and search engine optimization (refer to Book 6, Chapter 6). And online coupons, e-mails, and e-newsletters become incentives to purchase (online and off). You decide where you want to direct the traffic.

Ultimately, your reason for starting an online store must make sense as part of your business strategy. As with any other decision, this choice deserves your deliberate and considerable attention.

Unfortunately, some offline entrepreneurs haven’t thought through their online strategies. In fact, they don’t have strategies. This type of storeowner is chastised by customers for not having a website. Eventually, the storeowner gives in and decides to buy a domain name and throws something up there just so that he can say, “I have a site!” Ultimately, this approach further frustrates the customer and the storeowner.

You may be wondering if there’s ever a legitimate reason to avoid e-commerce expansion. Here are the four scenarios in which we advise delaying moving your company online:

• You lack appropriate resources. Sometimes, employees and other well-meaning friends or family are willing to create an e-commerce–enabled site for you. Maybe they truly want to help, or perhaps they want the opportunity to expand their own skill set. If they truly have the capability, that’s a boon. If not, a hastily or poorly developed website won’t appease your customers. Before moving online, it’s important to have the necessary knowledge and talent to dedicate to the project. If you trust this task to someone else, then make sure to ask for samples of their work and for references. If you don’t have access to the appropriate resources or enough of them (whether paid or volunteers), then push the pause button on your online expansion.
• You’re unable to maintain the site. Just as you need the resources to launch your e-commerce store, you need time and people to keep up the online store. E-commerce does not thrive with a set-it-and-forget-it mentality. Similar to your physical store, e-commerce requires someone to work and manage it every day.
• You lack the budget. It’s true that building a website or adding an e-commerce component to a site is no longer cost-prohibitive. However, it still requires an investment. For example, if you don’t have the ability or time to create the website (including taking pictures of products and writing descriptions), you’ll need to pay someone to do that for you. There’s also the monthly expense of your shopping cart, which can range from a few dollars for a few products, to several hundred dollars for a larger inventory (which is the most likely scenario for an existing retailer). If e-commerce is an important part of your strategy, you can find the necessary money to fund it; but without a realistic budget in place your growth plan could be jeopardized.
• Your business is failing. If your retail sales are way down and you’re on the brink of closure, you might think that moving your store online is the only answer. However, having a website isn’t a cure-all for what ails your business. Instead, e-commerce is only an element within your business. Therefore, if your offline store is already flailing, your online version is likely to face equal — if not greater — struggles.

Use this list to guide the planning, strategy, and timing of your online store, not as a permanent roadblock. Having a fully functioning e-commerce site to mirror your offline retail store is almost a necessity today. Done correctly, it’s also a game changer for your business, fueling sales and widening your customer base — provided you think about the timing of your decision and take control.

Finding the Right Time

To find the right time to make the move online, you have to step back and analyze the situation as objectively as possible. Does creating an online store truly fit into your business plan right now? In what ways would an online store contribute to your short-term and long-term goals? Is there a better time to move your business online?

In addition to your internal store goals, you have to consider external factors. The presence of an online store doesn’t mean customers will flock to it and spend, spend, spend! You have to market your online store just as you do your offline location — and external conditions can play a big role in your success. What are the current market conditions for your industry? In what general direction is the national economy heading? If your customers aren’t spending right now, you might want to conserve the money that you originally budgeted for your site development. On the flip side, if market factors are pushing the demand for your type of products, you might want to bump up the development of your site by a few months.

Make time to track industry trends, both online and off. Regularly check out the issues by reading trade magazines and following industry-related research. Start with research from Gartner (www.gartner.com) and Forrester Research (www.forrester.com).

Bridging Your Offline Store with Your Online Store

All too often, a retailer is eager to have an e-commerce alternative and then takes a somewhat haphazard approach. Most traditional entrepreneurs who are unfamiliar with the Internet tend to view the physical store and the online store as two separate, different entities. When you treat your bricks-and-mortar store and your online store differently, customers have two different experiences with your company — and become confused about which experience truly represents your brand.

Seamlessly bridge your bricks-and-mortar store (your company’s history) with your online store (your brand’s future). With this approach, you can provide a single, cohesive user experience. Focus on these three critical areas: identity, image, and integration.

In this section, we show you how one company — Williams-Sonoma — does an outstanding job of meeting these three objectives. Williams-Sonoma remains one of our favorite examples of how an established retailer keeps its website’s design and functionality current while staying true to its brand’s in-store image for a cohesive customer experience. Customers and industry analysts agree that this brand gets its online strategy right. In 2016, Williams-Sonoma once again made eMarketer’s list as one of the top 25 e-commerce retailers in the United States. Coming in at number 13 on the list, the e-commerce portion contributes over $2.5 billion and accounts for 50 percent of the brand’s total sales. Let’s take a closer look at how it makes it work and how you can emulate.

Creating an image

Image incorporates not only the physical appearance of your store but also how customers perceive it. Is your store considered a high-end retail store with select but pricey items? Or is your store an eclectic mix of trendy yet unique gifts? Are you known for exceptional customer service? Or do customers enjoy browsing in a low-key environment? All these details contribute to your store’s image, and you want that image to carry over to your online store.

One thing that sets apart Williams-Sonoma is the helpful information it provides, often in the form of in-store product demonstrations, cooking classes, and personalized shopping services. The store has created an image of being a solution provider for upscale kitchen products. It carried that image online by including recipes that incorporate cooking ingredients or products for sale on the site (and in-store). The website also makes it easy to find in-store events (see Figure 1-1).

Further keeping with its image of being helpful, the Williams-Sonoma website makes personal recommendations for other products and services you might like, based on your online browsing experience and matched to what customers with similar tastes have also viewed and purchased. The site also features seasonal cooking and entertaining tips, meal ideas, and highlights special products. It’s all part of the brand’s image of being your source for cooking needs — whether you shop online or in the store.

Making a Flawless Transition

Granted, a national retail chain has a much larger budget for a website than you do. Even so, your smaller store can embrace the same concepts that the big boys use for a smooth, effective online transition. The best way to make this transition is to plan.

Adding an e-commerce component to your store is similar to planning a big party or a major event. Part of your plan is already in place: You have an approximate time frame for making your project a reality. To make that timetable more manageable, break it into three smaller chunks, or stages: orientation, implementation, and evaluation. For each stage, create a checklist of activities that should occur during that stage.

Building an Inventory

A big part of planning for a successful transition online involves selecting the right inventory from the start.

The pressure of choosing the best products to sell on the Internet might seem like a daunting task. Unlike other e-commerce sites that are starting from scratch, however, you have a distinct advantage: product mastery. You not only have an existing inventory but also know it intimately. You understand exactly what sells and what doesn’t, and you have an established sales history with actual data to prove it.

Consider the number of conversations you’ve had with customers over the years. Because of that feedback, you have a firm grasp on why your customers like a product and what they might need to know about it before making their final purchasing decisions. That’s exactly the information you need to move those same products online without missing a beat.

Follow these steps to begin building your online inventory:

1. Pull together a list of your current inventory.

   We hope that you have this list already. If not, you need to create an up-to-date and complete inventory list.

2. Separate your current inventory into categories.

   For example, you can group products according to which areas will help or hinder how well they sell online. These categories include

   • Top sellers: Items at the top of your moneymaking list.

   • Exclusive items: Unique, hard to find, or handcrafted items.

     If you’re an approved reseller or licensed dealer for a particular product or brand, check your agreement for any conditions or terms on how or where you can sell.

   • Shipping weight: Heavier or bulkier items that are more expensive to ship.

     You don’t have to eliminate items that might be too bulky, and thus too expensive, to ship. Instead, make those items special orders and have customers e-mail or call for quotes that include shipping. Or make the products available only for in-store pickup.

   • Availability: Items that are in stock or readily accessible from the manufacturer or supplier.
   • Drop-ship capability: Items that can be shipped directly from the manufacturer or supplier, which saves your inventory space.

3. Rank your inventory.

   List items in order from those most suitable for selling online to those least suitable. Suitable items are easy to ship, not unusual in size or shape, and nonperishable. Food items and products such as flowers that are perishable are still suitable for online sales, but do require additional planning for the best packing and shipping options to maintain freshness.

   When selling food and other perishable items, including plants, in the United States, check for shipping restrictions or limitations with individual states. Some states do not allow certain products to be mailed or shipped from out of state.

4. Go online and find as many websites as you can that sell items similar to those in your inventory (starting with the products at the top of your list).

   Make a record of these sites so that you can watch them as you prepare to build your store. Study the sites and determine how they compare to your store and future site. How are the competing sites branded? Are they easy to find in the search engines? Do they ship globally? What advantages and disadvantages does your store have in comparison to these stores? What do you like or dislike about how they promote the products?

5. Compare the sticker prices of the actual products. Mark on your inventory list the products that are price competitive.

   When you’re comparing prices, factor in all the pricing considerations, including sales tax and shipping and handling fees.

6. Review your inventory list and reprioritize, if you need to.

   Move or drop those items for which you don’t have a strong competitive advantage. Bump to the top of your list the products that make your store shine.

   Keep this data because it not only helps you decide which items are ideal for your online inventory but can also help guide you in promoting your products later.

7. Determine the number of products you want to sell online.

   Revisit your strategy. If the purpose of your site is to sell merchandise, the more products, the better. If you’re just promoting your brand, starting with a smaller number of products might work fine. Or you might be limited in the number of products that your shopping cart program allows (without investing more money in a shopping cart).

   Rather than delete items, consider adding ones that aren’t part of your current store inventory. Nothing is wrong with adding to the list, if it makes sense and especially if vendors can drop-ship (pack and mail the product directly to your customer).

8. Apply the customer factor (any customer-related information that can influence an online purchase).

   Here’s where your years of customer interaction come in handy. Evaluate the products through the eyes of your customers. Which items are difficult to sell because customers need additional information? Can you present that information in an online product description? (Or maybe the product sells even better online because you can give the customer additional product detail.) If the customer might see some aspect of your product in a negative way, now is the time to delete an item from your online inventory.

9. Delete any products based on their image — or, rather, lack of one.

   Sort through your inventory and figure out which products have photos available from a vendor or manufacturer. The quality of the product images on your website directly reflects the image of your store. If a high-resolution quality photo doesn’t exist, you have two choices:

   • Drop the product from your online inventory.
   • Spend the money to hire a professional photographer.

   Although amateur pictures taken with a digital camera might work on eBay, customers expect higher quality from a retail store. You can get away with using amateur photos, of course, but statistics do support the philosophy that the better the quality of the product images, the more likely they will sell. Hiring a professional photographer is worth the investment.

Ask your vendor whether any marketing program incentives are available that could help offset the cost of a photo shoot. For example, you might agree to feature certain products on the home page of your site or use them in your store’s offline marketing materials. In return, you might be eligible to participate in a vendor’s marketing reimbursement program (which can equal several hundred dollars for a small retailer).

You need to take pictures that feature several different angles of the product. Most products sell better if a customer can see multiple views of the item; if the site offers the option to show a product being used or positioned in a setting; and if a customer can zoom in on the picture for a more detailed view. You must have permission to use photos that are not your own, unless you’ve paid a fee to license the image. When it comes to product photos, your vendor or supplier may provide you with the right to use various images.