Retail Store Website
I love to tell the story of a local shop owner in my community.
A home decor and gift retail store, specializing in primitive and country decor.
The brick and mortar store is owned by two very smart women - a mother/daughter duo who share and work well off each other’s talents. One has a sharp business mind and manages most of the bookwork, while the other has the creative “what’s hot right now” touch.
Neither one knows much about the internet, online business, internet marketing, website hosting or any of the other geek and technical jargon that is so prevalent on business websites today (should you choose to go looking).
They have heard plenty, however, through their association with me and my relentless spewing of online business research and statistics…
Let’s face facts though.
They don’t want to know all that technical jargon. They don’t want to learn new terminology and software programs. They only listen to me, after all, due to their proper upbringing, personal respect and social grace.
They’re already busy enough with the shop, staff, product, suppliers, and more.
They’ve already been approached over the years for franchising opportunities and are too busy for that. The last thing they need on their plate is learning a seperate business model.
They’ve got a real business to run. Trends to identify. Walk in customers to serve. Shelves to re-stock daily.
Just like you!
Yet, their customers were demanding more and promised to use the service!
- “Do you have a website?”
- “We live too far away to come in every month. We’d be happy to shop on your website.”
- “If I get home and change my mind can I order this on your site?”
- …and so on.
Through consultation we defined and discussed the key characteristics of a successful site:
- ecommerce
- optimized for strong search engine presence
- customer relationship management
- full-featured catalog (thumbnail, enlarge images, groups and categories, etc.)
- ease of edits (including site wide updating from the shop or from home)
- customer feedback
- upsells and cross selling
- branding
- repeat visitors
- no expensive or elusive web masters
- no third party charges
Very important to note here that the retail store in question has thousands of products on the shelves and is a relatively small shop.
They had a website, but it wasn’t doing particularly well, not making many sales, and (in my opinion) wasn’t effective at conveying the shop’s style.
The owners decided they would like a redesign that suited the flavor of the actual retail store and to launch with 400 of their most popular and easy to ship products. I thought that would be quite a tall order - certainly coming from two busy entrepreneurs with minimal computer experience!
The design team and I worked with one of the store owners and finalized on this design.
Two days later, using the tools I recommended and the online application that would allow them to sell their products online, as well as easily add, edit, or remove products from the catalogue, they launched to the public.
The Old Tin Shed website only has about 7 pages of text but they now can offer over 400 products for sale. Every product has a photo, a price, an enlarged image, a description and is assigned to a category. Every product can be entered into a shopping cart by the website visitor and immediately ordered. With just two days of work!
Of course there is still work to be done. More products to add, search engine optimization tweaks, and an email marketing list to grow. But Alexa’s stats just a month later clearly show that a website that wasn’t even in Alexa’s radar for the last 3 years is now a mover. See below.
Gratification, indeed. For the customers, the retail business owners, and yes, even a little self-praise and glory for 123webs!
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Are you ready to increase your business income? Display your products or services for sale online? Call Laura or Eric for a free consultation at 613.332.5766 or leave a comment below.
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