5 Ways Street Shops can Compete with eCommerce sites?

As consumers these days are increasingly turning towards internet for finding bargains and deals, street shops that can otherwise be called as brick and mortar stores and retailers are feeling the squeeze to a great extent.

However, some street shops are still staying ahead of the competition by offering benefits and special incentives for consumers, who walk-in.

So, if you are one among the many retailers concerned about managing the overhead cost associated with your brick and mortar store and even running your business successfully, here are some tips that will help you to a great extent in competing with eCommerce sites:

1. Fight the fire with fire:

What does this mean? This means that the best strategy you can follow is to reach your potential customers over the internet. Just because your brick and mortar store has an outlet on the street, it does not mean that you cannot sell stuff over the internet.

But, if you do not want to spend on setting up an e-commerce website, there are lots of simpler options available like you can open your eBay store or Facebook store online.

Even, you can sell through third party websites like eBay as well. You can also use classifieds sites like Craigslist for advertising your local store online.

2. Social media presence:

The key is to connect with your potential customers over the internet and just having an online store for promotion of your products and services is not going to work out for you.

But, a judicious social media plan that is properly executed can help you greatly. So, just open a social media account for your brick and mortar store and reach out through social media.

3. Send newsletter:

If you do not want to go social, you can just collect email address of your customers visiting your store and can send them newsletters for developing a friendly relationship with them.

In the newsletter, you can specify about the deals available at your store and can attract people to visit your store. Email is still an effective means of communication and you can use email marketing to reach out your potential customers too.

But, be sure that you choose to send mails only to people, who have voluntarily given their mail IDs when they come to your store.

4. Give some extra reasons for people to visit your store, rather than shopping online:

You are selling a particular stuff in your physical store and the same stuff with the same quality is sold online. So, why should people take the pain of driving to your store, rather than just using their mouse for placing order online?

You should not give the answer that the items that I sell in my store are cheaper. The reason is that people are ready to pay a huge sum for the convenience factor associated with online shopping.

You should give some extra reasons for attracting people to your store like a reliable loyalty program, a cool event, supporting a local cause and donation of the proceeds of the sales to a good cause, etc.

5. Stay locally connected:

You should stay locally connected to attract people to your store, rather than placing their order over the internet. You can just join groups, wherein your potential customers are hanging out.

Also, remember to join local business organizations as referrals can bring in more and more customers to your physical store.

To conclude, you can compete with ecommerce sites with the help of the tips given above and you should also take steps to stay ahead. Remember that not all people are shopping online and there are also people, who never know how to shop online and you can attract these customers as well with the best marketing campaigns.

Like online shops, you can also provide your customers with coupons & deals & tie up with online deal sites which can provide lots of local customer who are looking for deals.

Couponwaale is one such platform where local stores like yours can submit their deals free for their customers.

The article is written by Pritam Nagrale, he is Seo,Digital Marketing trainer and blogger. He is expertise in Make money tips, online business, career tips, save money tips topics.