Most of the modern day startups are going online with their businesses. The hassles of brick and mortar business right from finding a place to managing the physical inventory lures startup founders to take the E route. Running the traditional brick & mortar business demands space and dexterity. But that does not mean that starting a new business online is devoid of running around and hassles.
Brick & mortar store can at least leverage on its local visibility once it is up in a decent location. But online businesses face competition from across the globe. This makes it difficult for new online startups to scale up soon after the launch. And therefore, there is plenty to learn for online business from the traditional brick & mortar businesses.
Be it the current users or prospective users; get to know their core decision to engage your services and log it. The idea is to avail the stats on views, interactivity, and time spent on the website. Just like how brick & mortar stores try to maximize their conversion based on visitors to customers’ ratio, online store too can work that trick. This is done by analyzing the data closely, knowing the user behaviour in each segment of the website and keep listening to the client base.
Conclusion
While the online businesses are giving tough time to the brick & mortar businesses, there are still plenty of things that this new age business can learn from traditional businesses. Fundamentally the idea remains the same but differs in execution. Since the online platform provides distinctive ways to deal with the traditional aspects of business.
Brick & mortar store can at least leverage on its local visibility once it is up in a decent location. But online businesses face competition from across the globe. This makes it difficult for new online startups to scale up soon after the launch. And therefore, there is plenty to learn for online business from the traditional brick & mortar businesses.
- Product Display
The product display is an important element for any brick and mortar store. This stands true for the retail outlets that have a space and place for their products. The same cannot hold true for a service businesses like travel operators, legal consultants, etc. Service-based businesses should promote the uncluttered information for easy understanding. Just like products are on display, service and its rate list are also up for informing the prospective clients. Same way, the product display is something that brick & mortar handles expertly.
Online service providers’ website shall have all the service information, arranged in a systematic order, with the pricing and feature details. Therefore, service and product offerings should be laid out keeping conversions in mind. - Availability
This is something that every online business has an upper hand over the brick and mortar stores. But then, online businesses need to uphold consistency when it comes to availability. This means the servers should be up and running without any interruptions. 24*7/365. There is no Sunday or public holidays for online business. - Safe Transactions
The brick & mortar businesses are probably the best ones when it comes to a business transaction. Customers can either pay by swiping the card or pay by cash. But internet businesses need to be cautious of cyber security wherein the priority should be to offer effortless checkout.
Trust is one of the key factors that can influence online purchase and therefore one should always consider putting up digital certificates on display. This speaks about the entity that you deal with to keep your online transactions authentic. Without fail, online businesses should include the VeriSign logo to win confidence and promote safe online transactions. - Separate deals/specials on the website
Imagine a brick & mortar retail outlet that advertises about discounts but inside the store, there is no dedicated segment for it. This annoys buyers the most. The same holds true for online businesses offering discounts on certain products and services.
For the online service offerings, a bundle of discounted services should serve the purpose when blended with special segment marketed online. This will let prospective clients know about the services on discounts and therefore shortens the customer journey, making it easier for them to move towards the checkout. Things get easier for people providing products instead of services. A dedicated product page with a list of products can serve the purpose by offering a flawless landing experience to the users. - Feedback
The important element for ant of the business is to have feedback on the services and products. Brick & mortar stores can easily get under the skin of any potential customer and if nothing, can take out feedback from them. The same gets tough when it comes to online business since this platform makes it easy for potential customers to write your business off without a second thought.
Online businesses can learn to take the opportunity of feedback from current as well as the potential customers. On one hand it helps you gauge your startup team and their efforts to set their KPIs accordingly and give feedback on their roles and responsibilities.
And when it comes to the online store, the first impression is something that matters the most. Never miss an opportunity to earn feedback from visitors. In traditional business customer may give feedback on a feedback register or a small fill-in paper, the online businesses can send promote their feedback form.
The availability should also translate in the delivery of service (or product). This includes response time to queries over the online chat assistance or your response time to queries and how efficient you are at meeting client expectations. Being prompt on the email response and addressing prospective client actively is one of the ways for online startups to match the steps with the brick & mortar businesses. One needs to be on their toes, though behind the screens, to devote some serious face time for defining the success of online business.
Be it the current users or prospective users; get to know their core decision to engage your services and log it. The idea is to avail the stats on views, interactivity, and time spent on the website. Just like how brick & mortar stores try to maximize their conversion based on visitors to customers’ ratio, online store too can work that trick. This is done by analyzing the data closely, knowing the user behaviour in each segment of the website and keep listening to the client base.
Conclusion
While the online businesses are giving tough time to the brick & mortar businesses, there are still plenty of things that this new age business can learn from traditional businesses. Fundamentally the idea remains the same but differs in execution. Since the online platform provides distinctive ways to deal with the traditional aspects of business.
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