e-Commerce – a no brainer for retailers

Recently we tried some telesales to retailers to see if there was a market out there that we could approach rather than just wait until they knock our door.

The campaign was quite successful with a few callbacks for me to discuss the possibilities of setting up e-Commerce shops for them. As it was close to Christmas the usual reply happened  ’we like what you are saying however can we leave it until after the New Year’.

The one thing I was disappointed in was every person I talked to were having a pretty desperate time in the retail sector. Through these discussions I was told of low footfall on their street, everybody now heads to the large shopping centres like Silverburn or Braehead or they buy on the Internet.

Every single retailer I talked to mentioned all of the above points. That’s what I find incomprehensible  at times. What is it that these retailers see right in front of their faces and yet take little action to fight against this. What makes them see a problem, recognise its impact and yet ignore it and wait for the inevitable when someone turns up to nail the doors shut.

It doesn’t have to be like that. I read a couple of years ago that when a small retailer starts up by the time they have paid for a shop lease, decorated, signage, added in stands and counters, get telephones, a till and payment system, lighting and some promotion they can spend on average between £70,000 to £120,000.

This is a serious investment and they haven’t even bought the stock or put staff in place. As soon as the retailer opens the door the bills start flowing – wages, rates new stock the list goes on. And what happens when they get 20 clients through the door who all spend £100 they package up their sales, take their credit card and thank them for their custom. They don’t even have these customers details.

I mentioned to each of them that an e-Commerce site could be set up for between £1500 and £6000 depending on the scale they would need however, this site when built, will last for 10 years no problem and are very simple to keep up to date. So the infrastructure is cheap compared to a bricks and mortar unit.

There are so many advantages for a traditional bricks and mortar retailer to have an e-Commerce shop as an add on to their business. Firstly an e-Commerce shop is open for business 24 hours a day and can have a wider audience via the web. The retailer wouldn’t  need staff on duty like a traditional shop, just a part time person for two to three hours per week to manage orders. They also don’t have to buy all their stock in advance all they have to do is have photos online as long as they can source the item when needed.

However the biggest benefit to the retailer is that every order placed online gives them full client details which allows them to market their latest products to them again and again when they have new products. After year one they may have 2000 email addresses unlike the walk ins at the bricks and mortar unit. This is gold dust and each time you send out a new email you get the chance of selling a number of items. After 5 years a retailer may have a database of 10000 to 15000 emails which is very powerful in helping them raise more sales.

If you think of what they may have from the last 5 years trade from traditional clients then I’m sure it is very little hence why they probably still have to advertise in local papers which is very much an expensive option.

Once a retailer has an ecommerce shop they can implement a number of the tips and tricks to guide their existing customers by offering them discounts or extras to receive their emails etc.

To summarise ecommerce should not be seen as an unnecessary expense it should be seen as one of the best ways to help save struggling retail businesses or it can be used as an additional boost to successful businesses.

Call if you have a retail unit and have not yet embraced the world of e-Commerce.