Why More High Street Retailers Are Closing Down In Favour Of A Virtual Shop
Tags: virtual shop
Why The Idea Of Creating A Virtual Shop Is Tempting High Street Retailers To Close The Doors
Note from Diane: Well the figures from the High Street Retailers look fairly gloomy and worse than that the outlook is grim to say the least.
There have been several local businesses under the spotlight this week on the local news items that tell the same story … more High Street retailers are closing the doors on their High Street stores and looking to create a VIRTUAL SHOP instead.
Ecommerce is a major growth area because it provides a fast, cost effective “open all hours” way of selling. However setting up a virtual shop online is a very different undertaking from simply adding a website to an offline business and you are going to need to get extremely structured and organised about how you are going to start selling online with or without a virtual shop.
Feature Article: Why More High Street Retailers Are Closing Down In Favour Of A Virtual Shop
If you look at some of the types of High Street stores that suffered in the recent Christmas Retail round up you will see some surprising names given according to a recent report on the BBC News website.
Given that people are tightening their belts amongst concerns about rising inflation and job security the figures reveal that stores hit by severe cashflow problems included:-
- Peacocks a discount fashion store
- Barratts a well know shoe chain
- Habitat a well known home furnishings store
- Homeform, Focus DIY and Carpetright 3 stores affected by the housing sector and consumer confidence
And the list goes on.
Setting up a virtual store is entering a whole new world, and you will need to set about establishing an order management system, order handling and tracking, a safe and secure payment environment, automated invoicing, order fulfilment and delivery.
For Many Virtual Shop Owners An Ebay Store Is Still #1
For many online retailers an Ebay shop is still their preferred choice and it is the fore runner of putting customer feedback at the forefront of everything you do online, your reputation is literally “ONLINE.”
One of the best systems we have come across that has all of the requirements handled is SHOPIFY which we have used to create several virtual shops, one of which is our own Creative Online Marketing Store.
Of course some products do not lend themselves to selling online and it has been fascinating to watch website like BooHoo and ASOS using mini catwalk videos to help take their online retail experience and their virtual shop to a whole new dimension.
The music and software industry has been revolutionised by the digital download world that we live in it has been a massive shift away from visiting your High Street store to buy the latest album by your favourite artist.
Before You Decide That A Virtual Shop Is The Only Way To Go …
If you are seriously thinking about creating a virtual shop for your business here are some ideas you might want to think about :-
- Are you sure your target customers are online and is your product or service suitable for online sales?
- Are your competitors online?
- Do you have the skills to create and maintain your virtual shop or will you have to rely on someone else?
- If you are certain you want to sell online from your virtual shop can you handle extra orders without quality suffering in any way?
Creating customer confidence and reassuring your virtual shop customers is vital to your success. Explain how your payment system works and using one they already know and trust, such as Paypal may well help get you established.
Include an address, telephone number, contact name and an email address so that customers can see they have ways of contacting you if they have any queries or problems with their orders.
If you are using your virtual shop in addition to your High Street store make sure your virtual customers can visit your High Street store to handle any returns or exchanges of faulty goods.
Create a domain name for your virtual shop that is easy to spell and remember if possible, the Shopify system we mentioned before allows you to do this should you wish.
Start Building Your Online Virtual Shop Mailing List From Day One
Start your online emailing list from the day you open your virtual shop and email your customers regularly offering special discounts, information about some of your ranges, case studies and testimonials and of course git packs and special promotions.
Remember nobody is just going to “happen to come across” your virtual shop in cyberspace your main activity will be to promote and advertise your virtual shop using some of the hundreds of online marketing strategies.
Finally make sure you create a Twitter, Facebook and You Tube account for your virtual shop business and start using these daily as your own promotional tools.
Swapping offline overheads for online overheads makes complete sense on paper, but make sure you realise that you will still need to put a considerable effort into driving traffic to your virtual shop on a daily basis just as you did when you turned up at your High Street shop everyday.
The main difference between the two, when you get it right is that you will be swapping wondering if anyone will come into your Hugh Street store everyday with knowing you will be getting visistors to your virtual shop every day 24/7/52.
Feel free to share if it helped you!
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