Not that many years ago the words ‘retail’ and ‘shopping’ would tend to conjure up images of crowded high streets, busy shops stuffed with shoppers frantically squeezing past each other towards the sale items at the back, long queues at the checkout and weary staff trying to keep a smile on their faces.
Towards Christmas this image would deteriorate further into something resembling a cattle market in which a barbecue has been lit.
Today, retailers and consumers are increasingly turning to the internet. It's been a hard journey for some shops and companies, while others embraced the online world of shopping early.
Online shopping offers a number of benefits, both for the customer and retailer, the most obvious of which is the avoidance of crowds
It's a similar story for consumers, with a growing number turning to websites for their shopping needs rather than the high street.
Avoid crowds
Online shopping offers a number of benefits, both for the customer and retailer, some obvious, others less so. Perhaps the most obvious is the avoidance of crowds.
As a customer I much prefer sitting in a comfy chair with a cup of tea, browsing at my leisure. It allows me to compare products easily and quickly, without having to rushing around the high street comparing prices and offers and a dozen different shops.
It also allows me to save – or bookmark – products, so I can return to them later at my convenience.
But the world of online shopping isn't as simple as building a website which closely resembles a high street shop’s image. Retailers who take a simplistic approach will miss out on sales and a chance to strengthen the brand.
Take music for example. Thankfully retailers haven't seen the need to stream background music through our speakers as we browse their website, whereas we’re often forced to tolerate such ‘muzak’ when in physical shops.
Most of us are aware that this piped music is designed to make us feel good, to relax us, and to make us want to linger a little longer, possibly buying more.
But when it comes to online retailing, this isn't so necessary. Generally consumers are comfortable and relaxed, perhaps with a drink or snack with them.
They'll have logged on at a time convenient to them and temporarily at least you have their attention – so what are you going to do with it?
Enticing shoppers
In a high street outlet you're more likely to try to entice customers with the layout of your shop. You’ll use age-old ploys such as having a sale sign on the front window but the actual sale items at the rear, encouraging people in but presenting full price, latest items until you get to the back.
This is a tried and tested way of luring customers into your shop, making them walk past all other stock to get to the sale items, and hopefully your impressive displays, helpful staff and relaxing music will all help sell goods.
But what about your website? Online retailers needs to employ tricks as well.
A website is more than a virtual catalogue, or should be, as companies who present it as simply a digital version of their catalogue are missing out on many opportunities.
So, you've worked hard optimising your website for search engines, and promoted the address through offline and online advertising, but what will you do to encourage your customers to explore more deeply into your website – to metaphorically search all the way to the back?
There's no definitive answer to this; there are plenty of ways to achieve it. Having large banners on the front page advertising sale items, but linking to pages which contain both sale items and full price items is just one, rather basic way.
Depending on the nature of your business, you'll need to think carefully about what tactics you can use to encourage visitors to the ‘back’ of your virtual store. But please, don't start streaming piped music.
