Brick and mortar marketing techniques that e-commerce websites should adapt

Online shopping has been the rage for the past few years but did you know that online sales surprisingly represented just 9% of total retail sales in 2017? This means that 91 percent of retail sales are still spent in traditional, brick-and-mortar stores.  What does this tell you? First, online shopping maybe convenient but majority of shoppers still prefer in-person shopping because they can physically see the product being sold.  Second, there are brick-and-mortar marketing strategies that e-commerce has to replicate in order to get a bigger slice of the pie, so to speak.

Brick and mortar marketing technique 1: Visual merchandising

Do you know that large retail stores spend a lot of resources for visual merchandising? They have personnel which prepare reports that detail which products should be put in prime locations like racks and front windows. And these seemingly simple decisions yield increased sales.

This kind of attention must also be paid to a website’s homepage. Updating the website’s home page should be as regular as updating the display windows at brick and mortar stores. A refreshed home page gives prospective customers another good reason to visit the store. It also leaves an impression that there is a new, exciting product being offered by the online store.

Brick and mortar marketing technique 2:  The fitting room

One reason why many people still prefer to go to traditional retail stores is because they can always try a product they are interested in. This is particularly true in clothes.

However, technology can help online stores in overcoming this particular weakness. There are now virtual fit assistants being rolled out by websites
that can replicate fitting rooms in brick and mortar stores. These virtual assistants can eliminate guesswork by predicting the size based on the height, weight and bust size of the customers.