Why the product you sell online may differ from what you sell in-store

It’s now common knowledge that our retailers have been slow to tap into the virtual goldmine of the internet.

Regular visitors to this website will be more than familiar with our attempts to awaken this sleeping giant.

And finally there are signs that it is stirring.

One of the challenges for new online sellers is understanding the differences between those that visit their store in person and those that visit their website.
In fact, you could argue that the two are entirely different.

Your store is geared towards local customers

Why for example, would a local customer buy online when they can easily pop into your store while doing the rest of their shopping?

What’s more likely is that your online visitor is not only more remote, but more time-poor, more educated and more wealthy than those visiting in person.
And this is where simply replicating the offerings of your physical store is not only misguided, but could cost you significant sales.

The point is that your physical store is predicated on servicing a reasonably local market. All of your location, pricing, sales strategies, communications and window and in-store displays have been designed to appeal to those who are either intending to go to your store or those who are passing by.

But online, you don’t just have access to the relative few that can get to your store in person.

Online, two billion internet users can access your website.

Not a Local Wide Web

This simple fact is one that retailers have had difficulty grasping. They simply find it difficult to make the leap from servicing a local market to a potentially global one.

In turn it’s assumed that that visitors to your physical shop will have a look around, touch and if appropriate try on your product.

Of course, that very physical experience is difficult to replicate online.

While photography and reviews can give some sense of what the product is like, the notion of touching or trying on is simply not possible.

So again we can see that if selling online is your goal, some of your product may be less able to be sold in this way than others.

For example, if you are a fashion retailer, you may have far more success with the ‘one size fits all’ goods (like accessories) than those that really need to be tried on in person.

Then there is the opportunity that specific brands provide.

Becoming an online brand specialist

Let’s assume you sold a handful of key brands of your given product line.

In-store, Brand A may be your biggest seller and Brand E your smallest.

But online, there may be many more providers of Brand A than there are of Brand E. So much so that you don’t stand a chance of being found in all-important web searches for that brand.

Conversely, Brand E may not be well represented online. As a result you may find that you are prominent in search results for that brand.

As a result you get more Brand E buyers visiting your website and ideally buying it from you.

All of a sudden we are seeing that what you sell online could well be entirely different to what sells well in-store.

And of course you can gear your website to take advantage of these online-only advantages.

But don’t ignore your in-store stars

This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t present your in-store stock on your website. Many web users will still check your website to get an understanding of what you stock before visiting in person.

It’s just that you have the opportunity to change the emphasis on certain products to cater for that different online audience – be that visually, verbally (for search engines) or promotionally – what you choose to promote.

Do you have a line of product that has sold better online than in-store? Tell us about it below!

In addition to being a leading eBusiness educator to the smaller business sector, Craig Reardon is the founder and director of independent web services firm The E Team which was established to address the special website and web marketing needs of SMEs in Melbourne and beyond.