Randy the Painter knows how to target his Customers

Using your website for more then just hours and location

Retailers have a tough time competing for market share – both from bricks and mortar competitors, but even more so from online giants.

We continue to see more retailers enter the online space daily, with an increase in the number of US based retailers starting to offer shipping for their products to Canada.
A notable recent example is Overstock.com, the mega-warehouse that deals in discount prices for, you guessed it, overstocked items. You also have Amazon.ca, newegg.ca, Costco.ca, and emerging players like Well.ca showing strong presence in Canada.

As the competition for consumers increases, retailers realize they can increase their revenue just by opening up their shipping policies to foreign visitors.  Between 2005 and 2007, foreign spending online increased by 7%, just in Canada. And, with the current Canadian dollar vs. US ($1.09 as of today’s date from xe.com), shoppers from Canada are getting more comfortable with shopping on US sites. This poses a problem for Canadian retailers continuing to loose customers to cross border shopping, now from the comfort of their home.

What’s the solution?

As a business considering expanding online as a way to attract new business, one other major consideration would be embrace the ‘Act Global, Think Local’ trend. Many businesses overlook the power that a small, humble website, specifically targeting its local patrons can have on their business. Sure, setting up and online store with a full e-commerce solution can be pricy, but displaying your key products, prices, hours, and availability (ie: available by special order, in stock, etc) has its benefits. Did you know that Walmart Canada doesn’t actually sell online? Since their launch, they never have.  They display many products, but use their site primarily as a tool to promote in store shopping.

A Practical Example for a Typical Store

I’m in the Toronto vicinity and looking for a hardware store. I search Hardware Store Toronto and get ‘Local’ results first (Google has integrated results from their Google Map into Search when using geography within your search term). The first group of results, before all the websites that show up are local results listed in the map – with your phone number!

If that’s not a great reason to start listing your store, with your products, services, hours and prices, I don’t know what is. You’ve got a willing and ready customer that’s local and interested – even if you can’t sell them something online (Look at listing (I). Randy the Painter’ – he definitely can’t sell painting services online)

Getting your business registered to show up on Google Maps (Local Search) is FREE, so there’s not reason NOT to do it!

You can add your listing online  and you’ll be asked to verify it by phone, SMS or postcard. I’ve added several businesses I worked with and find it a cheap and cheerful addition to your marketing mix.

For anyone interested, Google states there are about 880 monthly searches done on ‘Hardware Stores Toronto’. That’s 880 possible walk-in customers.

Bart Molenda is an occasional contributor to myRetailer and Manager of Internet Marketing at Moneris Solutions. Bart is passionate about small business and the web. Join the conversation on twitter:

www.twitter.com/bartmolenda