4 Reasons Why Your Retail Store Needs a Website

In 2021, around 28% of small businesses still don’t have a website. Many of these are retail outlets that predominantly rely on passing traffic and footfall.

While this may have been sufficient prior to 2020, recent events have shown us that the economy is forever changing and what once worked could be deemed irrelevant out of date in the blink of an eye. But why don’t these business owners have a website? 

Many falsely believe that they do not require one and are uncertain of taking a step into the digital era due to personal reservation or lack of experience. 

Regardless of how you feel about the digitization of the world around us, starting a website needn’t be the huge costly enterprise it is often thought to be. These days there are many different ways to start a website for relatively little outlay.

A website needs a host, and there are many hosts available that can assist you in getting started if you need extra support. Choose your domain name, and once you have purchased this, you can then set up your website with your chosen host. You can easily find a DreamHost coupon code to afford you extra discounts to absorb the cost of setting up a new website. 

Once you have your domain name, you can assess your options and look at what you need to use the website and how best to support your business digitally.

If you are on the fence about why you need a website and, by extension, a digital presence in 2021 for your retail business, we look at some benefits for a website in the retail sector.

Reach More People Easier

Whatever type of small business you run, having a website available 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, without taking breaks for vacations or weekends is a major benefit. While your physical store is closed at night, your online store can continue to sell and generate revenue by catering to customers at any hour that is convenient for them.

Another incentive to establish an online presence for your company is to shorten distances. A website helps you to broaden your target audience and conduct business with people that live far away. In fact, you have access to the entire globe.

According to statistics, around 81% of individuals conduct internet research using a search engine, and 53% of people read product reviews before purchasing. Modern users are accustomed to doing their shopping from the convenience of their own homes. The last thing you should do is disregard the growing popularity of smartphones and tablets; instead, employ responsive web design to give a satisfying UX for mobile consumers.

Easier Promotion

Having a website that ranks well in the SERPs (search engine results pages) can allow for your offers and promotions to be more accessible, thus increasing sales via your website. Updating your website to account for discounts and associated social media pages can increase your sales by an estimated 67%, according to recent calculations. Plus, advertising on a website you already have can assist you in reducing how much you spend on marketing materials to promote this.

For example, if your customers need a coupon to access the discount, having one they can print off can reduce the overheads of printing your own coupons.

Customer Insights

Meeting and exceeding your customer’s expectations allows you to achieve a higher level of customer satisfaction and earn client loyalty. While gaining new customers is a goal you need to aim for, you should also focus on retaining existing customers as this offers you a better ROI and encourages trust in the relationship.

If you want to provide your customers with exactly what they require, you must first understand what they require and who they are. You can easily track how users engage with your website by looking at your analytics. You may learn which of your products or services consumers prefer and which they dislike, as well as from which geographic location, devices, and third-party sites they typically visit, and much more. This type of information can be insightful. 

There are numerous solutions for tracking your site users’ behavior, gathering this data, displaying it in an easy-to-understand format, and storing and evaluating it. The most popular is, without a doubt, the one created by Google. Keep track of essential Google Analytics indicators to help your company become more customer-focused. Use Google Analytics to assist your content marketing and other marketing strategies.

Brand Visibility

One of the main barriers for new businesses is getting in front of the right people quickly. Once you have set up your website, you can utilize local SEO on-site to increase your visibility both online and offline. 

You want to let people know exactly what you do, who you are, and where they can find you. Even if you haven’t set up for online transactions, listing your products so people know what they can expect to buy with you can still be beneficial.

Your brand visibility can be increased more by connecting active social media accounts to your website and using them to share news or new products or updates along with any special offers or discounts you might be offering. The more visible you are online, the more likely people will visit you in-store as they will remember seeing you.

Make sure to keep a constant and ethical branding for your company both in your language, your imagery, and how you conduct yourself. The more easily recognizable you are, the better it will be for your business.

There is no denying that setting up a website can be time-consuming and challenging if you are proficient in how things work in a digital world. It may be that you need to use the services of experts to get you up and running, but once you are, you can greatly benefit in many different ways to allow you to boost your retail business and grow your company as you deserve.