Local retailers have significant advantages over the big online mail order companies.
These advantages are
- The Personal contact with customers. So you know exactly what the customer wants.
- They offer customers a Shopping experience. Seen in this light, shopping also acquires a leisure, communication and recreational value.
- The customer can use the Experience the product directly.
- Last but not least, the local retailer is located in nearly Direct proximity to customers.
Traders refuse to embrace digitalisation
Just now I read in the Handelsblatt: "...retailers refuse to embrace digitalisation“
The article in Handelsblatt dates from 1 September 2020 and continues to cite the results of a study. According to this, only 39% of the retailers surveyed in the study have their own web shop. A maximum of 10% supplement their stationary business with an online presence on Amazon's marketplace. Regarding the expectations of the traders, it is said that they do not see any development in the direction of e-commerce. Currently, 85% of sales are made locally, and in the next 5 years this share is expected to develop to 75%.
Furthermore, many smaller shops find it difficult to develop in the direction of online trade and digitalisation.
What could be the greens why local traders do not want to develop towards online?
Adherence to traditions
Many local retailers run their local business with much Heart and soul. The personal contact to the customer is paramount. In the eyes of the traders, this personal customer contact will no longer be possible with online trade.
Fear of technology
Another reason could be that people have not dealt with the issue sufficiently in the past years. From this point of view, everything new first causes fear.
Legal pitfalls
If word has not yet spread about the advantages of online presences. But certainly word has spread about the situations in which online traders get caught up in legal pitfalls. We don't have internet law. In order to behave in a legally compliant manner on the internet, all individual laws must be observed. If not, there is the threat of astronomical warnings. Who wants to get involved voluntarily?
Order mentality of the Germans
Collective orders are known from the shipping times when Quelle still existed. Back then, several households got together and ordered goods. They tried out the goods and returned what they didn't need. This ordering mentality - ordering a lot and then returning more than half of it - still exists in Germany today. Maybe the traders just don't want to deal with additional returns. We know from a good well-known entrepreneur who runs more than 100 online shops that he does not want to sell on the German market for this reason.
Is a classic online shop the solution?
We at PR Agentur PRO clearly say no. A classic online shop is NOT the solution. Classic website concepts have had their day. If you want to be successful on the internet, you need more than a classic online shop. You need a marketing concept and that is best done before the online shop is created!
Not all online shops are successful - we would even say very few are. This is because they follow the path of classic sales. Many don't think about why customers buy, who the customers are and where they can be found. If you want to answer these questions, you need a strategic concept that offers more than just classic sales.
There is hardly a "big" shop that does not offer more: Amazon not only offers its own products but has become a platform. Moreover, the "PRIME" no longer only includes free shipping, but also many other services such as streaming videos. Zalando has excellent newsletter marketing and remarketing and, since about a year ago, also the Zalando Plus membership and a pre-owned area.
So if you want to sell online, you should think in detail about what, how, to whom etc you want to sell. A strategic plan is needed!
[/et_pb_blurb][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]The unbeatable strengths of local retail
At the beginning of our remarks we explained the unbeatable strengths of local retail. These strengths are unfortunately underestimated and can actually be the reason why local retail can become successful online and prevail against online giants.
The solution for retail lies in the intelligent linking of the digital with the analogue world - in digilogen communication with customers. Here, the strengths mentioned can be used to advantage. With digilogue communication, retailers get more: direct customer contact and secure turnover in times of forced closure or other times of crisis such as bridge closures or construction work in the high street.
