How to Seamlessly Integrate Ecommerce with Your Existing Brick-and-Mortar Business

Image: Radial

By Jake Rheude

Even before the coronavirus reshaping the shopping landscape, many brick-and-mortar businesses were adding online shopping and social media profiles to protect their business and meet the growing demand for ecommerce.

Adding ecommerce is a proven tactic for protecting revenues, and the well-worn path means you’re not trying to reinvent the wheel. That’s true even though Canadian markets have been slower than the United States and others to adopt ecommerce. At this stage, you can take advantage of partners and ecommerce tools that simplify nearly every aspect of adding inventory, making sales, delivering to customers, and building recurring online revenue.

There’s a straightforward path to getting started, too.

Start with customers

Building out an ecommerce presence can be exciting, and its tempting to jump right into the revenue side of things, but updating customer information is a more critical task here. You’ll want to look at existing sales and competitors to see if the people who buy online will be the same or different from those who shop in your stores.

There’s going to be some cross-over, but don’t neglect to look more broadly because geography is no longer a restriction. At the same time, the way people shop may be different.

Your best-performing locations likely depend on foot traffic and proximity to major thoroughfares. Online platforms are similar, but instead of roads, you need to figure out the searches that customers do and the content they look at to see where to position your company.

If you have an existing website, newsletter, or social media presence, start there. Review the data you can collect. And if you have any doubt or questions, ask your loyal customers. They can help you best understand who is willing to spend with you and what their motivations are for shopping online.

Look at your existing web presence

After you’ve started to understand current and potential customers, review the places you have a presence online. Most likely, you have at least a store website, but you might also have a Facebook account, Yelp page, or other services where people can leave reviews.

Review each location to see what kind of ecommerce potential it offers. While Yelp allows you to list details including your website, and people can even send messages from it, social channels like Facebook and Instagram allow for direct sales.

Resist the urge to try and expand everywhere.

There are two pieces of essential information to focus on:

1. What online and social channels already see traffic and engagement from customers and fans?

2. Which of these channels are easy to monetize?

This customer data should be used to create a list of channels you want to use to sell your products online. Prioritize places where your active customers already are and those that make sense for your goods.

Determine ecommerce product catalogue

Once you have a handle on customer locations and habits, it’s time to start matching products to those shoppers. Ask yourself: What do my current customers who look like this online audience buy? What do they ask for in my stores?

Create a list of products they purchase and any best sellers or those with a broad market appeal. If you have a unique offer or product selection, include these items, too. Starting with 100 items or less generally makes it easier for a new ecommerce store to control the work you need to do as well as test the waters for online shopping.

If you’re unsure of how to round out your offering, look at your most popular items. Add products that go well with these or can make them more useful. We like this tactic because you won’t need to add anything special to your ecommerce store if you decide to start selling these items as a package deal or if you want to include the add-ons as a freebie during a promotion. 

One thing specific to ecommerce that you’ll need to do is take physical versions of all of these products and get them photographed. Professional quality is worth it when it comes to encouraging shopping and sales. BigCommerce says that 93% of customers consider images to be “essential” to online purchase decisions — they also have a guide to creating professional photos on the cheap.

Consistent photos will make it simpler to sell across multiple channels, such as social media, too. Make that even easier with the right software driving your ecommerce offer.

Having that baseline also helps you prepare for the future of combined virtual and brick-and-mortar shopping experiences.

Discover ecommerce tools

Ecommerce platforms can help ensure that your website becomes a sales tool, but your mix of social and other channels can help inform the final selection of an ecommerce platform. If your customers are on Instagram, for example, then you’ll want a platform that integrates well with these vehicles.

Built-in integration that you don’t have to worry about makes it easier to offer a smooth shipping experience and avoid issues like stockouts or delays. Shopify, for example, integrates with social channels as well as major online marketplaces to manage inventory. Once you tell it your total stock, it updates every channel for you to prevent taking orders for products when you run out.

Starting with pre-made solutions makes it less likely that functionality or offers will break and can help you control costs as you star the ecommerce journey. You’ll likely want to hire someone to help you customize your store and launch these solutions, but proven platforms can make it easier to control headcount and use contractors instead of needing full-time staff. Platforms can be even more useful when they include features such as demand forecasting, to help you understand how new channels may impact overall inventory needs.

Ecommerce solutions are designed specifically for web customers. This means that they should offer support for you to reach those customers, such as making it easy to define SEO elements like page titles and meta descriptions across your store.

Now, let’s look at a few elements that will you finalize the software choice to make online selling easier. 

Check your warehouse and order fulfillment

Do you have a warehouse for your products or just rely on storerooms for each location?

If you don’t have a warehouse, it might be time to consider looking into the option or a new third-party logistics (3PL) partner. That’s because you’ll now need to carry inventory to meet in-store and online demand. It can be difficult for many brick-and-mortar operations to carry that much in their stockrooms, and relying on stockrooms also means having current staff learn and manage your online orders alongside store needs.

You’ll want to understand where you will store goods and how you’ll fulfill orders (ship purchases to people) before you get started in ecommerce. The need is complicated because you not only need to store these products but also will have to store boxes and packaging materials, set aside a place to pack orders, have a way to verify that each box is correct and then figure out how to get these shipped.

Ecommerce has tight margins, so you’ll want to continually look at different carriers for parcel delivery to determine the best rate based on each order’s size, weight, and final location. Understanding these elements is vital to determining how you price the shipping aspect of your online sales.

You must get shipping correct. When orders are slow or wrong, people send them back and ask for refunds. This not only eats into your budget but also harms your reputation.

This is why many brick-and-mortar stores look to fulfillment partners in their early days. Working with a 3PL initially can help you understand the complexities, ensure that inventory is being tracked correctly across your in-store and online channels, and verify that orders are accurate when they go out the door.

Generally, a partner will help you reach all of Canada and beyond with fast shipping. They can handle some of the regulations around your products and reduce your need to hire staff. Plus, 3PLs usually get a discount with carriers because they’re shipping many packages each day, which is savings you’ll get access to, too.

Even if you’re not planning on using a third party to handle shipments or warehousing, talk with some. These conversations can help you learn industry-specific needs around shipping or software that might not be apparent.

Review policies and details

How does a customer return an incorrect order? Can they bring it to a physical store? Do they have to send it back to get the right products?

Returns and exchanges happen a lot in the ecommerce world, and every store needs a clear plan for them. Customers will look for this info before they buy from you. So, make it clear how your process works, be consistent about how you apply it and keep it fair. If people feel cheated or like you’re making them jump through too many hoops to get what they want, they’re not going to be repeat customers. 

At the same time, managing returns and exchanges on a case-by-case basis isn’t going to work for your staff. That would involve leadership needing to review every order and issue. It might be possible when you first start but will quickly eat up too much time and introduce high costs and waste.

One of the biggest concerns that is specific to your situation is if you’ll let people buy online and either pick up their order in stores or return goods to your retail locations. Thankfully, most ecommerce platforms now support the ability to have people buy online and pick up in your stores. However, to support this, you’ll want to check your software first and then explain the process on your website.

Train your staff on how these policies work in both environments to avoid confusion or loss. Review existing training your staff undergoes to see if there are other areas where you’ll need specific guidance.

Many brick-and-mortar stores offer gift cards, for instance. Your company will need to determine how you handle them online (if they’re redeemable and how). This policy must include returns, too, such as providing store credit for gift cards instead of cash refunds.

Policies and training are just as important as the software tools that allow people to buy from you. If you have questions or concerns on policies or what’s required, visit your favorite online retailer. Look over their FAQ and policy pages to ensure you have everything covered. 

Test, test, and test again

The last step before you go live and start advertising your new store is to test absolutely everything in it. Have multiple testers visit the website and make a purchase. Assign people assorted products and different fulfillment options. Check to see if the software works and if your teams follow proper procedures for online orders and in-store pickup.

Have these shoppers test every type of return or exchange that you offer, too. If you accept multiple payment options, include each. Every policy and every option on your website should be tested and reviewed. You want to know the system works, the training works, and that it all makes sense for your business.

If you want to earn a little money during your tests, open up your online store to a select group of loyal customers. Let them know that they’re testing out the platform and that things might not work 100% correctly. Most fans will be willing to do this for you, especially if they get a discount or coupon. It’s a terrific way to start building online sales and even roll out a loyalty program.

The good news is that getting started with an ecommerce side of your existing store isn’t difficult. The challenge is to make it an enjoyable experience. That takes time, trial-and-error, and persistence. But, if you’re already running a good shop, you’re in great shape.

Jake Rheude is the Director of Marketing for Red Stag Fulfillment, an ecommerce fulfillment warehouse that was born out of ecommerce. He has years of experience in ecommerce and business development. In his free time, Jake enjoys reading about business and sharing his own experience with others.