How Websites Are Crucial To Offline Sales
It’s an old rule with a new twist: getting customers in the door is only half the sales battle.
According to Web Pro News:
9 out of 10 mobile Internet users have accessed the mobile web while at a store, according to a new study from Yahoo and Nielsen. Furthermore, 51% of those users indicate that they make a purchase after doing research on their mobile device.
In other words, nearly half of all mobile internet use inside of stores is used by customers to do things like check out product reviews, compare prices with other stores, etc. In fact, the study showed that 16 percent of people who use mobile web inside stores do it for shopping research (comparing, say, your prices to those from another store), and another 57 percent of mobile internet users (and 41 percent of non-mobile users) said they’d like to do exactly that in the near future.
Three takeaways:
Be Preemptive For Customers in Your Store
If you anticipate what kind of questions they’ll be asking or concerns they might be looking online to assuage, you might be able to keep them from looking around in the first place. Also, go that extra mile to reassure customers that they’re getting a fair deal, and they’ll be less likely to feel compelled to check.
Be Ready and Waiting For Customers Elsewhere
Have a mobile-friendly website design, and have one that appeals to the sorts of things customers are searching for: prices, features, benefits, and product reviews. Again, anticipate what customers we’ll be searching for on their smartphones, and you can achieve the function that they were about to demand from the world wide web.
Make It Easy For Customers to Share
It’s the age of Twitpics and texting, and customers often want to shoot quick pictures of a product out to family or friends before deciding whether or not to buy. Find creative ways to make your product stand out, and snaps of it will get passed around.
Similarly, “check-in” location-based apps like FourSquare and Gowalla can be used to create a bit of buzz about your business, if a bunch of people are all benefiting from a discount or deal on the same day.
What is Facebook Places?
High-speed broadband access, now in 63.5 percent of homes, has created a better user experience for watching online videos and nearly a quarter of households have smartphones, allowing people to “place shift” and watch video anywhere.


A billboard or newspaper advertisement can be used to drive foot traffic to your brick and mortar store, but if the store is dirty, the merchandise is not properly organized and the service is poor, you will not make the sale. The same is true for your website – probably even more so! Whether you are selling a product or a service, your prospective online customer is going to make a judgment about your company before ever talking to a real live person or stepping into that million dollar office you occupy.








