Picture Your Customers in Their Underwear!

By now, most of us have bought something online in our pajamas – maybe a t-shirt or a book or some last minute holiday gift we needed. This was typically a very easy and quick experience. You did not waste the time or gas to drive to a store. You did not have to find a parking space. You did not have to ask a clerk or go aisle by aisle to find the item. You did not wait in a long line at a register. And it didn’t matter what time of the night you made your purchase…as an online store is always open.

As a business owner, all of these are pretty nice conveniences to be able to offer to your customers. And with the popularity of the Internet, you don’t have to do much work on marketing the pros of your online store. As a business owner, you’re also saving on monthly rent of store space and saving even more on wages for the lack of employees. With the Internet, you’re able to not only sell your product to a customer in another state, but in another country. While this web presence has been easy to set up and manage and the business rolls in, do you ever miss the Bricks & Mortar days? Wasn’t it easier to just take out a ad in a glossy magazine that you knew your customers read? Wasn’t it easier to just count the cash as they handed it over to you? Wasn’t it easier to hang returned merchandise back on the racks that very same day it was brought back?

While there are pros and cons to doing business entirely online, I think one of the most important things to remember is what you’re selling. If you are a clothing retailer, studies show that customers would rather buy in a physical store so that items can be tried on for appropriate fit and returned to that same place at a later date if they changed their minds. That’s not possible with an online store.

A very dear friend of mine bought a comic book store that was going out of business because the owner was moving out of state. Being an avid comic book reader himself, he knew the following of customers was loyal and would remain stable. He rented a storefront close to his home but certainly in an area suited to the younger comics crowd. While the store had well organized shelves and long boxes as well as figurines and posters, the customers were not coming in at a rate to justify the rent. He was a tech savvy entrepreneur who then wondered if an online comic business would do better…. He couldn’t afford the rent in town where he knew the customer base would be higher – so could he offer them online and reach more people? After all, that’s how the big wigs like DC Comics do it, right? Well, he closed the doors on this physical store and opened up an online store. While his operational costs were lower, his customer base was not growing. He quickly realized another big con to online stores: advertising. Advertising for an online-only store takes creativity and thinking outside-the-box. Web banners and email campaigns are one way he decided to go to reach his audience. But he also got creative and did a billboard, car magnets, and a personalized license plate to get his web address out there.

The benefits to running an online-only store are somewhat obvious: no monthly rent, no paying employees, no upkeep of the building, no space issues, and customers have it easy when they want to search your “store” and make a purchase. But I also think it’s challenging to keep a relationship going with your customers this way. You lose a certain kind of interpersonal connectivity that you had when were in a store face to face with them. The key to an online store is to remember that your customers come first – they will not want to send items back; they will expect to receive what you show them on your web page. You can reach a far greater audience but can you still deliver the same level of customer service that keeps the customers coming back?