We got an online sale Saturday night for $153.89 to someone who lives a ten minutes from the shop. They knew they were purchasing local but did not take much notice of where we were since they don’t often come to the big shopping centre.
Now that they know what we have and are so close, they have said they will come in because previously they had only bought this specific category online.
We found them through the website and the service provided helped connect them with the physical store.
Every day or so this story repeats and online sales grow and as a web presence plays a more important role in being found by shoppers looking for products we sell. Doing this through interest categories and / or brands is valuable as it puts us in front of people who would not look in a newsagency for what we sell.
We knew websites are used to guide in-store purchases from research by Telstra and others. Experiencing this first have for a product category that ends itself to repeat business is most encouraging.
Having a good website is key. It being easily found is also key. These things deliver online revenue but, better still, can drive in-store purchase.
Oh, and the product in this transaction is not a usual newsagency line … and, it has a >50% gross profit.
Nice post..
Online shopping sale is a new trend and many people got benefited from it.
Ian I’d disagree, online shopping is not a new trend. Broadly, it’;s been a thing for 15 to 20 years. For engaged newsagency businesses, it’s been a thing for at least five years.