From local boutiques and high-tech electronics stores to big-box retailers and national supermarket chains, physical storefronts offer experiences that online shopping can’t match. What does the future of in-person retail look like? How can you maximize the potential of a brick-and-mortar business in the era of online shopping?
Our guide will help you optimize your brick-and-mortar establishment, positioning your business for consistent growth in an era shaped by shifting consumer sentiments and new technology. And, of course, the modern consumer prioritizes eco-friendly business practices more than ever, so we’ll also address ways you can make your business greener — like hosting an ecoATM kiosk, for example.
Brick-and-Mortar Business within Today’s Retail Landscape?
Brick-and-mortar retail continues to take the lead in today’s retail landscape, with the help of a few modern upgrades. It’s important to note that many brick-and-mortar stores also have online stores, creating an omnichannel retail strategy that allows customers to pick up online orders in-store or receive in-person customer support for an online order, for example.
Regardless of whether they have an online business presence or not, today’s brick-and-mortar stores often fall into the following categories:
- Supermarkets and grocery stores (Kroger, Albertsons)
- Big-box retailers (Walmart, Target)
- Discount stores (Dollar General, Family Dollar)
- Home improvement retail stores (Home Depot, Lowe’s)
- Beauty and fashion retailers (H&M, Sephora)
- Specialty stores (Apple Store, Petco, Walgreens, Best Buy)
Despite the incredible popularity of e-commerce in today’s retail world, you might be surprised by how much retail sales are still focused on in-person business. A whopping 83% of all retail sales in the United States still come from in-person shopping, even today!
With this in mind, it’s clear that physical stores remain the cornerstone in the retail space.
Why Brick-and-Mortar Retail Is Still King
With the vast majority of consumers preferring an in-store shopping experience, it’s easy to understand why. Brick-and-mortar businesses still have several concrete advantages over online sales, including…
- The tangible product experience of a physical retail presence is impossible to match online. The in-person shopping experience gives customers the ability to try on clothes, sit on furniture, choose their own produce, etc. — none of which you can do when you shop online. Sure, Amazon has features that allow you to estimate what size of pants will fit you or see what a picture of your room would look like with a new chair in it, but it’s still a far cry from getting to touch, try, and see products yourself before buying them. Online shopping will never be able to match this aspect of in-person retail.
- Brick-and-mortar stores provide instant transactions, and you walk out of the store with your purchases in hand. You don’t need to wait for shipping and handling processes. Furthermore, you often can’t wait for many items to arrive via mail. For instance, if you’re sick today, you don’t want to receive a shipment of medicine three days from now. The instant gratification of in-person shopping can’t be ignored — people like being able to take ownership of their newly purchased items right now and move on with their days.
- While some people are happy to avoid it, many people still thrive off of in-person, face-to-face human interaction that you can’t get on a website. Personalized customer service builds trust and loyalty, and it’s a lot easier to provide customized support at a brick-and-mortar location than it is with a chatbot. Not only that, but in-person sales give your team members the opportunity to upsell, recommend additional products and services, answer questions, and personalize the customer service experience.
- For many business owners, the community engagement you get with a physical presence is invaluable. The more integrated you get with your community, the more loyal your customers will become. For example, you can sponsor a local 5K charity fun run or a youth soccer team, getting your name out there without investing an arm and a leg.
- Cross-promotional opportunities abound for physical stores, as you can strike deals with neighboring local businesses to provide discounts when customers shop at both of your stores. Another example of this could be hosting an ecoATM — when customers come to your store to use the kiosk, it generates new foot traffic and provides them with instant cash to spend in your store. Likewise, when your customers see our ecoATM kiosk in your store, it creates new customer impressions for us. Talk about a win-win!
- For high-volume, broad-demographic businesses like department stores, supermarkets, and convenience stores, foot traffic can drive serious business growth. There’s an opportunity to pick up new customers who will be loyal to your business for years, all because they happened to walk past your store or drive by running other errands. While you can replicate this to a degree online with methods like targeted social media ads, it still doesn’t hold a candle to the endless potential of real-life, in-person foot traffic.
The Key Elements of a Successful Brick-and-Mortar Establishment
Brick-and-mortar retailers have a lot more to think about than just renting space and stocking the shelves (although these elements will always be vital as well!). You should also focus on the following elements:
Location, Location, Location!
If this isn’t the most important element of operating a successful brick-and-mortar store, it’s certainly near the top of the list. You should prioritize areas with high foot traffic and consider proximity to complementary businesses.
While you might not want to open a store right across the street from a rival business (like a CVS opening next to a Walgreens or vice versa), being relatively close to other businesses that share your target market can be highly beneficial. Evaluate the demographics and spending patterns of the people in your chosen neighborhood to make sure you’re making a smart decision with your brick-and-mortar location.
Store Layout and Interior Design
You can never spend “too much” time analyzing how you want the flow of your store to work. Put yourself in the customer’s shoes and consider routes through the store that make navigation feel intuitive and easy, while also leading customers past a wide variety of high-markup items on their way to whatever they’re buying. Group similar products together and make your checkouts highly efficient to make the most of your customers’ time.
Inventory Management Systems
Having too much or not enough of any product can be a logistical nightmare. You probably can’t ever eliminate this scenario from a brick-and-mortar store, but you can minimize it as much as possible by carefully tracking seasonal demand patterns and restocking popular items as necessary. Leverage the data analysis functions in your point-of-sale (POS) system to manage inventory effectively.
Company Culture
Staffing is key for any retail store, especially for one with a physical storefront. Put in the time and energy to properly train your staff, giving them the product knowledge and customer service skills they need to excel in their roles. Create a team-focused culture that always prioritizes the customer experience — brick-and-mortar businesses often experience their most profound periods of growth when they’re consistently exceeding customer expectations.
Your company culture also extends to your core values. Who are you as a company? What do you stand for? Modern businesses can do themselves a big favor by openly supporting environmental issues, as today’s consumer prioritizes sustainability almost as much as quality and pricing. When you partner with a company like ecoATM by hosting a kiosk in your brick-and-mortar store, you’re showing your customers that you care about your environmental impact and are willing to do something about it.
Marketing and Promotions
Using a combination of physical and digital marketing can be a great method for a brick-and-mortar store. For the digital realm, consider targeted ads on social media, refining your Google Business profile, and blogging with local SEO keywords. In the real world, you can supplement your digital strategy with physical signage, radio and TV ads, and sponsorship opportunities (think your company’s logo on little kids’ soccer team jerseys or 5K runners’ bibs).
If you host an ecoATM, we can help with custom kiosk ads. The large top display screen on our kiosks is available for advertising, and we’d be happy to work with you on co-marketing campaigns that benefit both your business and ours. Other ideas could include hosting in-store promotional events and creating customer loyalty programs that bring customers back again and again.
The Common Challenges of In-Person Retail (Grocery Stores, Department Stores, and Convenience Stores)
Brick-and-mortar businesses face their fair share of challenges these days, especially as consumer preferences and economic realities evolve. Here are three common roadblocks to brick-and-mortar success, and a few things you can do to address them.
Strong Competition from Online Businesses
While the vast majority of U.S. consumer spending is still at brick-and-mortar stores, it’s also impossible to ignore the fact that the gap is indeed closing a little bit every year. Online retailers can often offer lower prices because they have less overhead than a brick-and-mortar business.
That said, you can boost your business by emphasizing unique in-store experiences. Unlike online shopping, your customers can touch, see, and try on the products in your store. Take advantage of this by offering exclusive promotions at your physical location and highlighting the immediate availability of your items.
Fading Traffic in Malls
It’s an unfortunate reality that many of the vast indoor shopping malls of yesteryear have seen a steep decline over the years, which has been a tough blow for certain sectors of brick-and-mortar business. However, there are plenty of actions you can take to drive visits to your store.
For instance, you can host community events or pop-up markets. In addition, you can diversify the range of services offered at your store. For example, hosting an ecoATM kiosk can open the door for a variety of potential new customers to visit your physical store.
The Rising Costs of Rent and Labor
Especially in densely populated urban areas, rent and labor costs have grown considerably in recent years, cutting into the profit margins of brick-and-mortar businesses. For local companies with a physical presence, consider trying to negotiate a longer-term lease to lock in a more favorable rent rate. After all, there’s plenty of uncertainty in commercial real estate markets these days, and landlords and property owners might be willing to lower their rates a bit in exchange for a little bit of consistency.
Look for cost-saving, tech-savvy efficiency drivers like automated self-service checkouts and kiosks that can make the experience of shopping at a physical store a little more convenient. It’s not that you should have fewer employees, it’s more that you can maximize the value of the employees you have by automating some of the less intensive aspects of their jobs.
Adding Value to Your Brick-and-Mortar Location with an ecoATM Kiosk
ecoATM’s vast network of 6,500+ kiosks across all 50 states provides consumers with a network of self-service, automated kiosks where they can exchange used smartphones and other electronic devices for their choice of instant cash or digital payment (via PayPal or Venmo). Hosting an ecoATM comes with some unique benefits, including…
- Passive Income: Without even considering any discussions about driving foot traffic to your business or increasing the amount of time customers spend there or putting money in their pockets that they’re likely to spend right there in your store? We pay you to host our ecoATM kiosks. It really is that simple. Furthermore, our customers spend 70% of the cash dispensed at our kiosks in the same store where the kiosk is located. That’s a lot of potential cash flow for your brick-and-mortar business!
- New Customer Impressions: That increased traffic we were just talking about is a big deal. When you host an ecoATM, you’re inviting our customer base of tech-savvy, eco-conscious consumers into your brick-and-mortar store. A person using our kiosk might become a regular customer of your business for years to come!
- Promoting a Greener Future: Show your customers that you care about the environment and that you’re participating in the circular economy. Many of today’s consumers choose to spend their money at businesses that share their values, and protecting the environment is a highly popular sentiment among consumers.
- Near-Zero Maintenance: ecoATM will handle the installation, permitting, upkeep, and customer support for the kiosk you’re hosting. We restock it with cash when it starts getting low, we remove the used smartphones and tablets from the secure storage bin inside the machine, and we service it if it ever has operational issues. In short, your in-store staff doesn’t need to help us manage the ecoATM kiosk — they can focus on doing their jobs and running your brick-and-mortar store.
We also provide online interactive maps that allow customers to find the ecoATM kiosk nearest them, so anyone searching for one in your area will see that there’s a kiosk in your physical store. It’s just one more way hosting an ecoATM places a spotlight on your brick-and-mortar business. Contact us to learn more about hosting an ecoATM in your stores.
