9 Mistakes Local Businesses Are Making and How to Avoid Them

Shop local.  It sounds so simple. In fact, everyone from the Mayor of San Francisco to American Express to your local Chamber of Commerce has recently extolled the virtues of shopping locally. 

But in reality it’s not that easy.  Limited store hours, remote locations, bad weather, online shopping, and busy schedules are just a few of the challenges that can keep potential customers from shopping locally.  With that as our backdrop, let’s take a look at the biggest mistakes local businesses are making today that keep customers from shopping more locally and how to avoid them.

1. Relying solely on location.

Location, location, location.  A ‘great’ location can make a difference.  But a ‘great’ location means very little if your target audience can't find you or doesn't understand what your business actually offers.  If someone hasn’t had a chance to walk pass your location, you basically don’t exist.  Also, what’s someone do if it’s after business hours?
Advice:  Be flexible.  Use a visual marketplace that provides local businesses with a virtual storefront that complements existing marketing efforts at virtually no cost.

2. Relying just on marketing events.

Marketing events are great.  There is a whole smorgasbord of events to choose from. There’s everything from flea markets to festivals to trade shows allowing you to target specific customers and markets.  But events are periodic.  Events get cancelled or rescheduled at the last minute.  And last, but certainly not least, people don’t show up.  Now what? 
Advice:  Hedge your bet.  Use a visual marketplace to showcase and sell your stuff rain or shine.

3. Creating barriers to buy.

People are busy (or at least we perceive ourselves to be).  Most people are looking for a seamless shopping experience where they can shop their local stores anytime they want, buy an item(s) if they like it, and then pick them up at the store while they’re out.  Yet many local shops still don’t offer options to shop at my convenience and buy or reserved items online.  Sometimes people just want to click and collect.
Advice:  Make it more convenient to shop at your business.  Customers should be able to buy from you easily and painlessly.  Choose an online solution where your customers can shop anytime, click to buy online, and collect (pick up) at the store.

4. Having limited or no web presence.

Many local shops still don’t have websites.  Those that do often simply list their phone numbers and operating hours with a few photos, if any.  Many consumers research products on the Web as a starting point to save time.  The lack of any sort of web presence can be fatal for a local business. Users are only a click away from moving on to the next business if yours isn’t out there.
Advice:  Get online NOW!  Pick your top 10 ‘movers’ or most popular items.  Take 2-3 pictures and write a small description for each.  Sign up for an online visual marketplace for locals and post those items online for free.  It’s that easy.

5. Looking at your website as separate channel.

Good news!  You have a web site.  Yay.  Bad news.  There are over 1 BILLION web sites on the internet today.  Just having a static web site is not enough. Your website needs to be visible and interactive.  A great web site doesn’t mean a thing if no one knows about it.  And managing your website as a separate channel can mean a lot more work if you’re not careful.
Advice:  Join an online marketplace that’s free and easy to post and let the web work for your business.  Then add a link to your website so that customers can easily see your inventory.

6. Doing no marketing at all.

We’ve all heard them. “Build it and they will come”.  “Get a great location and business will take care of itself”.  These are just a couple of the old adages that are absolutely untrue.  The competition has increased for people’s time, attention, and money.  Sitting pat and doing nothing is a recipe for disaster.
Advice:  Get started today.  See #4.  It’s a no brainer.

7. Relying on principles.

Local businesses have long relied on product knowledge, personal relationships and personal service as their competitive advantage.  To a certain extent, it makes a ton of sense.  But in today’s economy businesses need to do more.  What good is all your expertise and personal service if you have no customers?
Advice:  Take action.  Let people see what you have to offer by getting your top items posted online on a locally-targeted visual marketplace.  Once customers buy online and come to the store to collect their items, you can ‘wow’ them with personal service.

8. Relying on deals to drive traffic.

Deals can drive traffic.  When used appropriately, deals can give your business a nice boost.  But be careful.  Over dependence on deals or deal sites like GroupOn and LivingSocial can quickly eat up all your profits.  Plus, just because you’re using one of these deal sites doesn’t mean you’re ‘online’.
Advice:  Use sparingly.  Use an online marketplace where you don’t have to sacrifice your margins to drive traffic and additional sales.

9. Relying on email campaigns.

You have a great mailing list.  You’re running daily/weekly/monthly campaigns using Constant Contact, MailChimp or Vertical Response.  Great.  But if your customers are anything like me, they get 100s of email every day.  Emails can get buried or accidently end up being flagged as spam.  And even they if get the message, people still can’t browse online to see what else in your store aside from the items you’re promoting.
Advice:  Diversify your offering.  Use your mailers to include links to your items on an online visual marketplace to enhance your efforts to drive more traffic.

Shopping locally doesn’t have to be difficult.  Retail is local.  People are local.  Most people want to do business locally.  It's good for their local economy, environment, and community.  But if they can’t find something locally or it’s inconvenient, they’ll buy it on Amazon.  Plain and simple.

Don’t let that happen to your business.  Follow the advice above and make local shopping easier and more convenient for your customers.

Well, that’s it for now.  In my next piece, we’ll discuss the benefits of click and collect for local businesses.

#seamlessshopping #visualcommerce #localbuying #clickandcollect

About the Author

Sean Brown is the Founder and Chief Pixan of Pixiboard and an advocate for making local commerce safe, easy and seamless for buyers and sellers alike.