Acquire customers online: the importance for retail activities

Why it is important for retail businesses to focus on the online world to acquire new customers

There are several reasons that have made it “mandatory” to use an online strategy to acquire online customers:

1. Market Expansion: The Internet allows retailers to overcome geographic barriers and reach a much larger customer base than a brick-and-mortar store. This means they can sell to people who may never physically visit the store.
2. Evolving purchasing behavior: Modern consumers increasingly rely on online research before making purchases, even for everyday goods. Having an online presence allows retailers to capture the attention of these customers during the decision-making process.
3. Convenience and speed: Online commerce gives customers the ability to shop at any time of day, from any location. This increases the likelihood of conversion, as customers are not limited by opening hours or distance.
4. Personalization and targeted marketing (individual!): Through digital, retailers can collect data on customer behaviors and preferences, allowing them to create more targeted and personalized marketing campaigns. This promotes greater loyalty and a higher conversion rate.
5. Competitors: With the growth of e-commerce, retailers must adapt to stay competitive. Many competitors may already have a strong online presence, so ignoring this channel means losing significant market share.
6. Cost Optimization: While there are costs to running an e-commerce site, it can be less expensive than running a brick-and-mortar store. Additionally, many digital marketing activities, such as remarketing or social campaigns, can cost less than traditional forms of offline advertising.
7. Loyalty and long-term growth: Acquiring customers online allows you to build lasting relationships through loyalty strategies, such as newsletters, personalized offers, or rewards programs, improving the customer’s lifetime value.

Online customer acquisition is crucial for retail businesses as it allows them to expand their audience, adapt to new consumer behaviors, and compete effectively in today’s global marketplace.

How to get customers online?

Acquiring customers online for a retail business requires a combination of digital strategies involving marketing, technology and personalization. Here are the top 10 activities that can help a local or retail business acquire new customers online:

1. Optimizing your business profile on Google

• Profile Management (formerly Google My Business): Having a profile of your business on Google is the first fundamental step to be easily found online by customers who know you and by those who are looking for businesses like yours in that area. Constant management of the profile (inserting photos, updates and posts) allows you to increasingly improve the perception that Google has of your business
• Local SEO Activities: Optimizing your profile may require following some simple rules such as keyword selection or promotion, through targeted and optimized PPC (pay per click) campaigns. Campaigns can be active all year round or in specific periods that are relevant to your business: sales, a particular event, black friday etc.

2. Creating a site that interacts with online users

• Conversion-optimized site: Having a website is not always enough. You need a conversion-optimized site, that is, to simplify the interaction between online users and your business. In the retail world, people are not looking for information on products but on where to buy them, on the advantages they could have in terms of service and/or convenience of purchasing (which could also include the adoption of an e-Commerce site – see dedicated paragraph).
• Integration with Google profile: It is very important to have a site integrated with your profile on Google. Acquiring customers also means always offering updated information. A perfect integration allows you to also have information such as opening hours or a map on your site to be reached with just one click.
• Dedicated SEO strategy: As for big brands, it is essential to have a dedicated and personalized SEO strategy based on your products and services but above all linked to your specific radius of action (city, neighborhood, province, etc.). Managing your site at an SEO level could often be expensive and if not done by experts even useless. This is why the advice is to use artificial intelligence to support the maintenance of your site at an SEO level which, by analyzing competition, searches and trends, improves the contents making them “google friendly”, that is, loved by the most used search engine.

3. Creating an Optimized E-Commerce Site

• User Experience (UX): The website must be easy to navigate, fast and optimized for mobile devices. Simplicity in the purchasing process and an attractive design improve the probability of conversion.
• SEO (search engine optimization): Optimizing your e-Commerce site for search engines allows you to rank higher in Google results. Using relevant keywords for your products and optimizing the content of your individual product sheets will help you get organic traffic. Often, as with your website, this activity could be complex and expensive, especially if you are not structured, in your company, with a dedicated resource. This is why it could be essential to use, in this case too, artificial intelligence that allows you to create detailed product sheets and generate all the main tags that are essential for positioning your e-Commerce.

4. Content Marketing:

• Blogging and Valuable Content: Creating useful content, such as blog posts, buying guides, how-to videos, or product reviews, can attract users through organic search and establish your store as an authority in your industry.
• Video marketing: Videos on YouTube or other social media can explain how products work, tell the brand’s story, or show testimonials from satisfied customers.

5. E-mail marketing

• Lead Generation: Offering incentives to sign up for your newsletter, such as discounts or exclusive content, helps build a list of potential customers.
• Personalized email campaigns and individual funnels: Sending targeted emails based on customer purchasing behaviors or interests is a great way to build loyalty and convert leads into actual customers.

6. Reviews and testimonials

• Incentivize positive reviews: Online reviews are essential for building trust with new customers. Offering incentives for customers to leave reviews or provide video testimonials can help build a strong reputation.
• Review Management: Responding to reviews, both positive and negative, demonstrates commitment to the customer and improves brand perception.

7. Online promotions and discounts

• Special offers and promotions for new customers: Offering exclusive discounts for new visitors or creating promotional campaigns on specific products is an effective way to attract new buyers.
• Seasonal Events and Flash Sales: Promoting limited-time offers or during seasonal events creates urgency and can incentivize purchases.

8. Optimizing online customer service

• Live chat and virtual assistance: Offering real-time assistance on the site via live chat or chatbot helps resolve immediate customer doubts, improving the user experience and increasing the probability of sales.
• After-sales service: An effective customer service that includes return policies and after-sales assistance facilitates customer conversion and encourages loyalty.

9. Social Media Marketing

• Social Media Presence: Platforms like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Pinterest are great for promoting products through visual content. Using influencers or micro-influencers can increase brand visibility and attract new customers.
• Social Media Advertising: Paid advertising campaigns on social media platforms allow you to precisely target audiences based on interests, behaviors, and demographics.

10. Affiliate Programs

• Affiliate Partnerships: Creating an affiliate program allows other sites or influencers to promote your products in exchange for a commission on every sale generated. This expands your brand’s reach and attracts new customers.

In short, to acquire online customers in the retail sector it is important to combine digital marketing strategies, personalization of the user experience and optimization of sales platforms. An active and well-managed presence on multiple channels significantly increases the chances of attracting and converting new customers.

How can Retail Digital support your business in improving its online reputation?

Retail Digital offers tools and solutions for the local & retail world that allow you to acquire customers online. With Localkit we can optimize your Google profile, create a dedicated QR Code that we print on different types of media to display in your business and thus acquire reviews more easily. Thanks to the integration with the Google Maps app and training by our team you can manage the reviews you get, even the (possibly) negative ones. Through uberweb (website) you can easily create interactions with your online audience and with the e-Shop version you can sell your products. Through the yellowsuite platform (the CRM that builds customer loyalty) you can interact with each individual customer by creating individual funnels, distributing coupons and loyalty cards, rewarding the most loyal customers. Request a demo of our solutions and discover how simple and effective it will be to acquire customers online.