Best Practices for Promoting In-Store Deals Online From Your Website

Posted on 22 October 2008 by Patrick FlanaganNo Comments

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The best in class online sites convert around less than 10% of visitors into actual buyers. The other 90% of these visitors, especially when the retailer has physical stores, are most likely looking for additional information and are pre-determined to transact offline. Multi-channel retailers need to take a pragmatic approach on how to best leverage their online sites to serve those customers that are going to visit their dot com sites, but that plan on purchasing offline.

Below is an examination of the most effective practices that leading multi-channel retailers are utilizing to drive in-store sales by expanding their online mousetraps to help catch those site visitors that are store focused.

Free – To – Low Cost Best Practices For Promotion Of In-Store Deals Online Within Your Web Site:

1. Consistent, Permanent & Visible Messaging: Think about how the analog world works. The same design/formatted print ad (a circular) is inserted into the same newspapers on the same day of the week (typically Sunday).  Consumers have come to know & expect this information and end up relying upon it to help them decide and plan upcoming in-store shopping trips.  Within the digital realm, the same behavior holds true. It is up to the retailers to create the analogous rhythm of always having the same messaging, copy, placements and links displayed on their site so that consumers can be ‘trained’ on how and where to retrieve this local in-store information.
   • Example: Lowes.com – prominent positioning within the header and a long running consistent messaging strategy around calling the in-store deals area the ‘Weekly Ad’. Also note the strategic placement of both the store locator and the weekly ad link together in a little group which will help cross-promote each other as both are locally (in-store) focused.
2. Homepage Graphical Placements: Utilizing your homepage (and other high traffic landing pages) effectively is a key to driving in-store sales from your online channel.  Recognizing that many visitors are coming to your site to learn more about what is going on in your local stores and messaging against this target is crucial.  Time and time again when reviewing the analytic reports across  the clients that ShopLocal represents, the retailers that lead the pack are the ones that best utilize their high traffic site areas and place prominent graphics up to message and drive people into content areas that help convert people into local stores.
   • Example: Toys “R” Us – large and consistent graphical content block on the homepage that calls out the existence of the in-store deals area of the site.
3. Store Locator / Maps & Driving Directions Integration: The single most predictive action a user can take on your website to signal that they are about to leave your site and go into a store is a visit to a store locator.  Typically one will find a store locator that displays the store address, contact numbers, hours of each local store, a map and maybe a few hints as to what makes that store unique (Ex. messaging such as “we have a salon, pharmacy and flu shots”).  Enriching these store pages found within most locators is imperative.  Giving parking tips, store manager’s name, a picture of the actual store front and information on what is for sale (inventory) and/or on sale (deals) in the local store are all low hanging enhancements to pursue that will move the needle in foot traffic in-store.
   • Example: Staples.com – great store results that provides the most important information about any given store – store details, driving directions and what’s on sale at that specific store location.
4. Inclusion Of In-Store Deals Within Existing Email Communications: Retailers that best leverage their email list and the very low cost distribution it offers are really throttling up their multi-channel performance.  All that is required is not to ignore what is going on in local stores.  There is more than one channel after all.  So by simple including key in-store deals (as teaser content as the ‘best of’ examples of why a consumer would want to take action and drive down to their local store) right within your existing stream of outbound emails, a retailer can help open up even more multi-channel sales.
   • Example: OSH.com – Within the weekly overall newsletter that is sent out to all of the OSH subscribers, a number of the top in-store deals are included directly within the email message.
5. In-Store Only Filters & Badging Results With In-Store Deal Indicators:  Sites that allow their uses to “filter” the content of a site by channel (so store based offers vs. online offers) have a real leg up in the race.  By  allowing visitors to only view those items that are on sale in a store, this helps recognize the fact that not all visitors are ready and/or willing to buy online and provides a viable alternative. Another additive method is to also to place graphical indicators within search / category browse results set so as to call out the unique in-store deal nature that is associated with specific items.
   • Example: Target.com – wonderful item level graphical badging of which items are in-store only deals and clever in-store only view filter.
6. Custom Landing Pages / Localized Microsites: Most retailer dot com sites are setup for one single purpose. To maximize online sales.  This goal is directly at odds with helping visitors trying to learn more about the local stores.  To this end, one successful strategy is to create a separate and unique area of the overall site that is built specifically around what is for sale and/or on sale within the local stores.
   • Example: BestBuy.com – nice aggregation of all the deals together and then at a category level, breaking down which deals are local / in-store specific such as this home theater page that breaks down the deals by channel.

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