Why offline shops need website

I agree with @Gandalf here - even if it’s a simple site, a site should be there. Contact information (some people don’t use Facebook and the like), operating hours and addresses of the branches, general information on what type of products they carry. Images of the store itself, if any nice ones can be had. If it’s a dense area, parking information for cars, or information on where the closest bus routes drop off, that sort of thing. Is it necessary, maybe not, but it’s also not a very big expense, and it will help people find their business and decide whether to go there. It’s really that simple.

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Hello @bravekitty ,
The website must be their for a offline store also. In case of offline store the website will not sell the products, it will just simply aware the customers that which products are sold by the shop and what are their price. If a local store create the website and share the website URL through social media then it will help the shop to create the brand awareness.

Hope this will help you out

I also use a store’s website to reserve an item, say there’s only a couple left of an item in stock according to a store’s stock checker, I’ll reserve the item, then I don’t have to rush across town to get the item

To me it looks unprofessional if any company, including shops, has a facebook page instead of a web site - it tells me the business is either just starting up or is conducted at an amateurish level. Of course, social media may be a good idea for some of the shops in order to gain some interaction with people but as an addition to their web site, not instead of it. Especially, if it is a large store with several locations across the city a web site is a must - and it should look professional even if it contains basic information like contact, addresses, maps and opening hours.

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As above i often use websites that i can’t actually buy stuff on. I am doing a lot of building work on the house and there are 2 websites that i often use purely to get the phone number. I could probably write it down but why bother i just have to type it in google and there it is.

If the shops wanted to go one further and do an enews letter then a website would be best as a place for people to sign up.

So yes summarising some of the above and my own thoughts …

Phone/email
Opening times
Location
Parking details
Type of stock (even if not fully detailed individual items)
Enews sign ups
Offers/coupons
Competitions

People are more and more looking to find shopping information online. It’s handy to be able to find locations, opening hours, but also what shops are actually selling. It might give those stores a special advantage if, say, they’re selling goods that are hard to find, such as good gluten/sugar/dairy-free options. Or perhaps other specialty brands that aren’t easy to find. Or if they have special deals, or home delivery …

But just having an online presence gives cred these days. I must admit that I get a bit suspicious about some “services” that have no web site. Where I live, there are always groups trying to take advantage of various government subsidies etc—such as for home insulation. A few years back, the gov’t was subsidizing home insulation, and suddenly, every day, we were getting calls from “businesses” wanting to install insulation in our place. When I asked for their web address, they all faded away, because they were too cheap, nasty and short term to bother with that. After less that a year, the whole scheme fell into ruin and scandal. :stuck_out_tongue:

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Why should an offline business have an online presence? Because of the prevalence of mobile. Even many businesses already online are scrambling to get their sites viewable on mobile devices. Today’s mobile culture is not the same as life 10 years ago.

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I also think that it’s important for all shops to have an online presence - regardless if shopping is available online or not. It helps for various reasons:

  • Branding: Bearing in mind that not all your market is on social media, you want all of your market to be reminded of your branding (logo, colours, image style, fonts, etc) as often as possible - whether in store, on social media, leaflets/flyers, or through your website.
  • Allowing for Future Changes: in case the company wants to set up a blog, a newsletter or eventually sell online, you’ll have the groundwork for this covered.
  • Accurate information: In case other websites get your opening hours or location wrong, your website is always going to have the final say and the correct info.
  • PR: In case you receive coverage from local newspapers, blogs, or magazines, it’s always helpful to have a link to a website in these articles.

Hope this helps!

@bravekitty If we deal with customer to customer.it brings benefit both of customer and seller. In this purpose local branch is good for people. But online website is globally marketing place. Where we can get reliable group of people to negotiate their opinion.

With a website can make store to check inventory and create sales report

You don’t need a website to do these things, @internet_code. Indeed, you don’t even need a computer (shock! horror!), although that certainly makes things easier for many/most businesses.

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Now everything is online , you can not say that there is no possibility to sell online for them, yes its sure there sale amount will less but before going to market you can just check the review, rating of stores.

But the store doesn’t need to have a website for other people to review it. There are many places online where you can leave reviews of businesses, whether they have an online presence or not.

Local SEO would be the main factor in my opinion. If people are searching on Google for a particular type of business or shop in their local area, you’re going to want them to be able to find you!

@fisheron27 can you explain how this answers the OP, which was

Please tell me, what are the main reasons why would a local, offline store

Their question was about why a local, offline store would be interested in building a website, even if it isn’t an ecommerce store. My suggestion is that having a website would be important for them because they could take advantage of local SEO techniques to attract more business. :slight_smile:

They may also want to use a website to boost their brand and strengthen their position as an “authority” within their market…for example, if they are a fashion store, they might want to run a blog about latest trends, style advice, etc. If they are a health food store, they might blog about recipes, healthy eating, etc.

Offline shops need website to promote their business and all increase your sales with their online presence.

If you want to increase site popularity you must have a website that’s for sure

By “site popularity”, do you mean a specific store location, @AmazingCart? If so, can you explain more clearly how you think this works.

If that’s not what you mean, perhaps you could clarify.