If you are the owner of a brick-and-mortar store, a Magento eCommerce store can open up endless opportunities. If you choose to sell online, your online store and your physical store do not need to be separate entities. On the contrary, your stores should integrate seamlessly together while both serving to reinforce your brand. There are many ways to achieve this integration, and here are five great ways to start:
1. Point of Sale integration
Keeping track of sales and inventory is complicated, especially when you have sales coming in from online and in-store. The best way to manage of all of your sales is with a POS integration. Store owners will be able to integrate items, customers, orders, invoices and order tracking numbers between your POS sales and Magento eCommerce. For a list of POS integrations that we have worked with, refer to our previous post Best Magento POS (Point Of Sale) Integration Solutions
2. Store Locator
Shoppers browsing your products might be interested in viewing products in-person as opposed to online. For this reason, you want to let shoppers know that a store is in their area if they prefer traditional shopping. There are a few different ways to present store location, depending on how many stores you have. If there is only one location, you can offer a CMS page with all of that store’s information, like it’s address & hours along with an interactive map.
If you have multiple physical locations, you could allow shoppers to search by zip code for the nearest location. An interactive map can show pins over each location and visually represent the regions where shoppers could purchase or browse your items in-person.
3. Product Availability
In addition to online availability displays, you can offer your shoppers options by showing inventory at your store’s locations. By organizing inventory by color and size, you can let your online shoppers know exactly where they can purchase the products they are looking for.
4. Store Pick-up and Return Options
Offering store pick-up is a convenient way to allow shoppers to get their products quickly and conveniently. By putting together and purchasing an order online, shoppers can be sure that when they visit your store, everything will be organized, paid for and ready to go. Store pick-up is an especially good option for products that are large and expensive to ship, or products that are time sensitive, like food or flowers.
In store returns are a great way to instill trust in your customers by making returning any item as convenient as possible. By returning a product in-store, customers will be able to get their refund as soon as possible, and may allow them to choose an alternate size or color after seeing the product in person.
5. In-Store Photos and Information
Your company’s brand is encapsulated in your online presence as well as your store. The presence of a physical store can help instill trust in your shoppers by showing them that there are real people carefully choosing and caring for the products they purchase. Introduce your store and it’s story to your shoppers, especially if it has an interesting family history or tradition. Interior shots of your store can make the shopping experience transition easily from traditional to online.
Conclusion
As your brand grows and expands beyond your brick-and-mortar store and into a Magento eCommerce store, it’s important to create a seamless integration between in-store and online shopping experiences. There are many ways to reinforce a sense of trust in your customers by giving them every possible option for shopping at your stores.
Customer Success Manager
