As the boundaries between distribution channels become more and more blurred, and as consumers become more demanding, businesses are becoming more inventive in attracting people to their physical outlets. The tools that power Web to Store strategies are the ideal solution to meet the needs of both parties. Among them, you will probably recognise the Store Locator, but can you define precisely the benefits that it represents for your business ?
What is a Store Locator ?
A Store Locator is a shop finder, an app or website that allows your customers to find your physical outlets, shops, boutiques, bank, insurance or real estate agencies, and many others! It takes the form of an interactive map on which markers indicate the geographical location of your network's physical points of sale.
The major benefits of a Store Locator
The Store Locator, like Click and Collect or e-booking, is a solution that is at the heart of the Web to Store strategy and more precisely at the heart of the ROPO (Research Online Purchase Offline) strategy, which consists of a preliminary online search that subsequently encourages the consumer to go to a physical point of sale to finalise their purchase.
1. An enhanced customer experience
For your customers, a Store Locator is an additional way to enhance the experience your network can offer them. How can this be done? First of all, by the simple presence of a physical outlet. More and more consumers are making purchases on the internet, with sales having passed the 100 billion € in 2019. But a significant proportion still like to go to a shop, since in 2019, 90% of purchases will be made in a shop. Finally, human and social contact is an element of reassurance for the consumer before concluding the act of purchase.
In 2024, 87% of purchases will be made in-store compared to 13% online.
The Future of Retail: Informing Your Strategy to 2024, Google
A Store Locator allows your customers to search for the nearest store to their home, but also to search for shops that are open on Sundays or offer a particular service, as well as accessing information about opening hours and services. With all the necessary information in their possession, they can be sure that their visit will be worthwhile and that they will be able to obtain the necessary services and products during their visit.
A Store Locator represents on average 10% to 20% of a website's traffic.
Evermaps
2. Greater visibility
Despite the growing market share of internet purchases, many consumers still prefer to buy in a physical shop and thus practice the ROPO strategy.
Because of the way it works: as a reminder, an interactive map listing the physical points of sale in your network, the Store Locator allows greater visibility on the web. Each point of sale accessible from your Store Locator has its own SEO-optimised local page. When searching for a shop, the store listing often appears in the first search results.
97% of consumers search online to find a local business
HubSpot
So, with a search like "Service + city", thanks to the favourable positioning of your Store Locator and its related pages, you have every chance of appearing in these first results. In just a few clicks, Internet users will be able to access information about your store. This will increase your visibility and facilitate the acquisition of new leads.
Having a regularly updated Google My Business listing will complete this part of your Web to Store strategy to ensure maximum visibility and increased traffic to your store.
3. Obtain quantifiable and analysable data on the conversion rate
Using a Store Locator is an effective way to increase your Online and Offline traffic, so you get more data to analyse to better understand your customers' behaviour.
In addition to Google Analytics, which allows you to obtain information about your website visitors, the Store Locator allows you to obtain valuable information about your prospects. You will be able to measure :
👉 The number of visitors and thus know the favorite point of sale of the Internet users
👉 The time spent in the store
👉 The conversion rate
but also many other essential indicators to define an effective Web to Store strategy.
Finally, the animation of your local pages or your Store Locator is an effective way to improve your conversion rate. You can run local campaigns on your shop pages/agencies to promote a new offer and attract more traffic to your physical store. The resulting data will allow you to estimate the success of your campaign and adapt the next ones!
Integrate online appointment scheduling into your Store Locator
Integrating an online appointment scheduling solution, such as Agendize, into a Store Locator is an effective way to improve the customer experience and, by extension, customer satisfaction. Integrated directly into your local page, online appointment scheduling allows leads and customers to book an appointment directly without having to pick up the phone. Moreover, as the tool is available 24/7, you can considerably increase your occupancy rate.
70% of bookings are made through an online search
In addition, appointments made online allow your teams to free themselves from the management of the schedule and thus to refocus on the core business activity !
Agendize has partnered with Evermaps to implement online appointment scheduling solutions integrated with Store Locator or Store Select solutions and across all web to store channels to meet the needs of your physical store network and enable you to increase local performance and facilitate in-store traffic acquisition.
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