subject: Shoe Shops Online - Accessibility And Convenience Boosting Sales [print this page] Marketing of products especially in the consumer space was a much different process prior to the advent of the internet. You really had to ensure that your physical store location was at the right spot to be able to attract walk in customers by the hordes, have sufficient space within the store to be able to merchandise and display the products properly and so on.
Those who could manage their shop location at a prominent place had won half the battle due to the fact that very often customers did not want to keep flitting from shop to shop and normally ended up making their purchase at the very first shop they visited. Shoe shops in particular benefited from this customer psychology the most as the opportunity or incentive for the customer to visit another shop was not as intense as compared to a clothing outlet.
There were other elements that were equally vital to the success of a brick and mortar business. The tie up with reliable suppliers, training of in-shop personnel, ensuring that people did not leave you often and so on all contributed to the success of the business. Ensuring that the latest products to hit the market in your niche were promptly displayed and advertised also meant a lot to the continuing growth of the business.
The internet has however brought about a big paradigm shift in the manner business is being conducted today. Shoe shops online are doing brisk business without having to think much about the store location and all the other elements mentioned above. Their presence on the internet in the form of a well designed website is enough for them to have brisk sales. What's more, they are also able to pass on the benefits of lower overheads to their customers and thereby gain sales volumes.
Having said the above, it does not mean that shoe shops online can abdicate the responsibility of having a good physical outlet. People still prefer to do their shopping by going to a shop and the virtues of a well maintained shop with helpful sales personnel can never be overlooked. But the trend is shifting to people making online purchases of most products, given the fact that penetration of the internet is increasing and people are no longer concerned about the security measures in place when making such online transactions.
Shoe shops online sites though have to be able to market themselves well enough so that a customer clicking on the search engine to buy shoes hits their site immediately. Internet marketing with the latest search engine optimisation techniques is being increasingly used by many of these sites to win the battle for customer attention in the web space. You can thus say that the battle has shifted from the street to the internet cloud.
Only those shoe shops online sites that can be easily accessed, navigated and which can make the online shopping experience a smooth one can hope to garner customers in the long run.
