How Much Does eCommerce Affect Brick and Mortar?

[AWCthreads]

Is there any way to quantify how an eCommerce site affects its respective brick and mortar store? I can show the owner of a brick and mortar store how much sales we did last week, month and year. However, I can't show him what it did for his brick and mortar store. What do I do? I want to claim credit for as much gravy as I can! Thanks.

[AWCthreads]

Same thing happened to Zuckerberg.....

[RobertFisher]

I am working on it as we speak. Funny, after I wrote that last night it became one of those thoughts that will not leeeaaavvveeee.

Best

[AWCthreads]

Thanks to the both of you for the excellent feedback. There's a lot of strong suggestions here to dig into. Off I go!

P.S. Robert, if there's an app or something for texting address and phone numbers with a click, please share.

See ya on the threads.

[RobertFisher]

Keri brings up a good point here. For me, when I am in my office and someone comes in and says we need a ....... (which always ends in some new or improved technology piece), If we are mid project, I like being able to go to one vendor who has both eComm and B&M because I can peruse, see inventory, and purchase for pickup. The purchase for pickup is great as it is guaranteed to be on the counter in 30 min or less and, I do not have to stand in the interminable line.... Impatient I am.

If that retailer needs proof of eCommerce impact, they just have to look at that. Remember, these products could have been bought online. Secondarily, I do not prefer locations that do not have eComm sites or sites that have a thorough description of their offerings in a retail location. To me, today, eCommerce saves me money....especially with retail in the store purchases because it saves me time.

[KeriMorgret]

Maybe also look at the visitors by location in your Google Analytics, and show increases in visitors who are from the areas where you have physical stores?

I'm betting with some searching you can find some more ideas of how to help tie in the website to in-store sales, like promotion codes from the website if you order in store.

What about even a customer service initiative where you could order online and have it ready for pickup at the store?

[RobertFisher]

AWC this is a good question and I started writing then decided to take a breather and came back as I just did not see a clear answer. I leaned toward what Keri had in that if you saw traffic exiting from the contact page or the map or store location page, that would at least provide a clue. If you track back and say that these people were looking at umbrellas, did you see a corresponding increase in umbrellas? But, the traffic is likely more diffuse in terms of products. The exit page does seem to hold a clue though.

However, you might be better served to design a test that would give you more data. So, is there a way to look at items that are more often purchased locally than shipped? Say an item that is more time is of the essence? An example for me would be tarps after a bad storm? Items associated with weather? Items that repair vital equipment (like your car or lawn mower or a plunger). If you see searches for generators after the lights go out in an area and it is unknown when they will be back, are you seeing searches to the eComm site and then purchases in the retail store after exits? For plumbing supplies do you see searches on plungers, augers, etc. and then exits without purchasing? Can you in any way correlate that with local purchases? I would even look at having something on the site like "Press here to text our address and phone to your cell phone" (Gosh that is so good I may have to adopt it!!).

Hope this helps, wish it were imminently more definitive.

Best

[KeriMorgret]

I'm looking forward to seeing the answers on this one. There's not going to be a simple answer that will cover everything, that's for sure.

This summer I went on a vacation with my parents, and used the "simple" purchase of a pair of hiking boots to show him some of the complexities of measurement. In Montana and North Dakota I saw billboards for a sporting goods chain (that I hadn't heard of before). In the campground in South Dakota we picked up a "welcome to Sioux City" brochure that mentioned this same chain. When we were at breakfast, I looked up the chain on my mobile phone to see what the hours were and the store location. I found out that it opened early and was only a couple of miles away, so we went there and got hiking boots for my dad from the brick and mortar store after he tried them on. So, which channel gets the credit for that sale, and how much credit should each channel get?

Things I can think of that can lead to correlations that may help your cause. Look at sales volume and look at visits to your site, and see if there's a correlation. What about visits to the store locator page? Searches that include intent regarding address, hours, etc?

Are there any products where someone would likely search for them online then buy them in person, because of the cost of shipping or needing them right away or the fact that you don't ship them? Look at visits to those pages and look at any corresponding increase in B&M sales for those products.