I know beforehand that my answer is going to make things worse for the Retailers/Store Owners along with the experts here; but I personally feel more & more Businesses will move ahead with the same strategy as you're talking about now. The world is in economic crisis and thus businesses are looking for the ways which will let them earn more profits.
Going ahead with the business managers deciding to start online sales through their website, there may be many reasons..one being the "Brands getting higher share of online sales every year". There are many businesses which are having their own websites and getting a lot of sales even though physical stores are there to sell the products. Same seems to be the case with Beauty & Health business we're dealing with here..with more people turning to online sales, eyeing over Online Sales is better option.
As you've already invested 2 years over the website and internet marketing strategies to get the website in better position, you can go ahead with the Customer Services rather than focusing over the Sales segment. No business wants to have "dis-satisfied" customers and if you provide the customers a better solution online, then you'll surely get better conversion for the online sales as well.
What you can provide as a part of Customer Services?
a. Better 24x7 Customer Services.
b. Online chat system with Live Customer Care Executive.
c. An option to "Call Back" (this is really required as many customers can't explain their problems in a better way).
d. Enabling the customer to submit tickets without requiring "registration".
e. Customer Profile creation & management options.
f. "Forums or Community" for the customers over the website.
..and many more which you think better.
In the packages, you can replace the "Free Trial" option with taking part in Online Contests & SweepStakes through the website. This will help in getting more customers to the website and likely to increase the conversion rate as well. As you do not want to provide the products at the same rate as Stores have, the contests can be used to promote your newer products "Without Prices" i.e. for trial only.
