Local Business

Our coverage of local business topics includes migrating from ecommerce to brick-and-mortar (and vice versa), running pop-up stores, “buy online, pick up in-store,” local business directories, engaging local customers, cross-channel strategies, and more.

Local Business
4 Reasons Small Brick-and-mortar Retailers Need an Online Store

March 12, 2014 • Armando Roggio

Small, brick-and-mortar retailers should also sell online to stay competitive and meet customer expectations. Ecommerce and physical-retail commerce are merging; businesses that exist in shopping centers and malls are expected to ...
Local Business > Merchant Voice
Ecommerce expanding into brick-and-mortar

January 6, 2014 • Richard Stubbings

When I first started in ecommerce, it was as a way of expanding my brick-and-mortar business as a second sales channel. I was not the only one. It seemed to ...
Local Business
Reverse Showrooming: Pinterest Helps Brick-and-mortar Retailers

September 12, 2013 • Marcia Kaplan

When consumers began using the sophisticated features of their smartphones to do price comparisons and make online purchases while browsing the aisles of stores, panic set in among brick-and-mortar retailers.
Local Business
3 Ways Showrooming Could Affect Ecommerce

July 30, 2013 • Armando Roggio

New survey data about “showrooming” may reveal weaknesses or trends that could have important implications for online or multi-channel retailers in at least three areas: product prices, product information, and customer service. About 43 percent of Internet-using American adults have “...
Local Business
Ecommerce and Brick-and-mortar Retail Converge

July 24, 2013 • Armando Roggio

While there may still be plenty of room for pure-play ecommerce businesses, retailers with physical stores should look to expand online as consumers stop seeing a distinction between shopping online and in a store. Increasingly, physical retail outlets are being transformed into a sort ...
Local Business
How to Sell Online if You Already Have a Physical Store

June 14, 2013 • Armando Roggio

Small brick-and-mortar retailers can find new customers, experiment with new products, and generally grow their business when they start selling online. For established retailers, the first steps toward ecommerce often begin with product preparation, software selection and integration, ...
Local Business
SEO: Can Local Searchers Find Your Stores?

August 3, 2012 • Jill Kocher Brown

Online location pages of physical stores should provide much more information than just the physical address of a store close to the individual user. Many consumers already know where a store is, based on their everyday routines. What they don’t know and are seeking are the hours, holid...
Local Business
Showrooming Challenges Brick-and-Mortar Retailers

July 25, 2012 • Marcia Kaplan

Last December, at the height of the Christmas shopping season, Amazon aggressively promoted its price-checking mobile phone application by giving shoppers five percent off items on Amazon that they scanned while in brick-and-mortar stores. The application, which compares store prices wi...