Digital
Storefront
Centre
The Daily Nonpareil’s
Digital
Storefront
Centre The Daily Nonpareil’s Digital Storefront Centre is a LOCAL directory of businesses providing LOCAL goods and services. The Nonpareil website provides a high volume of viewer traffic...potential customers to your digital storefront. The directory provides each digital store owner a cost effective link to their website. The directory is simple to navigate....select a category of interest and it provides a list of local digital stores that provide goods and/ or services relative to that category. It’s that simple! And, it is cost effective! For just $25 per month, your digital store will be linked to your website or your facebook page in the digital centre. The digital centre will be promoted in print, online and be included in each day’s Nonpareil eBlast newsletter.
Get “linked” with the digital storefront centre!
A “Digital Storefront” is a website that offers goods and/or services for sale, and which the customers or ‘window shoppers’ can visit at any time and from anywhere. It may also be called a cyber storefront, an electronic storefront, an e-storefront, an online storefront, or virtual storefront. A digital storefront represents a single or multi-location brick ‘n mortar business that resides online. Each store location is represented by a store location landing page that users see when they search for a business on Google, Yahoo, Bing and business information directories like YellowPages.com, SuperPages, Yelp and others. While these directories are national or global in scope, the Nonpareil’s Digital Storefront Center is intensely local. If you have a physical “brick and mortar” location supported by a digital storefront, it is essential that you drive business to either or both locations in order to be successful. Constructing an effective marketing strategy can be daunting and expensive. There are so many choices and options. However, choosing NOT to market is flirting with failure. Creating an awareness that your business exists and is open for business is imperative. The Nonpareil has created an intensely local digital storefront directory, designed especially for business owners that may have a limited marketing budget. It allows them to become more visible digitally when customers are seeking goods and services.
“Our research finds that brand websites are talked about more during brand-related conversations than any other type of internet content, and twice as often as social media. Paid internet advertising is also far more dominant than social media as a source of online content that ends up being discussed in conversations. The lesson here for small businesses is to make your company’s website your first digital investment priority and don’t think of social media pages—on Facebook or elsewhere—as a substitute. …your customers want to interact with you in your branded customer community, not their open social networks. Don’t trade the opportunity for a deep and meaningful exchange of information with your prospective customers on your branded website for what is often a short-term “like.” “Your Digital Storefront is Not on Facebook” Ed Keller, Contributor (www.forbes.com July 31, 2012)
When you effectively manage and enhance your presence in search engines and directories, the results are twofold: the engines and directories deliver accurate information to users; subsequently, achieving higher search rankings, more traffic and more conversions. We all know consumers research online before making local purchases. A 2010 survey by BIA/Kelsey and research firm ConStat revealed 97 percent of consumers research future purchases using online media. Bricks and clicks are aggressively expanding their online channel, as shown in the statements of the following leaders:
“45% of in-store visitors pay a visit to homedepot.com first.”
– Hal Lawton, President Home Depot Online
“We know that 60% of our U.S. store sales are influenced by our customers’ experience on bestbuy.com.”
- Brian Dunn, CEO Best Buy
What are all these consumers looking for? First of all, they’re searching with a mobile device. A Performics / ROI study reported 32 percent of respondents said they used mobile search “more than I use search engines on my computer.” Consumers constantly want to know locations nearby or how far they need to travel to find what they need. They frequently search for operating hours, telephone numbers, products and services offered, coupons and special offers, purchase and in-store pickup info – and these questions are being answered quickly by savvy retailers through their digital storefronts.
Brick and Mortar, too! With considerable attention being focused on driving traffic to our websites to promote e-commerce, we sometimes forget that all of these assets can be used to drive sales to a brick and mortar storefront as well. In fact, for those who have a physical location, your website’s main focus should be engaging your local customers, advertising what’s new, and encouraging them to stop by and see for themselves, while e-commerce is a separate business, often with a different target audience that may be located thousands of miles away.
Is your website “mobile optimized”? A growing percentage of consumers are searching for their needs via moblie devices. A Performics/ROI study reported 32 percent of respondents said they used mobile search more than they use search engines on their computers.