What is a Brick and Mortar Store?
Brick and Mortar stores are a traditional way of distributing goods. They are retail stores, also called storefront, that have physical presences as against e-commerce retail stores that are virtual. They are the stores or businesses that you find in shopping malls, and sometimes on your street. Examples are Macy’s, Kroger, and even banks. They sometimes exist as a single store or chain of stores.
Brick and mortar stores accept either cash and money transfer, either through POS or mobile banking apps. Marketing for Brick and mortar stores is nothing different from the traditional methods of marketing and advertising. They leverage techniques like leaflets, television, radio, billboards, and newspapers. But recently, they have also taken to the use of digital metho.ds
With recent trends, brick and mortar stores have been finding it challenging to stay afloat in the market, although some customers still prefer buying products from physical stores so they can view the goods they are buying in reality without the effects that camera, positioning and other factors have on the eventual appearance of the product online. The campaign against brick and mortar stores has been around for over a decade now. But it seems too strong to be cut out, just yet.
Brick and mortar stores, although they cannot be said to be up to par with their e-commerce counterparts, several factors have ensured that they stay on top of their games. A couple of factors even set them ahead of e-commerce stores, for instance, their customer service. Since they have shop assistants that are work in the store, then it is a lot faster and less distribution a customer to get answers to their inquiries and solutions to their complaints than their e-commerce counterparts.
When did it start?
The brick and mortar store have been around for a very long time. It is one of the most ancient trading methods. They are expensive to run and, most times, require more than one branch to increase coverage and customer base in an area with large landmass.
Forms of Brick and mortar stores
Showrooms
A showroom is a form of brick and mortar store where goods get displayed in the store just for the sake of display, but they are purchased online. This form of brick and mortar store requires that there is an online presence and sales portal to help customers place orders and be up to
date with your new arrivals, promo, and discount deals. Showroom brick and mortar stores require delivery services to get their products to clients.
Traditional brick and mortar stores
The traditional brick and mortar store are the most popular of all forms of brick and mortar stores. They are an entirely physical business that mostly does not have any online interaction with their customers. The medium of payment is mostly cash, and there is no issuance of digital receipt, receipts are paper, full strength if staff, no delivery services, and a lot of other characteristics that typify brick and mortar stores as we had always known them.
Ways to scale my Brick and mortar store
Provide Wi-fi access for customers: This will encourage people to access your store online while they are still in the store, to place their orders. This is an attempt to secure their orders strategically, so they don’t change their minds once they step out. Although this works more for showroom brick and mortar stores.
Personalize the store: in this case, brand your store, give the store a particular ambiance and personality that appeals to your target audience.
Let customers own the brand too: Give room for customers to send in reviews. Give them a homely feel that suggests that they are a part of something huge- a part of your enterprise.
Encourage referrals: This will afford you increased brand awareness and sales. Customers that come in contact with your store via recommendations from people that they trust or respect will become loyal customers, given that your services are excellent.
Adopt a technological method of accepting payment: accept money transfers, POS payment options, and if you can, Digital currencies and mobile barcodes.
Show Consistency in quality and experience across all your business branches: It is always a scaling factor when customers cannot tell the difference between all of your stores across different locations. The quality of your service, product, location branding, and the rest must stay the same.
Have digital screens in your store: As much as possible, try to look like the present trend, incorporate a lot of new technologies, let you store look high-tech. Project your latest offers, your recent projects, upcoming products, available products, and all, on digital screens.