The digital shopkeeper
Successful business acumen is all about optimising digital business across the entire value chain. E-commerce has become much more than just having a webshop. Our way of using smartphones has changed the way we buy products and services. Customers shop online 24 hours a day, regardless of whether they are home, at the office, in the train or in a physical store.
The consumer behaviour has changed, but the business acumen is basically still the same. It is all about attracting customers, closing the deal and selling more to the same customers. The old virtues of retail, like increasing traffic into your shop, delivering outstanding service (which leads to a purchase) and upselling, have merely been given new names, such as SEM, SEO, Conversion Rate, Predictive Merchandising and so on.
Physical vs. digital
Despite their similarities, there are still a number of fundamental differences between the physical and digital shop:
- Rent has become online marketing. In the physical shop, placement is essential for attracting customers, and having the right placement costs a lot in terms of, for instance, the high rent and marketing expenses that come with having your shop in an attractive shopping centre.
