They'd drive over if they knew it was on the shelf.
Independent shops lose sales to a question nobody answered. Board gamers describe exactly how that decision gets made.
A board game player explained, on a forum about supporting local shops, exactly how he decides. It is worth reading slowly, because it is your customer talking.
If I have to call to check for stock, pay an extra ten pounds, then drive and pay for parking, I would rather just order it online cheaper.
Here is the important part. He wanted to buy from the local shop. He was willing to pay more. He still did not go.
It was never only about price
Independent shops often think they lose on price alone, and that nothing can be done about that. It is half true at best.
Look at what he is adding up. The extra cost, yes. But also the phone call, the drive, the parking, and the risk that it is all wasted.
The risk is doing most of the damage. Take the risk away and the sum changes completely.
Certainty is the thing you can actually sell
You cannot beat a warehouse on price. You will not win that and it is a waste of energy to try.
But you can beat a warehouse on today. Somebody who knows the thing is on your shelf right now can have it in twenty minutes instead of Thursday.
That is worth real money to people. It is only worth anything if they know before they set off.
Four ways to remove the risk
From free upwards. Most shops can do the first two this week.
- Say what you reliably keep in. Not a stock count. A list of what you always have. "We always have these in" is a promise you can keep.
- Offer to hold it. "Message us and we will keep it behind the counter till closing." This alone answers his whole complaint.
- Answer messages, not just calls. A lot of people will not ring a shop. They will happily send a message.
- Let people check without asking anyone. At ten at night, when they are deciding, and you are asleep. That is the one that needs a tool.
The uncomfortable bit
Plenty of independent shops are angry about people using them to look at things and then buying online. The anger is fair.
But the man in that thread was not doing that. He never came in. He wanted to and he could not work out whether the trip was worth it.
Those are different customers with different problems, and only one of them is winnable. The winnable one is being lost to a missing sentence on a website.
More on that in why "call to check availability" costs you more than it saves.
Written by the team at hailera — we help small businesses answer customer questions without being there.