Published:
05/27/2020 06:44pm
Leveraging Success for your Retail Business in a Post-Covid World
Physical storefront businesses face a remarkable new challenge: How to survive not just the ongoing online threat to local retail from big box and Amazon price and service competition, but now how to find a way to conduct business without customers actually being inside the store. For many businesses dependent on walk-in retail, the future is looking very tough. How can we promote a small business that is rooted in culture, location and physical accessibility that is common of many small local businesses? Importantly, we must distinguish first why people prefer small businesses in the first place. Small businesses provide a unique value to their clients and services by bringing passion, insight and a personal connection to business relationships customers can’t get anywhere else. But the circumstances of the current situation make it nearly impossible for small businesses to do their primary job: Help customers and make sales. The future of small business is clear: Small business must open into the virtual world. Aside from selection, a core advantage of Amazon retail is that anyone can access it from anywhere. To challenge the competitive advantage of major retailers, your small business also needs to be accessible from anywhere. “When your business opens permanently on a platform anyone can access from anywhere, your business can stay open whatever happens in the future. This is the kind of planning for the future of business small businesses need right now.” The concept of “virtual storefronts” is gaining traction with USpace, an Atlanta technology company specializing in online privacy and business services. The USpace tagline, "Your small business has a monopoly on service. Now there's an app for that,' give a good idea that the future may not be as bleak for small retail businesses as it seems right now. The personal touch and personal communication challenges sterile online shopping options with your best business assets, and adds a competitive advantage for local business that no Walmart or Amazon could offer. Virtual storefronts leverage the innate competitive advantage of being a small business by featuring what is missing from every other online shopping experience: You. Your experience, passion and knowledge bring more value to your customers than an anonymous, lonely checkout on Amazon. There is new technology that makes physical location at even a small storefront business no longer a barrier to doing business with the public. But the experience your customers love remains the same: Their relationship with your business continues into the future.
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