eCommerce Glossary: Brick and Mortar

Glossary

Brick-and-Mortar Store: Things You Need to Know

What are Brick and Mortar Stores?

A brick-and-mortar store is a retail or business outlet that has a minimum of one physical location. Conventional stores that you come across in a shopping mall area known as brick-and-mortar stores.

The term was coined in response to the propagation of internet-based business. When businesses retain a physical presence, the storefronts are called brick-and-mortar stores. Coffee shops, grocery stores, and clothing outlets are examples of such stores.

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It is the anti-thesis of virtual companies that conduct their business online and doesn’t interact with the customers, in-person. Virtual customers are going to visit the website, check out the products, place their order, and pay for it online. Thereafter, they wait for the mail service to deliver their orders to their preferred destination.

Online businesses and brick-and-mortar stores are opposite, but you will often find them intermingling in the real world. A few businesses strictly run one or the other, particularly if it is a new business that is starting. However, several businesses go for both.

For instance, an online business can grow to an extent when they decide to go for a brick-and-mortar location in a city. Conversely, a brick and mortar business can scale back to its location for focusing on online sales.

Online business helps in saving overhead costs. However, having a physical location comes with its advantages. Customers will have access to the products, and they can try them out. It will be easier for a company to create a good customer service reputation.

Breaking Down the Similarities and Differences of the Two Business Models

Online Business vs Brick-and-Mortar Store

Ecommerce businesses and brick-and-mortar businesses are shoved into the same classification. To a shopper, it is all about shopping. Nevertheless, while the two come with their similarities, there are a few differences that are necessary to understand if you want to launch a retail business.

Let’s take a look at these differences.

Location

One can conflate brick-and-mortar business or e-commerce, as both include a strategy for moving products and services. The primary difference lies in how the services are sold.

Ecommerce stores don’t necessarily have to include physical stores, especially when they are only starting. Rather these digital natives sell products through an online site. The customers can place the order from the comfort of their home, and the goods will then be sent to the customer’s preferred location.

However, a brick and mortar business has to have at least one physical location. Nevertheless, many brick-and-mortar businesses are adapting to online platforms. By merging the two, these businesses plan on creating a seamless shopping experience for their customers.

Omnichannel Flexibility

Large chain stores such as Target, Walmart, or JC Penney have started focusing on omnichannel. This means that they can get in touch with the shoppers through more than one shopper touchpoint or channel.

These businesses send out SMS messages, promotional emails on the email addresses, and provide information through their website. They might also use alternative payment options such as Amazon Pay or Google Pay.

However, this is not the case with brick-and-mortar stores. They tend to struggle with using an omnichannel approach for selling their products and services. Ecommerce platforms have omnichannel flexibility since they accept more than one payment method, advertise extensively over various social media platforms, and also use apps for helping out the shoppers to discover their goods and services.

Sales Transaction

With technological advancements, people have started using remote exchanges like mobile transactions, Apple Pay, etc. However, many brick-and-mortar stores still accept only cash, checks, and credit cards as payment methods for purchasing their products and services.

E-commerce platforms accept cards, but they do not accept payments through checks. They use other options to complete transactions, such as PayPal. There are a few e-commerce platforms that accept cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, but it isn’t such popular yet.

If you compare e-commerce to brick-and-mortar stores, you will see that the options differ because of the structural capabilities of each.

Marketing

Marketing a brick-and-mortar and e-commerce store can be different. Usually, the former tend to use conventional techniques like television, leaflets, radio, newspapers, and billboards. However, online stores advertise through digital marketing using email, social media, and paid search.

So, it is clear that brick-and-mortar stores haven’t yet caught up when it comes to the various ways a product and service can be advertised, these days.

Cart abandonment rates are pretty high when it comes to an e-commerce store as there is no one to answer the queries of the customers immediately. This is not true for brick-and-mortar stores as members will offer their time to the customers and answer their queries. So, you will enjoy a better conversion rate in a physical store.

Tips to Stand Out with a Brick and Mortar Store

How to Attract More Customers

There are some amazing ways to make a physical store stand out from the rest. Here, take a look at them.

Invite Your Customers to an Event: You can use your website to bring interested customers to an event. Integrate the listing on the website. This way, when someone visits the product page, they can check event dates and book a place. Remember, shoppers like checking out the product. So, the best way to give them that is by organizing an event. You can prompt them to enter the email address and phone number if they want to attend the event. In the future, you can use the details to market your business.
Click and Collect: Customers are more likely to purchase a product when they are allowed to collect it from the store. This makes sure that the customer can pick it up at their convenience. Also, businesses can talk to the customer to upsell their products.
Exclusive Store Details: A majority of people have gotten used to finding cheaper deals online. Nevertheless, giving out cheaper in-store price isn’t such a bad idea. You don’t have to pay the shipping fee or dedicate an employee to pack the items. Hence, there is a chance you can offer a better deal.

Brick and mortar stores aren’t the conventional vehicle that used to be. It can serve as an excellent accompaniment to e-commerce stores. This will benefit both the e-commerce and the brick-and-mortar store.