If you have to close shop, don't expect your e-Commerce to generate anything - unless you prepared for it

Asking around on social media, how can a small business continue when you have to close for walk-in customers, mostly I get the same answer: "e-Commerce".

My next question, how customers get to know that you closed your shop and moved your sales on-line, the answer will be: "digital marketing". This may seem true for big well-known companies like Amazon, Walmart and others, who actually thrive during this crisis, for small businesses it doesn't work this way as effective digital marketing comes with a price tag they cannot afford. Sure you can post on your Facebook and/or Instagram page that you moved your sales on-line, but how many customers actually read that and act upon it? Bear in mind, SMEs on average have less than 1,000 followers per social media channel.

I will walk you through the typical journey of an SME from the traditional situation to introducing e-Commerce. Obviously the step to launch an on-line order website has been accelerated by the ongoing pandemic. However most SMEs will be disappointed about the revenues as they haven't prepared for it.

Traditionally, SMEs operate a walk -in store or restaurant where tables can be reserved by phone. Most don't take any customer data. However some apply some kind of registration and take customer data, such as name, phone number and email address. This is normally not done for marketing purposes, but to update the customer of any issues. For example a car owner leaves his car behind in the workshop which can reach out to her in case they find any special repair requirements they will need her approval for.

Customers will like and comment on their social media pages, but normally don't leave any actionable data such as phone number or email address.

SMEs may deploy a loyalty program for customer retention which is normally paper based. However, again this does not help to collect any customer data.

Now the vendor suddenly has to launch an e-Commerce channel as closing of his physical shop is imminent (which could happen any moment in Singapore). Through the on-line orders, the vendor will start to capture customer data.

However, the on-line sales channel may not attract any sales at all. It is too idealistic to assume that customers who are used to walk-in to your store, will suddenly find your website. So you'll have to inform ALL your customers. But how? As you haven't built up any customer database which would have empowered you to reach out to them. (digital) Marketing is an expensive option, beyond the limited budget of already cash-strapped small shops.

How could the vendor have captured data from customers while his store was still open for walk-in? Through a digital loyalty program! In exchange for a reward, the customer will allow the merchant to capture her basic data (name, email, birthday) as long as the customer experience is fast, easy and, given the current situation, contact-less. Although not all customers will participate in such reward programs, many will (as indicated by the arrow pointing at the green part on the left) . Now SMEs can collect valuable data from walk-in customers, which they can use during normal operation to reach out for birthday and other promotions, updates about new product/collections, etc. And during exceptional circumstances, they can update their customers about the change in sales channel, i.e. closing the physical shop and taking orders online.

The first impression may be that sounds great but at what cost will that come?

Currently there are multiple solutions offered as 'loyalty as a service (LAAS)' starting FREE. A basic package that will be sufficient for most small business is available from as low as US$10 per month. Without any technical knowledge a small business can have it setup in 30 minutes and start using it.

So what are you waiting for?

PS We are looking for partners who can help spread this positive news to SMEs