by Claudia Bruemmer

Up until 10 or 15 years ago, most people went shopping for clothing, shoes, electronics or any kind of merchandise in a mall or in neighborhood stores. However, brick and mortar retailers can’t continue to take consumers for granted. In the second decade of 21st century, consumers have 24/7 access to just about any kind of product or service on the Internet. Many of today’s consumers have left the shopping mall for online stores and virtual showrooms.

This means brick and mortar retail stores must be creative to keep their customers. The obvious solution is to launch an online version of their business. In today’s digital environment, consumers need options for shopping online from wherever they are, and from all kinds of devices like mobile phones, tablet computers, laptops and desktops. Today’s consumers shop not only from search engines, but from social networking sites, as well. Gone are the days when retailers could simply stock merchandise and wait for consumers to walk in the door.

In today’s digital marketing environment, retailers face completely new marketing challenges that not only involve going online; they must also optimize their online assets in order to be found. This includes optimizing their website, blog, mobile site, videos, images, pdf documents and every kind of digital asset owned. By optimizing all their assets, they not only gain multiple entry points for consumer to buy their products, they can better serve their stakeholders, as well.

Retail consumers have changed their shopping habits drastically over the last decade, mostly due to mass availability of digital devices that allow them to communicate and purchase products anytime anywhere. Shoppers are now very savvy. With their smartphones, they can surf the web while in a retail store to compare prices. This has forced many brick and mortar retailers to match their competitors’ online prices to keep from losing the sale. The alternative is the shopper will walk out of the store and order the product online on their way out.

With the sagging economy, many consumers have started bartering online. Instead of swap meets, consumers are going online to shop at swap sites. Consumers are swapping merchandise on sites like Freecycle, U-Exchange, Kashless and SwapTreasures. These sites offer swapping opportunities on such items as clothing, furniture, books, musical instruments, and just about anything – even cars. People might agree to an even trade or get something thrown in for free. The end result is consumers are bypassing retailers by trading or renting products from one another.

One thing retailers can do to join the party is to open a Facebook store. Facebook, with over 500 million members, encouraged consumers to ask their friends what to buy instead of being influenced by advertising. As a result, consumers started acting on their friends’ recommendations and visiting sites like Yelp and Angie’s List for more recommendations. Facebook also promoted its “Like” button so users could “Like” many things based on their friends’ recommendation, including liking brands. With the popularity of the “Like” button to promote brands, Facebook saw the opportunity to allow retailers to open stores on their site. J.C. Penney was the first major retailer to open a store on Facebook in December, and other retailers are doing the same. Facebook stores allow consumers shop, share and buy from the store without leaving the social networking site.

In conclusion, every brick and mortar business must upgrade their marketing strategy because consumers are shopping in many different ways. One solution is to launch a website and optimize digital assets to promote the brand and sell more products. Another possibility is to open a Facebook store. At any rate, brick and mortar stores and businesses must join the digital age to survive.