Early 2020, the global lockdown has caused a demand on internet purchases. People are increasingly purchasing food online due to Covid-19, which is roughly double the amount seen in 2018. As a result, merchants are waiting for things to normalize before seeing more foot traffic in their actual locations. So, how can business owners increase foot traffic? Adopting an online-to-offline (O2O) retail strategy is one of the approaches to get the crowd back into stores and enhance in-store sales. Let's take a closer look at O2O trade and its advantages.
What is the O2O Commerce Model?
O2O commerce is a business approach that aims to shift potential customers from online platforms to physical stores. This strategy tries to make the digital experience as frictionless as possible at all times, including before, during, and after the sale. Retailers also undertake numerous advertising and email campaigns to entice internet customers to visit their physical stores and make purchases.
Why go for the O2O commerce model?
Convert Consumer From Online to Offline
During the MCO period, the buy online pick up in store (BOPIS) commerce model has become a norm. Users can order things online and pick them up in store using the BOPIS approach. These O2O services help companies reduce shipping costs by allowing online purchases to be returned in real stores. Retailers can also use a portion of their physical store's space to keep things acquired online through e-commerce sites. Retailers can save money by reducing the costs of third-party logistics partners in this way.
Boost Brand Sales and Awareness
People nowadays prefer shopping with brands that have an exact physical location as compared to e-commerce stores only. Customers can meet with sales agents in person, personally touch and feel the things, and have in-store experiences with brands that have both online and offline storefronts, which may encourage them to buy from the physical stores. Customers can also use reward points and discount coupons to buy things at a lower price, both online and offline.
These findings show that O2O commerce has a promising future. Instead of competing, merchants can use an O2O approach to treat online and offline buying channels as partners. They can attract more clients to their offline establishments and potentially enhance their bottom line by embracing O2O commerce.