Directing in store customers to website later?

There are tons of things you can do. A flyer type thing in each bag as the head out from the register. A sticker on outside of each box or item. the web address on any and every piece of printed material: receipt to notepads to business cards.

So some questions.. are you trying to attract local visitors to use the site? or is this more a drive by someone stops and buys and then returns to a distant home location?

Possibly this is back to front.

Usually you want local customers to visit the store and purchase over the counter.

I do run several businesses that do send people online to purchase but these are usually people who are in the "self-service" category or DIY'ers

We would only push a person to online because they are a Royal PIA and we prefer to isolate them from our premium crowd.

Cash Cows don't like to shop in Cattle Class.

It is easy to move people to online if they are interested in saving money then you tell them to use the "online automated system" to save money.

You've got to remember to not encourage them to "Google You" much like the old Yellow Pages flaw of telling a customer to find you in the YP or find you online when all they really find is your competitors.

Unless there is some serious cost saving and measurable ROI you wouldn't send a good customer off to shop online.

Usually instore customers appreciate the service and the relationship they have with you.

Alienating those customers is just suicide.

Maybe tell us more about the business so we can see if the logic of driving people to buy online makes sense.

Best regards,

Ozi

what kind of store/products? one online upsell would be a subscription model. a periodic recurring revenue stream for refills, replacements, etc..

What are you trying to accomplish? Move them from in-store to online or upsell them something? As Claude and Ozi pointed out, people who like to come to your store have reasons they're very attached to for doing so.

Questions to consider: if you're teaching them to shop from you online, are you not teaching them to shop you online too? Are you not teaching them to devalue whatever reason they had to come to your store?

If you sold them something in the store and sent them to the website for a bonus, that'd be different. And might get them to go to your website on their own now and again too, and the risk of losing them would be lower.

Anecdotal, and just about me: but that's how I do it: Went to a plumbing store for something for my kitchen sink, they said I'd have to go order it on their site, they did not have it in the store. I went to their website and somehow bought the darn thing from amazon.com.

If they like your store, DON'T discourage them from coming in. It is very easy for them to end up purchasing from your competition online. Instead of encouraging them to shop online, why not encourage them to leave a review and also give them incentives to return to your store...give them your sale schedule, put them on an email list or SMS list. Keep them, don't chase them away.