Purchasing products today is significantly different than it was even 20 years ago. The customer is now, rightfully so, seen as extremely valuable — and their expectations and needs are at the top of most businesses’ minds.

Much more emphasis today is being placed on meeting customers where they are, and customers today are on the internet. That has forced businesses to not just get on the internet but improve their online visibility.

The internet is the most efficient and effective way to reach customers today. If you don’t have a robust online presence already, there are two main ways you can immediately do so.

Improve Your Website

All your online efforts need to start with a website that is both designed well and is easy to use. Your website serves as the first impression to your potential customers. If the website doesn’t look impressive right from the beginning, your customers are likely to bounce from it.

That’s step one. Step two is to make sure that your website is easy for people to navigate. Once customers see and like your website, they need to be able to navigate around easily to find what they need. If they find this process frustrating, they’re again likely to bounce.

Your website also needs to load and work fast. Customers today don’t have the patience to wait for your website to load.

With more than half of all internet traffic coming on mobile devices, it’s also essential that your website loads properly on all mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. If your site isn’t set up with the proper coding, it won’t look like it belongs on a mobile device, which is a key indicator to potential customers that you’re not up on the times.

Get Social (Media)

Retailers need to consistently reach current and prospective customers. In the past, this was a challenging, and rather expensive undertaking. Today, social media platforms make reaching your target audiences easier than ever.

As of July, more than 3.6 billion people worldwide used social media. Facebook led all social media platforms with 2.7 billion users worldwide. Instagram had 1.16 billion. TikTok had 689 million, and Snapchat had 433 million. By 2025, the total number of people using at least one social media channel is expecting to increase to 4.41 billion.

Social media is such an effective marketing outlet for retail businesses for a number of reasons. First, it’s free. Anyone can join any social media platform without having to pay a fee, and set up a page to attract customers. Second, it’s a two-way communication platform. It allows customers to interact directly with businesses in a way they’ve never been able to do before.

And third, it allows a business to show its personality. Through sharing photos, messages, products and contests, for example, a retailer can not only market to but also connect with potential customers around the world.

Many retailers with little-to-no marketing budgets have been able to attract a significant following on social media that has led to them grow their customer base dramatically. Like any marketing effort, though, it’s important that you clearly define your social media goals and then track your progress toward achieving them through metrics.

You can do this by measuring the engagements with your social media page — such as the number of people who follow, comment, like and share your content. You can also do so by setting up benchmarks that allow you to see where you started from and where you’ve gone since instituting new social media marketing plans.

Two other key metrics to use are click-through rates (if you choose to spend some money on social media advertising) and referral sources (to see how visitors found you).

By building a strong presence online through a robust website and steady social media following, you’ll be harnessing the power of the internet to take your retail business to the next level.

Please call the Photo Direct Customer Service Team if we can assist you with any of your needs.  We are here to work with you!  03/9894 1644