You have a local brick 'n' mortar retail shop and sales are ok. Every year it seems like more and more customers are choosing to shop online though. How are you to compete?

E-commerce shops are typically savvier with online marketing than brick 'n' mortar shops, which is important because studies show that Gen Z and Gen X shoppers prefer finding out about products online BUT they still prefer buying products via a local shop if it's an option.

This means that you still have a massive advantage over your typical e-commerce shop. Your customers can come to get the product immediately instead of having to wait for it to be shipped to them.

So what should you do?

First, you should create an e-commerce shop to compliment your in-person shop. If you have way too many products in your shop to realistically list online, consider just featuring your top-selling products or products you're wanting to feature or move because of their profit margins perhaps.

Make sure you're advertising the fact that the e-commerce shopper can pick up the product in person if they live close to the shop. Many e-commerce shops allow you to include this as an option instead or in addition to your normal shipping options.

Next, run a local Google Shopping 'Local Inventory' Ad Campaign. It allows you to mark your Google Ad with a 'pick up today' notification:

This is a huge advantage over traditional e-commerce shopping where people have to wait days for their items to arrive. Use it to your advantage!

This is probably the most effective advertising you can do as a small local retail shop. Showing your ad when somebody is actually searching for your product type is very powerful. It's not difficult to see how this can help to increase sales and general brand awareness.

With a limited ad budget, I'd start here and maybe expand into social media ads and display ads if your product is an impulse purchase type of product.

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