Organize a community event that has journalistic relevance. Use location-based services to attract bystanders. Engage with old customers in new ways. Put on your small business's customer service hat.
Another thing you can offer to attract foot traffic is the ability to book the product online and pick it up at the store. These options work best for new product launches and can help build excitement. Dan adds that Google's local inventory ad service, which allows retailers to publish their local inventory information online, can help merchants generate traffic. Next, go one step further and provide information about the availability of local inventory for each item and each local store.
As the pandemic begins to subside and shoppers feel safer re-entering retail stores, in-person shopping in physical stores is about to resurface, as long as companies and sellers do everything possible to encourage foot traffic. It offers website visitors to choose the local store and view the inventory of a particular product in that store. Industry data shows that 46% of all searches on the site have a local intention and Google itself recorded a 500% growth in searches close to me, which contain variations of “I can buy” or “buy”. So, if consumers increasingly prefer e-commerce to physical purchases, why do we still need physical stores? Why do companies still want that foot traffic? Lululemon has also been successful in offering free yoga classes during slow working hours to generate traffic in stores.
These ads show the stock availability of an item in your local store along with the typical product information that appears in a regular Google Shopping ad. In fact, three out of four consumers are more likely to visit physical stores if they find local information useful in search results. There are no strict rules for this, since the type, size and material you use for your signs will depend on the type of store you have, the mall you are in, and even on local zoning laws. When your inventory appears on Google, you can give shoppers the confidence that you have the products they need in stock, which ultimately generates traffic.
These numbers tell us that more and more consumers are using Google to find local stores in their area. This gives you the opportunity
to attract more traffic by:
a) offering your customers something unique,
b) harnessing the audience of like-minded people to increase your fan base, and
c) increasing your relationships with people and organizations in your community. In fact, with the conversion rates as they are, especially in relation to the cost of acquiring new customers, it is often argued that investments in marketing should focus on generating traffic and better capturing the traffic that you already have. Experiment with local search ads and Google inventory ads to gain visibility and generate more traffic in the store.
