Does Online E-Commerce with Credit Card Processing Doom Brick & Mortar?

Online e-commerce and credit/debit card processing have created a crisis for brick and mortar retailers leading to store closings.

Winning the Battle Against Online E-Commerce with Credit Card Processing.

If you can’t fight them join them is how the old saying goes. It’s never been truer than in the battle for customers between brick and mortar stores and online stores. If you expect your business to survive the trend toward online shopping, you have to beat the competition at their own game. That begins with getting a merchant account and accepting credit cards as payment.

There are brick and mortar stores that are thriving because they sell products  most of us prefer to see and touch first hand. Even so, they still chose to make internet purchases available through their website. Credit cards are accepted payment at both.

Customers want to research the item in which they are interested before they decide to buy it.

• Research starts with your item’s description on your website which they find intriguing.
• From there, they move on to customer reviews which are encouraging overall.
• Now they will price compare throughout the e-commerce stores. Everybody is comparable but they still like you because you are local or offer free shipping or have free financing. That sets your website apart from the others and holds their interest.
• Their next move is to visit the item of their dreams in your brick and mortar store. They can touch it, see how it works and ask questions. That means they are visualising themselves owning this product.
• Now they need to think about it for a while to be sure they have made a good choice.
• Next, they will do one of two things. They will go back to your store and purchase the item or they will save themselves the trip and order it online.

The sale results from evolving retail commerce which gives the customer purchasing options. Your website is set-up with a merchant account to process credit/debit cards so you don’t miss a sale.

When Store Customers Turn to Your Website for Online E-Commerce with Credit Card Processing.

The case for brick and mortar stores to avoid doom by offering an e-commerce website with credit card processing is strong.

Suppose your customer has been shopping at your brick and mortar store for years so he or she no longer needs to see the products in person. Your store stocks their preferred brand of sheets, shoes, kid clothes, pottery or electronics. That customer needs the option to shop at your e-commerce site online.

All the customers information is stored in your secure merchant account. Just before going to bed for the night they visit your website, put their desired product in the search window and up pops exactly what they want. Pop it in the shopping basket, head for check out and click on the buy button.

The convenience of shopping from home is an expectation of customers who already know what they want. When they see your sale banners and special deals flashing across your website, they may take the opportunity and spend more.

Busy People Need E-Commerce with Credit Card Processing

We read about how overstressed and overworked we are and we know it’s true because we’re living it. Others claim we are working fewer hours per year than ever before.

• It doesn’t matter because when we are not at work we are working at home. Our lives are filled with social commitments, volunteer commitments and one kid or another has something we have to show up for every night of the week and all-day
• We just don’t have time to wander around shopping malls for hours every week just to pass the time. Instead, we wander around e-commerce stores late at night and buy what we need or want. If your store is not there, our money goes to your competitor.
• Buy online and pick up in store appeals to us. If you have an online shopping site combined with your brick and mortar store, we will cruise your website, make our purchase and pay with our credit or debit card. Tomorrow we will stop by your store and pick up our purchase. Once we are in the store we may see something else we like.
• Grocery stores are feeling the impact of online shopping as more of us discover we can order staples and packaged goods online and have them delivered to our door. Along with that, some grocery stores have aisle by aisle virtual shopping. Since we buy many of the same products week after week we build our shopping list on the store website. We click the things on the list we need, shop this week’s sales, fill our cart and checkout using our credit or debit card. Tomorrow we will drive to your store and your employee will load it in our car.

Some brick and mortar stores will lose out to e-commerce stores and disappear. Chain stores will streamline and close some stores while others become essentially distribution centres for their online shoppers. Still others will abandon brick and mortar and revamp as an e-commerce site.

The brick and mortar retailer who survives will evolve to meet the shoppers needs. They will hire a dynamite website designer and obtain the services of a secure merchant account service.

That’s how they stay in the game.