Tips to Expand Your Online Business with a Brick-and-Mortar Store

In late November of 2015, mega power Amazon opened its first brick-and-mortar store in Seattle, making the jump from virtual to on-the-ground. This big move is in response to a mobile community that enjoys the luxury of physically browsing the shelves while being able to work and buy with mobile tech. If you have a successful online business, then it may be time to follow Amazon’s lead and open your own brick-and-mortar store.

Expand Your Thinking

The first step in taking your online business into the physical world is to change the way you think. Amazon is not opening a brick-and-mortar store as much as it is creating a physical extension to its already successful Internet empire. This is the quintessential omnichannel marketing approach.

Your new storefront must match your online brand, including social media, catalogues and advertising. These need to be integrated so that price points and purchasing experiences synergistically complement each other. If they do not, you end up with channel conflict, in which your two businesses compete against each other.

Know Your Local Regulations

Keeping in mind that you are running only one business with both a global and a local reach, you will need to identify the opportunities and threats associated with a physical location. Regulations governing e-commerce are widespread and relatively easy to navigate compared to state and local rules. The Small Business Administration offers assistance on permits and licensing for most states.

Besides the codified rules, there are unspoken rules that are related to your marketing base. The benefit of having a brick-and-mortar is that people can come into your showroom. A walk-in storefront where the norm is to drive may not be the best use of space. Know your rules and know your customers before opening your store.

Lock It Down

The ideal business model will blend online and on-the-ground operations so that there is no overlap in work or marketing conflicts in distribution. Integrating the two digitally, while accepting payments in either platform, can leave you and your customers open to electronic theft. To stay in front of these problems, cyber security provider LifeLock offers useful information. Use this resource to help in setting up your company’s secure digital network.

Understand POS and Inventory Control

Your online sales system is generally a checkout cart. Brick-and-mortar requires personnel and a point of sales (POS) machine. The POS device should be linked both to your global and local inventory, assuming that there is a difference.

A new trend appropriate for stores that are an offshoot of an established online business is the in-store kiosk. These self-service devices allow customers to purchase a product with the benefits of Internet delivery after they have physically examined the product in your store. This provides the best in consumer experience.

Create Financial Statements

Your business is an inverse hourglass. It has a narrow marketing focus, widening as the business expands in multiple locations, then thinning again as all of the information is condensed to one group of financial statements.

Your financial statement — which is composed of an income statement, balance sheet, statement of equity and cash flow statement — will be your guiding document. It will provide all the financial information you need to manage and grow your overall company, including your virtual and physical locations.