I’ve just come across with this article from Kissmetrics about e-commerce marketing tips to drive more foot traffic to your local store.

There are pretty good ideas here, I wanted to share my 2 cents on some of the recommendations.

As you may know, within the time left over from my digital marketing business, I happen to be the co-owner of a local coffee shop and roaster, CantataKahve. E-commerce has been very important and effective for our business; both online and offline.

Here are some of the recommendations from Kissmetrics (and Neil Patel), that I also testify to work flawlessly:

Buy online, pick up in store

For many local businesses, the majority of customers either live or work nearby. We have seen many cases, where customers buy products online from our e-commerce store and leave a comment saying they would rather pick up their package from the store. It’s a great chance to meet with your customer in person, meanwhile removing the burden and cost of shipping a product.

Buy in store and walk out hands-free

There are many instances where we see customers enjoy a specific coffee very much, and want to buy beans to take home or send it to a friend or relative as a gift, but instead of carrying with their hands they ask us to take care of the shipment. We have even shipped coffee beans to international destinations.

Organize in-store events and workshops

We have organized many in-store events and workshops before. We announce and sell the tickets online, customers come and join us in the store. We have organized coffee training activities, cupping activities (where customers can enjoy coffee beans from different origins), or even movie nights. These are great opportunities to meet with new customers and almost all of the time turns into a long-term relationship.

Localize your digital ads

Facebook ads have always been successful, and to be honest, it’s cheap. We have tried Instagram ads way before it started, we didn’t see a high performance with it, but personally, I believe it’s because Instagram was not that popular in those days in Taiwan. I’m thinking it would work much better now.

Other than paid ads, local SEO has worked like magic for us. Majority of our door customers say they have searched on Google or Google Map for a coffee shop and decided to visit. Local stores can benefit a lot from SEO, and that’s why we give high priority to our local SEO activities.

There are 9 items in the article. These are the ones that I found to be valuable for us. You can read the whole article here.