Online to bricks and Mortar - right choice?

Hi

Could well be the fear factor - it's hit many "non essentials" businesses and even the "essentials" businesses (eg supermarkets) are having to stock "right price" basics. I feel people are bracing themselves for the impact of the cuts and may not recover their confidence until the Spring.

All this doesn't help you, though.

I'd suggest you design a market research survey, looking at all angles of your business from the perspective(s) of your targeted customer groups, to provide you with the answers to your questions.

Then get a sensible friend / relative to stand in a busy area close to your shop and grab suitable passers-by for their comments.

As a thank you to these passers-by, you could offer a discount offer (eg 25% on products retailing at

Could part of it be pester power? By the sounds of it you opened just in time for the summer holidays, whereas now it's a bit more dismal, fewer people are in 'holiday mode', and I'm sure I'm not the only person who is financially bracing for Christmas.

Others have done it successfully - take Screwfix for example. Yes I know they are a large outfit but they wouldn't have done it if they did believe it would work!

You didn't mention if you are marketing the shop? If you aren't, you meed to have a marketing strategy for the shop just has you would have done/ do have for the online shop.

I would also say that for your product sector (gifts) it is a quite time. Having looked at the online trends for keywords related to gifts September and October seem to be the quite months. Although these are online stats they will filter to offline too.

Hi
Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I am thinking of doing some PR in the newspaper but need some guidance. I have not done any before so I will need some help!

Suggest an easy way to find out what kinds of articles newspapers (print and online) want to run about businesses of your type is to do an advanced search on Google [search terms defining your company], press releases. When you see what works for other people, you'll be able to re-use the principles for yourself.

Obvious possibiities are the "good news" angle - you expanding your business and starting a retail shop in the middle of a recession; also the human interest one - you advising people stuck for ideas on Xmas presents how they can go about thinking up something suitable for Great Aunt Jane.

Make sure journalists promise to include your web site address and company name in each article you help them write; then check they've done so! If they haven't, ring them up afterwards and get them to print an apology which does include this vital information (gives you 2 bites of the cherry as well).

At this stage in the game, you're only likely to attract local paid and unpaid media. It might be worth your while to look up what's available, their circulations and contact details in BRAD (a directory your city library will almost certainly have).

I'd strongly recommend cherishing your journalist contacts. Get back to them ASAP, well before their deadlines if possible and try to use vivid, quotable language.

You'll find umpteen articles on how to write a press release on the web. As you're unlikely to be a professional writer, the most effective approach is normally to home in on what the journalist's target audience would want to read, explain your idea and then get him / her to write it.

Good luck!